The Great Northwest - Part 3

Finally! I'm just a tad behind in blogging, but before I do our Fall activities, I have to finish telling about our trip to the Northwest back in August. Our 3rd and final stop was to Mom & Dave's house on Whidbey Island. We took this funky little ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey.

We had a wonderfully relaxing time visiting with Mom & Dave.Quite a few rounds of crouquet were played...
And the kids LOVED playing and cuddling with Pennie.
Here's one of the gorgeous views Mom and Dave have from their home. You can see the outline of Mt. Rainier and if you look hard enough, you can barely see the skyscrapers of Seattle to the lower right of the mountain. Mt. Rainier is an awesome sight!
We spent one of our afternoons at Fort Casey. Above, the kids are standing by one of the 'disappearing guns.' They were pretty neat. Below, the boys in one of the 'lookout' towers. They weren't quite tall enough to be able to see out. Caleb is actually standing on a pole in there and Jacob is on his tippy-toes.
After touring the fort and a yummy picnic lunch, we headed down to the beach. The kids found several forts that someone had made out of driftwood. They were very cool!
And after spending time with Dad on his beach, Jon was on the hunt for heart-shaped rocks. Check out these beauties!

One of the main reasons we planned our trip when we did was so that we could attend the 90th birthday party of my grandma (Nanny.)
About 20 of her friends came to Whidbey Island to help her celebrate.
Above - 4 generations of women!
Me with my handsome husband!

On our last day and night, we helped take care of a dog for some friends of Mom & Dave. Maggie is the cutest Cocker Spaniel ever and the kids had alot of fun with her. Here she is sleeping amongst the kids' sleeping bags and blankets. She made herself right at home!

Thanks for a super vist! We love you!

The Great Northwest - Part 2

I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long! Well, anyway...when I left off with our Great Northwest visit, we had left my brother's home and headed to Dad's. One thing my dad loves to do is feed the seagulls on the ferry. They take things right from your fingers.

The kids thought this was great fun!

We spent of our days with Dad and Karen at the beach. We tried to miss the rain coming in, but didn't plan it too well. It was COLD! No one minded but me.

One thing led to another and Dad and the kids wound up digging for clams. They hit a gold-mine! Within about half an hour they had several hundred dollars worth of clams in their bucket. Karen helped cook them up the next night to go with dinner. The kids were each very brave and tried one, but I can't blame them for not enjoying them like Jon did.

One of the kids found a sand dollar and I told all of them that sand dollars are a rare find and they should pick them up if they find any. Well...look at what they had to choose from! We came home with MANY sand dollars, but not all of them made the trip safely even though we wrapped them in bubble wrap.
Karen kept the kids busy with all kinds of things including making origami cranes. Jon and Dad joined in the fun, too.

And here is the finished product! This branch hangs in Dad and Karen's living room. Now the lovely cranes add to the room. What a fun reminder they'll have of our visit!

Dad, Jon and the kids enjoyed many games of Bocce ball.




We happened to be in town the day the fair started, so off we went! Here are the twins doing the rock climb.
The above is a shot of the kids on that ride that goes straight up...and then straight back down. Karen and I were laughing because we could hear the kids giggling all the way down.
We had such a great time on the farm!

The Great Northwest - Part 1

So, a few weeks ago, we flew out to the Great Northwest to visit my family for 2 weeks. What a great time we had with everyone! We started the trip in Gresham, Oregon and spent a few days with my brother and his wife, Sera. One of the first things Jacob couldn't wait to do was play chess with Uncle Aaron. Aaron has the Star Wars chess set from Episode 2. They played 3 games...they each won one game and the 3rd was a stalemate.

On Thursday we drove to Seaside with Sera's sister-in-law, Becca and her three kids ages 5 and under. It was a gorgeous day...we couldn't have asked for better beach weather!

This was the kids first time to play in the Pacific Ocean.

Abbi decided she wanted to get buried in the sand...
The boys had no trouble obliging her.
All covered up with sand!
The aftermath
Isn't Seaside beautiful? I hadn't been there since childhood and it really brought back a lot of memories. It was strange being there with my own kids.
My three with Becca's 2 boys, Seandor and Zolie.

After the beach, we headed to Becca's house where she prepared an AWESOME dinner for all of us. What a terrific day! On Friday, we spent the afternoon at a park in Sandy.

The kids (bigs ones included) had a great time. Abbi got a bit too dizzy on the tire swing and then found a nice place to lay down for awhile.

She couldn't even eat her lunch.
That night Sera's parents and one of her brothers came over for a big burrito dinner. The boys played a nail-biting game of Star Wars Monopoly. My brother and Jacob have so many loves in common...Legos and Star Wars!