Day 5-10: Whidbey Island

We spent the bulk of our trip at Dad's house (and my childhood home) on Whidbey Island. It was quiet and relaxing, but still a bit sad and emotional to return to an empty house. We got in late at night, after the all-day drive from Pullman, and slept like babies. My legs were getting worse from the bee stings, and I ended up sleeping nearly 18 hours that first day!

As opposed to the sunny hot weather we'd been dealt thus far, our first couple days on Whidbey were cool and rainy, with temps barely cracking 50F. It was nice to see green trees and grass after months of brown in Colorado. We went for a couple bike rides on my old running trails, and it was fun to navigate roots and logs, without any major climbing. (After all we were only about 25 ft above sea level!)

Our main purpose of the trip was to spread my Dad's ashes and say our goodbyes. We all got together as a family and went out on the boat to the special spot. (Thank you Jon for taking us on your boat!).
My youngest nephew Connor, and niece, Amanda joined in as well. After the boat trip we had an awesome dinner of seafood lasagna, with fresh peach, blueberry, and blackberry pies for dessert. (Thanks so much Betty and Pete!)It was fun to see my sister Liss and her husband Chris, and hang out.


We also got to go to Connor's 4th birthday party.

The party of crazy 4-year-olds was dinosaur themed, complete with a chocolate lava cake!

Amanda is almost ready for her first birthday and she stole the show!