Summer at Home

One of my favorite things about summer is all the creative play my kids do at home. This was a common scene this summer. Emily likes to make lunch and she never just makes lunch, she turns it into a restaurant, complete with menu and personal ordering. It's great I don't have to make lunch, but then it's extra work cleaning it up!

Emily and Angela did a few lemonade stands this summer. Between us and the neighbor kids there was a week where there was a stand at the end of our street almost every day. Once one kid did it, everyone wanted to! Angela did one with her friend across the street.

They spent lots of time on the poster. I tried to let the kids do as much as possible on their own, including carrying everything down there and back.

Emily loves to bake! A babysitter let her borrow a little cupcake decorating cookbook and she was dying to do a bunch of them and wanted to have a cupcake sale to sell them. She started working on them at 9am and worked straight until 2pm when her sale started. She emailed and called some friends so there would be some customers since it wasn't a hot day. I am amazed at friends' and strangers' generosity.

Kites, basketballs, and m&m cupcakes

Strawberry and baseball

These ice cream cone ones were fun

Wahclella Falls 2011

We did this hike 3 years ago and I'm glad we were able to do it again this summer, it's such a perfect hike for kids. It was fun to see how much easier it was for the older girls. They all did great except Ashley didn't want to be in the backpack and Matthew carried her a lot of the way. Fortunately it's not too long of a hike. We invited some new friends to go with us and it was so fun to have them with us!

Exploring the cave

The Hughes Family

Kevin was daring the kids to put their faces in the icy cold water, it was pretty funny.

Astoria Getaway

Matthew and I were able to go on a getaway to Astoria for two nights in July. It was heavenly to have time away from the kids! We had never been to Astoria and really enjoyed it. We loved our hotel, these are the views off of our balcony. The hotel is built where fish cannery used to be, so it's right over the water.

The Astoria Column

View from the top

Saddle mountain in the distance, we both hiked that as teenagers (but not together).

We ended up going up the stairs to the top of the column  twice because the first time we went up, we realized we hadn't boughten these gliders everyone throws off the top. Matthew said we had to do that, so we came up again and it was worth it! It was pretty fun, I wish we had bought more.

We drove across the bridge to the Washington side and went to this lighthouse. It was actually a different one than I thought we were going to and a wrong turn brought us here, but it was beautiful and I'm glad for the wrong turn.

View of the Washington coast from the lighthouse.

It was nice to relax and spend some time reading.

The hotel had these bikes we could use for free, so we had a fun ride along the waterfront one morning.

I took a picture of this salad because I'd never had anything like it and it was so good. They roast the romaine lettuce over the grill and it brings out an amazing flavor. They also had some of the best steaks we've ever had.

I don't know if you call this a food cart or boat, but it was rated #1 restaurant in Astoria on tripadvisor, so we went to check it out. All they sell is fish and chips which are one of Matthew's favorite. He loved them!

Beach Trip

We went on an overnight trip to the beach in July and had a fun time together. We had great weather and played on the beach a lot.

It was so fun to have a campfire and roast marshmallows on the beach. We hadn't done that since Matthew and I were dating.

The next day was sunny and warm

I enjoyed some reading time!

Ashley wanted to eat at her own little table. I love her smile in this picture. It actually looks like my smile at that age.

Milkshakes at the park

Ashley is looking so much like Nicole at this age, it's scary. She is wearing Nicole's old clothes here and at first glance, I have to think about which kid I'm looking at.

Emily is getting so good (and creative) at doing hair. She did the girls' hair here. Pretty impressive huh! I'm so lucky she likes to do it, it's so helpful!

Boating

We only got out on the boat a couple of times this summer because of the cool weather, but had fun both times. These pictures are from early July.

 Nicole was so brave, I love her excited face in these pictures!

The memorable moment of the day was when Emily and Matthew were on the tube in some rough water and took a hard fall. My dad says it was an "accident", but I'm not too sure about that :). She has been a lot more timid on the tube since, but it had to happen sometime, falling off is part of tubing.

 Emily is the on the left and Matthew on the right, they are hard to see.

 Oreos on the boat

Ashley was kind of scared at first, but she tolerated her life jacket surprisingly well and got used to the boat after awhile.