Stuck in a rut here. Just naming my posts by the month.
Lame.
So THIS time, I did a month and a half.
Ha!
So THIS time, I did a month and a half.
Ha!
There's always something else getting in the way of writing these posts.
Finding the time where there's no one around peering over my shoulder or when it's quiet is definitely a hard thing to do in the summer.
But not if you wake up at 6am and your kids are notoriously late sleepers. That gives me a guaranteed 2 hours, at least, to get stuff done.
Going back in time to July....
This is July 1st.
This is Happy Katie telling me ALL about her experiences at Camp Oasis in a light-speed 2 minute monologue on camp pick up day.
But not if you wake up at 6am and your kids are notoriously late sleepers. That gives me a guaranteed 2 hours, at least, to get stuff done.
Going back in time to July....
This is July 1st.
This is Happy Katie telling me ALL about her experiences at Camp Oasis in a light-speed 2 minute monologue on camp pick up day.
Although she was happy to be home and to cuddle with her DBFF, she really missed camp and complained incessantly about being, "SOOOO BORED".
The one downside to camp. Home life just can't compare.
In typical Katie fashion, she even thought about Mikey while she was away.
She made him an ivy wreath/crown.
VICTORY!
Not too many days later it was Fourth of July time.
We paraded it again this year.
The kids love the parade.
I do not.
Although this year there WAS a marching band (there usually never is) and the SeaFair Pirates were back blasting their cannon.
It was REALLY hot.
Huzbend and Ralph retreated to the shade of someone's lawn and the kids and I hid under an umbrella.
Fourth of July also means fireworks.
Which are legal in our hometown (some laws, of course, do apply).
We chose a neighborhood display this year since the Fourth was on a Tuesday.
Sparklers.
Note the difference between the two children.
Menacing eyes. Malicious intent, possibly?
He looks like he wishes he could vanquish something.
Laughing eyes. Mirthful expression.
Wand in the air hoping for a "magical girl" transformation to take place.
Just a warm up.....
A major tank battle took place.
There were no survivors.
As we waited for dark to approach, the kids busied themselves with a spur of the moment role playing adventure.
Ralph was not impressed.
He may be the only dog that could sleep as fireworks explode 20 feet from his head.
Ooooooooooooooooo.
Quaint yet magical.
There was only one incident. A missile launcher fell over and shot in the direction of the children.
They scattered, but not before one ricocheted off Katie's leg (maybe chair) and landed in a bush.
Ooops.
Note to self.
Back children up a bit more next year.
That weekend we went on an adventure.
We traveled up to "The Pass". Snoqualmie, that is.
Huzbend and the kids were going to do a point to point bike ride on the John Wayne Trail (AKA Iron Horse Trail).
They got geared up and ready to go.
I decided to run along with them so that Ralph could join.
Part of the ride is through an old 2.3 mile train tunnel.
Here we are getting our lamps working before entering.
It's REALLY dark in there.
Pitch black in the center.
That little light over my right shoulder (directly below my ear) is the entrance.
Ralph ran as hard as his little doggie legs could carry him.
He doesn't like to lose sight of his people.
I think if I had wheels he could've pulled me through the tunnel at about 20mph.
We made it through the tunnel.
(Ralph did too, he's collapsed on the ground somewhere in this picture)
Huzbend and the kids took off on the rest of their adventure while I (along with Ralph) turned around and jogged it back through the dark tunnel to the car.
There was at least one catastrophic crash that lead to some bruises and scrapes.
But, Katie quickly recovered.
A trail-side pee break for Mikey, some photos of waterfalls and about 2+ hours later they arrived at the designated pick up spot.
The 2nd annual Friends camping trip happened.
This year we headed to Deception Pass State Park.
Here are our three soon to be middle schoolers chilling and watching the sunset.
At the park, you can actually play in saltwater surf and then run across a short spit of land and play in a freshwater lake.
As would be expected, our kids were ALL over that!
The older kids quickly abandoned the cold salt water for the much warmer lake water.
Lifeguard Huzbend was left on duty watching Mikey and his friend Sienna.
Yes! We do have some sand beaches in Washington.
Not many.
But we do.
US Navy Jets routinely practice overhead at this park.
This weekend was noisier than most.
But it is cool to watch them flying in formation and pulling sick turns overhead.
The kids spent their time exploring the beach and woods, climbing really scary looking rock faces at the beach, arguing over access to secret forts and scootering through the campground.
Only 5 out of 6 children were injured at some point.
Mikey enjoying his pre-dinner chill out.
And, of course, after super-delicious camping quesadillas come MARSHMALLOWS and to a lesser degree s'mores.
MUST HAVE MORE SUGAR!
As it got later and darker (the jets were STILL screaming overhead), it was story/cuddle time.
We all meandered our way back to our campsites to sleep.
In the morning, we had a very cheeky Douglas squirrel (AKA chickaree) visit us at breakfast.
He REALLY wanted a chocolate muffin.
"What?"
On our last day, we went on a short hike to the bridge.
We, of course, had to stop for the obligatory kids group picture.
And the obligatory, "this is the most boring camping trip ever" face picture.
Annnnd, the obligatory, "silly" picture.
We were able to get all of us together for one set of pictures.
These were the "scary looking" rock faces I mentioned earlier.
When I was a kid, I would've been all over these - as all our kids were.
But as a parent, it nearly gave me a heart attack watching the kids climb them.
I'm SO old.
On our way home, we stopped to walk on the bridge you saw in the photos above.
The only person who enjoys walking the bridge is Mikey.
I'm not sure why we even do it.
It really is creepy.
Doritos for the ride home.
Someone got EVEN older the following week.
We celebrated with a chocolate/toasted coconut cream pie.
He only got one candle 'cause 44 wouldn't fit.
The pie was enjoyed by all, except Katie who does not like pie.
She just ate the whipped cream off the top.
Mikey had his first summer camp of the summer.
A minecraft modding camp.
Here he is, hard at work.
It was really hot in July.
And the kids were bored a lot of the time as I attempted to force them away from video games and watching shows on Netflix.
Here are some examples of what each of them chose to do during one such occasion:
Mikey.......
Katie.......
Sick of hearing complaints of boredom, we got away from the house for some blueberry picking.
Mikey? Mikey? Where are you?
Oh. There you are.
I swear, they should weigh kids before they go into the field and then again on their way out.
They are losing money.
Speaking of blueberries.
Our blueberry plant finally recovered from the devastation that Puppy Ralph reaped upon it 2-odd years ago.
We actually got blueberries this year!
"Who, me?"
Yeah. I got my eye on you, bub!
Leave it!
Katie began a 2-week Art and Animation summer camp at DigiPen Institute of Technology.
Meanwhile, Mikey was at a Middle Earth-themed drama camp.
Here are some pictures that he contributed to the backdrop for their play.
This time around he played Luna Nova, a bad guy.
He was created by The Dark Lord and wore a Ring of Power that allowed The Dark Lord to control him and summon him at will.
But in a surprise twist, Nova allied himself with a good guy!
And confronted The Dark Lord!
The Dark Lord, was able to regain control of him because of The Ring and forced him to fight his new friend!
But his friend was able to tear The Ring off his finger and they fought off The Dark Lord together.
The good guys thought that they had won by beating all the bad guys.
But, in the end, The Dark Lord just gathered all The Rings up and brought the bad guys back to life to fight again.
THE END.
(insert cheers and applause here)
Meanwhile, Katie was over at DigiPen learning about the history of and forms of animation.
Each day after camp they had activities that the kids could stay extra for.
That Friday they had multi-player video games for the kids.
Mikey and Katie enjoyed a few rounds of Smash Brothers.
Summer birthdays are nice and all.
Sunshine, nice weather...blah, blah.
But, a lot of people are on vacation or busy.
So, we had to schedule Katie's birthday party for July 28th this year.
She decided to share her party with another friend of hers that also has a birthday in August.
They decided on an overnight party.
In lieu of gifts, they had their friends bring pet food/toys to donate to local shelters.
Katie's friend's mom made her an ice cream cake/pie thing that happened to not be "Katie safe".
So, I made a GF version ice cream pie/cake thing.
I was also convinced to make nagged into making cupcakes which Katie decorated.
The girls were nice to include Mikey in some of their games.
Here's the ice cream pie/cake thing I made.
I thought it was super yummy.
It had crumbled chocolate chip cookies in it and on top of it.
But, it could've used something else.
Maybe some hot fudge topping or something.
11 candles!!!
The girls all left by about 11am the next day.
We decided to go for a hike at a local park during the hottest part of the day.
Katie was NOT happy.
She was kinda tired and grumpy.
The usual fallout from sleepovers.
Ralph was happy though. He got to come along and got to swim around in a stream.
He slipped and fell.
The next day was Mikey's actual birthday!
I had this banner up for Katie's sleepover party, but decided to "plus" it for Mikey's big day.
The puppies on the banner became various super heroes/super villains.
After a day that started off with swim lessons, it was present time!
The rest of the day was spent playing with the birthday spoils.
He chose to eat meatball sandwiches for his birthday dinner.
Then it was official singing and special treat time!
8 candles!
He picked berry pie for his special treat.
Katie doesn't like pie, but had leftover cupcakes instead.
The next week was again spent in summer camps.
Katie had her 2nd week of DigiPen camp and Mikey attended a Wilderness Awareness camp.
Coincidentally, it was the hottest week yet.
So hot that Mikey got to swim in a lake at his camp.
Katie finished various projects and had a demonstration on Friday.
Granma and Granpa C rolled into town for a visit on their way across the country and back.
They were just in time for Mikey's birthday party.
Remember what I said about summer birthdays and people on vacation? That's why Mikey's party was a week late.
And, it STILL didn't work out.
Some of his friends couldn't make it at the last minute.
Oh well.
He still had a great time.
First, we went swimming at the town pool.
CANNONBALL!!!
And then to a local pizza joint for lunch, presents and cupcakes/ice cream.
I was able to fit 8 candles onto his cupcake.
He chose vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting, but had me turn them blue.
He also had me insert fillings into the cupcakes - chocolate pudding, lemon filling and berry filling.
He is quite the food snob.
Some kids were quite put off by the "stuff-inside-a-cupcake" thing.
But, that meant more for us to take home to eat.
BACK AWAY FROM MY CUPCAKE, WOMAN!
Dads.
So embarrassing.
The next day, we took a short hike down to Lake Washington at a local park.
The hot was still around, so it was really nice to be in the shade enjoying the breeze off of the lake.
"Watch and you'll seeeee....
Someday I'll beeeee......
(you finish the song)....."
Our little mermaid.
And then, this happened.
He could not resist the siren song of the lake.
Not too long after, this happened.
And then THIS.
And, finally, this.
No. I did not go in the lake.
Ralph came out after about 1 minute. I think the kids almost drowned him by hugging him while swimming.
He kept an eye on his people from shore.
Huzbend came out after his legs got numb.
Granma and Granpa did not swim either.
And here is the price paid for swimming with no change of clothes.
There was minimal complaining.
Maybe because we bribed them.
The next day, we decided to take a road trip to Mt. Rainier.
The kids watched a movie in the backseat on the way there.
Took about 2 hours or so to get there.
I drove.
Huzbend doesn't like heights and hates driving on the side of sheer cliffs.
Lots of those at Rainier.
The views were gorgeous, even with the smoke from the wildfires blowing in from the north.
Our first stop in the park was this waterfall called Narada Falls, I think.
We tried to stop at Longmire Visitor Center, but there was absolutely no parking.
So, we moved on.
We ended up getting stuck in a 20 minute rolling road closure (they were repaving) and then made our way to Paradise.
There was no parking there either.
So, we had to hoof it, like, a quarter mile to the visitor center for lunch.
Along the way, we lost Granma and Granpa who were in their own car.
We were heading towards Paradise, but somehow took a wrong turn and ended up in Grumpy Town.
Both kids were NOT HAPPY.
I'm thinking they were hungry as it was about 1pm or so.
Plus, we had to walk a long way to the visitor center on empty stomachs and it was HOT.
But, still.
We were surrounded by such natural awe-inspiring beauty and this was the best the kids could pull out for a picture with Mr. Rainier.
We grabbed a not-so-stellar-actually-kinda-gross lunch at the visitor center and sat down to relax.
Huzbend went to find Granma and Granpa, who had landed at the other building on Paradise, the Paradise Inn.
While Huzbend was off looking, Mikey took respite from the heat by curling up in a chair in the visitor center.
Katie recovered from the "hangries" after lunch, but Mikey didn't.
He was in such a bad mood that he didn't even touch his cardboard crust cafeteria pizza.
(I don't blame him. It was butt-ass nasty.)
We reconnected with Granma and Granpa and took a gamble that ice cream would help bring back a smile or two.
With most of us refreshed, we decided to hike a little around Paradise.
G and G, Katie and Huzbend took off up a hill to get a closer view of the mountain.
Alas, Mikey had not recovered from his doldrums.
We parked it on the side of the trail for a while.
I was able to convince him to continue after a bit and caught the others on the way down.
G and G continued down, while Huzbend and Katie continued up with us.
The scenery was spectacular.
I'll let the pictures (that Katie took!) speak for themselves.
We made it back down to the visitor center and hit up the gift shop to get shirts for the kids.
Granpa drove Huzbend to get our car.
Yes, it was THAT far away.
At this point, Mikey was done.
He ended up in tears because I picked out the wrong shirt for him.
We didn't know what was going on.
He told us that he couldn't breath and felt miserable.
I took him outside to give Granma a break from the drama and to let her and Katie hang a bit on their own.
Mikey laid down and waited for the car.
The ride home was uneventful and mostly quiet.
G and G headed straight back to their hotel (I didn't blame them....).
We headed home for dinner.
It was a long day full of beautiful sights but chaotic mood swings from the kids.
That night, I talked to Mikey about what happened.
He asked if some day we could have a "do-over" of Mt. Rainier.
He wanted to experience it when he was happier.
But, he said, he did not want to camp there as it was an active volcano and might blow up at any time.
Hmmm. Maybe his worries were part of the problem? Who knows.
Anyways, the next day, we headed to the PacSci Center to visit the Terracotta Warrior display.
Someone was in a MUCH better mood.
First, an IMAX movie about China's first emperor and the making of the terracotta warriors.
Next, we made time to go and eat lunch.
No repeat of the "hangries" that day.
We headed back to the PacSci Center after lunch and waited for our return time to visit the display.
It was a really nice day so we spent the wait time outside doing some of the nifty little science-y things there.
Finally, it was our time to visit.
The display was cool with lots of details and information.
Huzbend complained that I took too long.
He sent Katie back to find me and then I made her take too long as well.
The kids liked the display.
Even Mikey came back to look for me and I delayed him too.
Did you know the figures were originally painted?
Here's a replica with some fans.
A neat hands-on activity where you could put together a warrior.
Katie did a good job piecing it together.
After visiting the display, Mikey wanted to go to the other parts of the center.
On the way to the other half, they had another hands-on activity.
You could sculpt a head.
Here's the creepy guy Katie and I put together in about 5 minutes.
Not quite enough time for a masterpiece.
After visiting the "touch tanks", because we always do, Katie took a few minutes to put together the timeline of life on Earth.
This was a fun activity to watch.
You had to bounce up and down in the seat to build up pressure to shoot a ping pong ball.
And then, when in Seattle Center, you must ALWAYS......
No. Not sit and squint at the camera.
You must always visit the International Fountain.
At least our family does.
Yes. Those are our two kids standing up against the fountain.
We came prepared.
We brought towels this time.
It's gonna be a soggy ride home.....
They had a good time playing in the water.
I love when they're happy.
Especially when they're happy AND getting along with each other.
We let them run around for what seemed like an hour. It might actually have been an hour.
Then we toweled off and packed it up to sit in traffic on the way home.
Bummer.
The next day, Huzbend had to go back to work.
Granpa headed off to get some bowling in and we took Granma to pick blueberries.
Speaking of blueberries, remember our backyard blueberry plant?
It had a bunch more blueberries just waiting to ripen.
But, then, the Destructor struck.
Ralph must've smelled the ripe blueberries.
He tore a dozen branches off our bush and then daintily ate the blueberries off the torn branches.
He very nicely left the branches all over the yard for me to pick up.
Bastard.
Huzbend was pissed.
Now we'll have to wait another two years for blueberries in our backyard.
Grrrrr.
Anyways, we can always go to the farm to pick some, I guess.
There were SO MANY HUGE blueberries.
All four of us filled our buckets in about 20 minutes of picking time.
Some of us filled our mouths as well as our buckets.....
We came home and baked up some GF blueberry strudel muffins for dessert.
I was surprised. They were pretty yummy.
Usually anything I try to make GF from scratch comes out not-yummy.
Must've been the Gma factor.
Granma and Granpa bid us adieu to finish out their cross country trek by going BACK across the country. Thanks for making us part of your trip!
We did nothing special the rest of that week.
Mikey had a pulmonologist follow-up appointment at Seattle Children's.
Then a dentist appoint after that.
Katie had an IV infusion that Saturday.
Blah.
