We went on a wonderful camping trip to BirchBay last weekend. We got campsite #23 reserved about 3 weeks before heading up there which was quite lucky since it was a gorgeous site and the whole place was booked up over that weekend.

We headed up on Friday (7/23) morning and stopped along the way to do some letterboxing. Our first stop was the Candle in the wind letterbox. This one turned out to be pretty easy (and we found a small glass star) but the neat thing was that the rest stop that it was placed in had this huge trunk of a tree. Next we had lunch in Mount Vernon and then tried to find the Pride of the city letterbox, but had absolutely no luck. It was very disappointing after trampling through some brush and stickers (Jenny also got some nettle stings). It was very hot about that time 94 by the auto-dealers sign so we decided to head to the camp ground and check in.

We got to the camp ground around 3:00 or so and setup our tent. It was very nice compared to the small tent we used to have. I was able to lay down and still had about 2 feet between my head and the wall. After that we took a walk down to the beach. It was an OK beach but it was a litter further away than we were expecting. Also the beach was mostly rocks rather than sand, probably because it was a bay in the Puget Sound so it didn't get very high waves (3-4 inches). After that, we went back to the camp site and started a fire for our dinner of hotdogs and sausage. After eating dinner, the sun was about to go down so we headed down to the beach again to watch the sunset. It was very pretty and we got some pictures that we will get up eventually. Kyler's most memorable time was "teaching the girl to skip rocks". While we were waiting for the sun to set, Kyler befriended a 20 year old girl from London and proceeded to show her the proper rock-skipping form. Both of them enjoyed the interaction. After the sunset, we came back and had smores and then tried to get the kids into bed. Kyler went to sleep pretty quickly but Ilea was still awake when we came to bed around 11:00pm. Since it was pretty warm that day we decided to just sleep on top of the sleeping bags and just use some of the blankets we brought. It turns out that was not the most intelligent thing to do. The blanket we used wasn't very big and we were all somewhat cold that night. And don't forget that we were sleeping on some very hard ground even though the blankets were supposed to provide some cushion.

The next day we woke up, started a fire and cooked some scrambled eggs and bacon. It was pretty good. After breakfast, we headed into Bellingham to get some more ice (did I mention it was pretty hot?) and wine coolers. We then headed to the Padden Puppy trove letterbox. This one was kind of neat because it was combined with a geocache and had a number of dog related items. We took a break at Lake Padden park because it was so hot and Ilea and I were going to take a swim in the lake but never got to it. We had a picnic lunch and then took off and started to drive around the area and then got really tired. We headed back to our camp site and took a nap. After a 90 minute nap where Ilea and Kyler were in and out of the tent, we went to Red Robin in Bellingham for another Birthday burger for Jenny's birthday. Then we headed back to camp and headed down to the beach so Ilea and I could take a dip in the bay. It was a bit colder than I was expecting so I just stood out in the water with Ilea running in and out of the water having lots of fun. Kyler spent most of the time digging and throwing rocks into the water. We were able to see the sunset again and then headed back. This time we let the kids stay up until it got dark. We were a little smarter this time and prepared the sleeping bags and more blankets. Sleeping was a lot warmer but it was still very hard ground.

In the morning, we got up and had some quick breakfast (oh yea, Jenny had bought some Krispy Kreme doughnuts for our morning breakfasts so that was very nice.) We cleaned up the tent and the camp site and headed out. We tried to find another letterbox (The Albert the Elf Letterbox) but, again, had some difficulty and didn't find the letterbox :(. See if you can figure out the clues. After that, we took a drive down Chuckanut Drive and visited the Larrabee State Park letterbox. It was a very nice park and we found all the letterboxes. We finished the rest of the trip with a nice drive home. Too bad we thought our air conditioner was not working when we arrived home. We had found some water leaking on Thursday and had a repair man coming out on Monday. (It turned out to be just some extra condensation.)

Today was a great birthday. Pretty quiet during the day, but Kipp and the kids made up for it. They made brownies at my request, which were delicious. We got Safeway Orange Chicken, just so I wouldn't have to cook. It was fine. They all 3 made me cards, and Kipp's was great. I loved it. Ilea's was very beautiful too, and had lots of stickers and hearts. It said "Happy Birthday Mommy, I love you mom" and had a night scene on the back with a moon, an owl, and a cricket! They also got me a compass to do letterboxing better. It was great. I ended the day with a MOPS steering meeting and more presents.

Kyler's most recent question - "What is a handy dandy?". We weren't 100% sure how to answer that.

We spent the evening with the Natsuharas again this year. We had a good time. The kids love playing there, and there was a lot of food. There were about 30 people total. There were a million sparklers and the kids had fun with those. At dusk, the show started, put on by Marian's brother. They had the most spectacular fireworks for about an hour. Kyler didn't like the noise, and fell asleep after about 10 minutes, with Kipp covering his ears. Ilea loved them all. It was a great day.