Strike

The Kent School District teachers are on strike right now. I went over yesterday to spend some time with my coworkers on the picket lines. I brought Dillon and Kayda with me. It just so happens that two news crews were there when I showed up. Kiro 7 decided that they wanted to interview me because they were looking for a teacher who is a parent's input and my kids were "very photogenic". I tried to pawn it off on someone else but it didn't work so my kids ended up on TV!!! Here's the link. Just ignore me. Grandma G recorded it so eventually I can put the actual video on without having to use the link but until then... http://www.kirotv.com/video/20591302/index.html

Kitsap Memorial State Park

We spent the August 5th to the 9th at Kitsap Memorial State Park which is over by Hood Canal. It was the H family trip this year, we had 21 of us plus one of Nathan's buddies. The campsites ended up working perfectly! Right in front of our sites was a loop that the kids could ride bikes around and just beyond that was a huge field! The only downside was the beach was all rock and was covered by the tide most of the day. We ended up visiting Poulsbo and Port Townsend, the kids were asleep for a lot of our time in Poulsbo.  Grandma Peggy was nice enough to stay out in the car with them because she had been to Poulsbo recently. It was FANTASTIC being out with all of Daddy's family. The kids played practically non-stop! Hank was with us and was constantly being walked by someone, after the first day he calmed down to his normal behavior and was constantly wandering around with some kid or another, even Kayda and Dillon walked him around though we had to be a little closer for that.

Ella and Dillon were brushing my face with dandelions, they thought that was great fun.

Dillon LOVES the big kids and was copying Aileena for a while. Notice his new haircut?

Kayda was sharing her dandelions with Aunt Anna.

Dillon, Brian (Nathan's buddy), Ella, Nathan, Mikey and Peyton.

Immediately after this picture Dillon crashed.

We got all the big boys to play ring around the rosie with us!

The three Mike and Peggy branch granddaughters.

Grandma Peggy and Dillon, eating lunch and checking out their feet.

These are at Great-Uncle Mark's community beach.  There were TONS of shells and Kayda and Ella spent the whole time there collecting them.

Can you see his footprints?

Kayda and Ella on Grandpa Mike's bike.

The crew. They were all in the back of the truck and the older kids were deciding which of the younger kids they were "babysitting". From left to right:Dillon, Brian, Nathan, Mikey, Kyle, Aileena, Ella, Kevin, Peyton, Jarrett and Kayda. The only kiddo missing is Chase, he's not a year old yet so he couldn't get in with so many big kids!

In Port Townsend. The big boys decided Dillon should hang with THEM.

Wow what a difference!

This last spring Daddy and I worked out tails off and made our front yard beautiful, new garden beds, new plants, a little bit more grass and we tore out a TON of concrete. We've never done much with our backyard, we basically made it usable (there used to be a huge pile of random junk and blackberry bushes in the corner left from the previous owners). Since the front yard is so nice this summer the kids and I have spent our time in the front yard when we went outside. I just didn't want to go in the backyard... Well yesterday I finally took the time and swept up all the stuff Hank chewed to shreds, moved stuff around so the kids had more room to play and hung some stuff up on the wall of the house (so we can leave it outside without having Hank chew IT to shreds too). It seems so much better out there now! It's not like we did a ton but it feels cleaner. So we've spent the last two days playing in the backyard. I can not believe how much more relaxing it is to have the kids playing there than in the front yard! They can run around, they can't get to anything that can hurt them and I know exactly where they are. We've been out there at least 5 hours each day and the babies LOVE it. They get to play with their sandbox, wading pool and swingset without having mommy constantly telling them to get back in the yard! Gotta love fences!

Sun Lakes State Park

We went to Sun Lake State Park with Mommy's side of the family this past week (Fri. to Wed.). Aunt Kirsten, Uncle Ranen, Mason and Owen were there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then Uncle Justin got there Sunday and stayed until Wednesday. Grandma and Grandpa G stayed there the whole time with us! We were lucky that Grandma and Grandpa G have a big trailer. We hauled over their old tent trailer (which we've used since Kayda was born), got to camp, started to set it up and the cables which raise and lower the top broke.  So we ended up sleeping in the big trailer the first few nights until Uncle Justin could bring over the tent with him. Warning, this is going to be a TON of pictures, I just couldn't narrow it down!

Dillon absolutely LOVED Owen. He would go over and touch him, sit next to him, and give him hugs and kisses. Kayda learned Mason's name really quickly, granted it came out more as "May" but she definitely knew who he was. They had a great time playing in the dirt at the campground and all the kids enjoyed playing around in the water. Here are some random pictures at the campground!

There was a playground in the day use area that we went to several times. We had to be careful the first time because the slides were hot enough to burn the kids so we came back another time when it was a little overcast.

I'm not entirely sure who had more fun at the playground...

About 2 miles from the campground there is another lake called Deep Lake. There is cliff jumping there which was one of the things we went there for. Daddy, Mommy and Uncle Ranen all jumped off the taller cliff which was around 25 feet tall. On Tuesday we even got Uncle Justin to jump though I don't have the pictures.

Daddy:

Mommy:

Uncle Ranen:

We played a round of minigolf, the people were nice enough to give us clubs for the kids to play with. When the kids got bored Grandma and Grandpa G took them down to a little ice cream stand, we of course HAD to join them when we were done!

On the way back to the truck from minigolf Grandma G was playing red light-green light with Kayda. She would make this pose everytime she thought there should be a "red light" whether Grandma said it or not!

We made an evening of a trip to the Grand Coulee Dam. It wasn't far away, only 45 minutes. We went on the tour which was unfortunately absolutely pointless. The elevator was broken so even though they are still giving tours down to the generators (which many dams no longer do thanks to 9-11) we couldn't go down so it was a walk around a very small portion of the top of the dam. After the tour we had several hours to kill because we wanted to stay for the laser light show they have. They let 6 inches thick of water go over the spillway (they don't use the spillway anymore EXCEPT for during their light show) and then do a laser show with music and a story. They were 20 minutes late starting and the babies were falling asleep so we only saw the first few minutes but it was worth the wait we had a BLAST in the 4 hours between the last tour and the light show!

A volcano erupting:

A wave moving across the dam: