Blake Island Camping a week late!

We have gone camping to Blake Island with my brother Chris every summer since Lia was two years old.  It is a summer tradition that we love and look forward to every year.  Blake Island is honestly one of my favorite places in the world as well as my three older children.  Although we have been going there to camp on Labor Day weekend for the past several years, my brother decided to book a last minute trip with his family to Belize for the last 10 days of their summer break.  As a result, our camping trip suddenly got postponed to hopefully the following weekend in September.  With this camping trip off the calendar, Ron decided to take the three older children camping for one night and two days to a campground outside of Winthrop.  I must admit, it was so nice to just be home alone with Emmett for 36 hours.  Since I am still so exhausted and beat up from the past 1.5 years, I honestly could have used another day, or two, or week, but I will take what little I can get!  But I digress...

After Chris returned from his vacation, I called him on Tuesday night to see if his family was still open to heading to Blake Island the coming weekend.  Luckily, the good weather that we have been having for weeks and weeks was still promising to hold out through Saturday with a possible chance of showers Sunday morning.  We decided to overlook Sunday's forecast and just go for it!  Luckily, Logan's first soccer game of the season was scheduled for 9 a.m. at a soccer field literally on the way to Chris' house.  And since Ella had injured her foot jumping on our neighbor's trampoline on Labor Day, she was taking the week off from gymnastics and soccer and was skipping her 12 o'clock game.  So as much of a stress as it was to get everyone ready and fed breakfast and get our camping gear packed up and loaded in my car by 9 o'clock on Saturday morning, I managed to make it happen and only left a few minutes late with Lia to join Ron down at the soccer fields with Logan and the other two children.

After cheering Logan on for his first game and win of the season, the three older kids and I said a 'goodbye' to Ron and Emmett and hopped in our car to drive off to Port Orchard to meet Chris and his family at 11 a.m. at their brand new house right on the Puget Sound.  We then piled everything in the boat and drove to the launch where we were able to fit all eight of us and all of our gear in ONE trip to the island (which was a first as we have never had a group this small before).  We then spent a wonderful day playing on the island and enjoying each other's company.  After eating lunch and setting up camp, we spent the day playing on the beach, building driftwood forts, and playing softball.  After dinner, we ran around in the dark for an hour playing "Ghosts in the Graveyard" and "Capture the Flag" with Chris' awesome glow-in-the-dark game set.  It was such a fun way to end the day!

Unfortunately, the rain started to fall in the middle of the night which meant we woke up to a very cold, wet, and rainy morning.  After stumbling out of our tents to make breakfast, we took a vote and decided to just pack up and head back to Chris' house to spend the afternoon there instead of waiting for the sun to come out on the island.  We pulled out of the marina at 10:45 and then took a scenic ride home past two GIGANTIC, cargo ships that are currently waiting in the waters right off of Blake Island to unload their cargo in the Port of Tacoma.  Chris drove us right next to them which was unbelievable to be so close to a ship that is literally hundreds of feet tall.  I couldn't believe that we were allowed to get so close to them!  We then drove past the beautiful Bainbridge Island before finding some giant, sea lions sleeping on one of the large buoys before heading back to the marina.

Riley climbing the massive Madrone tree next to our campsite after we first arrived.

Lia and Ella hanging out at the base of the tree.

Ella attempting to climb the tree up to her cousin...which I quickly put the kibosh on!

All six cousins lined up in a row--Logan, Lia, Trenton, Ella, and Riley!  Oh, how I have loved watching these five kiddos play together over the years.

Logan building a Lincoln log style fort on the beach.

The boys playing amidst the driftwood.

Uncle Chris helping Ella put the roof on a massive fort.

Ella poking her head out from the "peakaway" hole (as she called it) in her finished roof.

Chris whipping the boys with the long piece of kelp Logan found.

Ella checking out another fort on the beach.

Chris wrapping up a very unhappy Logan with the leftover piece of kelp.

Lia and Riley hanging out in the tent.

Ella getting ready to hit the ball during our baseball game.

Lia waiting to run home while Ella guards third base.

Before dinner, we wandered over to Tillicum Village to check out the gift shop.

Ella and Riley modeling two of the Native American masks for sale in the gift shop.

A close-up of Ella and her mask.

Beautiful Mount Rainier at dinner time.

My kids and me at twilight.

The girls and me enjoying dinner in our campsite.

The cold and cloudy morning that we all woke up to on Sunday.

Logan, Trenton, and Ella finding refuge from the wind on the giant, fallen tree tucked away in the bushes.

Riley pulling Ella in the cargo wagon as we headed back to our campsite to load up our gear up to take back to the boat.

Cruising past the front of the massive, cargo ship anchored in the sound.

A closer shot of us near the ship.  It seriously was several stories high!

The lounging sea lions relaxing on the buoy!