In May, my little girl came up from the stream proud of her homemade sunscreen/bug repellant.  Even accounting for maternal bias, she is ironically at her most beautiful in these moments.

In an effort to completely wear ourselves out, we finished our Wednesday in Tacoma by renting a 6 person surrey (with a definite fringe!) with Friend Kristin and her 4.5 year old niece.  It somehow pedaled itself to the gelato shop, and neither could we avoid the fantastic views of Mount Rainier.  I will admit that Tacoma beats Home in traffic (but not in the good way) and mountain views (these are inarguably better).

Rather than just spend a day in Tacoma this summer, Kyla signed up for a 4 day camp, so Me & 3 packed up and headed down to south for most of a week.  After dropping the eldest at camp, Piper, Wesley and I met friends at the Zoo. 

Piper is completely flummoxed at being swallowed by an extinct shark.

My kids always love feeding the bright budgies—and I enjoy watching them!

A highlight for me is the daily show—this year Sheriff Bones had to teach a city slicker how to reuse and recycle.  For some reason, a chicken had to blow up the tavern.  It was an important plot element.

So was Sheriff Bones flying to the rescue in his hot air balloon.

We all liked it!

Wesley spent an enormous amount of time at the “hands-in” sea pools. Perhaps he didn’t realize that it was making him cleaner….

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Always glad to see the monkeys!

Sisters sharing ice cream at the Ruston Way Spray Park.

Wesley chooses water play over more ice cream!

The cabin had a few few free nights just as the Island Fair opened, so the kids and I went over Wednesday so we could be there bright and early when it opened today. 

This is what a Piper who has just seen an adorable baby goat looks like.

One of our favorite parts is the (free!) balloon animal lady.   Piper got a kitty, Wesley a cheetah, A- a scorpion,  V- an owl, and little J- an airplane.

And then the rides opened up.  Basically, that’s what the kids did for the next 9 hours.  Each kid had their Island BFF at the Fair that day, so each had a ride buddy. 

Really, at the end of the day, the Fair isn’t about just spending too much money, wondering where your kids are while trying to read a book, or even how to limit really unhealthy food.  For us, it’s about friends and our other community.  Awww….

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!