Headed Home

I'm just now realizing that I didn't get a picture of the trip to Utah from Seattle. It was amazing. I was in Mora with all of my belonging. Clothes, bike, everything. Plus I had a man and his suitcase. If anyone is looking to hire a professional packer, I'm... pretty good.

I was on vacation for 10 days. It was awesome. Flying kites is one of my favorite pastimes at Ogden River Parkway, and... that's... all I have to say about that.

LIBERTY DAYS. Two words: Awesome.
I can't think of anything more entertaining than watching a bunch of tiny kids chase around a greasy pig. And so many mothers secretly praying that their kid WON'T catch it.

This is Matt pretending he's God.
Also he's standing in front of a table of hot dogs.
Garret's face says it all.

Of course we had to go to Park City on our "vacation". The Aerial Jumps are one of my favorite venues.

I also got in a couple good freshie turns complete with face shots and chunkies.

Driving past Tess' house, I had to slam on my brakes and make sure I wasn't hallucinating. It was the most glorious sight. Not only was the entire family sitting in the dirt, but they were laughing and playing with the liondog and chickens. It even smelled homey. I love these guys :)

There was a lot of book reading that week.

This is Mitch and Gina who make up the band Elephant Shortcut. All their songs are original, and most of them they wrote for each other. They are all love songs, or heartbreak songs, and they're all true. Their album is called "we're not together". I just love them :)
Anyway, they invited Garret and I to go hang out with them while they recorded their new album in Salt Lake! It was awesome. We were there for a couple days, and... Yep. Epic.

We ate lots of great food.
(They say they're not together... but... We have our doubts. Don't tell anyone).

I don't know why this picture happened, but I'll always be glad it did.
Still trying to figure out which one is Garret and which one is the chicken...

Feels good to be home. I live here now. In Eden. With my family.
I miss Seattle.
But this is home :)

Last day in Seattle

I'll have you know, this was one of the saddest days I have ever had. In my life. Ever. This was the day that Seth and Amy left on a trip and I moved away.
I'm in kind of a weird mood right now, so I can't effectively tell you how sick this day made me.
Moving on...

Garret knew I was having a rough day, so he came and picked me up (Garret I have to pack! Garret I can't go galivanting around the city today! Garret I still have mascara dripping all over my face! Garret go away! "No Cami. Come on.")

A long time ago I asked him to Sadie Hawkins because he said he wanted to be asked by a "Utah Girl" (did I post about this?). Supposidly Utahns are creative (and ridiculous) in the dance-asking department. Anyway, I was very disappointed because he never answered me! And we still went! What a rip off. (jokes). Anyway, I guess he never forgot, and months later he got around to it. After he pulled me away from my packing and bawling my eyes out, he took me to the freemont troll where he had set up this whole scavenger hunt to answer me to the dance :) It brightened my dark day.

We went downtown and walked around the weird streets

We took in the full effect of the gum wall

My face still looks like this

And we briefly went to Pikes Place! Somehow in the year that I lived in Seattle, I didn't really go to any of these places.
Thanks Garret for showing me around! It was a good last day. I still bawled a lot, and I'm sure I drove you crazy, but I needed it.
Bye Seattle!
Sniffles.

Canadia! And also heaven

Ooohhhh Caannaaadaaaa....
Whenever I think of Canada, I think of peace, quiet, weird food, and uplifting people.
I got all of that.

(PS this is a few months ago... Ive been slacking on my blogging. Oops).
I took the Clipper boat from Seattle to Victoria, and it was lovely. The hot sea dudes worked hard right in front of my window seat, and I enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate all the way there. Bliss.

I was picked up by my Aunt Jill, her daughter Kristen, and Kristen's daughters Elise and Lily (who were visiting from Las Vegas).

We stopped at Costco. Jill warned me before going in that all the women employees have an interesting dress code. It's called showasmuchcleavageasislegallypossible. This is the best picture I could get, but I'm serious. They were all borderline pornographic.

I got my first taste of Canada at the cafeteria in Costco: French Fries and Poutine! It was so weird. It's brown gravy and these chunky white cheese curds. I was the only one that ate it.

That night we made pizzas :)

The next morning I woke up to... THE BOG!!! This bog is the most gorgeous bog my eyes did ever behold. The picture will never do it justice. I grew up hearing about The Bog from my Canadian cousins, so being in front of it, in person, was an amazing experience. Half hype, half awe.

After I got my jaw all picked up from looking at the view, Kristen's fam and I went to this park that had this beautiful suspension bridge. I love those.

We threw rocks in the river

Swunged. Swanged? Swung?

Then ate a delicious lunch

We returned to find Uncle Jackson loading canoes on his truck. I've only been here once before - about 5 years ago - and his canoes are a big part of my memories. He builds/mends/loves canoes and kayaks.

We loaded up, and after a quick stop at the butcher....

Drove to Lake Cowichan! Have you ever ridden in a canoe with a 3HP outboard on the back?

Jill - being amazing - made an incredible dinner for us all while she squatted in the dirt over her little camp stove. It really was incredible.

Kristen's hubby Bryan cruised us around the lake

Eating dinner

Then Elise got hold of the camera....

I'm glad she caught this shot. We all thought Jackson was going to sink out there. We laughed our dirty faces off.

They are so cute

This is Jackson's latest pride and joy. Native Canadians have the strangest sense of humor. I have never seen a man so proud of such a... um, gorgeous vehicle. Have you ever seen a Subaru Minivan before? No? That's because you can only get them in Thaiwan. And Duncan BC, obviously. I just love this car. It's my dream. I could fit so many midget kids in there. And probably pigmy horses.

I wish my library had totem poles protecting it. (Is that dude sitting on his child? Or is it a mother giving birth? And I can't imagine how short the left baby's legs must be, with a mom like that)

Eh hem... moving on... Jill and I took a tour of the University of Victoria, but I was too busy having dreams about going to school to take pictures:/
Jill and I spent a couple hours in Victoria before I got back on my boat, and it was awesome. That lady is seriously the best. She pointed out how much she liked this picture because of all the flags there together.

We walked down to the waterfront. Stunna.

Parlament! There were a lot of chinese tourists, and random people making out on the lawn.

This is walking into The Empress hotel. Someday I will have afternoon tea at The Empress and I will wear a big dress and a silly hat like everyone else there. I can't wait. Stay tuned for that post in a few cajillion years.

Inside The Empress... (Still having that big dress dream... also right about now I was picturing a hot pink dress with the huge butt that bobbles up and down like Drizella's)

After all those flattering dreams, we drove over to the bay and watched the kite surfers. You can't see them here too great, but they were nuts. There were probably 15 of them, jumping off the huge waves 40 feet in the air. Dear lil Aunt Jill almost lost her eyeballs cuz they were poppin out so far.
After she got those darn eyeballs under control she drove me back to the Clipper and I went home! The end!

SVU again?

I'm sitting here in Jonzzey's on the SVU campus. I drove here today. It's really humid outside. I'm waiting for Garret to get out of a meeting. I just auditioned for a music grant. I'm pretty sure I failed miserably, but I got to play a Steinway, so.... worth it.

How did I get to Virginia?

I miss my brother CJ.

Wow, there are a lot of bugs outside.

I remember sitting in this yellow chair back in March when I came here for an open house. There are 8 yellow chairs in this room, but I remember this one specifically because of the mystery stain. Why am I sitting in a chair that has a mystery stain? ew.

I have so much to blog about. I promise I'll catch up one of these days.

In the words of Tracy, "Peace and blessings, ya'll. Peace. And. Blessings". (fake cheesy smile).

Lake Chelan

A couple weekends ago the fam was packing up to go to Lake Chelan with a few neighbors. I had a huge list of jazzy stuff to take care of over the weekend, and was thinking how lovely it would be to have the house to myself so I could do some packing and maybe some cleaning and organizing. I envisioned baking banana bread and staying up watching chick flicks with my girlfriends. A few midnight punch-dancing sessions ran through my mind.
Then Seth said, "Cami. Just come with us. Please?"
5 minutes later I was packed and in the van.

If you have never been to Lake Chelan, put it on your list.

Clothing is always optional.

View from our deck

Why is it that kids find it fascinating to watch other kids play games on a 2" screen? There are two other kids in this picture that you can't see because they are being sat upon/smushed into the wall.

You can always judge how great your friends are by how fantastic the breakfast is in the morning.
Our breakfasts usually lasted about 3 hours :)

Jake kept slipping out of his high chair.

It wouldn't be a vacation without 12 kids under the age of 10 and 2 life-size teddy bears.

I learned many things on this trip.
1 - Dairy Queen is not a good idea. Ever.
2 - Walmart can be a good idea.
3 - Sleeping in the breezeway between the garage and the house is actually the best spot in the house.
4 - Sam has bigger feet than me
5 - Sam and I can share wetsuits.
6 - Jaynie can always be sassier than she seems
7 - A good way to give someone a black eye and make it look like an accident is on a tube behind a boat
8 - NEVER go on a tube behind with two big guys who like acrobatics
9 - I can sunburn
10 - Always say yes when someone invites you to Lake Chelan.