Whidbey Island

Warning! Picture overload!

As I wind down tonight I'm so grateful for this past week of Richard, Lisa, and kids visit. We packed in a lot of fun in 4 days and a lot of late night gaming. Turns out that Darren doesn't hate all games. He was quite skilled at 3D Blokus.

Wednesday we went to Whidbey Island. First we visited Fort Casey. My kids have been going there for years and never seem to tire of it. There is plenty of running around to do there and not much of it is safe. A parent definitely needs to be on guard with little ones running around the cement walkways that are about 15 feet high with no safety rails.

Then came one of my favorite places, Rosario Beach. The water is ice cold, which did not seem to stop the kids from walking right in. Sam was a bit disappointed that he couldn't skip rocks, and I was a bit disappointed as I tried to skip a rock but instead hurled it at Gillian's hand. Not very coordinated am I. There is a great little hike that looks over the ocean. Of course it is also fraught with danger as there is about an 80 foot drop off the cliffs into the ocean.

And then our favorite part of the day. Dinner! It was a great little cafe in Anacortes that said Donut shop and Deli. Or something like that. Lisa and I thought it sounded perfect as it could surely meet everyones needs. Except. For. Drew! She had her mind set on some "real food". When pressed as to what real food was she said couscous. Lisa said that she was pretty sure there was not a Habib's Drive Thru Couscous joint, and I agreed. So Drew sat crying and kept asking me why I wanted her to starve. And why didn't I name her Samantha? And why haven't I gotten her a horse yet? Ahhhhhh!!! There was no consoling her. Everything in her life at that moment was wrong, and everyone else was having a great time, including me. Until.... the drive home. So we were all in the trusty old Suburban. Nora was hot and wanted the air on. Gillian was cold and wanted the air off. Richard suggested she use Nora's blanket to get warm, keep the air on so that Nora wouldn't throw up. But no! That blanket doesn't work! It doesn't even work at all!! And of course she threw it off the minute that Richard put it on her. Then Sam was moaning in a low pitched voice "I want to use the i-phone!" But he couldn't play with it because it wouldn't be fair to the other kids who wanted to play with it. (Drew still upset). At one point Ben was making strange noises but I think he gave up by this point because he knew he would not be heard anyway. And the whole time Gavin was blissfully unaware of any of it as he sat in the back listening to his ipod. But really, it was a great day.

And now I am sad that Richie and family are gone. Waiting for next time when they can all come and ride our "water couch" again.

The End!

Summer fun with Crocketts

The first full day that Richie, Lisa and kids were here we went down to the Seattle Waterfront. Of course the big thing to do is feed the Seagulls leftover Ivar's food. They love french fries. So Richard was brave and one gull came and took it right out of his mouth. Then Ben tried. No luck.

And today.... Nice weather so we went to the lake. Darren got off early. It was Richie's kids' first time in the boat and as soon as they warmed up to it they loved it. As evidenced by the following pictures. Gilli is on the left, Sam in the middle and Ben on the right. Darren doesn't exactly drive slow. They were flying, and Sam was like a ragdoll. I love the one picture where you see his white little legs of Sam sticking straignt up. Even Richard and Lisa braved the wild ride.

Update

So it seems like I've been too busy to blog. I just now got around to getting photos off my camera and there were over 400.

We had a great time in California with cousins. Spent about a week in Huntington Beach and a week in Castro Valley. Then when we returned home we had a full week of wicked hot weather. We topped out at 105 degrees one day. So needless to say I didn't get much done that week in the house. It would have been child abuse to keep the kids home in a 90 degree house. One night I got it cooled down to 89 degrees. Strangely enough I really enjoyed that week. Then we had an extreme turn around for the next week. Back to the reality of low clouds and 65 degrees. That made Darren very happy. So, to sum up this past month..... California for 2 weeks, then a week of melting hot blissful weather, and then the usual blah, cold, clouds.

Fricke's pool.

Georgia's permanent wedgie. We called her Princess Buttcheek.

All the kiddos love Emily

Gavin's favorite part of the trip: tour of USS Hornet