Ugh.
Katie was right.
I should've written this blog before summer was over.
I really can't remember anything that happened this month besides summer camps.
Hope these pictures will jog my memory.
At the end of June, Katie came back from Camp Oasis.
She had another fabulous time.
In her opening campfire cabin skit, she was the "Princess of Happy Trees".
During the week, the kids got to meet a dog with Crohn's whose owner had Ulcerative Colitis and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam - he has Crohn's, in case you didn't know - who signed autographs and talked about his struggles with IBD.
This year, the kids got to choose different things to do each day ("open rec"), things they did as a cabin ("cabin rec") and then a specialty ("skills rec").
Katie's skills rec was Life Guarding.
They did things like rescues, righting flipped over canoes and paddle boards, and first aid (pictured below).
One of the "open rec" selections one day was a Princess Class taught by the male counselors.
She was taught how to act and behave like a princess and was dashed with orange glitter.
She said that it was very entertaining and informative.
She said that it was very entertaining and informative.
The orange glitter, by the way, was still in her hair when we picked her up.
Because of her swimming ability, she participated in the "Whale Swim", which is swimming about a half mile or so to a buoy in a lagoon.
Pictured below is the Polar Plunge - waking early to jump into the ocean.
We picked her up the weekend before the 4th of July.
She was tired, but happy.
We got to listen to her whole camp experience on the drive home.
Listening to her recount her fun times is my favorite thing about sending her to camp.
Ralph has a wonky dew claw that grows faster and as such gets longer.
Somehow, he tore it.
It was broken, bleeding and he was limping.
I had to take him to the vets to have them cut off the injured part - he wouldn't let me near it - and to bandage it up.
No lollipops post-appointment for Ralph.
He gets doggies treats and lots of love while he's there.
It was nice and cool for the 4th of July parade this year.
We sat in our regular spot and left Ralph home to recover from his injured dew claw.
Here's Mikey doing an impression of someone riding a motorcycle.
(insert obnoxious fart noise sound that is supposed to be an engine sound here)
They had live dinosaurs in the parade!
The parade was much the same as past years.
Lots of baseball teams, girl and boy scouts, politicians and local businesses.
The Mexican Dancing Horses were back.
As were the Seafair Pirates and their ultra-loud cannon.
Later that day, we hung out at a neighbors house for fireworks and BBQ.
First firework choice of the day were the Parachute Guys.
The kids like to chase and try to catch them before they hit the ground.
I don't think anyone caught one.
Katie got an impromptu lesson in cricuting.
Ralph enjoyed the camaraderie, the fireworks and most of all the crumbs that fell in the driveway.
Next up, it was tank battle time.
Two tanks enter.
Two tanks explode.
The gentlemen are the ones who take over the lighting of the fireworks.
The ladies take over the safety aspect.
One emergency bucket of water, just in case.
Smoke bombs.
A perennial favorite.
We found a new firework this year.
Sir Dumps A Lot.
This one doesn't really spin or explode or anything.
So, Mikey was allowed to light the second of the two that we had.
It's essentially a dog that you light on fire.....
....and then he poops.
The kids were fascinated.
Finally, the sun began to set and we could start lighting off our limited supply of rocket and fountain fireworks.
First things first. It was dark enough for sparklers.
And, the inevitable Wizard Duel.
Expeliarmus!
Avada kadavra!
Fountains.
Always pretty, but not very OOOO-AHHHH-ish.
That's more like it.
Ralph was hoping MORE BBQ, LESS BOMBS.
He took a nap halfway through the proceedings.
The youngest of both families select which fireworks are shot off next.
They take their job very seriously.
A great time was had by all.
It was a beautiful night for fireworks.
And, in a strange turn of events, people actually stopped exploding things relatively early.
That never happens.
There's always one shmuck that lights a big one off at 2am and scares the living crap out of everyone.
This is a picture of revenge.
Mikey LOVES to stick the stickers that you find on bananas and fruit on our backs all the time.
I finally got him back.
That weekend, Katie was off to camp again.
This time to Girl Scout resident camp where the theme was superheroes and the focus for her unit was "comic artist".
I helped her bring her stuff into her "cabin" - it's open air with a roof.
She was greeted excitedly with comments about her video game reference shirt.
I knew she'd have a good time.
Here is a rare shot of Katie giving hugs!
Notice how far way I had to be to get such an elusive shot.
Mikey had yet another Katie-free week that I had to fill up with stuff to do.
First thing on the agenda was a FIELD TRIP!
A zoo visit with Mikey and his best buds.
He was very happy.
He was at the zoo, with his friends and, most importantly, he had a map.
They were having fun doing all the stuff they used to do when they were "little".
They were fascinated by the roaches in the bug display.
Barf.
A little bit of tree climbing....
...and hide-and-go-seeking in the playground area.
That got them hungry enough for lunch.
Which this guy tried to sneak up and steal.
I am not sure what is going on in this picture.
They took every climbing opportunity that came their way.
Poor gorilla.
They were also big on me taking posed pictures of them together.
They don't even have phones yet.
We tried to feed the parakeets, but for some reason they wouldn't land on anyone's hands.
We had to go to them and feed them in the trees.
Lame.
Guess hand feeding makes birds lazy.
The elk were out in force this day.
And so were the wolves.
Their enclosures back up to each other, so sometimes you can get a picture of both.
Like, they're hanging out with each other or something.
Gray wolves are definitely bigger than Ralph.
They have really long legs.
More climbing.
It was great hanging out with these kiddos all day.
They have a great time together and there's really no work on my part involved.
Are you peeing in there?
Huh?
I convinced Mikey to take a hike that week.
We went to visit Bridal Veil Falls.
Here's my hiking buddy ready to venture out on the trail.
And here was my other hiking buddy hoping there's at least some cheese at the end of this adventure.
The beginning part of the trail was pretty flat and easy.
It was a very gentle slope upwards that you couldn't even feel.
There were two areas where we had to cross streams.
Most had rocks and sticks laid across so we didn't have to get our feet wet.
Ralph had no worries about the whole wet feet thing.
He made it very difficult for me to keep my feet dry during his,
"OMG, IT'S A PUDDLE! I MUST JUMP AND SPIN IN IT!" spaz outs.
We took some breaks so that Mikey could explore some of the rock formations along the trail.
"I must conquer this boulder."
A little bit of off trail fun.
Boulder conquered.
Ralph took every opportunity to either lay belly down in the streams or drink from them.
Soon, there came a split in the trail that led up to the waterfall.
It was a tough hike up.
Very steep, lots of slick steps and equally steep and slick rocks to climb over.
As we began our hike, we heard someone yelling a name over and over.
It sounded like panic.
"Oh my god," I thought to myself. "A kid is lost/injured/dead."
I was close.
The person yelling the name came running down the trail towards us and stopped.
He breathlessly explained that he and his girlfriend were hiking up with their dog - a full grown Great Dane.
Their dog was on a boulder and slipped off falling into a sort-of ravine that was formed by a stream going down the mountain.
Their dog fell down the ravine and disappeared.
They were calling for him in the hopes that he would either come to them or make noise or something.
Mikey was upset.
He wanted the dog to be okay.
I thought about helping them, but decided that it wasn't a good idea.
I didn't want Mikey climbing off trail to find the dog. Not only was it was dangerous but I didn't know what we would see if we found the dog.
I also couldn't leave him alone and I also had Ralph.
We continued on our way promising to keep an eye out for their dog.
As we made our way up the trail, we came across a gentleman standing on the very narrow trail, on a boulder next to a CLIFF, with 4 dogs on leash.
He explained he was with the people who had lost their Great Dane.
He pointed out the spot where the dog had slipped and urged caution.
I felt bad for the people, but was really annoyed with this dude.
As soon as we came around that corner, the dogs were all over Ralph.
They were friendly, but still.
We were next to a CLIFF.
Not the best place to stand with four dogs on leash.
We made it past him and gingerly passed the spot the dog had slipped.
Ralph was a great listener and followed my lead across the section.
As we continued our hike up, we heard the name calling cease and heard someone yell, "I found him!"
Mikey felt a bit better about the situation after that.
But, he knew, that a large dog that fell that far might be very injured.
We took a break before the final push to the waterfall and had some lunch.
We had some steep stairs left to climb.
FINALLY!
The falls were very pretty and very big.
We adhered to the warnings and did not get any closer.
Mikey was very proud.
It was a tough last mile or so, but he did it!
Ralph desperately wanted to jump into the pools at the base of the waterfall.
Sorry.
No can do, puppa-dup.
The view out away from the waterfall was pretty as well.
It was time to make our way down.
The bouldery, slippery area was a little rough.
But, we made it.
The rest of the way down was smooth sailing.
Ralph did not tire of stream diving.
When we arrived at the parking lot, we're pretty sure we saw the two people that were looking for their dog drive away. And, I'm pretty sure I saw a dog head in the back.
Hope he was okay.
It was July 11th, and so on the way home we stopped at 7/11 to get our free Slurpees.
This was Mikey's first ever Slurpee.
He loved it.
Ralph had a bit TOO much stream water to drink that day and barked at about 2:30am.
I rushed downstairs and let him out to do his messy business.
He wandered the yard for about 20 minutes or so.
When he was done, I let him back in and walked up the stairs back to the bedroom.
As I was standing in the door, the house began to vibrate.
Ralph began to bark.
Pictures on the wall were vibrating and I heard, rather than felt, the vibration.
Was it an earthquake?
I immediately grabbed my phone and went downstairs.
It was an earthquake.
My first.
Mikey and Huzbend slept through it.
(I learned later from Katie, who was still at camp, that she didn't).
The next day was pick up day at Girl Scout camp.
Parents can download pics from camp, much like at Camp Oasis.
Katie.
At camp.
Her group did some team building exercises.
They did a lot of drawing.
Here they are performing a skit at campfire.
She always has a good time at Girl Scout camp.
And every year, her world view is expanded a little bit.
Last year, she met someone who labeled herself "bi-romantic".
Even I didn't really know what that meant.
This year, at drop-off, I walked into her cabin greeting everyone as "ladies".
When Katie got home at the end of the week and talked about her cabin mates, I found out one of them identified as he/him.
Oops.
That reminded me to always think and, better yet, ask about pronouns before opening my mouth.
Katie had a great time and was just a biiiiit tired.
She crashed on the way home.
The next week brought with it another Girl Scout camp for Katie.
This time she was a PAT - "program aide in training".
She assisted a leader with a unit of Brownies at a local day camp.
In total, she worked 40 HOURS at this camp during the week.
There were lots of other girls that she knew there that were also PAT's.
So, she had a good time.
Mikey, meanwhile, went to Ranger Camp at a local state park.
He wandered the woods all week identifying medical and edible plants, tracking animals, working on camouflage, hiking and playing games.
Mid-week, it was also Huzbend's birthday.
Mikey and I made a variation of his favorite dessert, banana creme pie.
Out of respect for our elders, we only used one candle.
PTTTTBBBHHHHHHHHHH.
Since the kids were too busy to use the pool, our backyard squirrel began to use it as a water bowl.
No rest for the summer camp weary.
The last week of July (and the first week of August) the kids spent at Digipen learning about robotics and 3D animation.
A few days during those two weeks, I took Ralph to an awesome off leash park.
He loves to explore and run.
And most especially to get in the water.
He actually attempted to swim.
Believe it or not, he had never gone deep enough in water to swim.
I had a great time watching him do his doggie stuff.
Sniffing and running through the tall grass.
"Come on, Mommy! Let's go!"
Can you find Ralph?
He got even more ambitious on subsequent visits with longer swims!
A outdoor spider got confused and made a web in the middle of our kitchen.
You can see him if you look at the center of the picture.
He's in front of the left cabinet door of our book case.
Cheeky bastard.
I left him there for Huzbend to find. But, the spider had moved on before he could discover it.
Darn.
It's very hard to get good pictures of Ralph.
He has to be in full-on sun for me to actually capture what he really looks like.
He had just finished demolishing a paper towel tube when I caught this picture.
Love him to pieces.
I just want to mush those ears, kiss that forehead and boop that nose.
Caught a pic of this hummingbird taking a rest on the fence around our blueberry bush.
(The fence is to keep Ralph away)
I much prefer him to the other annoying birds that fly down and stick their beak into the berries leaving them to rot with giant holes in them.
Grrr.
Happy Birthday to Mikey!
His birthday was on a Tuesday this year.
*His friend birthday party was held in June.
He decided that he wanted to eat at his favorite pizza place for dinner.
Then, we went back home for pie and presents.
Originally, we had purchased Peach/Raspberry pie.
But, before I took it out of the box to warm it up, I looked at the ingredients label and realized it had a nut warning on it. Dammit.
So, I had to run out last minute to find a substitute pie.
I think it was another kind of berry pie - maybe bumbleberry?
It didn't matter.
It was delicious.
PPHHHBBTTHHHHHHHH!
Katie was excited to find that I had made a special chocolate whipped cream pie just for her.
She couldn't eat Mikey's pie and generally doesn't like pie to begin with.
But, I thought, she'd enjoy a ton of whipped cream.
Wish she'd get this excited about eating regular food.
It was really yummy.
And super easy to make - no Cool Whip involved.
Mikey was just as excited about his pie.
Time for presents!
Thanks everyone!
Since everyone was on the floor watching Mikey, Ralph took the opportunity to throw himself down in the center of us all in the hopes of getting some attention.
It worked.
He's hard to resist.
Mikey got his own watch.
And various other things to keep him occupied.
Including some indoor boomerangs.
They were soft so they couldn't break anything.
Happy camper.
This is the look you get when you take your almost-teenagers picture when she says that you're supposed to be taking pictures of her brother opening presents.
I purposely take un-asked for pictures of her all the time now just to see this face.
