Grandma and Papa G's working visit

Grandma and Papa G came here memorial day weekend to help us build a big patio cover.  The first weekend we cut the concrete for the footings and set the brackets. Since we had to wait for the concrete to set we didn't really get to work on it anymore that weekend.

We bought chalk to lay out the footings... Kayda and Carson had a fantastic time with it.  Carson made my heart happy when he did this...

Kayda made some art

Then they made a driveway length hop scotch that got too hard to finish. 

While we waited we did some geocaching.  It was a nice trail with a great view of the mountain.  Everyone was having a great time with the long grass.  Grandma started it!

Daddy decided to teach the kids leg wrestling.  Carson and Grandma decided to try to give Kayda an advantage... It didn't work.

We are fortunate to have really great neighbors that we love.  We only really interact with two houses but they're amazing.  I'm super grateful to Eric (the "cool uncle") and his "graduated in Kentucky" mentality.  He let us borrow his tractor during most of the project AND he was able to use a bracket he'd previously made to place ALL the king horizontal beams.  They were all 6x6's. There were three 16ft and two 18ft... 4 went up 10' and the last 14'.  SO glad we didn't have to try to lift them by hand!

What you don't see behind the scenes is the incredible amount of sanding and staining that was done.  Grandma did a TON of it with Kayda.  Dillon and Carson helped us with measuring and cutting a lot.

We were even able to use the tractor as a kind of scaffolding.  Life. Saver.

I wanted to move the tractor out for Papa's pose ... He disagreed

Papa made me VERY nervous by using a ladder on our "scaffolding".

Papa prepared dinner

Bird spike assembly party.  We have SO many birds around our house and we don't want our patio to house nests or perches.

Finished!

This project took three weeks to finish.  Between work, school, sports, and weather it was a very slow process.  A lot of it was actually done by Papa, Grandma and the kids (especially Dillon) while we were at work.  I'm so grateful they came to help.  It was something I desperately wanted to build... But it was also intimidating.  It's AMAZING and we'll spend a ton of time in it.  

Of course, we bought some patio heaters since I won't use it if I'm too cold lol.

When they left they took Dillon with them as a "hey it's sucks your trip keeps getting delayed" consolation visit.  

New Year's Day

New Year's Eve we let the kids stay up until midnight.  The plan was to watch the Space Needle fireworks but we couldn't find a way to watch it with the music and everything since we don't have (or want) cable.  We are lucky enough that we live in a community that LOVES fireworks so we were able to just go to the windows upstairs and watch those.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed staying up that late!  When we woke up on New Year's Day we had SNOW!  We have had 3 separate days with snow so far and it is pretty rare for us to get any at all.  It was a special treat!  As soon as they had someone else willing to go out Kayda and Carson headed out.  It was perfect snow for snowmen and snowballs!  They built a snowman with Daddy (which Carson destroyed soon after), attempted to sled down the neighbors driveway (which is short and not very steep) and had a mini snowball fight with Daddy.  Dillon wasn't very interested in the snow.  After two nights of less sleep than normal he really just wanted to rest. 

Eventually I went out back to play with them.  Carson and I made a huge snowman.  The bottom got so big I had to ask Daddy to help me roll it.  Then we had to work together to lift the middle on.

Of course, shortly after we made that Carson was destroying it too.  They couldn't get the bottom to do anything and we've pretty much been below freezing since.  Since the snow hasn't melted they'll periodically go outside and take a shove to the lowest portion to try to break it apart. We still (4 days later) have snow on the ground which is odd for this area but I'm enjoying it!  Even if it's all just ice at this point.  The kids are back in school and back to the regular routine.  They seem much more content again.

Camano Island State Park

We spent 3 days up at a cabin at Camano Island State Park with Grandma and Papa H, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Pat's family and Aunt Anna and Uncle Scott's family.  We got there ahead of everyone so we got the cabin all set up and headed down to the beach.  Immediately after getting there Carson fell and skinned his knee so then it was difficult to get him to do much of anything.  Of course Kayda slipped shortly thereafter and skinned her ankle.  It doesn't make for a very fun time around the saltwater.  

 Dillon was determined to play in the water... Until he touched it the first time and then he wasn't so inclined.  He didn't realize just how could it was!

 They had a great time finding all the tiny crabs, most were smaller than quarters.

 Of course, you can't be on a rock covered beach without throwing them.  Dillon, Kayda and even Carson worked on their rock skipping skills with Daddy.

 At this point Carson is pouting because his knee hurt and he wanted to go back to the cabin.  Look at that lip!!!

 A couple of hours later the cousins started to arrive.   We headed over to Cama Beach State Park to hang out with the extended family.
The boys got a kick out of Chase's hat popping off when Carson tried to squeeze in for the picture.

 Dillon was photobombing Kayda and Ella.  Kayda was pretty aggravated.

 These girls are the best of friends, despite only seeing each other every few weekends now. We have gotten into the habit of letting Aunt Sarah know when we're headed up to Grandma and Papa H's house.  That way they can spend time together.  Ella will often call to ask if Kayda is coming up.  Even calling Grandma at times in the hopes we'll be up there.

 You can't find a big driftwood log without returning it to the water!

 Carson spend a good portion of the first day collecting skipping rocks and pretty rocks in his pockets.  At one point he had so many rocks in his pockets that his pants started falling down.  That's when he decided to start collecting them in the drink pocket on his chair.

 Kayda has really come to love playing any kind of board or card game.  She was delighted to play with Ella.

 And was overjoyed to play phase 10 with Aileena, Ella, Grandma and Nathan!  I was so pleased to see the older cousins join in! They were really great about hanging out with all the younger ones.

 There was a giant chess board down from the cabins.  The kids spent more time there than even out on the beach.

 The second day was windy and cold.  It wasn't so bad by our cabin up in the trees but down on the water it was COLD!  Daddy got chilled so he decided to take a nap in the car when we got back to our cabin after a trip down to the beach.

 It was cold enough that we decided to have a fire and midday smores.  The kids thought that was quite a treat considering they're usually reserved for bed time!

 Dillon was having a pretty emotional day on Friday.  He didn't want anything to do with anyone because he felt like her was being left out.  He was feeling very sensitive and his cousins were all off exploring Stanwood.  He couldn't handle being looked at or talked to so he flipped his sweatshirt around backwards and covered his face.  Of course we kept talking to him!

 Friday they also had a Toy boat building workshop so we were able to go down there.  The used old hand-cranked drills to put in the masts.  Then there were all kinds of other goodies to use: bottle caps, corks, fabric, string, glue, nails, Popsicle sticks etc.  They had a great time building them, even wanting to put them in the water.  We figured all their hard work would be ruined so we kept them from doing that.  The waves from the wind were a little too intense for toy boats.

 Carson would only take this picture with his boat after I told him it was the only way Grandma and Papa G would be able to see his boat.  So he agreed, but specifically told me it would be with one eye.

 While we were hanging out at our cabin a bald eagle flew into a tree right next to our camp.  The kids had a hard time spotting it in the trees.  After maybe 10 minutes.  The sound of its wings was incredible.  That's when the kids finally got a good look at it.  It's hard to miss when you can hear and see it maybe 30 ft from you!

 Little miss Eliza is our youngest neice, or for the kids cousin.  We didn't get to hold her much for fear of getting her sick.

 Carson and Brett spent a LOT of time together on this trip.  Carson has now decided that Brett is his best friend and that we need to live closer to him.  But sorry, no way are we moving up to that city.  I would love to be even smaller than where we are now!

We were able to get the younger cousins to agree to a picture.  Since I know they are going to grow and might not remember what each of them look like.... We have Mikey, Dillon, Chase and Brett in back.  Then Ella, Kayda, Carson, Eliza and Peyton in front. 

The kids had a wonderful time and even now Carson keeps saying "Lets go back to that place next day"  He doesn't seem to like the word tomorrow!  He is ready to go on his next camping adventure, especially if his cousins are around.  None of them were happy to leave but we needed to be sure to be back for the flag football game.