Monday, January 4, 2021
Last Hurrahs with Shoreline Friends
Back at the beginning of the summer I had the kids each make a list of friends who they would be sad if they didn't get a chance to see them in person before we moved. It was hard to get to everybody on the lists between busy schedules, covid restrictions, and different comfort levels with meeting up in person. In the end I think that we got to hang out with almost everybody. For those who we didn't hang out with we still at least saw them one last time. I printed off photos of the kids with their friends and had them paint of otherwise decorate with glitter, and sequins frames to put the photos in, then we delivered them and the kids got to say goodbye.
Leona's friends that she wanted to be sure to say goodbye to were: Hannah, Olivia, and Addy. She also got a bonus playdate with her "first grade friend, Sebastian" because Eliza wanted to hang out with her friend, Olivia.
With the Murdochs at Shoreview Park. This is the kids' favorite spot, because they use the roots to climb up the sandy wall.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Final Rice's Rainy Campout
We went to our final-sniff, sniff- Rices' Rainy Campout in August. It was however our first campout that lived up to its name. It had rained earlier in the day and then stopped. Then right about the time that all the parents were finally trying to wrestle kids away from the tag in the dark game it started really raining. It was perfect timing. :) The best part of the rain was that it was gone the next morning.
All of the usual excitement was on hand, s'mores, tag, the giant slip'n'slide (in 55 degree weather), and roving packs of kids. This year there was the addition of bunnies. Sis. Stratton brought her two bunnies and set them up in a small pen. Timothy and Clara were especially interested in the bunnies and spent a lot of time both outside looking in and inside the pen. Leona and Eliza mostly ran around with friends. It was a great send off.
Fun in Early August
Selfie found on Collin's phone
Wearing dad's headset for work
After 5 years of off and on construction I finally finished making Leona's quilt. High fives all around. :)
There is an infinite supply of blackberries in Washington in late July-early August. Timothy, Leona, and Clara were good little blackberry harvesters. We couldn't pick the normal amount this year, since we were planning to move and wouldn't need a freezer full of blackberries, but we still picked enough for cobbler, popsicles, and sorbet in addition to the supply needed for general snacking. I'm so sad because I had plans to take a blackberry shoot from the bike trail with us when we moved. In all the hustle and bustle of our last 24-48 hours in Seattle I forgot about my blackberry shoot so now I can't plant Washington Blackberries in our backyard in Texas. Our neighbors are probably happy that I didn't bring an invasive species into the neighborhood, but I am disappointed.
We found this super fun creek to play in next to a field of blackberry bushes. It made for a very fun afternoon with the Koenigs.
Tea time. Timothy was sooo pleased to have been included.
Edmonds Beach
Trip to Idaho
Towards the middle of July we started going stir-crazy and wanted to go somewhere. We settled on visiting Uncles Sammy and Jaybob (and Aunts Larissa and Kaleigh obviously) in Rexburg. It was a long enough drive to feel like a real road trip, but short enough to be only one day in the car. We left the day after my birthday and came back about 5 days later. In addition to the draw of seeing family, Rexburg had the added advantages of being hot and of having tons of outdoor activities- which was great for the middle of a pandemic.
While we were there most people hiked "R Mountain". However Timothy and Leona didn't feel like hiking in the sun and dust, so I stayed behind with them and they climbed in and around some trees that offered shade. We all went camping, played in the sand dunes, and the highlight of the trip- went rock climbing.
In the dunes we tried cardboard boxes, bare feet, and the top of a skateboard. The kids had a lot of fun although we were glad that we went in the morning because helping kids repeatedly climb up the sand dunes was exhausting. On our way out of the dunes Uncle Sammy and Collin helped two teenage girls to dig their car out of the sand in a side road.
Rock climbing was definitely everybody's favorite part of the trip. The uncles and aunts took us to a place a little ways outside of town. The scariest part of the whole thing was climbing up the shale rockslide side of the mountain on our hands and feet to get to the climbing part. It was really steep and because of the shale, really slippery. I was wearing Timothy on my back in the carrier. He wanted to be climbing by himself and was pulling my hair and hitting me in his little toddler fury. Once we made it up to the rocks/cliff that we were going to climb the uncles free climbed the course to hook the ropes in ahead of everybody else going climbing. The girls were all little mountain goats, traipsing up the rock like it was not big deal. None of them were afraid of the height and climbed about 40-50 feet up. All the adults were impressed with their fearlessness and skill. The adults who weren't belaying climbers were trying to keep Timothy in his 2 square feet of safe space on the rocks and monitoring the girls so they didn't free climb higher than about 20 feet up.
It was a really fun trip, and a nice break.
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