Staycation With The Darby's - Day 2

Our final day of our Staycation with the Darby's we got a little bit of a later start. I think we left at 8am. We wanted to go into Seattle, but just driving there isn't that fun. Especially on a nice sunny day, the way to go into the city is to take a ferry. We took a nice drive over to Bremerton and we were the first people in line for the 11am ferry. Since we were so early we got out to walk down the boardwalk and look around. I didn't take into consideration that it would be so early not much would be open, but it was just nice to walk. We did find a coffee shop we were got drinks and a muffin while we waited for the ferry to arrive. 

First in line gets your front row parking on the ferry too! 

We could not get over the weather. It was so gorgeous! 

I haven't been on a ferry since my Aunt, my cousin and her kids came out in 2018 and we were blessed with gorgeous weather that day too. 

We didn't just sit down inside and enjoy the ride....we hung out outside or just inside the window area up top so we could take in the view. 

At one point I could look north and see Mount Baker, southeast and see Mount Rainier, east and see the Cascade Mountains and west and see the Olympic Mountains. 

The Emerald City! 

It really does look so pretty coming in from the water. 

I spot The Great Wheel! 

It was fun being tour guides for Michael and Robin. After coming off the ferry they make you turn to the right so we had to do this whole turning around thing so we could go back towards downtown. After finding parking we headed to the pier for lunch. 

Michael and I haven't got to The Crab Pot in years...maybe even before kids, but if you are going to give someone the full tourist experiences you have to go. 

I had no idea Michael was wielding his hammer so aggressively towards me! :) 

  

We did the same thing as the day before where we decided to order family style. We ordered one of the crab pot feasts for two and then we got oysters on the half shell and oyster shooters. I had never had oysters before, but I'm all up for trying new things. I LOVED them! The oyster shooters were especially yummy because they were in vinegar with shallots and hot sauce and we added lemon juice. I always wondered how you enjoyed them if you just swallowed them, but the flavor really does stick around....so yummy! The oysters on the half shell we ate with cocktail sauce and lemon juice. I actually chewed those just a bit and they were okay...the shooters were my favorite though. After consuming the feast Robin did not have her fill of crab so we ordered another pound of crab and more oyster shooters. 

Next stop was The Great Wheel. 

The cost wasn't too bad for going up it's was $23 per person....I say it wasn't bad because we were only paying for 2 of us. If we were to take all the kids it would be SO expensive! 

After we paid for the tickets we got some drinks. I got the last hot chocolate of the day. They came in these nice reusable cups with lids. 

Like I said before Robin does not do well with heights. She was fine before we got on because they had music playing, but the music wasn't piped into the cars. Robin is the one that got me hooked on Taylor Swift so I decided we needed to jam out to some Tay-Tay and that would get her mind off her fear. Sure enough...it worked! We were able to sing and she was actually looking all around and enjoying herself!

 I was really impressed with the loading speed. That's one of the things I really hate about Ferris Wheels....it takes forever to load. They had it set up so 6 car were getting loaded at once. The whole ride was about 15 minutes which was honestly really nice! 

Love that I got the shadow of the wheel! 

Look at that big beautiful mountain! 

After finishing up there we headed back to the van only to find a parking ticket on our windshield. We did have a bit of an issue with the app they told us to pay with so we just found a kiosk to pay from that was inside the parking garage we were parked in. I don't know what happened, but we got a ticket. We had the receipt to prove we paid so Michael was going to call them on Monday to figure it out. Unfortunately some how we lost the ticket and the receipt. I have no idea where they are so now we are going to be one of those people where the next time we get pulled over by a cop they are going to say...."Do you know you have unpaid parking tickets?" Who knows if that's actually a thing they do...I don't know! 

Next stop was the quintessential tourist stop in Seattle....The Space Needle! 

A lot has changed since the last time I've been here so I didn't realize it would be better to prepurchase tickets to go up. When we got there it was 4ish and our tickets to get in line to go up weren't until 5:15pm. That was just to get in the line to go up. The line itself was about an hour long. 

We didn't really want to walk around the Seattle Center since it was so cold so we just hung around in the gift shop and looked at everything. We did get in the line about 10 minutes earlier than our time and they were okay with that. The line wasn't too bad since they had all these facts and history in regards to the building of The Space Needle. It definitely made the wait bearable.  

I found Santa on the Space Needle. 

At first I was really bummed that we weren't going to go up while it was daylight, but I decided to change my perspective and just enjoy the fact that we were going to get to see the city from a different light. It was awesome! I don't think I've ever been up there at night and it was so pretty! 

Michael and Robin were loving it! Robin was still freaked out by the heights, but she did really great! 

Sitting on the glass bench that leans you back onto the glass wall. 

Standing on the glass floor looking straight down was kind of trippy! 

We knew we wanted to really get the bang for our buck since those tickets coming up weren't cheap so we ordered a couple drinks at a bar so we could sit at the window. 

We sat at the window for a full rotation and it was so cool seeing the city all lit up at night. 

We had such a blast showing Michael and Robin around. The next day they checked out of their hotel and came to our house for breakfast. The kids and I went to church, but they hung out with Michael at the house and even stayed and had lunch with us before they headed back home to Oregon. 

Staycation With The Darby's - Day 1

Last year Michael's cousin Michael...yeah it gets confusing for sure...contacted Michael to ask a bunch of questions about Leavenworth. Michael and his wife Robin had been wanting to come up from Oregon to Washington to do some exploring. We figured that we'd just make a staycation of it and join them on their exploring. At first they wanted to come in the middle of January, but then I suggested a week later since all our kids would be gone at Winter Camp so it'd be one less thing I'd have to worry about since we were going to be gone all day long on our adventures. 

Unfortunately the camp the kids were going to had a water issue so camp was postponed until March. So...the kids ended up up being home the whole time we were out having fun. Thankfully our kids are awesome and can handle themselves just fine. 

Michael and Robin got here on Thursday, January 23rd. They checked into a hotel a few minutes from our house and then came to hang out and have dinner with us. Ella and I headed out after dinner to go to Justine's last wrestling duel at his school, but Michael and Robin hung out with Michael at the house before turning in for the night. 

The next morning Michael and Robin were at our house at 7:30am. We headed out shortly after that for our first day of fun. I basically let Michael plan this portion of the trip so he had all the details worked out. Our first stop was at a cute diner where we had a yummy breakfast. After that we drove down the road a bit and got out to go on a hike up to a watchtower. 

It was cold out, but with us hiking we were just fine. The weather was absolutely gorgeous out....we could not have asked for better weather! 

It was nice to be out in nature again enjoying the fresh air...even if I did complain a little bit! 

The hike was 1 mile up and 1 mile down. Of course it felt longer than that! 

It's always nice to do a hike where there is a reward at the end... a lake, a beautiful view...a watchtower. Seeing the watchtower definitely made it worth it and the even better part was you could go up in it! 

I can't remember how many stairs up it was...but it was a lot. Robin is not the best with heights so she was a bit freaked out. 

She hides it well though! Look at those beautiful mountains! 

By this point I was sweaty from the hike and then being up in the watchtower it was windy so I was starting to get really cold! 

Gorgeous!!! 

That's a long way down! 

Very cool! We're gonna have to bring the kids here because I know they'd love to go up there. We did see a few other group...which totally surprised me, but there wasn't anyone at the watchtower while we were there. So nice to have the whole thing to ourselves. 

Just down the road a bit was a coffee stand that had a statue of Harry from the movie Harry and the Henderson's. I loved that movie growing up.

 

We got some drinks for the road...my peppermint hot cocoa was so good! 

Our next stop was the Alpine Coaster in Leavenworth. I remember reading about it when it opened up and I've always wanted to go on an Alpine Coaster. The cost is $20 per person which isn't bad at all. 

We filled out our online wavier forms, got in line, heard all the safety information and then were headed up on our own individual sleds. One of the main rules is you needed to stay 80 ft behind the sled in front of you. They had markers on the track so you knew roughly how far away you were from the person in front of you. The sleds are controlled by you. You could just push the handle bars forward all the way so gravity was taking you down or you could pull back to slow yourself down. They did have safety features so you wouldn't actual run into the person in front of you. I was the first one in line for our group. When I got to top I was so excited to just let gravity take over. Well....I only got to do that for maybe 5 seconds before I realized the lady in front of me with her kids was either scared herself or her kid was freaked out. I basically had to almost come to a complete stop in order to not hit her and that had a domino effect for the everyone else behind us. It was really frustrating! When we got to the bottom of the run we got out and were talking about it as a group. One of the workers overheard us and asked if we had been stuck behind a slow rider and we said yes. She said that they would gladly let us right again. I really wish we had taken her up on her offer, but we had a bunch of other things we wanted to do and the line was really long so we didn't want to wait again. I would totally go again, but I honestly think they need to make an adjustment to the whole set up. People should be able to have 2 speeds...turtle or hare. You'd be traveling down at the speed your choosing and they could space the hare people farther away from the turtle people so the hare people could still have a great ride. 

After the Alpine Coaster we drove over to Cashmere to go to Apple Annie's Antique Mall. Robin was blown away by how huge it was. We didn't go through everything, but we did most of it. None of us saw anything that we couldn't live without, but it was still fun to browse. We hadn't eaten since breakfast at the diner so we were all getting hungry. It was after 3pm so we just decided to go have an early dinner and miss the dinner rush so we drove back to Leavenworth to find some yummy German food.

The sun had already gone behind the hillside and it was definitely colder. 

We ended up eating at Rhein Haus. They had outdoor seating available and they did have those tables with those fire centerpieces, but I absolutely hate being cold so we sat inside the restaurant.  

Michael ordered himself a beer thinking it would be a good size, but it came out a mammoth size!!! 

Instead of ordering individual dinners we decided to order family style and share everything. I did order a stew that came in a bread bowl and no one wanted any of that so I got it all to myself. It was so yummy! We also got this big platter of sausages with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut and one order of the Pork Schnitzel. Everything was so yummy except the vegan sausage...that was nasty. Also Michael prefers my Pork Schnitzel since I serve it with a honey mustard mayo...he's not a huge fan of gravy. 

 

One of the things this restaurant is known for is their giant pretzels and oh my goodness they aren't exaggerating one bit. It came with normal beer cheese, spicy cream cheese and chocolate dipping sauces. My favorite was the spicy cream cheese, but Michael's favorite was surprisingly the chocolate. We were so hungry so we put a good dent in all that food. 

After dinner we wandered through a bunch of stores and got to admire the Christmas Lights. That was one of the main reasons Michael and Robin wanted to come. Leavenworth is so pretty normally, but then add Christmas Lights and it's even more pretty. Thankfully they keep the Christmas Lights up until the end of January. 

One of our last stops was a candy store where I got the kids some Saltwater Taffy and myself a Giant Smarties. I love those!!! After that we made a pit stop at the restrooms and then got on the road. We didn't get home until 8:30ish....it was a full day of fun! 

Owen Is Officially An Adult!

18 years ago I was holding my baby boy right now. It was almost to good to be true! 

After 6 years of infertility, numerous doctors appts, an obscene amount of hormones, 2 IUI's, 1 egg retrieval, 1 unsuccessful IVF procedure, 1 successful IVF procedure, 1 miscarriage and 1 emergency D&C we finally gave up. We gave up on our dream of being parents because it obviously wasn't part of God's plans for us. My body was physically a wreck, I was mentally spent and spiritually depleted. I was done...I was done trying, I was done worry and worst of all I was done hoping. I was in a bad spot! 

Michael and I decided to go do something fun for a change so we took a vacation and went to one of the Happiest Places on Earth...DisneyWorld. We decided if we couldn't have kids we might as well go act like kids. We had such a great time! 

A couple months after we got home I was not feeling right. In all honestly I thought I had a tapeworm. I was hungry all the time, but then I would feel sick to my stomach too. Plus I had this funny feeling inside like the doctor's missed something when they did my D&C. I was sure something was festering inside me. I made a doctor appt to get to the bottom of why I was feeling the way I was. While there the nurse asked if I could possibly be pregnant. I literally laughed at her and said..."That would be a miracle!" Her response to that was, "I believe in miracles!" 

A few days later the nurse called me with the blood test results...I was in fact pregnant! You would think I would be ecstatic and I was happy and completely stunned, but I was also absolutely terrified. This wasn't the first time we'd been told I was pregnant and that time ended up with the baby dying inside of me and me in turning almost dying myself. It was scary! 

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was scared my entire pregnancy with Owen. Every single twinge of pain I felt all those months had me rushing to the bathroom to see if my worst fear was being realized. When I wouldn't feel him move for a while I would think the worst. Even strapped to the table in the OR while they were performing a C-Section, I was sure there was going to be bad news or I was going to wake up and realize it was all a dream. 

Then he cried and the doctor said, "It's a boy!" My dream of being a mom was finally realized...all in that little 6lb 6oz baby boy. 

Not to say that the fear magically disappeared in that instant, but something about him being here in our arms did calm them a little. Now as Owen has grown I have realized that that fear never really goes away...a literal piece of my heart is walking around outside my body! However, God loves Owen even more than I do and He's got him and I need to rest in that and trust in Him. 

As for this last year let's see what Owen's been up to! 

On his 17th birthday we celebrated at Red Robin. Ella and I had been in Spokane having a fun mini vacay visiting Logan. Because of all the issues with the Boeing Max planes a bunch of flights had been canceled. The only way for Ella and I to get back was for Jen to drive us part way. Michael ended up driving to Vantage and that's where we met. Michael got us home just in the time for us to head to the restaurant to celebrate Owen. This was one day after we had the pipe burst in our house so our lives were about to get crazy! 

The day before his birthday he also got to spend the entire day with his friend Caleb playing strategy games. Then on Saturday, January 20th we had a small family/friends party for Owen. All he wanted for presents was books. Books and more books! He also got some money so he could go buy books as well! 

In early February, Michael had a Water Conference to go to at Great Wolf Lodge. The kids and I decided to tag along since that was when some major demo work was happening at the house. Demo work had been happening on and off and it was insane to live through all that so this was such a nice break from the craziness. 

In March I took Owen to the dermatologist to get him started on Accutane. I know that some acne is okay, but instead of his acne getting better over time it was just getting worse. I really did not want him to get any scarring so it was time to take action. This started an over 6 month process that really did clear up his face. The side effect that he had the most trouble with was his lips peeled like crazy, but overall it wasn't bad at all and now his skin is completely cleared up. 

 

Still up for basket full of candy.

Caleb and Owen doing what they do best...gaming! 

For Mother's Day I wanted donuts and Owen was my donut deliverer. Owen's favorite donuts are most definitely maple bars! 

In early June our church went on a rafting trip. I didn't go in the raft, but drove along the river in the church van following Jackson...one of the raft instructors. Owen went down the first run, but after that he felt like his hands were gonna get tore up if he went again. That was another side effect from Accutane, but this was the only time it really gave him trouble. He had fun riding in the van with me as we followed the rafts. 

Finished up 11th grade! 

The last two summers Owen has had a yardwork job. He's really enjoyed being his own boss and we even employ him around our house. During the spring we hadn't kept up on the yard because we were too busy dealing with the inside. I asked Owen to go out and pull weeks and get the yard looking good. He ended up finding a weed that was almost as tall as him. 

At the end of January Owen had an interview at an assisted living facility. He was interviewing to be a dining room server. He ended up getting the job and started on Saturday, February 10th. He works every Saturday from 6am - 2:30. At first they said that he'd be working during the week as well, but it hasn't panned out that way. Honestly that's been fine by me. He really needs to focus on school right now plus I don't like the idea of him missing out on church activities. He did work a lot last summer with his yardwork jobs, but once the weather turns those slow down or dry up completely. He's is still taking piano lessons so it's just nice that his schedule isn't overly full! 

Our first camping trip last year was Friday, June 14th - Tuesday, June 18th. Since Owen only works one day a week it seemed silly to have him request a day off so we had to him stay home by himself Friday and Saturday night and then he drove down to the campground and met us on Sunday afternoon. I was so proud of him. He had never done anything like that before. It's so cool to see your kids growing up! 

Owen and Caleb were so happy to see each other they started talking gaming and I don't think they ever stopped. In fact we drove to the Ape Caves on Monday the 17th and all the boys went with us and all the girls went with the Kuch's and two never stopped talked about gaming. 

Back at the campsite the boys played one of the games Caleb brought...Nemesis. Owen enjoyed it so much he actually bought the original Nemesis and both of it's expansions and the newest one that hasn't even come out yet...Nemesis Retaliation.

Owen has also been venturing out in regards to food. He tried the salmon at Red Robin and really enjoyed it. He also really likes their pretzel bites appetizer and their chocolate malt milkshake. 

 

It's been fun seeing the kids that have jobs spending their money on things they enjoy. In this instance we bought everyone Cold Stone, but Owen has been known to go to Fred Meyer and pick up a couple containers of Tillamook Mudslide to have on hand. 

It doesn't matter if it's hot out Owen will be wearing jeans. Most days at home he walks around the house wearing a blanket over his shoulders. He even wore jeans during summer camp and it was 105 degrees out.

Handsome boy keeping me company while I'm trying to freak out because of heights. 

At VBS, Owen ran the projection booth for all the slides and videos. He did a great job! He hasn't done that much during church anymore. He has helped out with running the camera a couple times though and he's played keyboard a couple times as well. 

In July, Owen and Jack bought a Ford Fusion together. You can read all about that here. 

This was all the work that Owen completed his Junior Year! He was a hard worker! During his Junior Year he completed...

19 Math PACES (All of Geometry & some Algebra II)

16 English PACES

12 Physical Science PACES

12 Social Studies PACES

6 Music PACES 

Year 1 of Spanish 

To complete a full year of schooling you have to finish 12 PACES in each subject so you can see he finished extra in Math & English. 

Owen still loves Takis, but he prefers Dorito Dinamitas!

These two couldn't possibly be more different from each other. I have hope that one day they'll enjoy each others company. 

Senior Year!!! 

What in the world...where did the time go. 

You can see all of Owen's first day of school pictures from Pre-K to 12th grade if you click here. 

Owen and Liam teamed up together to run the Axe Throwing game at our church's Fall Festival. For Owen's birthday he wants to do a real life game of Among Us for a youth event on MLK Day. Liam and Andrew are going to help him with a few of the tasks for the game. I hope it ends up being everything Owen envisions it to be. 

Owen wanted to get a new mask for his Halloween costume. He found this one on Amazon. I actually asked him if his work would let him dress up for Halloween. Then it dawned on me....he works at an assisted living facility! Probably not a good idea to go as the Grim Reaper! 

Ga-Ga's original Sugar Bear! 

And Pa's original Pransome Hince AKA Handsome Prince! 

My handsome little man isn't little anymore! 

Owen is the best chocolate chip cookie dough maker ever! It's so yummy! He makes the dough and we never get around to making cookies we just eat bowls of cookie dough! This year at Christmas he wanted to make Snickerdoodles. The last time I made them they were like hockey pucks. I'm not good at underbaking things. This time though I was determined to get them right. Owen helped me and they turned out so good! 

Sweet boys! 

So happy to get his LEGO Star Destroyers he's had on his Amazon list.

Every year I buy family games for us at Christmas...some we enjoy and others not so much. Last year I got Monopoly Builder and that was not a hit. This year I got Racoon Tycoon and it's definitely been a hit. Super cute and easy game...once you get past the instructions. We ended up just watching a 5 minute video online and it was so much easier to understand. The only downside in my eyes is you can only play up to 5 players so for our family that stinks...although Ella doesn't seem to mind not playing. 

Owen Michael....

You are 18 years old....an adult! The magic age where you get to vote now. Note to self have Owen registered to vote. :) In the past 2 years you have grown up SO much. I think getting your license and a job has definitely contributed to that. One thing that I recently did for both you and Jack was have you start taking charge of your own calendars. I used to have everyone's schedule on my Google calendar and it was color coded so I knew who was going where and it was stressful just looking at it. A friend of mine encouraged me to give you responsibility for anything that I could because the longer I waited and put it off the harder it was going to be for you to start adulting. Ahhhh....I actually hate that word! Anyway I took her advise and it's been so freeing for me. Have you not looked at your calendar and forgotten to go places...yes! The nice thing was it wasn't the end of the world and you're going to learn from those mistakes. I have encouraged you to set alarms for things instead of just reminders on your phone that way you physically have to turn off the alarm rather than a reminder just popping up on your phone. Hopefully that will help! 

You still don't really like talking about the future. You get this glazed over look in your eyes. You don't really know what you're going to do once you graduate and you know...that's okay. Daddy is going to look up some Job Fairs and take you to those. He's also going to take you to visit one of the boats in Tacoma so you can look into the Merchant Marines. This summer you'll be able to do your landscaping jobs if you want and pick up more shifts at your server job. You have time to figure out what you want to do. You would like to get into making YouTube videos and possibly making money from those. I told you that you need to look into taking a workshop on how to make money with YouTube and then start working towards that, but that won't happen until after you graduate. You still have a lot of work to do and I need you to focus on that at the moment. 

Owen..18 years ago I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to be here...you are on the cusp of adulthood. Yes, you are legally an adult right now, but I don't think a number magically turns you into one. You have definitely grown up a lot and I know you'll continue to do so. Right now you can basically function on your own without me for your day-to-day existence. We have been a little more restrictive with things especially the internet and phone usage so you still have some learning to do in those areas, but I'm perfectly fine with that...there's too much garbage out there and it was our job to keep you safe from that. You also haven't really had to do much in regards to shopping for yourself. We aren't sure exactly how we're going to handle you growing up yet. Like I've always said you are the experiment (yes I know you hate that phrase). This the first time we've had an adult child. Are we going to make you pay rent, are you going to need to start to buying all your own clothes or necessities? I'm honestly not sure and the great thing is we'll figure it out just like you're figuring things out. We don't always have all the answers and I think that's a great thing to admit. God will lead and guide us and you. I pray that you will always listen to that still small voice so you can hear Him speaking to you. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you discernment so you can know what is right and true and pure. My greatest prayer is that you will follow Him all the days of you life. 

Happy 18th Birthday My Sweet Boy! 

I love you so very much!