Farewell to Summer

Over the holiday weekend.....last weekend already!....we decided we were going to go to a different park everyday. Rand had Friday off, so that meant 4 day weekend. 4 parks. I think I am still recovering from the constant go, go, go and the crazy messy house and out of control laundry that resulted. BUT, we had a lot of fun. And, seriously? The weather here this summer has been AMAZING! We are going on almost 50 days straight without rain! If I'm being honest, I can say that I am ready for a dark, chilly, rainy day, but I will wait patiently (because it is indeed coming) and we shall soak up these last lovely summer days.

First up, Twanoh State Park. I grew up going to this park. It is situated on Hood Canal which has to be one of my favorite places. It never gets old. It is one of the most beautiful places ever. My mom lives real close so we went to her house first and had dinner and then went to the Canal to take advantage of the full tide. In the Sound (salt water) swimming is best at high tide, and beach exploring is best at low. It was a swimming kind of evening.

 

 

 

 

 

doesn't his face and teeth look great!? so happy and thanking God about his tooth!!!!

 

Someone at the park brought music. Dance party a given.

 

Saturday we decided to try out a park close to our house that we had never been to before. We went to Millersylvania State Park which had swimming in Deep Lake and camping. It was an awesome find close to home and the lake was great. Nice and sandy beach. Great roped off swimming area and shallow pretty far out there....until a great drop off. Lots of fun. Annabel LOVES swimming and splashing so she got in on the action too!

 

 

 

 

Careful trying to hug this tree! You might fall into a bark crevice and disappear!

 

Next up, Lake Washington. It was totally last minute, but we decided to go up north to Kirkland (near Seattle) to check some stuff out there. Kirkland is situated right on Lake Washington and has a lot of great parks. We found a great spot right at the marina that had roped off swimming and live music and a super fun vibe. We hung out there for the whole afternoon before we made our way back home. I only have one picture because my battery was toast after the previous two days. :) Oh, there were pirate ships on this lake (it's a HUGE lake) and they were firing their cannons at each other. I think the kids thought they were real and were totally confused about what was going on. It was another glorious day swimming and breathing that perfect Northwest air!

 

 

Finally, day 4! Ha! I just had to stop and think for a second, "Now where the heck did we go the last day???" Ah yes, Burfoot Park. I had picked up a brochure for this park somewhere else and it had been floating around the house for weeks. The boys had been begging to go there to explore the beach (also on Puget Sound). So Monday afternoon we headed over there. There is a great grassy play area, but what we went for was the beach. We found the trails and headed off into the woods to find it. We had no idea what we were doing or about to encounter so we were not prepared. We headed down the trail with bikes and double strollers, but had to turn around when the trail turned into stairs! We tried again with one bag and the backpack instead. Brendan kept his bike and got a great work out getting back up the trail later. The beach was beautiful and the kids mostly collected jellyfish (tide was out). We could see the Capitol building to the South and lots of sailboats and kayakers out on the Sound. I think I see kayaks in our future. :)

 

 

 

 





Phew! See what I mean? Aren't you tired after all that? I suppose it's nothing compared to what I have coming: Homeschool, ORLA, AWANAs, Women's Midweek....... Goodbye summer.