My friend, Kimberly, came up with her three kids for a few days, so we took the kids, ages 1.5  – 10 to the zoo for the day!

And of all the animals we saw that day, these little guys in the flamingo pond really caught our fancy!

Popsicles and friends on the hammock.

Grandpa and Me & 3 had a few free days to go camping together.  We threw our tent and sleeping bags into the camper, climbed in the cab with my dad, and drove off to Deception Pass for 2 nights of camping….

….which was simply the worst location we could have found for those few days.  The local navy base was running drills with their biggest, noisiest planes and carriers.  Yes, absolutely the sound of freedom, but no less ear-clutching, head-throbbing aural terror every 5-10 minutes up until midnight.  We left after one night, and that was 12 hours too long!

All that notwithstanding, the beach down at Deception is fabulous, and I wish we could have stayed longer.

My parents had visited another campground they liked off Highway 2 so we headed there.  There we found a spot to do My Favorite Thing—reading on a beach while the kids play in the sand and water.  It was a  river bank, but it more than suited.

 

Grandpa already had a fire going when we got back to camp, and we took ready advantage.

 

We put a new twist on s’mores by taking the brownies Grandma sent, adding a golden marshmallow on top, and sandwiching it with a thin mint cookie.  Yeah, it was pretty good.

Once the monkeys were fed, they started climbing the surrounding trees.  Can you spot Kyla?

Dwayne’s entire team was given all of 4th of July week off—and that’s a real vacation!  We wanted to do a Family Adventure after our week at the cabin, and chose Winthrop as our destination. 

This is how we travel:

1) Ice Cream

(This man just doesn’t take a bad picture, even without ice cream in hand!)

2) Walk and Waterfall

3) Nap in uncomfortable positions

4) Throw a snowball in July as we travel the Cascade Loop.

5)  Arrive in Winthrop!  Unpack attitude.

Winthrop is quirky.

And Winthrop is beautiful!

But the best thing about Winthrop was our discovery that the kids are old enough that we can buy them a frozen pizza at the grocery store and leave them with Mama’s computer on Netflix and Mama’s phone (to call Daddy’s phone), and Dwayne and I can go off to a proper dinner.  In Winthrop, it’s Arrowleaf Bistro.  We can guarantee it, seeing as we went two nights in a row.  Sans children.  We were all happier!

But we’re not going to go back that way until it’s consistently under 100 degrees.  Let’s do Autumn next time!

With Winthrop temperatures as they were, we were grateful to find that neighboring Twisp had a public pool.  With a slide.  And diving board.  Wesley couldn’t think of any place he’d rather be.  No one else complained, either!

Very Zen.

Here’s a Piper-splash:

And a Daddy-splash:

This!

Took just 4 kids down to the parade, but at least we met up with our friends and their cousins, so we weren’t short on candy-getters!

This guy is always around to hand out bananas from the local Goose Grocer

You know I’ll do this same blog post next year!

I love the cabin, my country, Whidbey Island, and kids….possibly in that order.  So taking the 6 kids to Freeland’s 3rd of July Freedom Festival is one of the highlights of my year.

Wesley, Kyla, Dwayne, Piper, Abigail, Parker, and Cecily share the first course of the night. 

There are bouncy houses…

 

….giants…

…friends…

…flyovers…

…hair bands…

… and more food than we could eat (but we’ll try).

Fireworks are not Cecily’s thing, but Dwayne got to be Uncle Hero (and got snuggles all evening).

Look at this sunset!  Abigail and Wesley played on the beach while we waited for it to be dark enough for fireworks.

Finally, we’re ready for….

I have always wanted to make myself a pallet flag.  But never enough to actually do it.  Then I found one on sale and I had an extra coupon, so why take the time and do a lousy job when I can just buy one.  God bless America…and have mercy on Americans?