Hunting Bunnies and Batting Rocks



We came from over there.

Good September to you loyal readers.  It's been about a week and a half since my last post.  (Wow, that sounds an awful lot like the beginning of a confession. All I need is a dark box to sit in.  Oh yes, I forgot where I am writing this from).

For those of you who read my last post, you will remember that we were on our "Camping" vacation last week.  I have to tell you, cabin camping is the perfect kind.  Very civilized.  Heck, if you throw in a washer and dryer, access to the Internet, and a place to get Happy Hour close by, I could've stayed there long term.  Yes, It was that nice. 

Seriously though we all had a terrific time hiking, biking, boating, grilling, roasting marshmallows, sleeping in, and hunting bunnies.  Check that, we didn't so much hunt the bunnies as try to feed them pieces of lettuce.  But hunting them sounds much more 'outdoorsy', which is the kind of trip this was so please forgive me the slip.

Despite our wishes, there was no bear around this corner.

The boating part was especially fun as Mrs. LIAYF, Lukas, and I rented an outboard and crossed Puget Sound and the shipping channel to motor over to 'Baby Island' , which is a small rock with some sand beach where the local seals have their pups.  We were able to turn off the engine a couple hundred yards offshore and eat lunch as dozens of seals popped their heads up around our wooden boat to check out what we were having for lunch.  (I'm pretty sure they were disappointed to find we were eating Peanut Butter and Jelly rather than fish sandwiches, but they were polite and didn't say anything).

Those are Seal heads.  About to get much closer.

Do you want to know what the best part of the trip was?  We were completely unplugged for 5 days!  No Internet, television, or even radio permeated our family unit for the duration of the time we stayed at our destination.  This made things amazingly peaceful and nice as we spent most of the time just hanging out with Lukas.  If you have ever wondered how many rocks and shells can be collected and deposited back into the ocean in 5 days trust me, it's a lot.

Along those lines I was lucky to find the perfect baseball bat shaped chuck of driftwood floating near the shore one day, which I used to hit a ton of rocks far out into the ocean water.  This was a lot of fun, and Lukas sat and made "Oooohs" whenever I was able to connect especially well with one of them.  I brought that piece of driftwood home with me, though I'm fairly certain I'll never use it again.

Finally, on the way home we stopped off at a local farm and picked a load of blueberries.  Mrs. LIAYF used them to make jam yesterday.  Along with several jars of blackberry jam she made from a recent picking closer to home, we are now stocked with enough delicious jam to last us through most of the Winter months.

Mmmmm, Jam!

Lukas started Pre-K on Tuesday, while Mrs. LIAYF and I are back to work. Thankfully our little guy was placed in the group called The Red Tigers rather than getting stuck in The Rainbow Butterflies.  As a dad, I care about those things.

Yes, we are back to the grind now, but it was a great 10 days off.