Day 211 and 212 Camp Casey Time

Day 211 - After sitting in the tortuously slow northbound I5 traffic, and a stop at McDonalds in Arlington, we arrived at Camp Casey and set up the tent just in time for nightfall.  This has been a long time coming.  The last time we came to our church's annual family camp, it was 2002 and way before kids.  The girls have been begging us to take them "real" camping with a tent.  Apparently boat camping doesn't count!  We arrived at Casey just in time for the group capmfire and s'mores.  The girls and John settled in to our borrowed 3-man tent while I enjoyed some social time around the campfire. 

What can prevent you from a good night's rest in a tent? Let me count the ways . . .

1) forget pillows
2) caffeine in the afternoon or was it the glass of wine in the evening?
3) a 3-man tent for 4 people
4) therma-rests too big to fit side by side in the tent
5) a slight slope underneath the tent
6) moisture from the trees dropping on the tent and sounding like rain
7) having to go to the bathroom after you're all snugly warm in your tent
8) being way too warm in your tent
9) fog horns from passing ships
10) crows cawing early in the morning
11) coming down with a cold
12) a grumpy 6 yr old waking everyone up at 6am

Would I do it again? . . . Of course!

Day 212 - This was Heaven for the girls, all the kids were running around in little packs and there was always some project they were working on, always involving dirt and water.  There were group games at the field in the morning, then John took took them for beach play and swimming in the afternoon while I tried to sleep off my impending cold. 

Day 209 and 210

Day 209 - Last day of swim lessons.  Hannah moves up to the next level, side breathers and Haley gets to stay in Turtles.  The girls likely won't take lessons again until next Sping.  Hoepfully they will get to practice their new skills while we are on vacation.  They got to celebrate the last day of the session by getting popcorn after lessons and playing on the play structure.  They just discovered that they are allowed to play on the structure just today (after 3 years of taking lessons here!).  Of course I knew it was there, I just didn't divulge the information. And frinakly, I was never sure if it was open to the public, turns out that it is.  John kept on with the painting, so I accompanied the girls on a bike ride around the neighborhood. Now that Hannah is off training wheels and Haley is stronger on her bike, it is tough to keep up with them even when I am walking fast.  I'm happy to have the workout.  I had a nice time hanging out with them, they were very chatty.  Truth be told, I had taken my iPod with me, but I never did get to listen to more than a minute worth of a podcast since I stopped it everytime they talked to me, I didn't mind.

Day 210 - Recess Monkey again today! We saw them at Silver Lake which is where we first saw them last summer.  The kids played at the adjacent playground for the entire concert except for a brief stint in the Recess Monkey conga line during the monkey bar song.  More painting for John, a 10 mile run for me, and a little bit of bike riding for Hannah on our street.  I ran on the Burke Gilman, but under estimated when I would stop running and didn't get back to my car until near dark.  Note to self - start run earlier next time! The girls had wanted to repeat last night's twilight bike ride around the neighborhood, but I didn't get back in time and I'm feeling slightly guilty. 

I am officially completely up to date on my blog . . . just in time to get completely backlogged again!

Day 207 and 208

Day 207 - Daleway Spray Park and playground with church friends was the activity for the day.  Thanks to Karoline Simmons for taking these pics.  It was so hot out that I seriously thought about running through the sprinklers.  Last week for swim lessons.  John and I had our own together time tonight and enjoyed dinner out together while the kids stayed with Grami. This evening was one of those perfect summer evenings temperature wise, so we enjoyed our dinner outside on the patio of the restaurant.

Day 208 - Non-stop fun for the girls today.  We went down to Renton to Cindy, Nora and Katie's house. The girls enjoyed lunch and playtime then we took them to The Little Gym for a 3 hour Beach themed gymnastics camp.  Did they fall asleep during the hour drive back home?  Of course not!  After a brief 30 min rest at home we were back in the car on our way to meet Randa, Katelyn and Kyle at the Ranch Drive-in Bothell.  The kids enjoyed burgers and way too big dipped cones then we drove the 2 blocks over to the Bothell Library for a Recess Monkey Concert.  The girls love Recess Monkey and their concerts are great fun for the kids and active.  Kids are encouraged to get up, move around and dance.  By the end of the concert the kids were running around (literally) in the back of the crowd.  And this is why I love summer.  After getting the kids back home at 8:15, there was still plenty of sunlight for me to go out for a run.  My right calf and been bothering me the last two times I had run, so I had taken a few days off.  I went out to test my leg and all was well on my 4 mile run.  John stayed home and continued with his painting this evening.

Day 205 and 206 - Where are all the boaters?

Day 205 - We started the day at Kyle's 4th birthday party, so lots of running around and playing for the girls.  The weather was looking great, so we planned to spend saturday night on the boat.  Since we didn't get out on the boat until afternoon, we weren't sure where we were going to moor for the evening.  We figured all the popular places like Jetty Island would be full since it was such great weather.  Surprise surprise, Jetty Island was wide open.  We were ecstatic since that meant we had to use little fuel to get there and it is free to stay overnight.  Since the Jetty Island Ferry runs during July/Aug and there was a kite surfing contest, we were not alone on the island like we usually are.  Notice the kites in the background in the pic above.  There was great wind today for the kites.  Fortunately the wind was welcome as it helped to cool us off.  It was hard to find a spot on the beach where someone else wasn't right on top of us.  The tide was super high when we got there so we built a sand castle and then a wall/moat to try and block the water from getting to our castle.  We were sucessful and the whole contraption was still around the next day!  After dinner we caught the tail end of the ranger led camp fire.  It was perfect timing, the girls didn't have to sit through the previous 45 min of the murder mystery themed campfire stiry.  What is that anyway?  By the time we got there, the story was just ending and they were handing out sticks for marshmallow roasting.  What a nice surprise. Haley informed us she saw "two satellite plates" on the island.  None of us could figure out what she was talking about until we looked up on the visitor center and saw a satellite dish! I love that she is still young enough to say funny cute things like this.  We had a beautiful sunset this evening and only two other boats stayed overnight like us.

Day 206 - We hit the beach at a super low tide this morning.  There seemed to be a lot more green kelpy stuff on the beach compared to the last time we were on the island.  It's pretty gross to step on, but you get used to it.  The tide is so far out that you can't help but feel compeled to walk out to the water's edge.  It stays shallow so far even past that, so you can go out quite far and feel like you are standing in the middle of the sound.  It was hot enough this weekend that we were all in our bathing suits and took turns playing in the surf.  The last time we were on the island (Day 177), only the kids swam.  There wasn't enough wind today for the kite surfers.  We were on the beach until late afternoon, then had to go back to Dagmars to clean out and wash the boat. The cleaning is the not so fun part of taking out the boat for the weekend.

Satelite plate

Day 203 and 204

Day 203 - VBS day 4 then a marathon park session for the afternoon.  We went to Logan Park to eat lunch and play with MOPS friends, then it was on to Hickman Park to meet up with kindergarten buddies.  Later in the evening while Daddy painted and the kids made mud pies to sell in the backyard.

Day 204 - The days activities - VBS and swimming at a friend's pool. To prepare for camping later in the summer, we set-up Grandma and Papa's tent in our backyard and slept in it.  It was musty,crowded, and wet (in the morning) but I think it will do for our upcoming one night of camping.  The girls are very excited.  They don't consider sleeping on our boat camping, they have been demanding time in a tent and they will soon get it.

Day 202 - Slip N Slide

This was a great summer day.  The girls and I spent lots of time together doing fun activities.  We made dripless popsicles using Jello and we also baked chocolate ricotta muffins.  I've been wanting to buy a Slip N Slide this summer and finally did so today while the kids were at VBS.  The kids had lots of fun "discovering" how to play on a Slip N Slide.  They really wanted me to join them, but it just wasn't hot enough for me to want to dive onto the thing.  On top of all this, the girls had sim lessons.  John did his walking and painting and watching the kids while I did a hill workout, then we all went on a night walk near dusk which at this time of the year is about 9:30.

Day 200 and Day 201

Day 200 - A new week of VBS at a church just down the street.  Swim lessons. A 3 mile run for me.

Day 201 - After VBS we went shopping for running shoes for Hannah.  She is in love with these shoes and even learned to tie shoes this afternoon.  I have been delaying the purchase of shoes with laces for awhile now, just so we wouldn't have to deal with the whole shoe tying thing, but she is definitely ready now.  Hannah went straight to the backyard when we got home so she could try out here new shoes.  We kicked around the soccer ball for awhile.  We also got in some extra reading with mommy time.  Daddy went for a walk and worked on his painting project in the backyard while I went to a baby shower (without kids this time).

Day 199 - Aqua Sox

Thanks to the Sno-isle Library summer reading program, we got free tickets to an Everett Aquasox game.  The girls were excited to share this adventure with Katelyn and Kyle.  We sat in the outfield so the kids could run around.  Boy was it hot!  The kids spent most of their time wandering, eating ice cream, eating snacks, and running around.  Their favorite part of the outing?  Running around in an area with nets hanging down from the ceiling, probably a batting or pitching practice area we should have been in!  There was also face painting, Sponge Bob.  Their ice cream came in little plastic baseball caps, just like I remember from when I went to minor league games as a young girl.  I got in a 9 mile run eraly that morning and we also went to a picnic earlier in the day where the kids were running around a lot.

Day 196, 197 and 198

Day 196 - An full afternoon of swimming for the girls at a friend's house.  John has started the fun, fun project of repainting house.  This becomes his nearly daily activity for the next couple of weeks.

Day 197 - Neighborhood street play and bicycling for the girls, a walk for John, and a hill workout run for me.  What else would we do on a warm summer evening?

Day 198 - A repeat of Day 197, except for house cleaning/decluttering instead of running for me.  A birthday party for all of us in the afternoon.  It is a rare occassion when my girls are the oldest at a party.  This one was for a sweet 2 year old.  The girls managed to get in a little running around with the 2 and under crowd.

Day 195 - Track and Field

How on earth did it take me more than 3 years to figure out that there is a great track less than 2 miles from my house?  Speed workouts are part of half marathon training and the best place to do them is at a track.  I had been relying on tracks much farther away. I finally realized I could use this high school track a few weeks back, but hadn't had the tmie to go check it out until tonight.  This was a trip for all four of us. The track was great.  There were lots of people from different walks of life using it in various ways.  John did some walking laps.  I was too sore from my 3 mile run 2 days before!  That was surprising.  I had taken some time off running during vacation, but I had thought the hiking and swimming were helping to keep me conditioned.  I guess not.  The girls and I played with the T-ball set in the middle of the track.  It was a perfect warm summer evening playing with the kids.  It was also swim lesson day.

Day 193 and 194

Day 193 - Finally, a day with not much to write about. The kids had playtime with friends while the moms chatted and back to swim lessons. I got in a 3 mile run.

Day 194 - We spent the morning at Country Village catching up with old friends.  The girls enjoyed playtime outside in a playhouse, a playground, and at the duck pond.  There are vending machines for duck food so you don't have to feel guilty for feeding the ducks. The girls rode bikes on our street in the evening.

Day 192 - Cheesy Goodness

Today was our final day in Oregon.  Our stop at Sea Lion Caves happened in much the same way as our detour to the crooked tree (Day 190).  We drove past it, then I convinced John to go back.  I hated parting with the money to pay the entrance fee, but we figured would be one of those things the girls would remember most about the Oregon Coast.  This detour did not disappoint the girls and I have to say it was better than I had remembered.  Although the sea lions were father away than I remembered, the stick and smell were just as vivid as I recalled.  The girls got to pick a souvenier from the gift shop.  We are now the proud owners of a snow globe cube shaped thing and a purple sand thing.  A few more stops along the coast and then we said goodbye to the coast and headed inland to Tillamook for some grilled cheese and ice cream.  The 4-5 hours of driving the rest of the way home were painfully slow or so it felt.  We were ready to be home!

Day 191 - Dunes!

The highlights today were the redwoods north of Eureka, the corkscrew tree, the kitschy Trees of Mystery gift shop, beautiful coastline, Denmark, the dunes, dinner at Mo's, and playdough ice cream at BJs in Florence and even a dip in the hotel pool and hot tub just before closing.  It was a jam packed day, probably best described by pictures, but of course I have some commentary. 

Corkscrew Tree - we saw the sign as we passed by and all the girls ganged up on John and made him turn around to drive back to it.  We had to walk down a trail to find it, but it was well worth it.

Tree of Mystery - A giant talking Paul Bunyan and Babe his Blue Ox - enough said

Coastline - breathtaking

Denmark listed as a city on the map, but all we found there was the street signs and one defunct espresso stand/store.  There literally was nothing else there, I don't even think we saw any houses from the road.

Dunes - we didn't get there until 7pm and had to make sure we got back into town (Florence, OR) for dinner before the restaurants closed. This was one of the best sights on our trip.  The sand was silky soft.  We didn't even take our shoes with us.  As we walked up a steep hill from the parking lot all was calm . . . until we got to the crest of the hill and then it was sand blast time.  I made the mistake of having the girls put on sunscreen before we left our hotel . . . Big Mistake . . . especially having them use the sticky stick sunscreen.  They hadn't put on sunscreen earlier in the day like they should have, so I was going to "make-up" for that even though it was already early evening.  I was also not thinking about the fact that the beach was completely socked in by fog. Wishful thinking, I guess.  When we left Florence which is right on the water, the downtown was clear, but on and off all day we'd go through fog banks as we got right up next to the water, but a mile or so inland it would be clear.  I should have known the dunes would be socked in too, I was just hoping they wouldn't be.  Needless to say, the sunscreen was a great vehicle for the sand to stick to!  Haley was walking around with a sand unibrow for at least a day afterwards, even after swimming and a shower.  I hadn't noticed it, so didnt purposely wash it off and it just stuck there.  The dunes were so incredibly fun.  It felt like being in another world, sort of like being on the moon trying to walk around in it and climb the dunes.  It was so cool to watch how the sand formations behaved when we stepped on them. It felt like we were in a blizzard, but warmer and drier than a snow blizzard.  Make no mistake, it wasn't warm, but definitely warmer than snow. I got some great pics of the girls.

Mo's - for dinner John found a perfect place for us.  He had seen it advertised on a billboard, so I was wondering what we were in for, but it was just what the Dr ordered.  It was casual, kid freindly, cheap, popular, fast, and right on the water.  It was kind of like a casual Ivars.  We could not have found a more perfect type of place to eat in after being sandblasted and feeling tired and dirty.  We didn't know it, but it is an Oregan Coast tradition.  Shrimp salad and clam chowder - yum!

BJ's Playdough Ice Cream - we couldn't pass up the ice cream place across the street, though we should have, I was way too stuffed to eat ice cream, but you gotta do what you gotta do.  The girls had playdough ice cream.  It was genious.  It actually looked like there were streaks of real playdough in the ice cream.  The streaks were many different colors.  I think it was just colored sugar cookie dough similar to chocoloate chip cookie dough ice cream - why didn't I think of this, so clever!

Day 190 - The long slow drive home

Eel River

We started our trek up to WA today.  We plan to take 3 days and work our way up the Ca and OR coasts since we rarely travel this route.  The idea for this part of the trip came from our brief fly by trip through the CA coast back in April when the weather was too rough to drive back via I-5 (DAY 92 and 93) We met John's friend Mike in Phillipsville and he gave us a personal tour through Avenue of the Giants (giant redwood trees that it).  He found a great place on the river for us to swim.  The highlight of the day for the girls was Mike's brand new chocolate lab, Joy, that came along. I took a picture of the girls in their swisuits next to a huge tree because it was such an oddity A) that it was hot enough to hike in a swimsuit and B) that we were in the midst of such big trees on a random trail.  At another spot we did some river fording which no one minded because it was so hot. Haley and I were the only ones smart enough to be wearing Keens fo rthat activity.  John and Mike went in with running shoes.  We saw two water snakes in that area, but no one was too freaked out, even the girls.  We stayed at Mike's place in Fortuna for the night and the girls were in heavenly bliss pretending to be dog owners for a night.  "Joy joy" was a constant phrase out of their mouths.  It was fun to see their nuturing side. They are nuturing kids, but it

is rare to see them with someone/something younger and more helpless than they are. The kids have been asking for a dog ever since and as I'm writing this it is 2 weeks later.  They don't ask if we're getting a dog, they ask what kind we are going to get!

Day 189 - Hello California, where is your hot weather?

We started the day (our anniversary) my favorite way - a walk in the hills up my favorite route.  My Dad, John and I went.  Dad left us at the top.  He had to get down fast to go to a Dr appt and we decided to walk along the ride a boit before heading back.  The fog was intense so there was no view, but it felt great on the climb up and kept us from overheating.  It was hard to find a trail down to the valley.  If we had gone much farther, we would have ended up in marinwood and would have had a very long walk back through the vally.

We were so bummed that our last day here was basically Seattle weather.  We came down here for some sun, which we did get, but come on, it wasn't even warm enough for swimming.  Does that mean we didn't go swimming today?  Well, not exactly. We have to take advantage of the free swimming just down the street when we are visiting Grandma and Papa, so down to the pool we went.  Fortunately, the pool actually was heated and warm enough that even I could get in it.  It wasn't near the end of our swim session that I figured out that I could periodically swim a lap and warm up and get in a little workout at the same time.  Since I had done some swimming in Fresno, I felt a little less self conscious. 

John and I skipped the fancy dinner my parents were urging us to go on for our anniversary and opted for IN-N-OUT (which we can't get in WA) and a long slow drive around Tiburon.

Day 188 - A walk back in time

It was a great marin day and John's birthday.  The only problem with the day was the cool weather.  I always hope for super warm weather when we visit.  Our first stop was to Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station.  We didn't even taste the cheese, I already know it's good and it was too chaotic in the little store with the girls.  I did, however, buy a t-shirt.  This is my kind of souvenir collecting.  My latest trend seems to be collecting t-shirts from artisan food purveyors.  We had promised the girls some ice cream as we were walking into the store since we saw people walking out with large scoops, afterall, it was a creamery, right, they had to have ice cream.  We had to renig on our offer after we learned that there was only one flavor of ice cream (peach) and it was terrible expensive.

Next stop - Bear Valley Visitors Center.  Did I know this was the name of the place? No.  If you had told me we were going to Bear Valley VC, would I have known where you were talking about? No.  I know it as the place where you see the Earthquake trail and the Miwok Village.  I have been here many times, probably when I was Hannah's ago and definitely on field trips and with out of town visitors like my Aunt Anita and her family.  The girls, John, and I did the earthquake trail.  Fortunately, they had kid versions of the info signs.  The best part is the place where you can see that a fence was separated and displaced 16 feet during the 1906 earthquake.  I kept telling the girls about the cow that fell in the crack in the earth.  I think this place used to be on the trail or maybe the story was.  We never found it, I guess that's not part of the trail anymore.

Grandma and Papa walked with us up to the Miwok Village.  There were some great reconstructed structures in the village, just like I remembered.  G&P even tricked us at one point, seeming to disappear, then jumping out of a hut to scare us.  We totally fell for it! 

One the way home, we went to Lococos in San Anselmo.  After 30+ years in Marin, this was the first time any of us had tried this Lococos.  I was great and Dad swears it might even be better than the original.  The evening ended with a night walk up in the open space hills to the horse stables.  I couldn't believe we went all the way over there considering how close to dark it was when we left, but we were with my Dad, so I shouldn't be too surprised.  The highlight were the owls we spotted and the horse that bent down to have Haley pet it.  The girls later identified the owls with Papa in a bird book, now I can't remember what kind they were.  Barn owls?  They were white and loud screechers. 

Day 186 and 187 Fresno and San Fran

Day 186 - We were fortunate to have time to drive down to Fresno and visit our friends, the Moates, who moved down to Fresno last year.  The kids were so excited to get to see Dane and Brooke again.  We got some extra driving time through the farm "backroads" since we failed to follow the instructions of our GPS.  It was a nice change of scenery and a fun detour and only ended up adding a mile or two to the trip.  There were thousands and thousands of trees, olive and/or almond was my best guess.  Fresno brough us the high heat we were looking for.  The kids pretty much lived in the pool and the adults pretty much lived on the shaded porch complete with a mister.  It was so comfortable with the mister, but we didn't realize how great it was until we occassionally stepped into the sunshine and realized how flaming hot it was outside.  We had a relaxing time to just sit around and talk, it was so so fun.  Eventually everyone took a dip in the pool, even the adults.  I did some laps to get in a little workout.  I practiced some freestyle strokes, something I am sure I looked like a gomer doing.  I wanted to test the waters so to speak and see if I could swim this way in case I do actually try a triathalon some day.  This was a great place to "practice". It seems so intimidating showing up at a public pool and jump in there with those people who have been swimming laps for years.  Later in the evening, the kids got treated to a pinata and a bicyle ride around the neighborhood.  They decided to all sleep in Dane's room, which didn't last too long.  It was cute to see them gathered around a book to read for themselves before bedtime.

Day 187 - The kids got in more swim time in the morning and I did some laps to tire myself out. Eventually, we had to get back on the road and the kids were so sad.  We drove to San Francisco and visited Uncle Bob on the way home.  He wasn't in his room when we got there.  Fortunately, we found a park just a block away where we were able to burn some time.  There was a really cool sculpture in the park (below).  Most of the anatomical parts of the body were featured on the sculpture and all with some metal part that represented the body part perfectly, even muscles, rubs, strands of hair, etc.  Uncle Bob had just moved into a new place the day before, so we checked out his new digs and took him out to dinner.

Day 185 - Independance Day

Today was a jam packed day.  Church in the morning, complete with my old youth pastor giving the sermon.  The bouncy houses were back up during church.  Haley brought her swimsuit, so she got to play on them.  Hannah decided before we left not to bring her swimsuit, but I think she regretted that decision once we got there.  On to a picnic at a park for the Reunion. The girls were too hot, so they did little actual playing.  They had a great time just sitting around with their friend Avery whom they had just met the day before.

Since we had promised the girls some swim time, we rushed home and they got one 45 min session in the pool before we had to rush (again) to the county fair.  We wanted to be sure the girls had enough time at the Marin County Fair to make the trip (and admission) worth while.  We would have come earlier had we known there were going to be lines . . . for EVERYTHING.  Even the trip to the bathroom was a 25 min wait!  I had been hyping up the fair to the girls for days, so it was fun to finally get there. This is the fair I went to throughout my childhood.  My fondest memories are from the days when I was old enough for my mom to drop me and my friends off by ourselves to spend the entire day there.  I didn't find out until after the fact, but one of the friends I used to hang out with there was also at the fair that night and watching the fireworks in the same spot where we were.  I also ran into a friend from high school who doesn't live here anymore either as well as some frineds we knew would be at the fair that day.  I love that it's such a small community that you can run into people you know even if you haven't lived there for 20 years.

We learned that Haley is a little daredevil.  She begged  to go on the jumbo ferris wheel, but she was too short.  She was a good sport about it, despite the fact that her sister got to go on it anyway.  After that Haley had her eye on the upsidedown roller coaster and the zipper.  Who is this kid?  I would ride those things when I was younger, but her Dad doens't even like the rides at Disneyland.  We're in for some trouble in a few years when she is actually tall enough to ride these things.

Day 184 - Youth Group Reunion

We had come down to CA to attend the Reunion for the youth group I was in in Jr Hi and High School at Marin Covenant.  There was a bouncy house and water slide set up for the kids, so you know where mine were.  It was bizarre to be standing outside watching the kids with friends of mine from youth group.  I have known some of them so long that we were the ages of our kids when we were the ones running around and playing.  The girls came home from that and went straight down to the community pool.  Do you see a pattern evolving?  Earlier that morning, John, my Dad and I got to go on a hike in the hills.  My Dad took pleasure in his constant reminders that we weren't making it up the hill as fast as he usually does.  This hike was in the same general area where my Brandon and Jen and I had gone back in April.  It was a lot hotter and the hills were a lot browner this time (see Day 87)

Day 182 and 183 - Road Trip to CA

Day 182 - the girls had their last day of VBS which included lots of bouncy house play.  That afternoon, we started off on our trek down to CA.  It took us 4 hours to go 80 miles!  Needless to say, that was a little too much together time for such a short stretch of road.  We were a tired and cranky bunch by the time we stopped for dinner.  We had to drive late into the evening to get to Eugene, OR and didn't get as far was we had hoped. 

Day 183 - lots more driving, but at least we weren't stuck in traffic.  As soon as we got to Grandma and Papa's (literally), we headed down to the community swimming pool. The girls had been talking about the pool for the last several hours of the trip.  It was so nice to be in weather warm enough that I actually wanted to jump into a pool.  The evening John and I took the girls on a "turkey-deer hunt".  This is what we typically call it when my Dad takes the girls up into the hills to look for deer and turkeys.  They almost never see anything when they are with Papa, but he didn't come along and sure enough we found some deer.  The girls were so excited about it and wanted to bring Papa back out sometime to show him the spot. I love love love these hills and couldn't wait to get up in them.  It was near sunset when we went up there - just beautiful!

Day 178, 179, 180 and 181

Nothing too eventful for the next few days.  Mom and Da were no doubt busy preparing for our vacation later in the week.

Day 178 - my notes say "bike" so I apparently that's what we did with the kids.  I got in an 8 mile run early that morning before church. There was probably some car washing going on too since we were getting ready to leave on vacation.

Day 179 - First day of VBS at church.  The kids got some playtime on the church playground after VBS for the staff lunch.  A new session of swim lessons started today. 

Day 180 - VBS and playground time during lunch.  Later we had a family birthday celebration on Jim and Karen's boat for John and our niece.  The kids got some quality time in with their cousins.  Noting activie to speak of, the entertainment was mostly of the electronic sort.

Day 181 - VBS, then a Kindergarten get together at Edmonds City Park.  One mom emailed us all to ask if it was too early for a reunion, I guess not, because a bunch of us showed up and stayed for a couple of hours.  It was so fun to see the kids tackling each other excitedly and it was great to hang out with the moms. Swim lessons, then packing packing packing and more packing (until 3 am for me!).

Day 177 - Jetty Island

Another great day at Jetty Island.  We had heard on the news that there was going to be a kite surfing contest on the island that day. We almost avoided the island for that reason.  We thought it's be too crowded.  To our surprise, the passenger ferrry wasn't even running that day and we were one of the 1st boats to get to the dock.  It was a beautiful day for being out on the beach to play.  It ended up being a horrible day to kite surf, the wind never did pick up and they had to cancel the contest.  We spent a good 5 or 6 hours on the island enjoying the sand and surf.  The tide was low for much of the day so we got to walk out really far, it's scary how far you can get out there and still only be in 1 foot of water.  Even Daddy got in on the playtime.  Boat washing with Daddy was, of course, part of the late afternoon activities.