Camping!

We finally took our kids camping last weekend! We had never taken them before because of the kids' ages and abilities and behaviors, blah blah blah. It seemed we always had a new walker or a crawler/roller/on-the-knees walker until this year. I wasn't sure I wanted my kids to get that dirty. I still wouldn't want to take a crawling baby, but I know now that we could have handled it. We're all pretty tough and our kids were literally, very "happy campers!" We roasted marshmallows and hot dogs over the fire, played in the woods, did some hiking and some geocaching (of course!), played on the beach...It was so much fun!

This was our campground at Larrabee State Park, just south of Bellingham. We chose a walk-in site so we had to trudge our stuff up and down a pretty steep hill about an eighth of a mile or so, but it was well worth it. We didn't have to worry about our kids running into the street. They got to run in the woods instead! And we all seem to like more seclusion and adventure. It doesn't feel like camping to me when I can see cars or people's RVs next to us. We could see two or three tents, but they were all spaced a ways apart. This was a beautiful place!

And if you didn't notice how ginormous our tent was (We weren't really roughin' it!), here are a couple of pictures to illustrate. The tent has two rooms. Here are Paige and Jonah in the back room, asleep. Notice how much room they have!
And here is a picture (not as good...) showing the front room. We were able to set up the playpen for Jack and still have PLENTY of room for our stuff and Mike and me.

Marshmallows were very fun to roast! Paige had roasted a marshmallow when she was Jack's age, but doesn't remember it. This was Jonah and Jack's first time. I loved how Jack said "momamow!" and that Jonah said his favorite part of camping was eating the "cream" inside his burnt marshmallows.
Here are all three roasting their marshmallows. I am carefully leaning from what could become a marshmallow torch. Look how careful Paige is not to burn her marshmallow.

Am I really blowing out two marshmallows at the same time? I don't remember that, but it sure looks like it!


I think I need some back up!

After a few marshmallows, our kids (who are often deprived of sugar) get a little goofy...

Jack loved to help build the fire!



Mike's 33rd birthday was on Sunday! He wanted to go camping for his birthday, didn't want anything for a gift, as usual. But, he did need a couple new shirts for work and a couple of wonderful cards from his children!

Mike was surprised at the beautiful pop-up card Paige made for him.
And he was scared when he opened up his card from Jonah. If you cannot tell from the picture, Jonah made a spider on a spider web.

Jonah's was so thrilled to scare his Daddy!
And a super cool part of our weekend didn't have to do with camping really. Our friends, Colin and Stephanie teach at Western and they live about 6 miles from the campground, so we got to see a lot of them! They came to the campsite and visited and roasted marshmallows with us. Well, Steph roasted marshmallows and Colin amused the kiddos... We also spent time with them at their house (They have the best toys!). And they took us on a tour of Western Washington University on Saturday and for a walk down to a dock on the water on Sunday. You can just walk to the water from their house! It was so nice to spend so much time with them. They told us that we were their plans for the weekend. They had nothing else to do, except for a run, swim and bike ride by Colin, who is always preparing for Iron man triathlons. It was so nice spending time with our friends and kids, not having to worry about anything, just enjoying one another and beautiful Bellingham (I always want to move there when we visit!).

Here are the kids on the WWU campus by one of the "little green men" statues.

Paige and Jonah loved these log "stairs"

And also these zigzag stairs.
Here is Colin, Paige and Jonah on the dock, playing with their shadows.


We are all looking forward to camping again really soon! The next few weekends will be busy with Paige's birthday, a company picnic, Mike's Rainier climb...but we will have to try to camp a few times in August and September. Maybe by then I will have the campfire smoke smell out of my hair!

Anyone wanna play?

Anyone wanna play "skunk & bumble bee," "skunk & snake" (Daddy's favorite!), "bumble bee & bat", "grasshopper & bat", "grasshopper & bee", "lion & grasshopper", or any other game that involves skunks and/or insects/arachnids? Come over and play! My mommy and daddy and sister don't seem to want to play these games with me all day long, every day and Jack doesn't play right. I don't understand it. These games are sooooo fun! Oh, and if you happen to have or know where to buy a mosquito toy, would you let my mommy or daddy know where to get it?

Love, Jonah

Summer Fun!

Here are a few pictures from the last week or so (kind of Virnig-style). We are enjoying the summer sun and our yard. Last Sunday we had around 20 kids and their parents (LOTS of people) over for the end of the year Girl Scout BBQ. I have no pictures of that, but it was so fun! Mike wasn't here, so I just focused on being hostess and making sure I knew where my kids were. I loved seeing all of those kids (and some parents too!) playing on the swings and the slide, kicking and throwing balls in the grass, playing in the playhouse, and smiling and laughing the whole time.

Filling the pool! Although if anyone walked near him, Jack would laugh as he filled them!

Paige would get about 25 yards away from the pool, start sprinting and then would jump into the pool. Sprinklers are fun too!Here is Jack jumping in his little pool. He got this pool from Aunt Barb for his birthday. It's perfect for him. He definitely likes to have control of the water he's in. He prefers to be the only one splashing on him.
Any suitors?

Sorry it's sideways, but isn't it cute anyways?! Paige drew this while I was cleaning up the yard after the GS BBQ.

Cheese!

Jonah loved this "spider web" at Kelsey Creek Park. I don't think he played anywhere else for the 20 minutes or so we played there. He just stayed on the web, waiting for his prey. And when "prey" would get onto the web, he would pretend to bite them and suck their blood out. That's our boy!

"When's it my turn?" says Jonah. We got Jack a battery and charger for this little brroom brroom for his birthday. EVERYONE loves it!

And look here at Jack kissing Baby Matthew at his birthday party. Sweet boys.

Recently Paige and Jonah started gymnastics at Metropolitan Gymnastics. They LOVE it! Right now, they are the only ones in our Wednesday morning class, so if you (or your kids) are between 4 and 7 years old and want to start gymnastics with us, let me know. They will give you two free classes! It is less expensive then "the little gym" and I like that this is, in my opinion, real gymnastics. We would love any of our friends to join us!

Here is Jonah doing his favorite activity on the beam- the bear crawl. Oh, and next to him is Coach Frannie.

Jack loves going to gymastics too. Although he doesn't take a class, he gets to play on lots of equipment. The other day he was loving this little balance beam, although the big yellow trampoline is his favorite!

Here is our (somewhat) graceful Paige. She really is doing great! She can bunny hop and walk backwards across the beam. She loves trampoline work and is at the beginning stages of learning to vault and tumble.
Jumping Jonah! Jonah loves gymnastics as well and Wednesday Coach Frannie started him on the male apparatus'. He held his body weight up while holding onto the pommel horse for 3 seconds. Yeah scrappy Jonah!


Here is a cute pic of Paige while they get playtime after their class.

We all enjoyed a trip to the Point Defiance Zoo on Jack's birthday weekend. We learned that that Beluga whale there, named Beethoven, was soon going to be moved to Texas (Maybe y'all can visit him, Fiona and Zac!). We were able to see the last performance before his move.

Is it a surprise to you that Jonah LOVES the zoo?

Here's the whale!

And if you've never seen it, here is a zookeeper brushing a walrus's teeth! We watched this for a while. I'd be a bit scared to get up close to that animal. Did you know that walrus's, at least the ones there, are between 3,000 and 3, 500 pounds? Yikes!

And this is Jack. I just thought it was funny. He was helping me spin the lettuce. He would push the button a few times and then lie down to watch it spin.

I hope you all are having a happy almost summer! It sure is beautiful out there!