NW Trek... again

Raymond has really taken an interest in photography, so when we went to NW Trek, he was busy copying uncle Freeman, who has become quite the photographer of late. I gave Ray free reign with the camera this outing and of course he started with a self portrait!

Freeman, me (post surgery sling) Addison, Zachary and Elizabeth stop for a photo op.

The kids always love going into the activity center and playing with the puppets

This made us all laugh out loud... Addison dropped her bink in the coyote den, so it was gone for the day. As naptime approached, I was worried we'd have to leave, but we quickly plied her with pretzels and she promptly fell asleep -

With a pretzel in her mouth!

Ice cream for breakfast

At the beginning of the summer, I decided I wanted to make sure my kids had fun - really had a memorable summer and also keep up with the needs at home. So, being a listmaker, I decided to try and stick to a schedule. You know... house work on Monday, Games on Tuesday, Crafts on Wednesday, Fun day Away on Thursday, etc. That way we were sure to get it all in. We were doing great at first and Raymond was really getting into tracking the days of the week and then I found out I had to have surgery on my shoulder. They type that takes 6 weeks of immobility to fix! Yikes... no better time than the present, right? There goes the summer of fun. So, one morning when I really didn't feel up to making breakfast, I suprised them with a special treat...

ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST! Now isn't that every kid's dream?

Happy Independence Day!

The day started out by relaxing a bit in the pool to cool off.


Later in the evening, we went to the Hansen's for fellowship, food and fireworks.

Always fun to get together with friends and let the kids run wild!

NW Trek

Our friends Madison and Derek Harris joined us for a trip to NW Trek

We had a wonderful time. Raymond had the camera most of the day and I am not posting the bazillion pictures of animals that he took, but here is a few of my favorite pics of the kids (all of whom could have passed for an animal at some point during the day!)

Lipstick

What do you suppose happens when a little girls gets into her mommy's purse and finds her almost new lipstick? It isn't almost new anymore! 3 cheers for Mary Kay's very generous return policy

Old Friends

Jan is a friend of mine from way back. We met when I started working at Mervyn's in 1991 or so to try and pay some college bills and we've been great friends since! Although we'd managed to keep in touch via phone, email, etc... we hadn't actually seen each other in several years. In fact, she'd never met Addison in person! So we made the trek to admire her new home in Port Orchard, had lunch and hit the park.

Addison enjoying the sunshine and swing

Zachary had fun on the big toy and made a friend along the way. He's actually the one that took the 1st picture of the 3 of us - the new friend, that is!

Watching the sunset

After our day at Seaside, we all went back, too naps to recharge and headed back down to the beach to watch the sunset

A LOT of fun...

and a little cuddling to pass the time while we watched the sun go down.

Photos never do this amazing time of day justice. It is truly beautiful and so peaceful.

We thought we'd make our mark...littlest to biggest