Hope Island Trip

Two weeks before baby was born, my brother took us out on his boat for what would end up being our last time, as he sold it recently since he no longer has use for it (it was supposed to be for him to sleep on while working in Alaska, but he ended up switching jobs to a ferry boat that has cabins and he remains on the ferry the whole three weeks). We had soooo much fun on this outing! He took us up to Hope Island State Park, which is accessible only by boat. It has mooring buoys around the island and then we got shuttled to shore in a small raft. His boat is the blue one in the picture below.

He had also recently purchased a stand-up paddle board and the kids loved taking turns riding around on it with him.

We spent several hours playing along the beachfront. It was so hot! Over 90-degrees (and remember I was 9 months pregnant!!). Jake found a dead crab and when cousin Hannah screamed when he showed it to her, he proceeded to chase her around with it, laughing and giggling when she got scared. :o)

Then we took a hike through the island over to the other side where the outhouses were. The hike was beautiful, but I had never seen so many mosquitoes! We kept moving all the time, but we all get many bites, especially Abby who bugs seem to really love.

Abby was so sweet, helping Jake along the steep pathways.

The other side of the island had a lovely view of Mount Rainier.

The gang, minus my nephew Donny who was taking the picture and my brother Dave who stayed back with all our gear on the beach.

The kids had fun watching several deer who were grazing in the meadow.

When we finally arrived back to where the boat was (after getting lost for awhile - the trails were very poorly marked!), the tide had come in and the beach had nearly disappeared. Everyone got shuttled back to the boat and we took off for home again.

I will definitely miss our outings on this boat. It was so fun while it lasted. And this outing was by far the best of them all.