Washington Peninsula Trip

Those who know me know that I love to travel. So for one of this year's road trips I decided to drive up the Washington coast to see the forests and beaches on the peninsula. It was gorgeous! So here's my trip in pictures since words can't describe how beautiful it is :)

Starting with the forests: I saw the Hoh rainforest and hiked up into the alpine forests of the Olympic mountains.

The first place we stayed was Cape Disappointment. I have no idea why it is called that, but it was the ending place for the Lewis and Clark expedition in Washington. So I hiked a trail up to a lighthouse that roughly mirrored Clark's trail back in the 1800's!

Loving the ocean as I do, it wouldn't be a trip without seeing some awesome coastline. I saw beaches in Cape Disappointment, La Push's First Beach, Rialto Beach, and the coast line of Port Angeles.

The Olympic mountains were formed by receeding glaciers, and so there is a lot of rough, stony ground and jutting peaks that I loved hiking through!

We also saw some sweet waterfalls. This first one is Multnomah Falls, which is the 2nd highest continuous running waterfall in north america. The second is Wahkeena Falls, which is near Multnomah.

And it wouldn't be a trip up the peninsula without a pit stop in Forks :)

On the way home from Washington, I stopped in Portland and visited my friend, Sarah, who graduated with me from BYU's nursing program and now lives there with her husband and 2 kids. We went strawberry picking one day and then canned some into jam and dried some others. I felt very domestic :)

So other than the fact that my hair was a completely frizzy mess the entire time (thank you humidity) it was an amazing trip! In fact, I'm now going to plan a trip down the Oregon coastline and into the Redwood forest of northern California. Anyone want to come with? :)

So I've Been A Little Lax Lately...

And haven't posted anything for awhile. But here are a few photos to highlight the events of the last few months :)

My best friend in the world finally came back from Chicago to visit! Some say she really came to run the triathlon we signed up for, but I'm pretty sure she just wanted to play with me :)


One of our outings consisted of me, Naomi, Brooklyn, Sara, Noa, and Liz hiking up to Battle Creek Falls. Brooklyn was cute (it's true- I actually like her now) because Naomi and I were holding her hands and she would say "2" to let us know she wanted to be carried between us up the trial :)

Sara and Noa had fun playing in the cold water. And by fun, I mean that Sara put Noa's toes in and he kept trying to pull them back out. It was fun for me anyway.

I channeled Kevin and climbed out over the middle of the water on a tree so I could take some pics. I don't think it would have been a true hike for Naomi without someone climbing something :)

One day Naomi introduced me to Yamoto's, which is freakin awesome and if anyone ever wants to get Japanese food I'm so there! It is here that we gave Brooklyn her first fencing lesson. If she goes pro, I taught her everything she knows :)
Naomi and I decided to pamper ourselves before the race, so after Yamoto's we dropped Brooklyn off with Craig and Sarah (thanks guys!) and went and got pedicures. It was my first one ever-fun times!
Race day. It was freezing outside before we started the race. Thank goodness the pool was heated!

Naomi and I are 2 buff dudes after finishing the triathlon! Thanks for the support Sara and Mom and Dad Uda!
After Naomi went back to Chicago (sob :( ) I worked a bit and then headed down to AZ for Greg's graduation from high school. Now, since it's AZ, it is of course held outdoors. Well, this year it rained...the whole time. So we might have gotten just the tiniest bit wet :P

The boys and Jenny after Greg officially finished high school. I think he's happy. Does his grin look happy? Maybe just a little bit...

We did a couple other fun things while home too. We went to a water park one day and spent 4.5 hours in the sun, in the middle of the day, in 100+ degree weather. Do I even look like I've gotten a little color? No. Not even a little bit.

Dad also took us bowling one day. Jenny did great and bowled a personal best. I think I bowled a personal worst, but I still had fun!

Grandma and Grandpa Smith came down for Greg's graduation, and on Memorial Day they treated us to dinner. They're totally awesome!

And that sums up the last several weeks. Stay tuned for my Washington trip pictures in which I will travel to the exotic land of Forks and try to find myself a Jacob Black. Or at least a really pretty beach to run on :)