Rouse Family Adventures

 Annabelle started backpacking when she was just weeks old. She's proven herself to be fierce and continues to amaze us with her spirt for outdoor adventures. Wanting to do everything herself we decided she was ready to go backpacking, this time hiking the whole way and carrying her "gear" by herself. We picked the shortest hike within a hours drive that allows overnight camping- Cedar Lake an exotic enchanting hike in the Chuckanut mountain foothills.  Annabelle's gear  Annabelle is capable of charging through the whole day and avoids naps the same way most people avoid work.  She fell asleep on the car ride  and we thought "this is great-she'll be all charged up for this hike" .  As we reached our trailhead, Annabelle woke up too early and ugly cried for half a hour non stop. Nothing seemed to console her plus we looked like total assholes.  Doing something pretty cool.  Our good friend and veteran parent Anna has often said "sometimes the victo...

Everyday all week long Annabelle asked if we could go camping. Everyday all week long, Brandon asked if we could go boating. So the weekend plan was born. Come Saturday 9 am- we packed up to go boat camping. A hour after we set sail we made it to Skagit Island with about 20 other kayaks. After a quick hike around Skagit Island we set sail again and made landfall at Hope Island. after hiking around and setting up camp we realized that we didn't pack any beer! It was early in the afternoon and Brandon wanted to sail some more- and (we) wanted some beer to enjoy with the sunset. So he went on a small wind powered boat "beer run" to Jenna and Brennan's house - just over three nautical miles away. Originally, Annabelle and I were going to join him but she laid on the deck of the boat and screamed and kicked like a terrorist so we remained on shore. The plan was, Brandon will go sailing solo and if our friends are home he'll say hi, if they're not he wont say anythi...

Annabelle has been telling us for a while now, " I want to go stay with Papa & Mimi without you". Last weekend we dropped her off in Port Orchard with Brandon's parents and sought out a childfree adventure.  We had a short list, but all of our mountaineering ideas required carrying heavy packs over a long distance,  so we ranked them in order of hikes with bakeries along the way. Most  were disqualified, so we decided to hike the relatively long and easy trail into the remote mountain town of Stehekin (yet again).  As we took off towards the trailhead our plan seemed to be falling apart faster than a gluten free tortilla. A wildfire closed the road to our trailhead late the night before, no campsites were available, and  rain was in the forecast. Since it doesn't rain in August we had left the rainfly at home... to save weight.  It would be a 41 mile hike composed of : 8.5, 18 and 14.5 mile days. Upon hearing all this news we both took note of our ...