Needles and a Pen » Knitting, Sewing, and Nursing School

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  • Welcome to my blog!

    Hi! I'm Traci. I'm a Registered Nurse who loves quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and the great outdoors. In my pre-scrubs life, I owned Real Photography, and you can still see my old wedding and portrait photography site here .

    I've created a map that shows links to our camping/hiking/general family fun review posts that you can find here. It's pretty much the coolest thing on this site. Thanks, Google!

    I great big puffy heart *love* comments, so please let me know you visited! I try to always reply!

Category Archives: camping & hiking

Chasm Lake Hiking Trail Review

Chasm Lake is a Rocky Mountain National Park destination that gets lots of acclaim, but at 8.4 miles, it is deservedly called a difficult hike. I was hesitant to attempt it in its entirety with the kids, so we planned a backpacking trip with a two night stay at Goblins Forest which knocked 2.4 miles […]

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Denny Creek Waterslides | Snoqualmie, WA

When I read about the Denny Creek waterslides I was all “How did my mother not take me to this?!”  A natural waterpark an hour away from our house?  How had I never tried this?  When I got there I realized that oh, a bunch of slippery granite and unpredictable you-can-drown-in-it water?  THAT is how […]

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Mirror Lake Hike | Snoqualmie Pass

While we were visiting my sister-in-law and brother-in-law at their house at Snoqualmie Pass, we were able to go on a couple of hikes.  I asked Erik for something that was  3-4 miles with a beautiful lake.  He nailed it with this Mirror Lake hike! Pros:  Everything about the hike is beautiful, even the dirt […]

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That time Will and I drove to Estes Park and back

Labor Day weekend did not go as planned.  It was supposed to be a glorious backpacking trip to end our summer, and I’d made the Rocky Mountain National Park reservations months in advance and was so proud of myself.  I packed us all up.  And then we had a family meltdown that ended up with […]

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