Camping Extravaganza!!!

Over the last weekend in May/beginning of June, Chels and I went camping with our good friends Karen and PJ to celebrate PJ's 40th birthday.  We went camping at a site outside of Leavenworth, Washington, which is a cute Bavarian-themed town on the other side of the Cascade Mountains from Seattle. It's only a few hours away, but it seems like a world away! The town is nestled into the mountains, and all the buildings in town match the traditional, half-timbered German architecture. Find out more here: Leavenworth, Washington 

Here I am, practicing setting up our tent in our backyard.  Chels and I received this tent as a wedding gift almost four years ago from our dear friend Stacy, and had yet to use it!  Luckily, it was a piece of cake to assemble. At our family brunch the day after our wedding, we were opening gifts and when we got to this one, my Dad says, "finally, something useful!" which got a big laugh.  Four years later, we're using that useful wedding gift!

Not too far outside of Seattle, we're on Highway 2 and already getting closer to the mountains!

A beautiful picture of the Cascade Mountains on the drive through the pass to Leavenworth.

So gorgeous, I love the mountains!

Chels and I arrived to Leavenworth Friday afternoon, and did some exploring in the heart of the town.  There is a cute marketplace/village that has shopping, dining, bars, and even had an art fair happening while we were there.  We had dinner at a tavern, which had local and on tap beer and root beer. We dined on the roof-top deck, with gorgeous mountain views of course! Here's my cute wife, enjoying the view.

 

More mountains on our way to the campsite!

 

Our campsite is called Chatter Creek Campground, which is about 20 minutes outside of Leavenworth.  It's off of Icicle Creek road, aptly named as Icicle Creek runs along the road all the way to the campground.

Here's our tent. Another success! Look Dad, I remembered the tarp!

Chels and our friend PJ. They are birthday buddies!

Karen and her friend Nancy.  Karen arranged the whole camping trip for PJ's birthday celebration. We had a group campsite, which was really awesome!  It was pretty big, could accommodate about 75 people.  It had a smaller creek, Chatter Creek, running through the campsite, two fire pits with a covered structure, and plenty of room to spread out.  Friends came and went over the weekend, with about 18-20 people there at the most.  We had so much fun!

 

Find out more here: Chatter Creek Campground

Chels and I

 

Here's Icicle Creek, which is actually a pretty raging river, in my opinion!

Very beautiful, the creek runs along the side of the road, with the mountains on either side.  Gorgeous views! It's nice to get out of the city for a change.

 

On Saturday, Chels and I went back into Leavenworth to have lunch in town.  We packed a picnic lunch and found a park on the Wenatchee River.

 

My precious wife!

There are some rapids on the river, at times up to a class three level.  There are a few whitewater river rafting tours you can go on, I definitely want to do that next time!

 

Here I am wading in the river, much colder than I expected!  However, since the river is running down from the mountains, I should have realized it would be chilly. 

Another mountain view from the campsite.  I was surprised to see that there was still a little bit of snow in the pass.

Preparing breakfast at the campground.  Karen and PJ and some of their friends are avid campers, it was nice to go with experts!  As we were preparing for this trip, we realized the last time we went camping was as children with our parents.  And it was easy because they did everything for us!  Turns out, we were well prepared, thanks to Aunt Cathy and Uncle Sandy generously letting us borrow almost all the supplies we brought. I was especially thankful for the North Face mummy sleeping bags--it was 40 degrees the first night! We had a really fun time.

They cooked some amazing meals, I was so impressed!  For PJ's birthday on Saturday night, Karen and PJ brought salmon for everyone.  We brought sweet potatoes, which were cubed with garlic and butter then roasted.  Others brought asparagus, and salad, making a delicious meal.  I would have been impressed by the meal even if it wasn't made outside over a campfire!

Here is Karen and PJ's springer spaniel puppy Banksy.  He's so cute!  Him and Chelsea are pals, she recently did pet-sitting for him and they had a great time together! We brought him over to our place one night, and I don't think Kitten and Monty loved him as much as we did.

Chels and our friend Suzy's dog, Sheila

Sheila and Banksy, so tired from all of their running around the campsite

 

Another beautiful mountain view, at the pass.  Goodbye Leavenworth, we had a fantastic time!  Can't wait to go back!

 



MMRF Race for Research: In Loving Memory of Aunt Laura Toby

In April, we went down to California for Chelsea's Aunt Laura's funeral service.  Her aunt, her dad's brother Brian's wife, passed away this spring after fighting multiple myeloma cancer for six years. Laura was a wonderful, caring person, fun-loving and always had a smile on her face.  She will be greatly missed!

 

 

 It just so happened that the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation's annual 5K race/walk for a cure event was happening Sunday, April 7th, the day after the service, in San Francisco. Brian and Laura's daughters, Jillian and Megan, organized "Team Toby" for the MMRF Race for Research event held the following day. Find out more here: MMRF

Many of the family members we able to attend, so we had a large group, 120 people. Our team raised a significant amount of money to go towards multiple myeloma research. 

Here's Team Toby!

 Aunt Laura was very involved in the community theater, so Jillian organized a flash mob in her honor, for Team Toby to do at the MMRF race. She organized 3 separate dances and choreography for each, which she put on You Tube for the entire family to practice at home.  We all came together out of the crowd for the flash mob, which was a surprise for the other attendees at the MMRF Race for Research event.  It was awesome and really fun! Great job, Jillian! You can view it here: Team Toby Flash Mob 

 

Maggie and Megan

 

Cake with a favorite quote of Aunt Laura's on it

 

Toby siblings: Barry, Barbara, Brian

 

Some of the Tobys:

Back row:

Me, Andrew, Barry, Tiara, Brian, Chris, Megan, and Laura

Front Row: Chels, Stephanie, Tiffany, Maggie, Jillian, and Scott

 

Me and Chels

Cousins-time! Laura, Stephanie, Me, Chels, Tiffany

 

More Toby cousins: Candy and her daughter Tiffany

Chels and I with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background

Cindy, Stephanie, and Barry

Barry's sister Barbara's family: Chris, Uncle Paul, Laura, and Chris' girlfriend Tiara

Andrew ran in the race, great job!

Toby sisters: Steph and Chels

Andrew and Chels

After the race, we all spent some time together at the park.  Cousin Jillian and her husband Scott's twins were the favorites of everyone there! Kellan and Ellora are so cute!  They are about 10 months old in these pictures

Chels, me and Kellan

They are so cute!  Barry is having a blast with them--someone is ready to be a Grandpa!

Stephanie and Ellora

 

Andrew with the Twinkies, they love him!

Ellora trying to "help" her brother

 

Chels is excited to be here!

Stephanie and Ellora, so cute!

Someone is ready to be an uncle, I think!

Aunt Barbara and Uncle Paul

We went out to lunch at the Presidio after the race, it was nice to catch up with everyone!

 

Even though we came together under sad circumstances, it was wonderful to see the family, and to honor and remember such a special person in all of our lives.  We love you, Aunt Laura!