Taking a break

I’ll be taking a little vacation from this blog for about, oh, 10 days or so. My family is visiting and while we’re not “busy”, I’m not really anticipating wanting to take a lot of time to edit pictures and write clever prose. You may see a favorite picture pop up now and then, but otherwise you’ll just have to wait…

Swimming lessons 2012

Summer = swimming lessons at the aquatic center in B-town. It has for years. Just the two little girls now. I think they enjoy swimming lessons for the most part, and I know that it’s good for them to become stronger swimmers, but for some reason it just doesn’t hold the excitement that it used to. And then, once again this year, they didn’t “pass” their class. I don’t understand at all how they couldn’t have passed, because they each did every single thing the teacher asked them to do and Elise was the only one in her class who could even swim. Apparently Becca couldn’t quite swim underwater far enough without taking a breath…and Elise didn’t roll over from her front to her back in the water in the proper fashion (though I’ve seen her roll over and over and over again in our pool). But oh well. We don’t care so much about “passing” because it’s going to be an entire year before they take lessons again and I’ll probably just put them in the next class anyway, being as they were so close to having every box checked on the list. Plus, the list will probably be different…again…

Even so, swimming lessons are a good thing, and a necessary part of summer, and will be for just a few more years.

Another camera phone dump

As you know, sometimes I just quick take a snapshot with the camera on my phone. I don’t have to have perfect pictures all the time. And these are things I want to remember and look back on, and eventually scrapbook, so they have to get to my blog. My apologies if any of these are “repeats.”

Logos always has a Family Fun Night at the Bellingham Bells game. These are the sad faces of my girls because we were going and our Logos friends that had moved to Arizona weren’t going to be there. The game ended up being rained out anyway, but at least we got to enjoy a free meal first!

This was a serving tray I made just before Sarah’s 8th grade graduation party. I found it at the thrift store – a cherry wood frame. So I painted it white and mod-podged the dictionary paper onto the cardboard behind the glass. Love it. Maybe someday I’ll put sheet music or other fun paper behind the glass.

Me & Becca at GEMS camp after she passed the very difficult swim test in the very cold lake.

GEMS Camp kayaking!

Inside the chapel at GEMS camp – the girls are rehearsing their awesome cabin cheers!

Becca on the drive home from GEMS camp.

Little bobby-pin hearts I crocheted to add to the treat bags at Elise’s birthday party!

While Ed was in Arizona for work, I came across this picture from 2007 that made me laugh. I think I got out of bed on a Saturday morning to find that scene.

 

Elise in 2007. I’m pretty sure this was fake crying.

Have you seen these all over FB and Pinterest lately? This one so totally cracked me up and I took a picture to remember. Helping verbs, people…

Sarah & I painted our formerly brown/white/blue homework table white again! Actually it’s called “Cottonball” and it’s a creamy white to match the curtains and the white Ikea cabinet next to it. Brightens up the room and I got to teach Sarah how to paint! It took 5 coats of Kilz primer to cover that dark blue paint.

Some more Summer Stock photos…

Ping Pong at Logos on the 4th of July

The city & the bay on the 4th from the roof of the Flatiron Building.

Washington Park, Anacortes

The same Sunday that we went to Washington Park, Ed & I enjoyed a sunset history cruise on Bellingham Bay with many of the programmers and their significant others from Logos. It was a gorgeous evening!

One of the highlights of the summer so far has been our trip to Cultus Lake Waterslides up in Canada. We used money from Ed’s grandpa that he had sent us this past Christmas. We had a great time – it was a warm afternoon and the park was not crowded at all. GREAT place for a local day trip!

Taking a break

A few Sundays ago we took a little break from normal Sunday activities and headed to Washington Park in Anacortes for a picnic and some playtime. We had to pick Sarah up from a friend’s house in Mount Vernon anyway, so it seemed like a good opportunity to do something out of the ordinary. We’ve been trying to be intentional about scheduling “family time” and we knew that with Sarah beginning work in the raspberry processing plant, it would be a while before we had another such opportunity. It was a gorgeous day, though the wind by the beach was a bit colder than we anticipated.

The girls didn’t swim, but they built rock castles! Ed & I sat & watched them and enjoyed some adult conversation while Sarah took a gagillion photos which are not all going to be posted here.

After our picnic and a little beach time, we drove the 2 mile loop around the park, stopping at various points for rock climbing adventures (which, when involving the 6-year-old and flip flops, could also be described as “adventures causing the mother’s heart to skip a beat.”)

I don’t know who those crazy girls are.

We ended the afternoon with a stop for milkshakes in Anacortes, of course!

family photo shoot

Recently I took some pictures for a close friend’s sister. What a bunch of beautiful, kind, and sweet people! Here are a few of my favorites:

last week friday night

master fire-starter was dubious about the quality and quantity of our wood supply

but was successful, much to the happiness of our girls and more girls

hot dogs and s’mores with a friend, followed by Harry Potter movie night with dad – doesn’t get much better than that on a friday night…thank goodness!