Sundays are for adventurin'

(Pics from two recent Sunday adventures)

 

 Dutch at Rasar State Park. One of our favorite places. Dutch and I fell waaaay behind Cam, Clem and Taco due to his love of identifying every rock, stick and leaf.

 But finally we caught sight of our beloveds!

 On the way home from Rasar I noticed that all the cars were pulling over to the side of the road. We originally thought there was an accident but then folks pulled out their cameras. This is what was happening: a herd of Elk had run across the highway and was prancing and enjoying their freedom in this open field. There were HUGE bucks in the herd of about 30 elk. We watched for awhile before heading home.

 On a particularly hot Sunday we hit up a new to us park where Clem discovered her love of rolling down hills and Dutch discovered his love of swings!

Fox Hollow Farm

 A few weeks ago, I drove down with my kidlets to our old stomping grounds in Issaquah (I miss you Issaquah!). My homey Emma had enticed me down there with pictures of this amazing farmyard, knowing it was my dream come true! And it didn't disappoint in any way. The kids and I had a fabulous day.

 In the farmyard, there are tons of animals to pat, they are just super used to human contact!

 In my all time favorite Dutch story of the summer, he walked up to this mama sow--yelling as they sauntered toward one another "HEY PIG!" She was not fazed by his noise one bit. When they got face to face, Dutch threw both of his arms up and said "Hey PIG! Why are you so messy??!!??" It was classic Dutch.

 In all honesty, I thought about taking one of these polka dot piglets home with me. They are not only adorable, but incredibly friendly!

 Then we explored other parts of the farm as well! There was a HUGE bin of dried corn kernels. Clementine and baby Penny LOVED the action in there. Dutchy, not so much. There was a mini-fit, actually.

All around the farm, there is a new nook to explore, more animals to gawk at and TONS we didn't even get to see! There was a little playground with beautifully landscaping all around. I love this rock bed (get on it Cam would ya?) and not until I posted the pic did I notice the peacock. Do you see it?

I LOVE this Fair!

 Every year I end up taking Clem to the fair on the HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR. This one was no different. Yesterday, Sissy came up with her boys and we took 75% of the kids to the fair (Dutch was at school). The temperature when I left the fair at 3:30 was 95 degrees. It was nuts.

 First we sweated in the barn, checking out the animals.

 Then we took this party outside to sweat on all the rides.

 Nolan took a while to warm up but not Clem, she was ready to go on every single ride. A few times, Nolan hung back to watch Clementine the first round, then he would join her for a second or third ride.

 They seriously went through this little fun house 15 times (at least)

 Miles used the power of NO! when it came to sharing strawberry lemonade. Thank goodness for $1 refills! We probably abused that system a bit.

This is when things got REAL hot. You can tell it's hot by looking at poor Nolan's face!! It was too hot to take any more pictures so we called it a day.
I am SO glad my favorite nephews came up to enjoy the fair day with us! What a blast the big kids had!!!

Silver Lake

 

We were able to check another box off the Summer Bucket List with our first--definitely not last--trip out to Silver Lake. This play/camp-ground is about halfway between our house and Mt. Baker. We had a blast and will definitely be back!

 In addition to trails, lake and camping spots, Silver Lake had a great playground! Our kids loved it--although on this hot day there were spots that were just too hot to really enjoy (like the scorch-your-butt slide).

 

 There was a lovely, picturesque walking path with a bridge that took us up and over the lake. Paddle boats and canoes passed under us as we went across.

The water there was very clear and lots of folks were either on or in it. This mama didn't know that it'd be such a great place for swimming! Our poor kids were directed to go no higher than their knees. (Guess how long that lasted??) 

Our Annual August Artist Point Trip

August is hot around these here parts. And this August seems to be hotter than ever. So for our most recent Sunday adventures, we headed up high. As high as you can get round here. We drove to the top of Mt. Baker!

Speaking of hot, look at my mountain man! Hubba hubba.

 Clementine has been carrying around this squirrel with her for the last few days. He loved the adventures in nature on top of the mountain, for obvious reasons.

 Dutchy is still just too unpredictable to trust on top of a mountain with trails that twist and turn. So this little fellow got to ride on my back--probably for the last time up at Artist Point!

 Because he is the tenderest tender soul from tender town, he kept kissing the back of my arms, rubbing my back and letting out a big sigh as he rested his head against me. He's incredibly loving.

 Which is good, because tenderness doesn't make this load any lighter.

 We were surprised at the amount of snow left over at the top. There were kids sledding and throwing snowballs up there. It was pretty much the best way to cool down on a such a hot day.

And the views were pretty beautiful, if I do say so myself!

The End of Kindergarten

 The last few weeks of school were kind of a whirlwind. In part, this was due to the broken arm and the care that required, but the whirlwind was also caused by ALL that was going on from May to June.

This girl ran her very first Fun Run for our school, raising over $200!

 Here she is enjoying a post Fun Run snack with her extraordinarily sweet class and her amazing teacher.

 Here they all again at a field trip. Clem had JUST gotten her cast off and was feeling anxious about walking on the slippery rocks at the beach while protecting that still delicate arm. Hence, the sulky face.

 It took her a bit, but she warmed up. Her buddies kept coming over to show her sea stars and crabs, cool shells and rocks they knew she would like.

 And then she realized that, with her new sandals (thanks Yaya!) she could walk through the creek and that is where she camped out the rest of the day: standing in the middle of the creek.

 A few weeks later, was her end of Kindergarten celebration (NOT graduation) and I worked extremely hard that day to keep it together. I was so proud of myself for not crying when they sang all their touching songs.

 And I even didn't cry when she posed with her awesome teacher with her necklace reading "1st grader."

The next day was the last day of school and I started doing the ugly cry right here at this point (and pretty much carried on the entire day). My girl has grown so so much since we posed for this pic a year ago. We are so so proud of her. She's reading well over a year ahead, she's made lots of new friends, she has learned to stand up for herself and has been loved, loved, loved by her new friends and every adult at our school. It was everything we had hoped a school would be for her and we wouldn't change a thing (except maybe that doozy of a broken arm.)