Orcas Island

Kyle took this week off of work and we planned a trip back to the fun Orcas Island rental house we stayed at last year, you can review last years trip here, here, here and here.

We had some friends come with us for one night, kinda last minute and we all had a great time with them being there with us.

The first day we arrived we got there before check in so we decided to show Matt and Silvia one of the waterfalls we hiked to last year.  It was an easy hike, until you head back up the mountain to get to your car, and it is even more difficult when you're holding a 45 pound child because they got attacked by bees and stung several times.  Poor kids!

After the kids recovered from the bee attack, we headed higher up the mountain, via car, and introduced Matt and Silvia to the castle we found last year!

 

I'll finish posting more of our adventures another day!

Kindergarten

Well, the inevitable happened, Kayden started Kindergarten even though I asked he stay my little forever! 

He has successfully completed his first week and it went really well.  He likes going to "big boy" school and has really enjoyed his teacher thus far.  She seems really nice and I believe she is good with the kids. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what this year has to bring and am excited for Kayden!

Kayden likes his bus driver, Mrs. Vicki too!

California Trip

One of our best friends moved to California at the beginning of summer, so Kayden and I headed down to visit her and the family, while also hitting up Aunt Sissy on our adventure.  We had a great time and loved every minute of it.  We did so many fun activities and enjoyed being with our friends and exploring parts of California I haven't been before. 

We showed up on a Monday and after almost forgetting our carry on on the airplane, we met Linzie, Emily and Parker at the baggage claim.

Anyway we spent the first day chilling at their new house and learning what California heat is all about.  It was so stinkin' hot....like really hot.

Then we headed to the fair on Tuesday, where it was even hotter than the day before, I didn't know that was possible.

Um, if at all possible, enlarge the above picture and look at the terrified look on Emily's face!  I'm pretty sure the whole fair could hear her screams of panic.

 

 

I may or may not have consumed fried peaches, mac and cheese stuffed burger, capt' crunch chicken burger and a wine slushy. 

We did activities through out the week and spent some lazy mornings letting the kids play and watch tv while Linzie and I chatted and drank coffee and enoyed the air conditioning.

We took some walks around the neighborhood and let the kids ride bikes to a couple parks.  We tried some new, and amazing shaved ice dessert and a few other restaurants.  Linzie and I snuck away one night to get pedicures, and another night for massages and shopping. 

One day we went to a World of Wonders museum then walked around a little town. 

Then on Friday we met up with Aunt Sissy at the Jelly Belly factory, and took the tour around.  Sadly, the factory wasn't really operating that day, for whatever reason, but a good time was had anyway.

After the Jelly Belly factory we headed home with sissy and enjoyed chatting and lounging around the rest of the day.  Then Saturday we got up and headed to Six Flags and spent the whole day there, allowing Kayden to take the lead.  We had a great time and were all tired by the end. Then it was time to get up Sunday morning and head home.  Thankfully I didn't forget my luggage on the plane this time! 

We had a great time being in California, but were excited to come home and see Kyle and get back to a summer schedule. 

Fox Hollow Farm

Towards the middle of July Kayden and I met a few friends at Fox Hollow Farms in Issaquah and it was a blast.  We had a great time and it was a great farm.  They had all kinds of things, not just farm animals.  We saw five day old piglets, a few week old baby kittens, and baby chicks, as well as, many traditional animals.  They had a bounce house, electric hot wheel tractors and jeeps, a corn box (imagine a sand box, with corn instead of sand) and mini play houses, that adults couldn't fit in and pony rides.

The price was right for the amount of activities and there was a creek the kids could play in, had we had the time.  Picnic tables allowed us to bring our own food in and not over pay for bad cafeteria food. 

Kayden really loved that place and I wish we could have had gone one more time this summer.

 

 

We had a great time at Fox Hollow!



Too Long

It has been way too long since I posted last and I'm saddened that I haven't kept up with my "Once a Week" goal I made for myself last year.  I was going to just take the first month of the year off from blogging to give me a bit of a "breather", if you will, and I just got in a rut of not posting hardly at all!  Ugh....

So, I am hoping to catch up, and things will most likely not be in chronological order, but I'll try.  So, lets move on, shall we?

Our summer has been pretty busy.  At the start of the summer I was elated because I thought all we had planned was our California trip and Soccer Camp, but we have managed to stay VERY busy. 

One of the first things we did at the start of summer was go to the Cougar Mountain Zoo with some friends.  We really like this zoo because it isn't too expensive to get into, and it's small and not overwhelming.  On this particular visit they had four six week old wolf pups and they were too.stinkin.cute!  I tell ya, if I could, I would have taken one home with us!  Kayden LOVED them too.  All the kids were gone from the presentation, except Kayden, he was still sitting there watching the cubs. 

We had a great time visiting the zoo and seeing friends.