... from Barnes & Noble

I think there are times that you have no idea how exhausted you are, until you get rest.

And I am not talking about the kind of exhaustion that comes just from a long day of traveling either.

I am talking about the kind of exhaustion that comes from weeks on end of days filled up with organizing and getting together with friends and packing and conferring. And nights that last way too long as you attempt to get all the things accomplished that you can’t get completed when your kids are awake.

It is hard to believe that we have only been gone two nights. But already we were feeling more emotionally and physically rested then we have in months. Despite traveling with two toddlers, by day three both JB and I feel like we are getting the rejuvenation we both so desperately needed. And I think the biggest reason was that we haven’t tried to pack in tons of activities on this vacation. We have driven less than two hours a day and made sure that each day we all had naps each day and were in bed plenty early each evening.

As I had mentioned previously, taking this trip did not feel ideal to me in the days and weeks leading up to our departure. We had scheduled it months ago. We really wanted to visit Washington. We really wanted to see our friends Jeff & Bobbie and their children. We also had free tickets from American Airlines that would expire before we could use them due to our move overseas. So it made sense to go. And to go now. But the timing felt all wrong. It felt like we had too much to do back home and that the boys were too young and that money was too tight. I really didn’t want to go. But man, I am so glad we did. It’s been glorious to be away from the chaos at home. How nice to not have my “To Do List” hanging over me every day.

After traveling all day on Saturday, we spent Sunday visiting the Hoh Rain forest (see pictures from previous post) before stopping at a local grocery store and getting a hotel in Forks, Washington.

This small town in the middle of the nowhere has become a cultish stomping grounds due to one thing. It was the author’s setting of choice for the ever popular Twilight Series – extremely popular among teenage girls.

The manager at the grocery store told us that his business has never been better. He even signs autographs since he “owns the only grocery store in the town that the Twilight books were set in.” Every place you go -- be it a restaurant or a shopping center or just the local place to buy firewood (“Twilight Wood”), this series of books obviously dominates the local environment. Souvenirs and paraphernalia from the book are everywhere. I actually saw a cake with the picture of the movie in the bakery. In talking to locals, most see the attention as a good thing for the community. One woman said she had a teenager offer to buy her shorts right off of her since they had “Forks” written on them. (She declined the offer.)

Anyways, enough of Forks. It honestly isn’t much to speak of unless you are a female between the ages of 11 and 17. But it is just a half hour from the rain forest. So it has that going for it.

We spent the night there last night, and this morning, we were off again. This time we headed to Ruby Beach. It wasn’t a simple walk down to the beach with two little boys and one bum foot, but we did it, and it was well worth it. How amazingly beautiful the entire drive through Olympic National Park and specifically this beach stop was. Each time we travel to a new place, I am reminded yet again of how creative our Heavenly Father is. Each time I think I’ve seen the best of his creation, I am humbled to be able to see a bit more.

Anyways, I’ll be doing a separate post featuring pictures from our time on Ruby Beach. So stay tuned.

After that we were off to our next stop. This time it is two nights at the cabin of a friend. Free and on a lake! You can’t get much better than that. The cabin itself doesn’t have wi-fi, but we are meeting my cousin Ryan and his wife Briana at a restaurant here in town and so we stopped here, primarily so JB could check his work email (we are waiting not-so-patiently for his orders), and secondarily, so I could post this pre-written blog. This place is great as the kid's section has a Thomas train table! Way cool. JB to check his work email as we are hoping to get orders at any moment, and I decided to quickly post this pre-written blog.

More pictures and adventure to come! I promise!