Fourth of July Parade

This year instead of watching the 4th of July parade, Ben, Jillian and I were in it! Ben's preschool decided to have a float. My dad let us use his truck and trailer (thanks, Dad!), which we decorated to reflect the parade's 50's theme. Ben and a few of his friends were a rock band, and the rest of the siblings and parents were the groupies. I drove the truck! We were right behind the "Basset Brigade" (Basset Hounds walking with their owners). The dogs kept stopping to sniff people and I was constantly afraid I was going to run over one of them! But all in all, it was a smooth ride and the kids had fun. It was such a different perspective being in the parade rather than watching it. I had no idea so many people came out to watch!

Jillian passed out candy, which she ran out of after the first few blocks! The parade is a mile long, and I'll bet the people at the end don't even know that candy is ever given out. Everyone always runs out by the half way point at least!

The fabulous Teacher Ellen and the Preschool Rock Band!

Hayden Lake, Idaho

The top 10 things we loved about Hayden Lake, in no particular order:

1. Warm, no HOT, sunny days and clear blue skies.
Every day was gorgeous! OK, the one day it got to 104 was a little hot, but we had the lake to cool down in. We did have one thunder storm, but unlike home, the next morning was clear and sunny again.

2. Swimming in the lake (or floating on the lake).



Nate and Kylie did a polar dip two of the mornings. By the afternoon, the water felt great!



Even Ben loved paddling around. It was so cute to see him and Matzo swimming the same way!

Jillian swam, too...I guess I didn't get any pictures of her actually in the water.

3. No TV, internet or cell phone coverage

Need I say more?

4. Kayaking
This was my first time kayaking and I loved it! We tied the two kayaks and one innertube together and pulled the kids around. What a peaceful way to travel!




5. Relaxing on the dock.
We were surprised at how few people were at the lake. I don't know if the end of June is normally quiet, but we loved that we had so much privacy. There were several houses around the one we stayed in, but all were empty until the last day when one neighbor arrived.


6. Watching Matzo try to get his tennis ball out of the lake.
The first few times we threw the ball for him, this is what he did! After he got used to it, he loved jumping in.



7. Silverwood and Boulder Beach
It's really hard to take pictures at an amusement park, but here are a few! Kylie and Ben are our most ambitious thrill seekers. Kylie rode every roller coaster twice and would have gone more if we had the time. Ben loved the big water slides and even drove his own bumper boat. Jillian went on the roller coaster "Tremors" and decided that she hates roller coasters. I'm with her!



8. Hanging out with the Perrins.

Brad met Clayne in the MTC and they've been friends ever since. Clayne, Kelly and their four kids live on Mt. Spokane where he's a Park Ranger. They spent the day with us at the lake on Saturday, and then we met up at Silverwood on Tuesday. We had a blast and wish they lived closer so we could spend more time together.

9. The rustic cabin.

It was small inside, but had a great porch where we spent a lot of time. We ate almost every meal outside. When it was hot on the porch, it was cooler inside, and when it got too hot inside, then it had cooled down outside.

10. Fishing with Dad.

Whenever we ask Ben what he likes to do with Brad, he always says "Fishing!" They got their chance, didn't catch anything, but I don't think that's really the point.

Five things that weren't so great:

1. Dead catfish

For some reason there were lots of dead catfish floating around in the lake. The neighbor we met who lives there full time said he didn't know why there were so many this year.

2. The metal shower stall with duct taped knobs.

Like I said, the cabin was rustic. At least it didn't still have an outhouse like some of the cabins up the road!

3. The long and winding road.

The road from town up to the Lake was six miles of hair-pin turns. Kylie got carsick on one of the trips into town. She yelled at me to pull over, but not in time! Ugh. I didn't have anything to clean up with except Ben's jacket. Double UGH!

4. Watching Wall-E in soaking wet clothes.

I know some people in my family would say that watching Wall-E even in dry clothes was an unpleasant experience, but I thought the movie was kind of cute. We had gone to a family fun center before the movie and I got soaked, litterally "dripping wet to the bone" soaked on the bumper boats. It was on the 104 degree day, so it felt really good...until we went into the theater and I had my own personal air-conditioning system!

5. Funny, I couldn't think of anything for #5!

We had a marvelous vacation. It's a little hard to get back into reality, so I guess #5 would be having to leave!

Hawley Cove Park

Today we did something I've been meaning to do for a long time...explore the parks on Bainbridge Island that we've never been to. We'll try to visit a few each week and hopefully by the end of the summer, we'll hit them all.

We started with Hawley Cove Park. I knew where it was, kind of, so we drove down Hawley Way off of Ferncliff until the road ended and turned into a gravel driveway. It must be down here, I thought, Hawley Park...Hawley Way, makes sense, right? We continued on and indeed came to a small pull-out with a very hidden "Bainbridge Island Open Space" and "Trail Head" sign. Hmmm....not quite the park entrance I imagined. My dad is on the Park Board, and I remember him telling us there was a grand opening for the park recently and that the trail was nicely done with a boardwalk. Oh well, I thought, this must be it. So we pressed on through the slightly visible trail in the tall grass.

A short walk through the tall grass led to the beach, with a bit of a climb over driftwood first.


What a great view of the ferry!

We walked down the beach a way, past a pretty wetlands area and some lovely nature creations.
Fortunately it was low tide. I imagine the water comes all the way up to the driftwood at high tide.

And then we found the REAL trail! It is indeed a boardwalk part of the way and a wide, bark trail the rest.

We walked up the trail and found the REAL entrance to the park. It's at the intersection of Wing Point and Azalea, in case anyone is interested.

Coming back down, Jillian took a picture of this tree that she said looks like it had arms.

And I enjoyed this view of the ferry through the cat tails.

Kylie, Jillian and Ben played in the sand while Nathan read snippets from "The Princess Bride" to me and we watched the ferry depart.

A nice way to spend a few hours on the first offical day of summer vacation!

Tennis Anyone?

Cousin Time!

My sister Corey and her husband Jeff celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary this past weekend and their two boys (Hyrum, 3, and Jonah, 10 mos.) stayed overnight with us! It's been a long time since I've had a baby in the house overnight!

Jonah's still nursing, and he didn't want to have much to do with me when I tried to put him to bed. I obviously couldn't give him what he wanted, and the bottle I offered was not an acceptable substitute! We ended up going on a car ride together at 11:30 pm, which helped him calm down and fall asleep. When he woke up around 4:30 am, I swear he took one look at me and thought "Oh no! It wasn't a bad dream...she's still here!" Fortunately he let me cuddle him and he fell back asleep for a few hours, then after he was up and ate breakfast, Jillian sat on the couch with him and he fell asleep for a four hour nap. Jillian was a great helper!

Hyrum had a wonderful time because I let him play Barbies and even take them to bed with him. (Sorry, Jeff!) Hyrum loves Jillian and follows her around everywhere. Ben's a close second.

Pay it Forward

We are now the proud owners of a piano! Jillian has been wanting to take piano lessons for about a year now and I had to keep telling her, "Not now, we don't have a piano." I was sitting at the computer one morning doing something really important, like checking my email or reading blogs, and a message from my freecycle group popped up that said "Offered: Piano." I responded right away asking for the dimensions. There's only one place in our whole house where a piano would fit, and it was the perfect size! I told the woman that I would like to come see it, so that afternoon a friend and I went to look at it. It was beautiful! My friend's son, who is a gifted pianist, played a few songs and it sounded great! The woman even looked like she was having second thoughts after hearing it played so well. When Brad, my dad, and four of our great friends went to pick it up, the woman said that she had given it away for free since she thought someone would have to pay a mover to move it. (She obviously hasn't heard of the Elder's Quorum!) So, she told Brad that now we have to "Pay it Forward." We're on the lookout for something really great that we can do for someone.

Preschool Celebration

I like the way Ben's preschool celebrated the end of the school year. Instead of calling it "graduation", they called it an "end of the year celebration". Teacher Ellen created a memory book for each child that she presented to them and then Teachers Ellen and Tifanie sang the "goodbye song" one last time to each child. It was very sweet.

The BBQ Index

Those of you who live in the Pacific Northwest know it's been an abnormally cold spring. To confirm what we already know, this morning on KUOW's Weekday program I heard about the BBQ index. A man who studies weather trends at the UW put together some fascinating data and found that yes, indeed, we have had the coldest first week of June in 117 years! His BBQ index looks at the high temperatures from March 11, which is when he says spring starts in our area, to June 10. He looks at the number of days that are above 60, the temperature he says most people are comfortable being outside doing fun things like BBQs. This year we have had a whopping 23 days with highs over 60! Compare that to years like 1992 which had 62 days! He said that this year's BBQ index is the worst it's been since 1917. Last year we had 48 days. Here's a link to the story for all you weather geeks (like me!)

http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/19716809.html

Hummingbird Antics

In the rain and gloom Tuesday, it was such a treat to watch these colorful little guys! I feel a little bad, because I think they're addicted to the sugar water. They just can't stay away! The red one seems to be the dominant male. He's the one I see most often and he usually chases the others away. Last year they brought their babies. Hopefully we'll be able to see them this year.

One Little Thing

I read the book "Painted Dreams" by Karen Lynn Williams to Ben this morning. It's a great story of a little girl in Haiti who loves to paint, but doesn't have the materials she needs and her parents , especially her mother, discourage her painting because they need her to work all day. Her family sells produce at the village market, but their stand hasn't been doing much business. Using her ingenuity, she finds a way to get supplies and discovers that by using her talents and painting a mural behind the vegetable stand, she is able to attract more customers, thus satisfying her desire to paint and helping her family at the same time. It reminded me of the presentation I went to last night about the trip to Nepal some of our friends made. They told a story about a woman who was given a sewing machine, a very basic, hand cranked old Singer. She used it not only to sew for her family, but to open a sewing school. She was able to support her family and teach others to sew. Sometimes all it takes is one little thing to change people's lives for the better. I wish there were a list of things we could give that would make that change for people. Maybe there is? If you know about it, tell me! I do know about Heifer International, which I think is a wonderful program. I'm wondering more about creative endeavors and tools to help people express their talents.