WA trip 2 - Grand Coulee

As we drove across the state from the ocean to my parents house we stopped off at Grand Coulee Dam for the night. They do a pretty neat laser light show on the spillover water of the dam at night. It's a history of the area and the impact the dam has had.
We camped for the night with my parents. Somehow I really, really have to get better at taking pictures with them in it!!
The visitors center there has a number of interactive exhibits so they kids had a great time checking all of it out.

WA trip

We had so much fun on our trip to WA. This is only a small portion of the pics that I took. The weather wasn't great but it didn't stop the kids from getting wet in the ocean every time we got close to it! The waves are pretty rough in this area so we really didn't let them out very far. We planned to be there over the sandcastle festival and that was a lot of fun. Lots of talented, creative people. The kids played forever in the pits they dug near the castles where they would gather water.

We also flew kites quite a few times. It's nice to have good wind that takes them right up :)

We were there with quite a bit of my family. It was fun to see everyone and spend lots of time together in close quarters. We stayed in a vacation rental house. It was great and worked out really well for meals and such.

Looking at these pics makes me want to do it all over again. I guess that's the sign of a good trip :)

I was so glad were staying somewhere that had a washer and dryer - we put them to very good use over the week we were there. The kids were constantly wet and covered in sand so they were always changing and needing clothes washed.
They thought it was great that we could drive out on the beach too. I should show them these pictures again so they remember all the fun we had :)

Summer fun (and hives)

A whole lot of the above, led to a whole lot of the below. At least that's the best cause we could come up with. He has been sensitive to things before and has gotten hives a few times but it's been years since the last bout and none were as bad as this.
He was miserable. We treated it with benadryl and lotions, etc for about a week - then finally gave in and got a prescription from the doc. Which helped (short term) but made him have to go to the bathroom almost every hour of the night! They came back about 6 weeks later and again 6 weeks after that and then almost weekly for a few weeks though not nearly as bad. I think it just took forever for his system to regain control. He was tested for allergies and grass came back positive so this is my theory....... when they first started the slip 'n slide, it was too short and they were sliding onto the grass, I think all those little nicks combined with the soap they used to make is slick were just an awful combination.

He's been fine for the past month of so - other than small patches coming up if he itches or rubs for whatever reason. As we head into summer and grass exposure again we will see what happens.

Air show

We went to an air show in Ogden. We weren't sure what time the Blue Angles would be performing so we went early - they had a lot of other planes doing stunts too.

It was fun to get inside some of the airplanes. Sometimes the crew would be inside also and you could ask questions. That was pretty neat. It was very, very crowded and a lot of the planes had long lines so I think we only went in 2. I really don't like lines :)

Since it was so crowded and the Blue Angels weren't actually doing their part of the show until later we decided to leave. We ended up getting lunch and then finding a park that we thought we might be able to see the show from. It was an excellent decision. We were just over the hill from the Air Force base and the planes flew right over our heads. The kids played on the playground and watched when they wanted to. Next time we will do this plan on purpose instead of by default. It was great.

Cheer camp - July 2014

One of the girls friends invited them to cheer camp this last summer. It was just a quick 3 day camp with a 4th day performance. It was very entertaining :)

They liked it but decided that they like other things better...... although every once in awhile Hailey asks to take cheer classes. She likes the stunts they do :)

Apple tree

This was pretty cool. I was cutting an apple open and noticed that a seed had started to sprout so for the fun of it we placed it in a moist paper towel inside a baggie. It started to grow and root so we planted it. Now it's over a foot tall. We never did get it planted in the ground so if it survives the winter we will do that in the spring. I hear that there is a good chance it won't produce apples which is kind of sad but it's been fun to watch it grow.

Bird

Somehow they caught this bird..... and of course Jackson wanted to keep it. He has always wanted to keep every animal he catches - frogs, turtles, mice, birds - to the point of tears when we would tell him no. This time, though, he has a little more understanding for the wild and he was willing to let the bird go.

It might have been around this same time that there was an injured killdeer making it's way around the neighborhood. I heard stories of it from neighbor kids. Next thing I know Jackson has it. The poor bird had a broken wing and a leg barely hanging on at the top and unusable. He couldn't believe that no one had helped it and that they had turned it loose to die. I did not want to keep that poor bird around and have Jackson watch it suffer. He is so tender hearted and still cries, years later, over pets that we have lost. We live right by a bird refuge so I called to see if they could help and they gave me the number for an animal rehab center. We loaded up and took the bird there :)