what a trip!

Trip time!! As most of you know my dear friend Katie and I recently got back from the trip we have been planning for months and months. The whole reason for the trip was to make it to Beaverton, Oregon for Karinne's wedding, but we decided to make it an extra long adventure and go to a few more places :) so first on the list was Katie driving up to Boise friday afternoon where we hung out with my family and a few old friends from high school that night. Then Saturday we decided to start the morning off right with breakfast at Merritts. YUM!! After that we hit the road! 8-ish hours to Seattle :) Oh good times in the car. That drive is absolutely gorgeous once you hit I-90...so basically the last hour, but seriously, its actually breathtaking.
So we got to Katie's sister, Joanna's house and spent the evening with their cute little family, and then watched a movie. Sunday we went to church in this building that's literally nestled in trees...everything there is, its incredible. After church we had lunch and then went to Snoqualmie Falls which was awesome! Then later that evening we went to Lake Sammamish where Katie's 2 year old nephew took an accidental swim :) it was pretty funny.
On Monday, all of us went to downtown Seattle and visited the troll (as seen in 10 Things I Hate About You), walked around Pike's, had the famous little donuts, had fish and chips on the pier, did some shopping and had the most amazing waffle cones & ice cream on the water front. heaven! Then Joanna and her husband and kids went home, while Katie and I stayed downtown. We stumbled upon the Northwest Folklife Festival totally by accident but just happened to be the highlight of Seattle. Oh my gosh, so fun! Complete hippy fest for sure. We bought toe rings and got henna tattoos. :) There were awesome hippy bands, and we smelled wretched afterwards. It was so fun though. Then we went up the space needle! Yay! I had never been up, so that was cool. After wards we walked down the waterfront again, and made it to Joanna's by 8 for a late dinner. What and awesome day!
Tuesday we made the 4 hour drive to the Olympic Peninsula...just because we felt like it and had a spare 2 days before we planned on being in Portland. We decided to be really lame and go to Forks. I know...but seriously, we had a blast. The beach was absolutely worth the drive and we had so much fun swimming and playing in the sand. We stayed in a Forks Motel and ate a restaurant called...The Restaurant. We were silly Twilighters and we enjoyed every minute of it. I dont care what any of you think. haha Forks itself was ridiculous, we saw the whole town in 4 minutes, but the La Push beach, and watching the sun set in Port Angeles was soooo worth the drive. While there we also went to the Hoh Rain Forest, and one of the largest cedar trees ever...194 ft in diameter alone. It was epic.
Wednesday was when we went swimming in the ocean. It was super windy that day, so everyone on the beach was in pants and coats, and here we were, 2 dorks from Utah and Idaho in our swim suits screaming and running through the waves. People looked, and we laughed. After that we were on our way to Portland!
We had Wednesday night to visit with Karinne and her family, and then Thursday and Friday we spent preparing for the wedding! This was so fun! Lots of work but I seriously had a blast chatting with K-poo's awesome family. I love them! Her mom is adorable, I love all her sisters, her aunt is like the same person as my mom, and I got to see her ADORABLE neices and nephews. I spent Easter with them last year and seriously fell in love with those kids, so I had fun running around with them. but ya, weddings are quite the hustle and bustle. We made tons of food and decorated up a storm, but it was soooo worth it Saturday when my best friend Karinne married Mr Dalen, aka Du-dad. They looked so happy and it was so fun to see them all married and such! I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Karinne was absolutely gorgeous like always, and glowing with happiness. Im so happy for those two dorky love birds. Hopefully they have kids soon so I can be the #1 babysitter haha jk...but seriously. What a great weekend that was. We then left Sunday morning for good old Boise. Sad that it was all over, but very excited to sleep in my own bed :) Funny how that works...
Here is a slid show of some of the pictures from the trip. We took like 300, so its definitely only SOME of them, but you get the general idea. Hope you enjoy!