The Hood Canal and Peach wedding

We just had a blissful 10 day vacation in Washington, starting with Charles Peach's wedding to Monica. It was quite the event -- an absolutely beautiful wedding near Leavenworth, a "Bavarian" town near the Cascade mountains. It was great to see the whole Peach family, and celebrate the very happy couple. As you can see above, Rosemary is absolutely delighted with finally being able to hold her cousin "baby Beatrice" before the ceremony (she also loved the music during the ceremony -- practically a full orchestra!)

Then it was off to an incredible week in the south Hood Canal, only about an hour from Seattle but it felt far away from the big city (no email in the rental house, yay!). There we were joined by Dolly, Felix & Sadie, as well as Sarah & Owen (who is about 16 months now). Watching the 3 toddlers explore the canal (which was awesome because it was only about 4 feet deep where we were, so no worries) by kayak and on foot, was a delight. It was the first time James & I saw Rosemary truly enjoy interacting with other kids (as you can see below, Sadie and Rosemary were quite the influence on each other). Rosemary takes after her dad in her love for oyster collecting -- it was quite amazing there, it was just like picking up Easter eggs (but easier, they were everywhere). James & I went clamming one day (successfully, once we got down the technique), the kids enjoyed the hot tub, we took them on a short hike (where Rosemary FINALLY was willing to walk most of the way on her own), and, after the others left, the Spindlers had an adventure in the northern Olympic peninsula. We had the guilty (quite guilty, in retrospect) pleasure of feeding white bread to semi-tame former actor Kodiak bears from our car -- and Rosemary (as you can see from the video below) was FREAKED out by the buffalos. So was I, but actually the horses were scarier -- they would NOT let you drive by without feeding them. The whole thing kind of blew her (and our) minds. But the pristine beauty of the Dungeoness Spit was a more wholesome pleasure & Rosemary (after a serious tantrum which involved something about a water bottle) walked most of the way down the mountain to the Spit herself.