go tell it on the mountain

should i start this first real trip post with an explanation of what this trip was all about or do you all know? no? ok. . .

some of the girls who gather regularly at clementine's dry goods in franklin started talking about doing a girl trip. where do we want to go? well, at the time we were all reading the twilight series. if you haven't read them yet go now and get them. and someone (i think it was cami) said, omg wouldn't it be cool to visit forks, washington where the story takes place? i added, "my sister lives in seatac! we could visit her!" well, visiting ended up being the four of us descending upon her and filling her whole downstairs with more girly stuff than my 19 year old nephew, tim could ever imagine. i think at one point there were even brassieres hanging in the bathroom. poor tim. he was a very good sport about it and my sister and her husband were the most generous hosts! eight days. EIGHT DAYS we stayed there. we drank there. we swam there. we even partied a little there. robin and her husband were gone a lot of the time so we took to calling the place our lakehouse. it was gorgeous and more than comfortable. we couldn't have been better off in a posh resort. and the price was certainly right!

cami wanted to visit coupeville on whidby island. the rest of us weren't crazy about the idea but like the good sports we are we went along and had a really great day. but i told cami, if we go to coupeville for her, she's going to have to climb a mountain for us. she swears we tried to kill her this day. i promise it wasn't that bad and i bet she even enjoyed herself. maybe. a little. :)

in spite of cami's aversion to all things natural, i think going up to mt. rainier was one of our more fun days of the trip. there were so many funny things she said that day, the rest of the week someone would say one of the "cami-isms" and we'd pee ourselves laughing. even now, i could laugh out loud remembering. good. times.

i grew up with this view but being away so long i'd forgotten the beauty and pure majesty of the mountain. i was reminded of the definition of breathtaking. we'd pull around a bend (and there were more bends than straight spots in the roadway!) and literally, the vistas would steal the breath right from our lungs.

that smile on cami's face is actually a grimace. ;)

from back to front: cami, mandi and noemi.

the temperature dropped more than 20° from the city to paradise, the highest point in the park.

the peak was cloud covered when we left town. by the time we traversed to 5,000 ft above sea level the clouds disappeared to gift us with this:

"omg there's a lady breast feeding RIGHT THERE! i'd never bring a baby up here. there are bears and rocks and NATURE!"

"we could be killed up here!"

"you better kill that bug. they bite. they're a nuisance!"

"watch out, noemi. that fox looks rabid!"