Swim Influencers

Also, unlike a lot of cookies, because this is made with cream cheese, I immediately popped them in the fridge to cool off and set more, making for a delicious sweet treat for the end of the day! With the mixer speed on slow, add your flour and baking soda mix a little at a time until your cookie dough is completely incorporated. Take a large tsp of cookie dough, and roll it into a ball, placing it on your baking sheets. Put your baking sheets on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 10 minutes or just as the edges begin to change color to a golden brown.

A lot of people have been asking us how we’re doing with the PCS process for our upcoming move to South Korea, and rather than do 12098301982 posts about the same things, I thought I’d talk a little bit about navigating the OCONUS PCS process, what that looks like, what it entails, and where we are in the process. In order to request command sponsorship, we have to go through something called an EFMP screening/interview in which they go through our entire medical and mental health history to ensure that our gaining installation (Camp Humphreys) can support any needs we might have. Our passports are up to date now so, once we get command sponsorship, which is indicated by amended orders which include all of us by name, we will go for SOFA passports (no-fee passports), which will allow us to claim our host country as our residence for the duration of this tour. It’s exhausting, but it is possible, and it’s important to focus on each little individual task as its own milestone in the PCS process.

Ruby Beach and Kalaloch, where the Tree of Life is located, are on the southwest coast of the Olympic Peninsula, about 30 minutes from Forks, Washington. It’s a beautiful drive that starts off on i5 but gives way to beautiful backroads and farm country, eventually dumping you on the Olympic Peninsula Loop for epic ocean views and more. Honestly, this is one of the most awe-inspiring things we’ve seen here in the PNW, and it’s only about 10 minutes from Ruby Beach, so it was a no-brainer to visit the two in one fell swoop. Ruby Beach’s sea stacks (or the immense rock formations emerging from the sea) are a super popular feature for photographers, so as the sun starts to set, the photographers and their clients begin to arrive.

I resigned myself to the fact that it wasn’t meant to happen, and a friend messaged me Tuesday afternoon to let me know there’s a vaccine clinic on post and that DEERS (military) beneficiaries are eligible. We finally made progress getting our replacement vehicle title Long story short, the title to our Honda Civic went missing in our last PCS, and we’ve been unable to re-register our car (or do anything, for that matter). If you’re wondering what EFMP is, you can check out some of my most commonly tossed-about military acronyms, but it’s basically a physical/mental health screening designed to determine whether military dependents are physically and mentally ready and sound enough for an OCONUS assignment. So, we’ve decided that it’s time to sell, and we’re getting closer to putting it on the market – kind of the end of an era, if you will!

I’ve read a lot of articles lately discussing the one-year mark of the coronavirus pandemic, and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t waxed nostalgic for life before this more than once. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not though, it’s been a year since our first lockdown started, since everything we took for granted changed, and since life as we knew it changed forever. I remember when the first restrictions were put in place here at JBLM, and I remember receiving the first emails that daycare was closed to anyone but the children of essential employees. We took a walk down by the Sound before our first stay-home order was put in place, and I remember thinking about my mental health and how we’d cope with social distancing.

Sure, we have our go-to favorites like Summer Cove, American Lake, and Tolmie State Park, but there are actually a ton of little places to explore locally that I’ve overlooked in the past. Since this was the first weekend without Ryan again during his TDY, we decided to stay close to home and explore Chambers Bay Loop Trail in University Place, WA. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the views and adventures though, so we drove the 25 minutes out to University Place to Chambers Bay Loop Trail anyway. How to Find the Chambers Bay Relics Chambers Bay Loop is actually comprised of three separate trails – Grandview Trail, Soundview Trail, and the Central Meadow Outer Loop, which offer a full tour of Chambers Bay Park.

I have a “funeral for my youth” session scheduled tonight I’ve been steadily working on my photography, and I’m excited to have a really fun session planned with a client tonight to celebrate her 31st birthday, complete with black balloons, a black umbrella, champagne, and more. We’re slowly but surely finding our rhythm, coming home from school, doing homework together, working on sight words together, and slowly learning to read. I’m whittling down our “must-do” list prior to moving I’ve had an ongoing list of things to do in the PNW, but with our time here fast coming to an end, I’ve realized that a lot of it just isn’t going to happen. We’re grateful to have this TDY underway and start counting the days until its done because it’s one step closer to moving day, and I’d call that one of our biggest wins for the week!

Today, it’s time for another round of Currently, a monthly feature from Anne in Residence in which we share five things we are currently doing. We have so many countries, cities, beaches, mountains, and more on our bucket list for our time at Camp Humphreys, and imagining all the incredible adventures we’re having is getting us through the chaos of here and now. I know that’s not the traditional sense of the word here, but I feel like this is the best way to explain where we are right now. While the word “normal” in relation to life doesn’t really carry much weight anymore, I am hopeful that there will be a light at the end of an otherwise seemingly endless tunnel that we’ve all been running down for so long.

It’s a shorter trail right in the Mt. Rainier National Park grounds, but it’s worth it to dip your toes (or just dive right in) the turquoise glacial lake. Cost: America the Beautiful Pass (free for military) or $30/day Ryan and I might be slightly obsessed with jumping into glacial lakes, which is why Snow Lake Trail in Mt. Rainier National Park is so high on our list! Dirty Harry’s Balcony is one of the most popular hikes I’ve heard about in this region, but I know that it’s slightly beyond my kids’ skill level at over 4+ miles. While there are definitely challenging hikes out here, we also have some of the best beginner hikes in Washington worth trying, no matter your skill level!

Luckily, there is a secondary feeder trail about 4 miles up i90 called Upper and Lower Twin Falls via Twin Falls Trail. We started our hike in about 3-4 inches of snow, and by the time we veered off the trail to the right to tie into Twin Falls Trail, the snow pack was dense, winding its way into the forest, where it finally gave way to pure greenery all around. It was a neat experience hiking through different sorts of terrain in one hike, and this was an interesting challenge because our trailhead required us to hike down to the falls, then back up to return to the trailhead. We chose not to hike all the way to the bottom because we knew we had to hike all the way back up, and Mieke was sleeping through the latter part of the hike after crying the entire first half.