Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Pool Party

Ayden, Ashten, and Anderson
AJ- loved the pool!! I mean LOVED it!
Ashten could not even strip down he was soo hot
Ayden - Swimming in his underwear
It was a record breaking 97 degrees today! YIKES!! It has been a nasty week for heat. One time I looked out and saw the kids including the neighbors huddled around the hose. I felt so bad for them and then I remembered that last year at the end of season I picked up a big pool for a great deal! It took awhile to set it all up, but it was well worth the wait. Every time we leave the house and come home the boys strip down and jump in. It's a pretty funny site, but we have gone through a lot of clothes this week. Some kids don't quite get that we shouldn't swim in our jeans.





Sunday, July 26, 2009

Snoqualmie Falls

Ayden making dirt angels...ewwAJ and Ashten these are some dirty kids
On Sunday morning we had breakfast, packed up camp, washed the kids, and took off. We decided that it would be fun to stop in and see the falls.

Checking out the falls
Ashty and AJ

Cheese
Anderson and Daddy
The boys
Ayden thought it would be good to roll down the hill. It was too hot and the grass was too dry which meant it was not fun!
There were SO many people there in Snoqualmie. I had never seen it like that before. We had to park across the street up the hill in the furthest parking lot. I didn't even know that this place existed. We walked around and found a place to sit after we finished looking at the waterfall. We found a table in the shade and ate cherries that we had picked up at the Thorp Fruit Mall. They were great! After not too long we took off (it was too HOT!) I believe it was in the high 90's today.

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Potholes Day One

Uncle Wes helping Ayden fly his kiteand helping Ashten too Me, Papa, and Daddy getting ready for dinner
AJ
The name Potholes, doesn't really make me think WooHoo this is going to be fun. But it was! We had plenty of things to do to keep us busy and entertained. We got to camp in the afternoon and set everything up, then headed over to the lake for dinner. There was a pretty lake, and a huge field for the kids to run and play. By the time we got to the lake it was time to start dinner. Everyone took a meal to be in charge of, and mom and dad had the first one. We had teriyaki steak strips and noodles. It was delicious. The kids ran around, flied kites, and threw rocks in the lake. When it started getting cool and dark we headed back to camp for a campfire and some roasted marshmallows. It was tons of fun, and we can't wait until tomorrow.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Valley 6 ... or 5

Anderson, Ashten, and Ayden having juice and snacks while we wait for the movie to startThanks to Ayden for taking this picture. Mommy, AJ, Daddy, and AshtenThe boys We decided to go to the drive-in today. The kids were so excited. We had them change into their pajamas and headed down to the theater, after picking up some snacks and some dinner. We went to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Everyone except for Armand fell asleep at some point during the movie. It definitely wasn't our favorite Harry Potter movie. Anyway, the kids had a blast even though they didn't last long. The worst part of the drive-in is having to drive home. We did not stay for the second movie. Neither of us would have been able to drive home.

Monday, July 6, 2009

The Beast

Armand watchingAJ wants to come see but it's too dangerous
Ayd




Ashten and Ayden in their fort
Ashty hiding out







The fig tree had become completely overgrown with blackberries. Sad, cause figs are so yummy. Maybe next year the tree will get more figs!










James and the Giant Beast








Today, I was so happy for two reasons. One Armand came home early! Two him and his buddy James brought over what I like to refer to as...the Beast! At first he jsut mowed the lawn becuase the allergies are killing me right now. We doubted the beasts powers, until he started knocking over trees!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Sequim...It's Pronounced Skwim.

Daddy picking berries Ashten
Ayden
Aj on the prowl for more berries The boys
After leaving Port Angeles this morning we decided to stop in Sequim or Seequim as Armand would call it. I think we thought there might be something cool there. I saw a sign for Railroad Bridge Park, which I thought sounded interesting, and very generic. At first we just drove around the city. We saw a sign for U-Pick strawberries. YUM! The price wasn't bad, they were $1.50 a pound, which is more than the sale at QFC this week. But, there is nothing better than Washington strawberries. They are so sweet and juicy compared to the dry and sour California ones. We picked about 13 pounds of berries, and I am sure AJ ate about that much while the rest of us were picking. The boys had a good time, we did this last year for playgroup, so they had been before. Armand had a great time! This was his first time, and I am pretty sure we will do this again. The only problem was we had to drive all the way home smelling the delicious berries in the back of the car.
Ashty, Ayden, and Daddy
Anderson calling to Daddy
Bye-bye Aj
Ashten and Aj looking at the Dungeness River. I was ready to leave fairly quickly once Anderson started climbing up the railings. It was very scary and he is a very quick climber. Ayden. Isn't the bridge pretty?
Ayden and Daddy
Ashten
Aj
Next, we followed the signs to the park. It was very pretty there and peaceful. The big boys went down to the water with Daddy, and then we went and played on the bridge. I definitely want to go back and see what else there is there. We didn't spend too much time because we were hoping to beat the holiday traffic. (No such luck!)
When we got home we had a BBQ at mom and dad's house. Which was delicious, especially after a VERY long drive home! It was a great weekend. I can't wait until the next holiday!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy 'Forks' of July

Last night we decided that we would go to Forks, even though we knew we could not get a hotel there. That's what happens when you make plans of going out of town the day before the holiday. Lesson should be learned, but I am SURE this will happen again. The Twilight books were set here because vampires don't like sun, and Forks is known for it's cloudiness and rainfall. Over the last 6 years the average annual rainfall is 119 inches! Just to give a comparison Tacoma's average precipitation is 38 inches. Anyway, we got a late start after sleeping in and then stopping by Papa's house to learn how to use the GPS. The VanderHoeven's had set up a really cool geocache all about Twilight, that takes you to all of the important parts in the book. As soon as we arrived we saw a park and decided to stop it looked like there might be some fun stuff going on, we were wrong. The kids had fun playing on the cool toys they had there though so we played for a few minutes, before heading out to the first cache.

We told the kids we were in 'vampire land' and they needed to be on the look out. This caused a mix of emotions in the kids, mostly anger and fear. It was okay though I told the kids about how vampires don't like the sun so they were leery, but functional hahah.
I'm going to finish the rest of the post with the pics, so it seems like less reading. HAHA


Our first stop: Bella's truck. It had been in the parade earlier in the day, so it was still on the trailer they pulled it with.

Ashten was zonked out from the long ride over. Comfy??

AJ, despite the look on his face LOVED this toy. You just hang on it and it slides you across. I would guess it's about 25 feet long. I could be way off. When I would get him down he would say Up, up, up!
Ayden loved it too!! Ashten wouldn't even try it.
Second stop Bella's home
Third stop: Dr. Cullen the Daddy vampire works at the hospital, where he has his own parking spot.
Ayden and Ashten were getting nervous that vampires might be lurking, they couldn't get back to the car fast enough.
By this stop the boys were a little irritated that I would make them get out because there might be a vampire in their house, but at the same time mad that the sign said they had went to the forest because of the sun.
Phew! We made it out of 'vampire land' alive. Did I forget to mention that we were headed into 'Werewolf land'?
La Push. This is the home of the werewolves. The kids could have cared less. They saw water and ran! Ayden, Anderson, and Ashten
Aj loved finding all of the smooth rocks to throw in the ocean
Ayden was soaked from head to toe. I don't know how he was not cold. The water was freezing, and it was overcast at this point
K this picture is not to show my child. Armand spent some time chatting with the jerky guy at the beach, and he mentioned that you could camp at the beach, I didn't even realize how many tents were there until I looked at this picture. I know it's probably kind of hard to see, and a lot of them had tucked away behind big piles of driftwood. We are looking forward to trying this out over the summer.
Ashten's favorite park of LaPush was gathering up all the firecrackers people were shooting off on the beach.
Aj and Daddy
Ok so we finished all the caches, so using the points we got from the previous caches we came up with a location, and drove to it. Armand took us up this hill and parked, while we found the cache that was 441 feet straight down into the forest. We found a trail so it seemed like we were doing things right. Unfortunately, I did not know how far 441 feet was. It is a lot!! When Ayden, Ashten, and I ended up at the visitor's center at the bottom of the hill, I knew there was a problem. I did not have my cell phone and the center was closed. I didn't know how long we were gone but I knew it had been a long time. I found a man and asked to call my husband because at this point we had tried to make our way back up the hill but kept ending back at the same center. And it was getting dark. Especially in the forest. Armand didn't answer the phone because it was a California number so I left a message and hoped he had a signal and would check it. I decided we should try one more time to head back up the hill. This is when I (wearing flipflops) had a 12-18 inch stick stab into the top of my foot. OUCH! I ripped it out and we walked back to the center ....
Ashten was the leader, we'll blame him for getting lost;)
Ayden during the lost portion of our trek
...where I saw the VAN!!! YAY!! In the car I realized that I still had something stuck in the top of my foot. Luckily, I have like 3 pairs of tweezers in the car. I pulled out a piece that was a good 1/2 inch. (I was scared i would be too mad at Armand when he hurt me pulling it out, so I pulled it myself so I couldn't get mad HAHA) Anyway, I decided that we had the wrong final number and changed it. I got back out alone this time and equipped with my cell phone just in case.

At this point I knew I was on the right track.
FINALLY, After a combined total of more than TWO hours, I found the cache. Obviously, I am still a newbie. And yes, this is a self portrait...gotta love those:)
After not eating for 9 hours we decided that we should go get some dinner. We found a Chinese restaurant, it was expensive but pretty good. Afterwards, it was almost time for the fireworks. We drove back across the street to the park and parked right up front. The big boys ran off to play at the park some more. We kept joking that this was Forks and the show would be a few minutes long, if we were lucky. But they put on a really good show, and it was right above us. When the show was done I was ready to start driving home, but Armand wanted to go to LaPush and watch fireworks out there. He was trying to make us sleep there, in the van with no blankies. Finally, at midnight, I started driving I was wide awake and very antsy. At 2am we found a hotel in Port Angeles. It was a long day but so much fun! I am loving that the kids are getting bigger and can enjoy the trips we take.