Mt. Rainier

This was our last visit to one of Washington's finest National parks. We wished we would've camped there, but we didn't even think of it til we were there; oh well. We ended up going on a hike, which we though just a nice easy hike, well we ended up taking a little 1.7 mile from the original easy hike, and the entire 1.7 miles was uphill!! it was tuff!! My butt and calves are even a little sore ;) We're going to miss the beauty of WA; but we are so excited to be going back home! But first we will visit our friend Trish in Alaska for 1 week, we have always wanted to visit Alaska and it's gonna be great, lots of fun!! lots of pics!
Anyways, we were supposed to have visited this park while Xiomi was here but it was rainy and cloudy; but we still ended up visiting Mt. Baker (closer to where we live).
So the packing has begun; it's a good thing it's not too much and we're leaving a couple of things behind too. Sofia and I will be flying out on the 8th back to Albuquerque, and Aaron starts the long drive back home. Pray for safe travels for us please.

Weekend

This weekend flew by! It always does when someone is visiting. Xiomi came down for the weekend, well actually she left today (tuesday). We all had a really good time. We did quite a bit. The first day we did the downtown and lake Union tour with the "duck tour"; it was fun, Xiomi explained the rest in her blog. Then the next morning we went to the Edmonds fresh market. We walked around wishing we had alot more money to spend. There is alot of art/jewelry people's own "creations" and of course the beautiful flowers, fruits and veggies. Later on that day we went for a nice little hike to this Ice Cave in Mt.Baker. It was such a beautiful walk!!! On Sunday Xiomi and I went sea kayaking in Anacortes around Burrows Island. It was rainy but it actually cleared up in the end, we didn't get to see alot of wildlife, but it was still so much fun!! On Monday Aaron had to go work :( but, us girls took off to the NW Trek Wildlife (something like that). it was neat, it was about 700+ acres of land; a bunch of animals roam free; like bison, elk, mountain goats, moose; we got see quite a bit. they take you on a little bus with big open windows and you sit there and watch the animals. They also had "predators" in their own area, but of course closed off, but it was neat because they're not in a cage, they have a big open space with lots and lots of trees, water. we saw wolves, bears, cougar. It was a good day. Unfortunately it all went by so fast! Anyways, now we get to start packing. We leave for alaska next Friday!! we're excited!!

9 Months

Sofia is now 9 months! The summer has flew by. Sofia is a big girl now, she's quite the speed crawler and every once in a while she does these little frog jumps while she's speeding thru and it's quite funny. We took her in to Aaron work to check her weight and we were suprised! she weighs almost 20 lbs!!!!!!!!! can you believe that!!!! She was only 15.4 at 6 months.
We have a little over 2 weeks left here in WA; we go to Alaska to visit our friend Trish on the 31rst for a week. We're really excited to go, then on the 8th Sofia and I get back to Albuquerque; Aaron unfortunately has to drive :( We are only home for 1 week then we head back out again, we're going to Costa Rica for 3 weeks, then we'll be home for sure!

Sofia's first tooth!

Sofia finally had her first tooth pop through. Right now the second bottom one is about to come through also, she's just now started to eat again, her poor gums were really bothering her. I'm not sure if you can really see it on the pics, but it's there!

Seattle Aquarium

Yesterday we visited the aquarium in seattle, it's right on the pier. It look really cool, and I was afraid of missing it and then hearing someone say, "i can;t believe you didn't go". So we went, spent $30 and it was dissapointing!!! aww, we went through it pretty fast, the dome was pretty cool, but overall NOT worth $30 oh well. We did get to walk around the pier they have a lot of good looking restaurants; we ate at one that you kind of order like fast food, expect it's not, I got fish (smoked salmon) n chips (big potatoe wedges), yumm, it was very good.

San Juan Island Trip

This week we went to visit San Juan Island. It's a 1 1/2 drive up north to catch the ferrie, then the ferry is an hour long. We had a great time. When we got there we were quite suprised to see so many people there! don't people work! we were afraid we wounldn't find a camping site; but thank God we did. Sofia has traveled really well; considering she is teething. The next morning we went to Lime Kiln State park; apparently the best spot to watch orca whales from land and sure enough. as soon as we were able to see the water we saw whales! it was very exciting. There were several pods in the area some from far, others were closer to the shore. A mom and baby came very close to the rocks. they are so amazing to look at. Just that made our trip worth while. The other pic is of Sofia "driving" while on the ferry and hanging out at the camp site.