a staple for anyones personal library

Hayley purchased this handbook for girls with her Barnes and Noble gift card. It has so much useful information in it, I wished it had been on my Christmas wish list. I talks about all sorts of things like how to make a God's eye ( I made many in the summer I stayed with my grandparents), how to double dutch, a section on royalty, and the list goes on and on. It really brought back a lot of childhood memories, and made me reflect on how our children don't really have the opportunity to go out and explore for hours on end, without us checking in on them constantly. My cousins and I spent many hours each day, riding our bikes up and down the gravel road we lived on, or went across the road into the woods to build forts, or dig up treasures. In the winter we would play out for hours clearing our own skating rinks on the lake or sledding. I barely remember having contact with our parents, other than to demand lunch or a snack. Those were some of the best times I ever had! I wonder if the old swing set is still 3/4 buried across the street from my cousins old log house. Old times, not forgotten.

Beach bums

We know that summer is near the end, the kids are back to school next week, so we grabbed a pizza and took off for the beach. The tide was in, and let me tell you it was up the farthest I have seen it. Another Mom at the beach confirmed this, telling me they come down to the Edmonds beach a lot and this was the highest she had seen it too!

We took some fun pictures of the kids, and got a few of us too. The sunset was gorgeous tonite!

And did you notice our daughter, the falconer?

Happy time in the sun.

weekend is over

Our camping weekend is over. Mark, the girls and I headed out Friday morning to our spot we call White Pines. It is next to a creek, and not a state camp site. We love it! You can be loud, go exploring, watch squirrels, crazy ducks (we saw about 5 of them that were like the baby Raptors in Jurassic Park), and even see snakes! Which by the way, this was the first time we have seen a snake at this camping spot. The weather was great, and along with this when it is too hot or dry, you can't have a campfire. We were going to try to sneak one in anyways, until the Forest Service Ranger drove back and told us we were not allowed to have fires. We were still able to make smores, by roasting our marshmallows on the little grill.

Saturday, Erin and her kids and Rose and her daughter came over to camp with us. It was fun! My parents showed up later in the day and Mom helped the kids build a fort.

By Sunday we needed to head home, it started raining late Saturday night, so we packed up early Sunday and hit the road.

big city folk

Yesterday we had a family date night since Mark worked early in the day! We invited Dannie, Rob, Devin and Ryan to go to the outdoor cinema with us to watch The Neverending Story. We had so much fun. Fremont is a part of Seattle which has a lot of funky shops, home of a great restaraunt called the El Camino, and the Burke-Gilman trail runs through this part of Seattle. Hayley, Molly and I had never seen this movie, plus I can't remember the last time I was at an outdoor movie (or drive-in theater) so this was a real treat for us. Mark and I took the girls to a little burger joint called Bob's Red Mill Burgers up on Phinney Ridge (thanks Theresa for the suggestion!). The burgers were great and if you walk next door to Starbucks you have a great view of Greenlake. Then we were off to the movies. We have not seen Ryan in ages, she has gotten so big and she was so good-she fell asleep shortly after the movie started. It is fun to spend time with family, and we love the Nemes family! Can't wait to do it again. I am posting a picture of Devin, who does not seem to have a shy bone in his body, getting up to participate in the paper airplane throwing contest. He beat all of the adults...hmmm maybe a future in aeronautics? We'll see. A master paper folder he is! He won a free ticket to the Seattle Childrens Theatre to see The Neverending Story, so I am going to take him and the girls to see the play.

All in all we had fun, the weather was perfect, the peanut butter and chocolate shake was good, the movie and crowd were entertaining, blah, blah, blah! If you have the opportunity in your hometown, you should google and see if you have an outdoor cinema too. It is the perfect summer activity.