Last year we visited the original Gnomes Trail hike in Maple Valley, WA and our kids loved it! The trail was a little hard to locate though, so I wrote a blog post about it (here) so others could easily enjoy the trail too. It turned into one of my most viewed blog posts ever. Unfortunately, the original trail required guests to go through and possibly park in a neighborhood to get to the hike. With so many visitors to see the trail, the residents had some issues with parking and people not being considerate while visiting the neighborhood. After months of complaints and working out a solution, the city…

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you may be familiar with the little beach town of Cannon Beach, OR. For most others, it’s not usually on the radar when you’re considering a family beach vacation spot. With all the other hot, sunny beach destinations in the US, why would it be? Well, I’m here to tell you that it should be on your radar! We have been to Cannon Beach, OR a few times now, in both summer and winter and we’ve had a blast every time. Read about our March trip here. Follow this Cannon Beach, OR family travel guide for the most epic Pacific Coast beach vacation.…

This past weekend, I surprised my husband with our first kid-free getaway since having kids almost 4 years ago! It was an early birthday present for him, and it’s definitely one of our favorite trips we’ve ever been on. It ranks right up there with our St. Croix wedding anniversary trip (you can read about that trip here). This was the perfect couples getaway, and the best glamping site in Washington that I came across. We will definitely be returning! What is glamping? The term “glamping” comes from combining the two words “glamorous” and “camping”. It’s a camping experience with way more than the basic tent and sleeping bag options.…

Since moving to Washington, we have been on a mission to hike to as many waterfalls as we can. With two toddlers, ages 2 and 3.5, I try to do my research to make sure it is a hike that they can handle, or that we can handle while wearing them. These are my top 10 waterfall hikes for families near Seattle, WA, plus a bonus. These hikes are anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours away from Seattle, and most of them require a parking fee or pass, based on the type of park they’re in. Don’t forget to bring cash just in case the parking machines are down.…

Up in Everson, WA, just south of the Canadian border, sits a peony farm with the most beautiful, giant peonies I’ve ever seen. Pure Peonies is a chemical-free peony farm that grows over 175 varieties of peonies! Did you even know there were that many different types of peonies? Some of the flowers were bigger than my head, and that’s not an exaggeration. If you are a peony or flower enthusiast, I highly recommend making the trip up to Pure Peonies if you’re ever in the Pacific Northwest! We visited last year when two of my childhood friends came to visit and it was such a fun day trip! Here’s…

UPDATE: The Gnomes Trail in this article has been RELOCATED! Please check out my latest post on the NEW Gnomes Trail in Maple Valley, by clicking here. 9/15/20 UPDATE: The Gnome Trail has officially been relocated to 25719 Maple Valley Black Diamond Road SE, Maple Valley, WA 98038. This is the address to the Farmer’s Market, and access to the trail can be found in the Northwest corner of the parking lot. A new updated post will be coming as soon as we are able to leave the house to check out the new trail (going on a week of hazardous smoke due to the wildfires on the west coast).…

I love going over to the Olympic Peninsula to explore. Everything is so green and so beautiful. Just the drive alone is stunning! Remember when we went to Ruby Beach over on the coast of the Olympic Peninsula? Well, this weekend we decided to hit the northern part of the Peninsula and took a little day trip over to Crescent Lake. Now, I already knew that Lake Crescent is absolutely stunning, as we had driven by it once before. But this time, we actually stopped and played in the bright blue, crystal clear water and had so much fun. We definitely have to go back and stay at the lake…

If you’re a 90s kid like myself, then I probably don’t even have to tell you what Halloweentown is. But just in case, in 1998 the Disney Channel released one of my all time favorite “Disney Channel movies” Halloweentown. It starred the late Debbie Reynolds who played the “cool grandma” who happened to be a witch and only visited her grandkids in the mortal world on Halloween. But that year, the eldest granddaughter, played by Kimberly J. Brown, finds out that she comes from a family of witches and of the place her grandmother lives called Halloweentown. Anyway, then there’s a lot of magic, good and bad, some fighting, cute…

My family came to town for July 4th and we had a busy few days showing them around our state! We went hiking, shopping, and exploring at some of our favorite places, and even made a day trip to Friday Harbor, WA in the San Juan Islands. The San Juan Islands are an archipelago (a collection of islands) in the Puget Sound, north of Seattle. The main islands are San Juan Island, Orca Island, and Lopez Island. Friday Harbor is located on San Juan Island, and is known for their cute harbor area with shops and restaurants, and whale watching. You have to take an hour-long ferry ride from Anacortes,…

We’ve been taking full advantage of the beautiful summer weather up here in the Pacific Northwest! We’ve been trying to get outside every weekend, and most of those outings are to go hiking. We’re starting to run out of cool close by hikes that our family friendly. Obviously there’s tons of different trails up here, but we’re getting to the point where a lot of them are longer hikes. And when you’re hiking with two toddlers, 4 miles is about our max. Especially since we are wearing them most of the time. We recently drove down to Mount Rainier National Park and went on a family hike in Paradise, WA.…