We began the month of July with an evening trip down to the Olympia boardwalk. The kids love going down there. Jake was a tad confused why he saw so many boats, but Daddy's was nowhere in sight. :)
Ben was perturbed that many of the docks are private and have locked gates on them - this is not how it is in Westport.
The kids love the park near the boardwalk. I love enjoying the view and the breeze coming off the water while I watch them play. It's definitely one of our favorite parks. I can't believe how big my kids are getting - they all THREE love to climb now!
We stayed long into the evening until sunset...which at the beginning of July is pretty late around here. :) It had to be at least 9:30 when we left downtown. But why not have some fun enjoying the long evenings while we can?!
The next evening my running group was to meet at Priest Point Park, so instead of dropping the kids off at my mom's as I usually do, I brought my mom with. The kids played on the toys while I ran with my group, and then afterward we took the trail down to the waterfront. It ended up turning into an impromptu science class as we examined all the snails and teeny-tiny crabs. One moment as particularly funny and cool. Abby noticed all the muscle shells all over the beach and asked the broken ones and why one still had some stuff in it. I used that opportunity to teach about how seagulls pick up the muscles and drop them from high in the air on the rocks to break them open to get the "meat" out. Within seconds of my explanation, a seagull swooped in and grabbed a muscle shell, flew high up in the air and dropped the shell below. Over and over he did this until the shell broke and he had his dinner. The kids got such a big kick out of seeing it do what I had just tried to explain! :)
On our way home, we stopped by Grandpa's Ice Cream in downtown since we'd heard they had dollar ice cream cones. We enjoyed the treat and got to see the neat 50s-style ice cream parlor. Not sure if/when we'll be back, though, because I wasn't terribly impressed with the ice cream. But, oh, it would be nice to be rich because they had plenty of very yummy looking desserts...for a LOT more money. ;o)
Daddy came home the night before the 4th of July. He is like a magnet to the kiddos. :)
As is our tradition, we spent the 4th with Kevin's extended family out in Grayland. New this year was gold fish races and it was a HIT! Abby was the overall winner in the children's category. She was so pleased. :) All three kids had to take their goldfish home - of course! - and they are still alive and kicking two months later.
There was also the traditional badminton tournament (Kevin's pretty much always the champ!) and croquet.
We got a decent family picture for once in all our 4th of July themed outfits (albeit Jake is not looking - it's so hard at this age!). It was so nice to spend the day together without distractions, especially since Kevin had been gone for most of the previous three weeks down in Astoria working on his boat.
Instead of heading down to Tokeland for the big fireworks show with the rest of the Marks/Cornett family, we opted to head towards home, stopping for the fireworks show on the way in Aberdeen....but not before a very quick stop at the beach approach in Grayland to see the fireworks there at the kids' request. :)
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| Jake was more interested in the sand than the distant fireworks. :) |
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| Watching the fireworks show with Daddy in Aberdeen. |
Kevin had to head right back down to Astoria the next day and we anxiously awaited the call to let us know when the boat work would be finished so that we could come see him and see the boat get put back in the water. That extra fun day deserves its own post. :)
Summertime is full of playing in the backyard for the boys. A dirty face is pretty a common daily occurrence with this little cutie.
Jake doesn't normally take naps on the couch (unless he 's sick), but one afternoon my mom had the big two kids at her house and I was working in the kitchen. Jake went and got his blanket and told me he was tired. I told him I'd put him down for his nap in just a few minutes when I finished up my task. A few minutes later I realized I couldn't hear him playing and peeked into the living room to find this:
The summer fishing season means we get to see more of my nephew Stephen as he is working for Kevin again this summer. One day I ran across a box in the garage with some of Stephen's old toys from when he was much younger that we had for him at our house for when he came to stay with us (I can't believe he was just 9-years-old when we got married!!). Ben especially thought it was great fun to play with Stephen's old toys and all of them loved it when Stephen joined in too. :)
For the second summer, I organized weekly play dates for the moms with younger children from our church. Although the initial response was once again positive, we had a pretty poor turnout. But that's okay, as the times people did show up were tons of fun and the times they didn't my kids were still more than happy to try out a new park or place to play. :) In the picture below, we met at Long Lake and Abby is playing with a friend from church.
On the evening of our town's Lakefair fireworks, we had a big family dinner in honor of several birthdays and my oldest sister's first anniversary.
Afterward a few
Kevin happened to have come home that day, so we were glad to have him and Stephen unexpectedly at the family party but unfortunately they had to return to Westport that night (they sometimes leave at night so that they can get to the fishing grounds by morning bite). Benny was so sad to say goodbye to Daddy and begged him to stay. :(
After the goodbyes, we convinced my nephew Donny to walk down the hill with us to watch the Lakefair fireworks. We ended up going all the way to the lake this time and found a pretty sweet spot to watch the show. It was fun, but very tiring walking/holding kids all the way back up the hill.
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