First Week

Our summer vacation started with OPERATION RUN THEM INTO THE GROUND.

The first week is always the most difficult for the boys as they transition from the friend-filled, structured days of public school to the lazy, hazy days of summer.  They are bored, they are grumpy, they are desperate need of someone to tell them what to do.

The first week is always the most difficult for me as the house experiences a 300% increase in crazy during the day.  

I decided to take a different approach this year.  I hoped that if they are physically exhausted then there would be less complaining of being bored.

Heh. Heh.

Monday: Owen Beach.  It was low, low tide again so my friend and I looked for beach critters while the boys scaled the sandy cliffs.

Tuesday: Woodard Bay.  A little bit shorter jaunt and it was a bit on the cool side.

Wednesday: Sequalitchew.  Isaac decided Ben was his buddy for the day.  Ben was delighted and then spent a lot of time at the beach looking for crabs to show Isaac.

Thursday: "Mom, please don't make me leave the house today!" I ran a bunch of errands and we spent some time at the church playing basketball in the gym.

Friday: Chambers Bay.  A lovely three point something mile path around the golf course and along the water followed by play time at a pretty spectacular playground.

And it worked!  No one has complained of being bored, but I have had several requests to just stay home and not go anywhere.  We'll have to see what adventures await us next week.

Camping at Zion's Camp

This year I had the BEST. IDEA. EVER.  I reserved a camping site at Zion's Camp in Belfair for the last day of school.  I had never been, but Jason and the older boys had and it came highly recommended by them.  We packed up the van with a ridiculous amount of stuff and headed north, crossing our fingers all the while that this was going to work out with a toddler in the mix.  

Not just any toddler.  Baby Rage.

Considering that I set up the reservations in March, we were unbelievably lucky with gorgeous weather.  We arrived a little after 1pm and started setting up the tent, a one man, one woman and three boy job it turns out.  Rachel got us this tent several years ago in VA, but we didn't use it much in the sticky mid-Atlantic summers.  

We plan on making up for lost time now that we are in WA.

Then we headed straight for the lake.  This was the big attraction of the whole trip.  There were paddle boats, kayaks, canoes, paddle boards and a rope swing.

Never underestimate the power of a rope tied to a tree.

We brought an itty, bitty life jacket for this guy, but one look at the wobbly boats and he wanted nothing to do with any of that.  Instead, he made friends with the lady handing out keys for the boats and found this tool in her golf cart.  Who needs toys when there are tools to be found?

Michael and Ben practically lived on this swing.  And can you blame them?  Who doesn't enjoy flying through the air?

In the meantime, Josh spent his afternoon a little ways down the coast with his fishing rod and Aunt Rachel's tackle box.  By the time he was done, he had no fish and fewer weights.  I think it might have worked out better if he knew how to properly attach the weights and if it wasn't the hottest time of the day.

But he seemed to enjoy himself.

Eventually, our stomachs started crying out for food, so we headed back to our campsite to make dinner.  Josh was in charge of starting the fire and after a while his brothers were convinced that they were going to starve to death before Josh got the fire started.  Eventually, Jason stepped in and removed the wet tinder from the fire pit and got a nice, warm fire going.

Home sweet tent.

After dinner and playing frisbee, we settled down in the tent for games.

Then it was lights out and we tried to sleep.  Emphasis on the word tried.  Isaac was still wide awake and very excited about life in general.  He had lots of questions and kept scampering around the tent looking at things and poking me in the face.  Eventually, he passed out in my sleeping bag with me.  Jason then extracted him and our littlest guy slept through the entire night.  Hooray!!

After a breakfast of fire-toasted bagels and packing up our gear, it was back to the lake to get some more water time in before we headed home.

We seriously had a wonderful time and the boys were excited and having fun the entire time.  So much so that we've decided to make this a tradition and camp out here on the last day of school every year.

Rilea AND Sunset Beach AND Lewis & Clark

We definitely covered some territory this weekend.  Rachel had some military business down in Oregon and invited us to come along to check out the area.  It turned out to be an excellent adventure.

Our first stop was Camp Rilea. 

We drove down Friday night to stay on base in half-huts.  Half-huts are basically four walls, a roof and cement floor with a bathroom and four twin beds.  A step above camping and the boys loved it..  

The older boys stayed in a half-hut with Aunt Rachel (the fun half-hut) and Isaac stayed with Jason and I.  We discovered that Isaac can be quite chatty at night if he has an audience.  He kept us up for an hour just talking away after the lights were turned off.  Not sure what he was talking about most of the time, but he sure had a lot to say!

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the beach.  A marvelous mostly empty beach where we could drive the van on the beach and get all situated.

It was a little bit chilly that morning (surprise, surprise), but Michael and Ben just rolled up their pants and waded in.  I learned my lesson during our last trip to the beach and hollered at them to get their swimsuits on.  

This kid spent a crazy amount of time in the frigid water all the way up to his waist.  (after he changed into his swimsuit)

I loved this drive on the beach thing.  So much more fun than hauling gear for six people.

And here is Isaac sporting the beachwear of the Pacific Northwest: a swimsuit and winter jacket.  It actually did warm up (to the balmy 60's) so he didn't wear this the whole time.  I just think it's hilarious that it was necessary at all.

The sun, our long lost friend, even came out for a while!

Aunt Rachel had a meeting, but she spent a little bit of time on the beach with us before she had to go.  She and Josh played frisbee and Josh pretty much schooled her.

I love this little sun tent.

Isaac was not a fan of the cold water or the sand.  ::sigh::  But he had a marvelous time playing on the beach after Jason put his socks and shoes back on.

Dr. Destructo in action.

 We were at the beach for about 4 hours, which turned out to be long enough for all of us to burn something.  It could have been worse, but I did actually have two kinds of sunblock in the beach bag so the whole situation was ridiculously preventable.  It turns out burning the top of your feet is not nearly as much fun as it sounds.

After a picnic lunch, we headed out in search of a bathroom.  On our way to Fred Meyer, we saw signs for Lewis and Clark National Park.  I am a total sucker for those brown national park signs.  A little bit of research on my phone and we learned that Fort Clatsop was nearby and probably worth a visit.

Our exhausted, grumpy boys and Sacajewea.

Fort Clatsop is where Lewis and Clark and their expedition (33 people total) spent four rainy, winter months waiting for the weather to improve before heading back East.  Tiny little fort and I think I would go crazy spending that much time with so many people in such tight quarters.

Michael was so tired he flopped down on the nearest skin-covered bed.

No idea what this is, but Ben was watching me.

The face I get when I ask my teenager to smile:

There is a beautiful hike along a river that we walked on for a bit so I could say that I hiked some of the Fort to Sea trail.  But ultimately, the minions were tired and ready to head home.

So much fun.  We're so glad that Aunt Rachel invited us along and introduced us to another fun area not too far from our new home.

Birthdays

It turns out that this was not a great year for birthday pictures for the older boys.  Pictures or no pictures, they both managed to get a year older and sillier/wiser as well.  

This is was a no-party year, but we did have birthday dinners with Aunt Rachel.  Josh ordered hot dogs and hamburgers with mint chocolate chip ice cream and Oreos for dessert.  Michael wanted stuffed shells and cheesecake.