More pictures, as promised!

~Caitlyn

The Bestest Birthday

When you live in a family that has little kids, the word "bestest" really does exist.

Today is my 18th birthday. I feel so blessed to get to be a part of the family that I live in, to live where I do, to have the friends that I have, and to get to share with you a special gift that came today....

This morning, at 6:30 a.m, my new little sister, Audrey Katherine, came into the world!! :D :D

Sorry about the poor picture, the hospital room was quite dim, so Emily was unable to get a good shot of this little girlie. :) But, she is coming home tomorrow, so prepare yourself for a lot of good pictures! :)

I am tickled pink to have another sister! Even more so to get to share birthdays with her! :D

I am blessed...

~Caitlyn

Little man, little boots

~Caitlyn

Thing #1 and Thing #2

I love my little brothers....

I also love black and white pictures.... ;)

~Caitlyn

We Came, We Saw, We Conquered!

My dad had the brilliant (or crazy, take your pick) idea that my family plus some friends should all hike up Saddle Mountain. I had no idea what said Saddle mountain was so I agreed to go.

Saddle Mountain: A super fun hike that is about 2 -1/2 miles up and at a 1630 ft. incline. The view is utterly spectacular, if you go during good weather. Wear good boots, bring a walking stick, and a handful of friends. ;)

So armed with all that, my family (minus mom and babies), and two other families made our way to our destination....

Brilliant idea #2, instead of taking two vehicles, let's carpool in our friend's school bus, that they have. I liked that part. ;) Our group started out small, here's a pic of me, a friend, and Megan (left to right).

Enter more friends. ;D

Oh yes, Here's a pic that actually has Emily in it. We had a lot of fun singing on our two hour drive up.

Our bus driver...

Now this picture has a comical story attached to it. This is one of those couches that converts to a bed, and it was in the back of the bus. What we six girls didn't know, was that the road up to the mountain was extremely rough, and the bus didn't handle bumps very well. At a huge bump, all six of us, plus the couch flew into the air (no seatbelts here!)! We landed in a bruised jumble, and this picture shows what happened to the poor couch. I guess we aren't very furniture friendly. ;D


We arrived at the foot of the mountain, finding it heavily cloaked in a seemingly impenetrable fog.



Undaunted, we forged ahead, facing high winds (I'm talking about HIGH winds!), steep slopes, slick rocks, and mud.

I personally had a blast; I've always wanted to be in the very midst of a thick fog. :)

When we got to the very top, guess what we saw! FOG! Alas, you couldn't see a thing, so we shall just have to go again in the summer and hope for better weather.

We came, we saw, we conquered!

~Caity

I knew it had to happen someday...

While out buying a desk today (gotta love Craigslist!) We were asked how many people were in our family. Mom replied nonchalantly: "Oh, there's only 10 of us."

The person's eyes got huge and said: "Ten of you! You have 8 children!! You're kind of like the Duggar family aren't you?"

Mom and I couldn't help but laugh. Methinks the Duggars are a weeeee bit bigger than us though.

And we all thought we were a small family.... ;D

~Caitlyn

An attempt to finish the rest of our trip...

Did you really think I was finished with our trip? ;) If you don't want to hear anymore about it, you could always skip this post. ;D

Camano Island. I believe that's where I left off...

Here are some views that we had right outside our beach house:





On Sunday, our second day away from home, we mostly just hung out on Camano and explored the state parks and visited some shops. Being true-blue tourists ya' might say.

We saw the oddest looking shop while exploring. Even more odd was its name :Uff Da. :)


It appeared to be some sort of Swedish/dutch kind of place. Why it was in little Camano I have no idea. We parked in front of the store and sat, staring at it. "Who's gonna' go in first?" "I'll go in if you go in." "Well, if you go in I'll go in." "'Kay, we'll all go in together."

And with that, all 10 of us braved the little store. "Little" really is the best word to describe that place. Think "walk-in-closet" size, with oddities everywhere! We saved our laughs for when we were safely in the car and almost home.


Day 3: Seattle, WA.

My whole family loved Seattle. But I'm afraid that's where it stops. I have a phobia of cities, and Seattle was definitely a big city. :-/ We went to the Pacific Science center, saw the space needle, toured Pike's Place, battled traffic, and saw lots of new things.

I feel so boxed in, when in big cities. Everyone's hurrying, everything's loud. All I can think about is my quiet country home begging me to come back.

I used to think I liked to travel. I learned that I'm a home-body through and through. 100% country mouse. But my siblings absolutely loved the sights there and ask when we will visit again.

When we got home. All I wanted was some quiet. So Meg and I went to the shore at dusk and sat on a log. And listened to the silence..... It was beautiful. And it only got better. About five or ten minutes after being there, we were serenaded by one of my favorite noises: A small band of wolves howling from across the Sound. It sent shivers down my spine, but I loved it. The wolves finished their mournful ballad soon, leaving Meg and I once again listening to the lapping waves.

I was busy thinking about the wolves when suddenly, a big, black, moving object began coming towards Meg and I from the water! We heard a loud "Whuff!" and then a "Crack! Crack! Crack! It was a Sea Otter!! Soon there were more "Whuffs!" and more cracking. 'Twas a family of sea otters all surfacing from the depths and busily cracking their midnight snacks open. :) One of the Sea Otters actually came onto the shore to check Meg and I out! He was a huge, bewhiskered fellow, and after a few curious glances at us, he returned to his aquatic home.

All too soon, they left, so I pulled my trusty Ocarina (just about the only instrument I can play) and played a few tunes; but the silence of the evening drew my playing to a close....

Day 4: My favorite! Our visit to San Juan Island!

The ferry trip there took 45 minutes. Alas, 'twas the shortest 45 minutes in my life. Everything was so beautiful!

A view from our ferry seat.

Meg and I stayed outside pretty much the whole time. I didn't want to miss a single thing! A friendly Harbor seal even popped up from the water to say hello! :D

Forty-five minutes later, we pulled into San Juan Island. It was a pretty small place, and unfortunately we got there at three; all the shops closed at five! And our ferry didn't take us back until 7:30 p.m. :-/ But I dearly loved all the little shops, and the people there were so friendly!

When waiting for the ferry to come back, we went to a little cafe for some hot chocolate. It was an adorable place.

Inside there were people playing Chess matches, visiting, and there was a sign hanging up saying: "Come one come all! Saturday is music night! bring your instrument and play your favorite songs!"

I loved it. :)

Day 5: Time to leave. We left around 10 in the morn', and began our quest home. we stopped at a restaurant for lunch and to meet a friend of mom's who we hadn't seen in a few years. Then we just had to make a couple more stops. We went by 'Shipwrecked Beads', which is supposedly the largest bead store in America. It was HUGE! I was literally stunned by how many beads there were! Of course, I had to get some beads for some future skeins of yarn. ;)

The yellow is for a skein called 'Sunflower', pink for a valentines type theme, and the blue is for a silk skein that I've dreamed up. Any ideas what I'm going to call that one? Puget Sound. :)

Our last stop was to 'Cabela's', which if you don't know is a great, big, hunting place. The boys all had a blast. Meg, Em and I all went to see their bows, but they only had compounds, I prefer recurves.

We got home around 8 p.m., thoroughly exhausted. Our dog, Copper, went ballistic with joy when he saw us, and even my normally shy alpacas were rubbing against me! I guess they must like me at least a little. ;D

As much as I loved Puget Sound and San Juan, I am so glad to be home....

Thus ends my tale.

~Caitlyn