Proof That Their Life Isn’t So Bad

Three of them! Poor Mama.

We visited the zoo today and the baby jaguars were out—all three of them.  The lion quads are getting big, but these triplets are still all milk-drunk happy to be attacking ivy and each other.

 

As for me, I brought a crabby dinosaur with us.  At happier moments, he would run ahead swishing his tail around. 

 

We haven’t had a bad day at the zoo yet.

How We Play

How does our family spend a lazy Sunday afternoon at the beach?

Dwayne naps, reads, naps.

 

Kyla becomes an artist and scientist as she explores the area for minerals and clay.

 

Wesley ditches his pants (and underwear) to get more of his body dirty. I had to choose this picture very carefully.

 

Piper can still out-dirty Wes even with all her clothes.  She found clay and a little stream, which is all she needed to turn herself into a gray elephant.  (Note: I didn’t get a picture of the final transformation, just the hands and feet.)

Loganberry Festival!

Greenbank Farm, Whidbey Island

Eleven years ago today, Dwayne and I threw our biggest party yet and got married in the middle of it.  Due to my parents thinking they can go on vacation whenever they please, we are not celebrating that  event.  But on our honeymoon, when we stayed a few days at the Guest House Log Cottages, we came across this same Loganberry festival on Whidbey Island and spent a few pleasant hours. 

And since we couldn’t pawn off the kids this weekend and the cabin was free, we decided to revisit.

So fun!

Next time, we will show up earlier than noon, and watch more of animal events.  We liked the agility dog training as well as disc dog and some riding events.  A local church hosted a kids’ fair with bouncy houses and games.  Lots of local music and even more food carts.  The Greenbank farm has permanent galleries and master garden as well.   We exhausted ourselves by the end of the day, but it was a great family adventure!

Baby almost didn’t make it back.  Twenty minutes from the festival, we realized Baby wasn't’ t with us.  We turned around and asked the first guy who looked like he might know (everyone was doing teardown by this time).  A one-in-a-hundred chance, he has found the doll earlier and knew exactly where she was.  Phew!

Yeah, Jesus is the crazy, Wes. Yep.

 

 

Wesley likes the song:

Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Allelu,

Praise ye the Lord.

However, out of Wesley’s mouth, it sounds like:

Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Allelu,

Cray-Zee the Lor’

Pot.  Kettle.  Black.

Like Father, Like Son: Punks!

Before (and do you like how Wesley’s popsicle makes a goatee similar to Dwayne’s?)

 

And after:

 

 

I am so twitterpated!

On the Homestead—High Desert Museum

I only took my camera out twice this week in Sun River—I’m not really good at capturing family dinners and bike rides (my kids did their first mountain bike ride out to Benham Falls!) and ice cream runs and late night Kings & Serfs.  

But I certainly took out the camera when we went to The Museum.  The kids loved the late-19th century homestead, where they had a lot of chores to do. 

Sweeping,

 

Watering,

 

Digging potatoes,

 

Laundry,

 

Rug beating,

 

Finally, they got to play.

 

We played inside, too.  Piper is my little stinker, dressed in a skunk costume.

 

In the quilt exhibit, Kyla spent a lot of time making her own felt design.  And she reminded me that I don’t need to buy any of the beautiful quilts that I coveted, because I could simply (!?!) make my own quilts again.  Uh, huh.

 

Wesley enjoyed taking the stuffed eagle and dropping out of the aerie over and over again.  Yep, good times.

 

Six-and-a-half hours, and we left just before we would have been kicked out.  Love this place!

Sun River SHARC

Julie found a fantastic house for a fourteen of us in Sun River, OR, and we loved it!  I especially appreciated that I could get the kids into swim lessons for the week were are here.  Last summer, the community opened a huge Pool Extravaganza, called SHARC.  The house came with guest passes, so we spent a lot of time there, even outside of lessons.

The best part was on the last day of lessons, the kids got to go down the waterslides before they opened (and didn’t have to enforce the “Must Be Taller Than 4’” rule that Piper and Wesley don’t meet).  Piper couldn’t get enough of it.  Wesley did each slide once, and was done.

Cousins!

Aunt Deborah had a great idea and brought fabric pens and matching T-shirts for the cousins.  I wish I got a better shot of Kara’s shirt—she captured the essence of the week: Kings & Serfs (ask us about new house rules!), birdie (we’ll see if we get a parakeet this year), Scoops Ice Cream Parlor, telescope, and more.

Wesley and Isaac have matching shoulders.

 

And here’s all of us, minus Dan, who was trying to get into the picture before the camera timer (and Wesley) went off.

Wrapping Up California--ZZZzzzzz

Cali is HOT—100 degrees after dinner hot.  But being with family you  adore for 5 days makes it more than worth it.  I love how wonderful The Cousins are together—Isaac, Kara, and Esther are rock star role models and playmates.  And I wish my SIL, Deborah, lived just down the street.  I would be a better person if I could drink in her calm and wisdom more than once a year.  And Dan is even more perfect than usual with his slingshot and adventuring spirit.

Kara inspires new styles for Piper.

Kyla and Esther made some pretty great fairy manors and log cabins.

 

 

And after days of all-day fun, hours swimming, hiking, playing, for the first time in 3 years, all three children fell soundly asleep on the car ride home.  Hurrah!

Wesley’s Crabby (and Funny) Faces

100% cranky.

 

30% cranky, 70% philosophical (“At least I got Uncle Dan to carry me”):

 

80% cranky, 80% sleepy (a mathematical impossibility, but it somehow still works for him).

 

And to show he is not always like this, here’s a few more shots to balance his reputation: