The islands

We are at Ana Cortes on Fidalgo Island, staying right on the beach -or bay, it's not glamorous like a California Beach. We drove down to Whidbey Island and toured Fort Casey and Deception Pass, then we took the bike trail from our fifth wheel into down town Ana Cortes for pizza, which was really good. We saw three men on the side of the bay with buckets and I asked what they were catching, which I can't remember the name of and then totally embarrassed my husband when I asked the next question. There was a white and gray spotted thing in the ocean which looked like a cross between a dalmatian and a lab. I asked if it was their dog swimming and the guy turned to me and said "It's a seal mam.... You're not from around here are you?" Paul couldn't believe I asked, but in Utah three men around a lake with something swimming....it would be a dog, why on earth would I think it's a zebra, um I mean a seal. Anyway the kids ran back and were excited, it was pretty cool. One of my best all time ever vacation days. Tomorrow we are going to try and take a ferry to a different island and see a hippo, I mean a whale, same difference right?

Washington part II

We are leaving Plain today to head into Seattle for dinner and over to the San Juan Islands. Nathan has found a few more snakes, no toads or frogs yet. Yesterday we spent at the children's festival in Leavenworth. They had bounce houses, face painting, cotton candy, snow cones, and crafts for the kids. The night before the guys literally blew up a car and then crushed it under a logging machine of some sort. Nathan asked me why they were doing it and I said once little boys get big their toys get bigger. Nathan got to be in the cab of the machine when he did it and Andrew wanted to give me a tour of the site and show me the broken glass and stuff. What was the most exciting for me is that Alice had a neighbor come in and do a home made soap demonstration. I have always wanted to learn how to make soap. Alice even gave me some of the equipment I will need. How cool is that! It is fun to be up here and meet new people even if Matt does call my favorite movie Sweet Home Alabama Southern Fried Girl.

Washington

After a very long drive we arrived. We left SLC around 6:00 pm and stopped at a rest stop in Oregon for a few hours to catch some sleep. Slept longer than planned and then the GPS didn't take us the most direct route. I even practiced driving with the fifth wheel across Idaho for 3 hours around midnight. It's easier to drive when there is no traffic, although I ended up doing a lot of the twisty turny hilly roads I wanted to avoid. I never worried about falling asleep at the wheel. I was too anxious. Actually driving on the freeway isn't such a big deal, what I need practice at is turning corners and backing up. Nathan was so sweet, he had woken up when we switched drivers and didn't want me to be awake and alone so he sat up most of the time with me to keep me company. He has caught a frog upon arriving every year and was excited at the prospect. Within five minutes of being here, he caught a snake and brought to me instead. I would have preferred the frog. Now that it's out of his system, hopefully the wild life can live in peace and I don't have to see any more snakes.

Andrew learned just this morning to start out on his own on his bike without us holding onto to it for him to start. Boy they grow up fast.....

Rainmakers Campout

We went to Pineview Reservoir this weekend with our church for their annual Rainmakers camp out. It rained... hard too. One couple had three poles on their tent break when the storm blew in. It didn't last long and the rest of the time it was perfect weather. We've had so much rain lately all the reservoirs are full and there was only about four feet of beach instead of twenty, but everyone shared. We had a really good time and ended up meeting another couple from our church that lives literally down the street from us with a little girl Andrews age. We're going to try to get together again after our next trip.

The kids were being silly one morning while I was making breakfast in the fifth wheel and I took this video, as I was loading the pictures to the computer today I showed it to Nathan and he laughed so hard I had to stop so he could go to the bathroom.

look ma!

Andrew is getting in practice riding without training wheels. He still doesn't start on his own, and really won't try, but I don't mind not having to make another trip for stitches until he gets more of a hang of it.

Happy Fathers Day and some advice

Okay so maybe Friday wasn't so bad. It didn't involve personal injury to any one in the family. We were going to do one of our Fathers day events as a Brunch on Saturday morning. In the midst of cooking we got a call that my parents were taking Andrew to get stitches. He literally ran into a wall ~ I doubt this comes as a shock to any of you who know him. It kinda looked like a puncture wound. Almost like he got stuck with a huge meat thermometer. The kid that came into do the stitches had to be nineteen~ really. He didn't look like he'd finished high school, let alone be old enough to be an MD. He looked like Chase from House only even a tad bit younger. He did an internal looping/running stitch that would be about the equivalent of five stitches, then he added three more on the outside. The most amazing thing was that Andrew sat perfectly still. I've never seen him sit that still in my life. That doesn't come as a shock either. But he was really good and really brave. Below is the before picture, he sat pretty much like that through the whole procedure. We've actually wondered why we hadn't been in an E.R. before and knew the day would come, and were pretty sure it would be Andrew. At least this was pretty trivial compared to other things that could have gone wrong. Oh and the advice: the walls always win.

Yesterday wasn't so good. It started out with the basement flooding. My dad was taking the kids for the night and I was hoping to go to a movie. There are a few I want to see and we haven't been to one for awhile. We (meaning Paul) ended up digging up the front yard again and making the usual one to three trips to home depot. We did manage to squeeze dinner in at our favorite Mexican restaurant (Salsa Leedos - if you're reading this and live in Salt Lake). The day ended with us coming home to find the baby bird died while we were gone. The silver lining is that since the basement floods what seems to be regularly, we are getting really good at pulling everything out quickly and with this one, caught it really quickly as well so we have not sustained any damage. That is something to be really thankful for!