4th at the Beach

It has been roasting hot here in Kelso, and we have been trying to keep cool by taking the kids to a little splash park.

When it is this nice inland, it is usually much more comfortable at the beach.  67 degrees and sunny?  I'll take it! So, we convinced the g-parents to spend the 4th at their cabin at Long Beach, along with some friends, and we left on the 3rd and spent all afternoon in the sand.

and you just can't make a trip to the beach without writing your name in the sand!

Sam did NOT run away from me this time.  :)

Sun going down at the beach, you just can't beat it!

Sam was so tuckered out from running all over the beach, that he took over Jayden's bed at bedtime. (sorry for the glowing eyes... :) )

On the 4th, Jayden could not way to light off some fireworks.  We stayed on the beach playing all morning until after lunchtime and finally went back to the cabin when the kids couldn't stand to be hungry anymore.  Then we went into the town of Long Beach to buy a few more kid friendly fireworks, stop by the bakery and then headed back to let off a few daytime fireworks, like parachutes and grow worms. 

On the way back from town, we managed to run across a garage sale and grandma let the kids pick out some toys.  Willow found a bag of random toys for $.25 and then found a dime in the bag itself.  Screaming deal.  Jayden found a package of face paint.  :)  And then proceeded to paint up everyone's face.

We then roasted some hotdogs and s'mores over the campfire.

Willow was still not very sure of fireworks this year.

Willow and Caden watched us light off our fireworks from the safety of the car where the sounds weren't quite so loud.

Long Beach has AWESOME fireworks.  One thing I can't stand about Long Beach is that you can drive on the beach so you have to watch for cars while running down to the water, but being able to drive on the beach means that tons of people come down on the 4th and set up camp and set off some fantastic fireworks.  I don't have any pictures because all I had this weekend was my phone and even if I had my big camera, I couldn't guarantee good firework pictures anyway.  :)

We woke up this morning, had our treats from the bakery, cleaned up the cabin and the kids and I took one more walk on the beach before heading back to Kelso.

Jayden made up his face for battle again this morning.  :)

Sand on your feet (and pretty much everywhere else at this point), you just can't beat it.  We are just missing Royal's big ole feet in this picture.

Kaylee's Orchard

The property Kaylee lives on has this awesome fenced in orchard, which I'm sure most of you know about because most of my readers also read Kaylee's blog, so I won't bore you with details.  But their landlords (who also live on the property) happen to be sticklers about my dog being here.  They have 140 acres, but my poor dog has to be leashed and out of site and completely quiet at. all. times.  A bit annoying I think, but I try my best to be respectful of them and their "rules".  I really have one of the best dogs of all time I think, he doesn't bark or howl or hardly complain about about being confined when there are so many animals and birds to be flushing out of the tall grass.  Anywho, I try and take Sam down to the orchard - one of his approved places to be be - at least once a day.  It's big enough for him to run like crazy in and sniff around and mark whatever territory he feels needs to belong to him, and the kids can climb trees and play around.

Ooops, Sam escaped the orchard and was running crazy through the field...

Potlatch

Kaylee and I were determined to NOT get stuck inside again with kids watching tv and begging for food, so we decided rain or shine we were loading up and getting the heck out and we decided to head to Potlatch State Park to enjoy some saltwater wildlife, finding clams and oysters and crabs and fish and slipping in seaweed and getting stuck in mud.  :)

Little tiny baby crabs.

And then of course it started to torrential down pour on us, so we ran for the car and had a lunch break in the back of Kaylee's car and under the protection of a huge tree!

Then, the rain passed over and it was back out to the beach to find more treasures.

Kaylee actually grabbed a big ole crab out of the water, but of course my camera at the time was in the car since it had just poured down rain.  And wouldn't you know it, the minute I went back to get it and take some more pictures it started raining again!

Being at the beach on Hood Canal means flipping over lots of rock to look for what scurries away when you do and then trying to catch it.  We weren't expecting to see this when we flipped this huge rock over!

Fish eggs!  Lots and lots of bullhead fish (a type of catfish) eggs!  And there were 2 fish underneath it swimming all around.  We were extra careful to put this rock back, egg side down, and to make sure we didn't squish the 2 fish guarding their babies underneath.
Here's the head of one of the bullheads.

Kaylee and I used to catch these fish all the time growing up with our homemade fishing poles made out of sticks, kite string, and hooks.  I always made Kaylee get the hook out and throw the fish back and because bullheads have nasty little spines that sting you and she was obviously the brave one! It's so fun to take the kids to places we went when we were growing up.

Days at Kaylee's

Some of these pictures have been posted on facebook, but I wanted to put them on here too, as this blog is really our family's journal of the things we have done and I love going back and looking at our memories.

I love living with my sister.  I think it would be easier if we had houses right next to each other, so we each had our own space and food and messes and kitchens and washing machines and could easily separate kids who weren't getting along.  But at this point in our lives, that's just not happening, so we settle for a couple crazy weeks every year and try and cram in as much time together as possible.

I created a clothesline inside the trailer, out of Sam's outdoor leash, for drying some of our laundry.  Poor Sam had to be stuck indoors for awhile until our clothes dried.  :)

Headlamps make the BEST book lights.  No book light falling out of the book while trying to read and you just have to turn your head to have a light on your pile of books to choose from.  It's awesome.  Don't know why I didn't think of it sooner!

The 3 big boys have been pretty much perfecting their ninja moves the entire time we've been here.  They've climbed trees and waited stealthily for us to walk by to see if we notice them, they hide in tall grass spying on us, they practice their ninja rolls and jumps and kicks on the trampoline and down hills, they find sticks in the woods and fashion them into weapons - katanas, wooden knives, throwing stars, boomerangs.  Basically, if we are attacked, we have a whole arsenal to protect ourselves with, not to mention our own ninja fighters!

 Some days Kaylee and I hit the jackpot and we manage to wear the kids out enough, that not only the 2 littlest falls asleep, but all 6 of the kids are asleep at the same time.  I've never had such a quiet car ride with a huge bus full of kids!  It was fantastic and I never expect it to happen again....

Kaylee's house is not that big, and if are at home and the kids are bored, all they do is ask for food, so we try and get out of the house everyday if we can.  We went on a nature walk that was near Kaylee's house.  The older boys took notebooks to draw pictures and record things that they saw.  Willow and Easton pretty much sprinted through the whole thing, so it didn't quite take up as much time as Kaylee and I were hoping....

Pacific Northwest summers are gosh darn rainy.  But kind of a balmy rainy and sometimes you just can't let the rain stop you from being outside.  Jumping on the trampoline in the rain is lots of fun too!

 Baths are funner with cousins!  Until the baby drops a pooper in the water....

Kaylee's kitchen window has the sun shining directly in it just as you are trying to wash up dinner dishes.  You pretty much have to wear shades if you want to see anything.

Days at the Beach

I love, love, love the ocean!  Love it!  Well I really love, love, love, the Pacific Northwest and the fact that where we are staying is just an hour drive away from the ocean is extra fabulous!
I spent Sunday morning riding 45miles on this bike path.

It was awesome.  Well, once I convinced myself that a serial killer was not going to jump out of the woods and grab me.  The first 20ish miles was pretty darn lonely, I didn't see another soul on the trail. Guess I should of known, people here don't have to get up and ride at 6am to beat the heat!  But I like to get my rides done early so I can spend the rest of the day with my family.  I saw a bazillion bunnies and almost crashed twice because a rabbit came screaming out of the woods so fast and almost under my front tire, and I saw a deer, and a snake, and what I think was probably a pile of bear poop.  Glad I didn't see the bear.  :)

Kaylee and I had been stalking the weather at the beach trying to decide if we wanted to drag us and all our kids and dogs and stuff down there for a couple days.  Royal's parents have a tiny cabin about a block away from the beach that we could stay in if we wanted.  On Sunday (Father's Day) we looked at the weather and it looked like Monday was going to be a really nice day at Long Beach, so we just decided to do it.  We went back to her house, packed clothes and towels and blankets and pillows and whatever food we could find.  We invited my dad to come and he brought his trailer (a.k.a. extra room for hauling stuff and extra bed to sleep in!) and my mom too, and all 10 of us, and our dogs,  crammed ourselves into what was probably about a 400 square foot cabin.  It was cramped, especially when it started raining (luckily there wasn't too much of that), and we slept about as well as we could of expected, but it was warm and it was a place to be!

We drove down Sunday evening and got there and pretty much put people to bed.  Monday proved to be an awesome weather day!  It was sunny and warm and low wind.  Perfect!

Unfortunately, Sam, who normally runs like a crazy-dog around the beach but always comes crazy running right back to us, while we were setting up blankets and chairs and unloading sand toys and watching who was heading to the water, took off like a rocket down the beach without anyone noticing until he was way far away.  My dad and I started walking down the beach after him and found his paw prints in the sand and tracked him probably a good mile down the beach before he headed off the wet sand and into the dunes where we could no longer see where he went.  So, we searched the dunes and after not finding him, headed back.  Sam is microchipped and tagged, so I wasn't too worried that we wouldn't get him back, it was just a pain.  I actually figured he would find his way back to us, he is a hunting dog after all, and while we ended up picking him up at the Humane Society later that afternoon, he was picked up by a man 3 blocks away from where we were staying.  But while Sam was off flushing birds out of the dunes and playing with other people's dogs on the beach, we had fun in the sun and sand and water!

The tide went out pretty far and while the big boys were out doing some body surfing, there was this awesome little tide pool that warmed up that was perfect for Easton and Willow to play in.

The best way to warm up is to roll around in the warm sand!

The weather changed that evening and wind and some rain blew in and Tuesday wasn't showing to be as nice as Monday.  So after one last trip to the beach to get wet, and getting out and having your cold, wet legs sandblasted, we packed it up and were back to Kaylee's house that afternoon.  It was a fun, crazy, couple days and all I can say is I need a nap and can't wait to go back!

Father's Day 2013

Poor Royal is all alone on Father's Day today.  He drove us out to Washington and now is back in Kansas working hard so that the kids and I can take awesome vacations like this one! 

Buying presents for Royal is impossible.  He will say things like, "Well I guess I need new socks."  or "Well, I guess I could use new running shoes." or most of the time, "I don't need or want anything, so how about you get me nothing???"  So. Frustrating.  It's not that Royal needs a gift, it's that I want the kids to know that we make a big deal about other people.  That not everyday revolves around them.  That there are special days for the other people in our family and that we try and make them feel special and important and make a big deal about them being in our lives.  So, since there was nothing Royal wanted or that I could think of that he might want, the kids and I did a special project together before we left for Washington and created a book for Royal!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY ROYAL!!!