When Shane asked me the week before Mother’s Day what I wanted to do to celebrate, I quickly ticked off a few options: Stay home and finally get the window-washing done? Tempting (seriously, it was tempting!), but no… Go to the spa for a day of relaxation? Maybe, but I really wanted to hang with Shane and Jules… Head to the mountains for some spring hiking and wildflower-hunting?  DING DING DING DING DING! I know I just blogged a glorious few days in San Diego, but I was already feeling the itch to skip town again with my two favorites.
Shane worked his trip-planning magic and got us a cute AirBnb in Anacortes, close to a couple of family-friendly trails. We left our house, dirty windows and all, on Saturday morning and hit the road, stopping for lunch in La Conner before rolling up to the trailhead at Sugarloaf. It felt so good to be in the woods again.
Juliette took great pride in darting ahead of us during the uphill climb, giggling when I shouted “Hey Mountain Goat! Wait up!â€
At the top of the mountain, we just chilled. I stretched out on a warm, flat rock while Juliette looked for flowers and Shane sat back in the shade. Magically, on a sunny Saturday, we had the whole dang place to ourselves.
While the mountain wasn’t quite bursting with color, we did find patches of yellow and purple, where we couldn’t help but sit for bit.
After making our descent down Sugarloaf, we drove next door to Mount Erie for more view-gazing.
We checked into our apartment later that afternoon and reclined in the backyard Adirondack chairs for awhile before heading into town for dinner and ice cream. We tucked Juliette in a little early that night and she fell asleep in seven seconds flat. I wasn’t far behind her.
We breakfasted the next morning with all the other moms and grandmas in Anacortes and Juliette gave me the gifts she had made at school the week before. This one said, “Mommy, I love you because you make me food and I miss you when you are gone.â€Â I felt a brief pang of travel-induced mom-guilt over that whole miss you when you are gone thing, but then she wrapped her arms around me and I realized her note had nothing behind it but the sweetest of intentions.
We headed to Deception Pass after breakfast for some more outdoor exploring.
Juliette learned the Macarena at school a few weeks ago and I got a private performance from her on the Shane on the dock, which may have been my favorite Mother’s Day present ever.
We hit the trail, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and set out toward Lighthouse Point.
We never did find the lighthouse, but came across plenty of ways to entertain ourselves along the way!
This rocky perch was pretty much the stuff of PNW dreams…
We ended at this little cove, where I poked around under rocks for crabs while Shane and Juliette played an intense round of Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Happiest of Mama’s Days to me, huh?
