Clara and Joel's Visit

Clara and Joel came to stay with us while they were waiting for their new brother to arrive.  They were BUSY but great fun to have, even if exhausting.

Clara wanted to play with someone all the time.  She enjoyed the attention and was up for doing most anything.

Joel was moving at all times.  He loved being able to dictate what Kayda, Dillon and Carson did.  He liked going out to feed the fish with Kayda.

We went for a walk, we were headed for "the peacock farm" down the road from us.  The weather turned gross on us so we didn't make it.

We DID find huge clusters of blackberries.  Joel especially loved them and had everyone serving them up.  

Carson LOVED having a little cousin to carry around.  

Joel was brave and went for multiple quad rides. That was about the only activity Clara said no to.

Clara spent her river time writing on the sand and building things. She joined in the rock throwing for a little while but got tired of it quickly.

Joel wanted to be like the big kids and had to throw the biggest rock he could lift.

Dillon found a frog and was happy to help the littles hold it.

Clara especially enjoyed Kayda.

They were repairing part of the levy nearby that was damaged in the flooding so they had huge dump trucks and excavators around.

Grandma G has a special talent for making the kids play games without having to do anything.  She had a whole menagerie in this game.  It was always something new and the kids all enjoyed it (big kids included).  When she's with my kids she had them building castles for her in Minecraft.  She was the ruler with very exacting standards.

Eventually Clara and Joel headed home with their other grandparents to meet their new brother Everett. After that we spent some time geocaching among other things.  Everyone was pretty tuckered out from the littles so it was fairly low-key.

Carson's 9th birthday

Carson turned 9!  Of course he was anxious to open presents so he opened some in the morning.

He wanted a remote control ATV.  Dillon thought it would be funny to have it in the shop on the carjack.  

You'll notice that birthday gifts are always wrapped in Christmas paper.  That's kind of become a tradition because I only get birthday wrapping paper when we need it for a friend... And often we use bags for that.

In the evening Grandma and Papa H came down along with cousins.

Blowing out candles was entertaining because we bought trick candles.  He thought they were pretty great, in case you can't tell from his grin.  He handled them much better than I did when I was young.  I thought the solution was to spit instead.  I'm pretty sure no one ate that cake... Sorry Grandma and Papa G.

The kids broke out the new tracks

 *Unfortunately, I'm so far behind I really don't remember what we did the rest of the day.  Hopefully I can keep up now.

Beverly Beach State Park

Our annual trip with our "summer friends" was to Oregon this year.  We're glad we had that planned since so much of Washington was forcibly shut down.  It was chilly, so of course we had to dress warmer than I like to in the summer. Fortunately we only had to get a new wetsuit for Dillon so the kids could enjoy the ocean.

We went to look for critters at devil's punchbowl again.  I appreciate so much that my kids have such a sense of adventure and curiosity.  They didn't hesitate to clamber all over the rocks and look in every nook and cranny.  Then of course they would pick up any crabs and touch the anemones.  We had to work a little to get Ryan and Ethan interested.

Ozzi loved exploring the rocks and followed us anywhere we went.

The beach is too far to walk with any swim stuff so the kids usually rode in the back of their truck. They loved it.

Daddy and Rene have their bromance joke.  They always have to do something like they're gay dad's raising kids alone. I didn't catch their shenanigans this year though.

We went into town and took a whale watching tour.  It was not what I expected.  Did we see a whale? Yes. One whale, the same whale, all we did was follow it down the coast for 45 minutes.  We saw it frequently, it never did anything exciting and we ended up seasick.  I actually talked to a crew member that used to captain the ship (he's retired now and was just helping out that day). I learned more from him than the tour guide that just kept saying "there she blows".  Apparently they can tell the whales apart based on scarring.  They have whales there that don't migrate, they live there year round.  I believe it was around 7 of them.  He described the rock shelves that push the food up along the bluffs so that's where the whales like to hang out.  

Can't go to the Oregon coast without going on quad rides!  We had such a good time when we went with Grandma and Papa H that we HAD to go again.  It was neat to see the kids' confidence levels change since they've been riding at home.

We actually went out to the beach this time.  It was Kayda's favorite place to ride.  We thoroughly enjoyed racing and doing donuts in the sand. It's definitely an easier ride since you can get stuck in the soft dunes fairly easily.

Dad crashed.

Went up to Thor's well again. It didn't disappoint.  Unfortunately, since you're there at high tide, there aren't any tide pools.  However, we saw whales.  They were hanging out just off the coast.  Didn't need to go on that whale tour after all.

We had a couple fires on the beach as we really enjoy them. 

We were hoping to see the tide come in and put out our fire. It took too long so we had to deal with it before we left the beach.

It's impossible for my boys to be near a hill or rocks and NOT climb around.