July So Far: Music Video, and Camping on the Peninsula

I thought I would just do a little update as to what we've been up to the past couple of weeks...

June 29th - Illumination Video, Outdoor Scenes

I'd been waiting, and waiting, and waiting to finally have decent Seattle weather to film the outdoor shots for my music video.  It is very hard to plan any time in advance here because the weather here changes so quickly. But we were fortunate and were blessed with an amazing day to shoot.

Although, by amazing I mean that in the morning it was overcast, then it rained for a half hour, and then in the afternoon it was sunny and 80 degrees.

Only in Seattle do you really get that kind of diversity all in a day, right?

I don't really have a real storyline to my video other than just trying to create contrasts between the simple and the great.  Part of the video was of me laying on the grass with manuscript paper and pencil as if I was composing music, and then we will contrast that with the "dream" of performing the music with the full symphony orchestra (filmed in April).

The piano that we used for the video was one that I found on Craigslist for a steal of a deal.

I had spent quite a lot of time browsing for upright grand pianos, but most were kind of ugly looking. I was excited to find this beauty.

We were lucky to film at the estate of a local family here in Snoqualmie, who graciously allowed us to use their property.  The home is for sale and so I included some info about the home in my behind-the-scenes footage, which they didn't even ask me to do, but I felt like it was the least that I could do. They were so nice.

This piano dolly that you see below was a great find.  We were concerned about how to move this piano (and any future piano), especially across grass and rugged areas.  Since I had recently made a connection with The Piano Guys I found out what dolly they use, and this is the one. It's an "All Terrain Dolly", and Will was quite pleased with it.  He even loaded it onto the dolly by himself, which is amazing.

You can see the tea-stained music pages I created below, on top of the piano. They are mixed in with some authentic vintage sheet music.

Will was so awesome and took behind-the-scenes footage all day (as well as moved the piano around).  He is my hero.

Anyway, the video should be done by September at the latest, but you can see the Behind-the-Scenes footage here:

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The Boys at Cousins

Meanwhile, you are probably wondering where our boys were during all of this.  They had a fun weekend at their cousins' home (James and Elizabeth), and as you can see from the pics below they played and played and played. Thank you James and Elizabeth for watching the boys for us - we are excited to return the favor in a few weeks.

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June 30th - Picking up the boys and Church, Dash Point

The day after the film shoot, we went down to Tacoma to J&E's new house to pick up the boys. We went to church with them, and afterwards had a BBQ and went to the beach at Dash Point.  It was a lovely evening.

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July 1st - Will had his 35th Birthday

Will turned 35 on July 1st, and his present from me was a clean house, his favorite dinner (Chicken Enchiladas), Ice Cream, and a promise to finish the mending pile which contains many of his clothing items (and has, for, um, 2 years....I'm really not into sewing I guess). Happy birthday Will!! Oh and he went on a super long running adventure the day after his birthday....

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Still busting my Rear...

I've still been continuing my quest to get as fit as I possibly can until we get pregnant again.  These past few weeks, I'm not sure what changed really but I've seen some differences in my body. Perhaps it was the strict eating, perhaps it was the killer hard workouts my trainer was giving me to do...I don't know. But many people have commented to me that I look thinner, fitter, and more compact.  My weight has not really changed much, so perhaps the muscle mass vs. fat is swapping out more? LOL

This is my trainer, Monica, whom was laughing at me for taking such a cheesy photo of us in the mirror. Rightfully so.

Juicing...

This was today after the workout from Heck. I HATED IT.  So I figured my body must have needed it if I hated it that much. So much upper body with stairmaster intervals that I wanted to kill over.  But hopefully this means in a few weeks from now I will see even more progress, so it's all good.

I am so committed to this journey of health.  I am not perfect, for example I really ate horribly on our camping trip, but when I am at home in my daily grind I am strict and dedicated and it's neat to see results. And I just FEEL so much better when I am eating clean and working out. I will talk more about that in a second...

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July 3rd - Camping on the Olympic Peninsula

We left Wednesday the 3rd to get a headstart on holiday traffic to go over to the Olympic Peninsula for the weekend.

We hadn't really planned this out until a few days in advance, and so it was a very spontaneous camping trip. But it was needed.  It seems most of our getaways are always with family or friends, and not that that is bad but we were just craving some family-only time with no interruptions from work, music, church callings, etc.

In the car driving to the ferry with both kids asleep in the backseat. Travelling is always easier with sleeping kids :)

This was Preston and I inside the Seattle Ferry Terminal, waiting for Will and Taylor to get tickets and park the car in the waiting line.  

The first night, we reserved a spot at Sequim Bay State Park - one of the only reservable camping sites on the peninsula. We only stayed here for the first night so that we could get up early the next morning and go try to nab a good spot at one of the more popular non-reservable camping spots.

So the next day we got up early and spent a lot of time going through all the campsites before finally settling on this beauty of a spot at Lake Crescent, which is just outside of Port Angeles.

The first day we kind of spend exploring a bit, and getting our campsite set up.  But the second day, we went out to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery. It is the most Northwestern point of the continental United States. 

It's a beautiful little hike to this amazing view where you can look across and see the lighthouse on the little island across the way.

So I really wanted to get some sort of workout in to compensate for all the camping food I was indulging in (hot dogs, marshmallows, you name it...), so Will encouraged me to take off and hike the trails at a faster pace and he would go slow with the boys.

But Preston was determined to keep up with me, and we actually had a lot of fun! He kept trying to race me and so both of us were running up the trail quite a bit.  He ended up beating me. He's a fast little guy! And determined too!

After we went to Neah Bay, we drove down to a drop-off point where we left Will so he could hike down a coastal hiking trail (only accessible by foot), and then we drove down to Lake Ozette and met him there to pick him up.

The trail ended up being a bit more challenging than he thought it was going to be, and a few miles longer as well, so we spent some time waiting for him at Lake Ozette :) But here are some pictures he took while on his adventure...

Meanwhile, the boys and I went back into Neah Bay on a quest for Indian smoked salmon and ice cream. We got lucky on the ice cream, but struck out on the smoked salmon.  There is this one Indian guy in Neah Bay who seriously smokes the best salmon, and I stopped by his shack but he was completely out for the day with a sign to come back tomorrow. :( I was sad because we were not going back the next day.

Oh, haha, I totally forgot to mention that on the first day of driving around, I guess Taylor had a tummy bug or something and Will was taking some roads a little to windy and fast. Anyway he completely spewed all over the back seat and so we had to pull over and strip him down and clean everything out.  Luckily we were right next to a river and could somewhat clean things off.

The bad thing is I packed really light for this trip and so half of Taylor's clothing options were just spoiled with throw-up. Poor guy :(

After Will's 16 mile long sprint along the coast, we went into Forks for dinner...

These next few pics were after Taylor threw up that first day, I forgot to include them. We stopped at some beaches and he was still pretty mellow...

Anyway after Will's 16 mile spring down the coastline, we went to Forks for dinner. If you are familiar with the Twilight books/movies, this is the town it was based in.  It's still pretty saturated with tourists over the whole thing. 

Anyway, we went to the park to let the boys get some energy out....

The next day we went to Hurricane Ridge, which is this amazing viewpoint you can drive up to within the Olympic National Park.

Again, Will was kind enough to let me try to get some exercise in and so I took off for an hour and a half and went for a pretty good hike. It was pretty nice to just get some me-time, actually.  It's not often I get into nature by myself anymore :)

As I said earlier, I've been really dedicated to getting into shape and I just wanted to say that it felt really amazing to feel SO IN SHAPE while we were camping.  Hiking around, running up trails and feeling good in my clothes....well it was amazing. I haven't felt this good in a long time.

Meanwhile...the boys....

After Hurricane Ridge, we dropped Will off and he ran down the mountain. He thought it was going to be a straight down 10 mile hike, but it turned out to have 2,000 feet of elevation climb and he pretty much went over every single mountain peak Haha. Poor guy.

We had a nice relaxing quiet time in the car...

He also ran into a pack of mountain goats which stalled him for a good 20 minutes as he waited for them to move off of the trail. Not sure if you remember, but last year there was a man that died from getting stabbed by an aggressive mountain goat.  And so now there are warnings all over the park about leaving the goats alone. If they acclimated to humans they become quite dangerous.  The one that stabbed the man last year even ran after him and butted him. 

After we picked up Will from the base of the trail, we went to Sol Duc Hot Springs...

And back at the campsite...

The next morning....

We went on a short hike to Madison Falls...

And then after the Falls, we decided to see what Deer Park was all about.  

Well I will tell you what it was all about.

It was a NARROW, steep gravel road up 6,000 feet in elevation that completely freaked me out.

That pic above is in one of the safer spots, but there were parts on the road that sort of made me panic a bit. I'm not afraid of heights, but I don't do well with falling. I have a FEAR OF FALLING, so if there is a ledge without a fence or gate to prevent me from falling off, I get extremely scared.  Like I want to pass out and cry kind of scared.

There was a little hike up at Deer Park, but I really did not want to go on it because it was a little freaky.  Will asked Preston if he would hold my hand so I wouldn't be scared, and he was so sweet. He led me up the trail (Preston did) and kept saying, "It's okay Mama, don't worry I'll save you, just hold my hand and keep walking, don't be scared it's okay."  Seriously I just love that boy.

After Deer Park, we made our way over to the town of Port Townsend.  I wanted to location scout some Victorian homes, and this town is famous for them.  And very charming as well....so it was a beautiful evening to do that...

Eventually we made our way back over to Bremerton to catch the ferry back to Seattle to head home...

I asked Preston what his absolute favorite part of the camping trip was, and he said without hesitation "Riding the Ferry Boat!"

This next picture is called "Fighting over who gets to snuggle Mama".  No, seriously, it is.

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So camping was tons of fun. It was great to spend time together as a family.  Cleaning the car out once we got home was even more fun. Ha.

The boys have returned right back into summer here at home, which you can see here....

Every time I go back and look at old blogs, I find myself really enjoying the posts the most that contain video footage. I don't think we take enough video anymore, and so i did want to post a few video clips that have been taken recently for posperity sake.

Preston's birthday party: 

Flying like Superman, Taylor sliding down the extremely slow slide, and what our boys do with a camera they snuck into their room at night.