Here is my supplemental post to Katie's version of August.
If you look closely at the word supplemental, you will realize just how weird of a word it is.
Go ahead.
I'll wait.
SUPPLEMENTAL.
See? Told you.
The kids spent the first week of August at the remainder of their two week Digipen summer camp.
Katie presented the work she did in her animation class.
Her character of choice was her original creation...Sara the Elf.
Some emotion....
Some motion....
Put it all together for a pretty funny final project.....
Mikey showed off the work he did in 2D game design.
Here's a cool Rube/Goldberg machine thingy....
And, here is the "boss battle" of his final project game named:
"The Labors of Heracles"
The next week after camps was a down week.
Nothing planned...just a kid dentist appointment.
We took the opportunity to take a hike to see the "Ice Caves".
The Big Four Ice Caves are formed when snow/ice melts and cascades down avalanche chutes in the spring/summer. The snow/ice then refreezes and begins melting again forming caves.
The caves are very unstable so you should definitely NOT go in them.
But, they are beautiful to look at.
Seriously, it's gorgeous.
Like, you can't believe you live somewhere that has stuff like this, kind of cool.
It was a perfect day to visit.
The temps were close to 90, but at the site of the caves it dipped to about 70 because of the breeze coming off the ice.
As Katie mentioned, Ralph LOVED the ice.
He was the laughing stock of the trail.
"AW! Hahahahahaha! Look at that DOG! He's SOOOO cuuuuuute!!!"
While we were visiting the caves, Mikey adopted a rock and a stick.
He became attached to them.
When we finally left, we ended up having to stop so that he could use the, uh, natural landscape to "take care of business".
It was messy.
I mentioned it was, like, 90. We walked about a 1/2 mile before he realized that he forgot his stick and rock where we stopped for him to potty.
We walked all the way back to get it.
I don't know.
Katie and I must've been in a good mood.
Downside - it was HOT and it felt like forever to get back to where the stick/rock was put down.
Upside - the kids were EXHAUSTED for the ride home.
I really love where we live.
Katie left The Renaissance Fair out of her update for some reason.
Katie was her own version of a warrior princess and Mikey wore his newly acquired Link costume.
He received a few comments about his costume.
Of course, the day we picked to go was the one time during the summer that it rained.
And it wasn't just rain, it was downpours.
We had to stop at a Walmart to buy ponchos.
We ended up watching the jousting twice because Mikey thought it was so cool.
They have an ongoing storyline, so although it's the same type of action, the story progresses with each joust competition.
"Ooooooooooooooooooooo"
"For ENGLAND!"
Huzzah.
As we were leaving, we were blessed with a rare sight in summer.....
A rainbow.
Katie got her August events a little backwards.
We didn't go camping until mid-August.
We camped down near Mt. St. Helens at Seaquest State Park.
Katie managed to get stung by about a million bees.
Or wasps, if you want to be exact about it.
As she mentioned, we visited "Ape Caves"
The Third Longest Lava Tube in North America.
Constant temp (even during summer): About 42 degrees
Here's a bunch of scientific stuff explaining how it was made:
About 2,000 years ago, fluid basaltic lava poured down the southern flank of the volcano. As the lava flowed, chunks of the lava’s surface cooled, crashed and fused together creating a hardened crust. In turn, the crust insulated the molten lava beneath, allowing it to remain fluid and travel down to the Lewis River Valley. The hot flowing lava began melting into the pre-existing rock and soil. This thermal erosion deepened and widened the channel of the flow. The level of lava in the tube rose and fell as the eruption surged and slowed, contributing to the unique contours of the walls. During this eruptive period, hot fluid lava pulsed through the tube for months, possibly up to a year, until the eruption subsided. As a result of this rare eruption, a spectacular 13,042 foot (3976m) long lava tube, the third longest in North America, was created.
(Note: fast moving basaltic lava flows don't usually happen in the PNW. We're a slow going gloopy type of lava place).
Down we go......
There were two directions to pick from.
We chose the longer, more difficult portion of the tunnel.
Because, you know, it was more awesome.
This is one of the coolest things we've ever done.
It is pitch black in the tunnel. No light whatsoever. So, it's recommended that you bring two light sources per person.
You climb over hardened lava rocks.
They're sharp.
Sometimes the ceiling soars 20-30 feet above you.
It makes you feel really small and helpless.
And then sometimes, you have to duck to not hit your head on the pointy ceiling.
At one point, there's an 8 foot wall of rock you have to climb up.
We managed to get the kids up and over with not too much issue.
Towards the end of the tunnel, there's an opening to the forest above.
End of the tunnel.
It was nice of them to provide this wonky ladder to get out.
It was a tough hike/climb.
Mikey was exhausted when we got out.
We still had to hike about a mile or so back through the forest to get to our car.
Both kids were troopers and with a little cajoling they kept the pace up.
Katie went ahead with Huzbend and I towed the line with Mikey.
We made it back to the parking lot!
Lollipops for everyone.
Katie's showing you where she was stung by a wasp that got trapped in her shirt earlier in the day.
The next day, it was time to pack up and head home.
But, first, we decided to drive up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory to check out Mt. St. Helens.
As luck would have it, that day smoke from local (and not so local - I'm talking Cali and Canada) wild fires made its presence known and blocked out the view of the mountain as well as degrading the air quality to dangerous levels.
It was disappointing, but we still learned a whole lot about the eruption.
I guess we'll have to go back sometime.....
That day also happened to be Katie's actual 12th birthday.
As she mentioned in her post, she got to eat Beef w/ Broccoli for dinner.
And then she opened presents.
Here's her reaction to getting her very own tablet.
Happy 12th birthday to this crazy, sweet, smart, does-her-own-thang girl.
The celebrating wasn't done yet.
The next day we went to a water park.
Yay.
I do not like water parks.
Everyone else in the family does though.
That's okay.
I don't HAVE to do a lot of swimming..
I did go in the lazy (freakin' cold) river and did a slide or two.
One of these slides was a family raft slide, so we all got to go together.
Katie decided that she didn't have to hold onto the hand grips on the raft and almost flipped right off of it.
Fun.
Grrrrr.
Did I mention, I hate water parks?
When I'm not "tolerating" water, I usually stand around and take pictures.
I much prefer that.
Here's the rest of my insane water loving family doing "scare the crap outta mommy things"
like this:
We typically spend the morning in the water park section, leave the park to eat lunch in our car in the parking lot (it's a thing there - everyone does it) and then return in the afternoon to ride the rides in the amusement park section.
Katie was disappointed that she was now too tall to ride the kiddie rides.
They have a rickety wooden roller coaster called "The Timberhawk".
I'm not sure how this thing is still standing.
Water. PNW. Wood. Roller coaster.
Those things should NOT go together.
But, we rode it.
Katie and Huzbend did twice.
They're in the 7th car in the picture below.
Okay. Fun fact time.
Huzbend will ride the sure-to-be-moldy, is-this-thing-going-to-fall-apart-with-us-on-it wooden roller coaster, but he will not ride the Scrambler.
I will not ride The Pirate Ship.
Nope.
Sadly, our little mini-summer vacation came to an end.
Huzbend had to go back to work.
The next weekend, we had a combo birthday party for Mikey and Katie.
We had it at a local public pool and they invited their friends to swim and eat cake.
We had an Avengers section.....
...and a fancy mermaid section.
I bought a ton of marshmallows and had the kids build marshmallow animal sculptures and then had them play a game where if they bounced a ping pong ball into a cup they won candy.
Then we fed them cupcakes and ice cream and sent them home.
Ha!
Talk about a sugar high.
We were two weeks out from the start of school at this point.
It was time for school type events to get started again.
I had some PTSA meetings.
Katie's school had their 'Back to School Fair'.
Katie attended her first ASB (student gov't) meeting as a 7th Grade Representative.
Mikey attended his schools open house and met his fourth grade teacher.
School was creeeeeeeping up.....
Katie took one last solo trip.
She went camping with a friend and her family.
Meanwhile, I entertained Mikey with pizza.
Side note: It was smoky/hazy again.
Usually, one of the last things we do before it's officially back to school time is hit up the fair.
This summer was no exception.
As the kids are now older, they no longer are content to stay in the "kiddie" section of rides.
I let them do some of the older kid stuff....but I have my limits.
A lot of the stuff I let them ride stays really close to the ground.
I just don't trust traveling amusement rides.
Sorry. I'm a party pooper.
This was the first year that Katie did not ride on a toy tractor.
She was just way too big.
Mikey was too big as well.
But, that didn't stop him.
Even though they enjoy bigger/faster rides, that doesn't mean that they still don't enjoy a tea cup ride now and again.
We end our day at the fair with a special treat.
Katie already told you that she chose to have cotton candy that resembled Ducky MoMo.
Mikey decided to have a piece of apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
And I, I had a "piescream sundae" with chocolate pecan pie, vanilla ice cream and hot fudge in a cup.
You can see it in the back there.
YUM.
