Just a reminder - you can always click on the badge to the left to view pictures that we upload to Flickr. I don't always remember to blog them, and we're trying to be better about uploading them when we're out and about.
Here are a couple of quick slideshows.
The first is from a morning spent with our friends the Weiseths at the Edmonds beachfront. A lot of adoption talk amongst the ladies, a lot of time watching kids/the tide/sand/cigarette butts/babies/jellyfish/seaweed amongst the men - you get the picture. It was fun:
The second is just some random pictures taken since we started this summer. I'll add more to the set as I dig through our recently reorganized photo folders, but here goes:
Just a quick little fact for you - in June we shot about 300mb of photos. So far, in July, we have taken close to 1GB. It has been a very busy month!
Earlier this week we joined Kryssa's parents in Longbeach. They were staying at the beautiful new Trendwest resort there, and we opted for the more rustic approach to vacationing: camping. Neither of us have stayed at Cape Disappointment before, but we liked the campground. We didn't spend a lot of time there, but there were some good trails, lighthouses, and a Lewis & Clark museum to explore in the coming years.
We did enjoy two nice campfires and a few s'mores each night, and the beach - of course the beach! Despite the cold, windy, and cloudy (blustery?) weather, we ventured onto the beach twice. Tegan absolutely loved it. She ate sand, touched feathers, grabbed a fistful of seagull poop, and got down on all fours to slurp up some sea foam. We, the watchful guardians, were constantly busy. She giggled, screamed, screeched, cheered, clapped, and screamed some more. I think the combination of a lot of water and a wide open expanse to roam kicked her motor into a higher gear than we've ever seen, because she was practically running from one interesting piece of detritus to the next.
Saturday morning Mike, Faith, and Gabe drove over and joined us for a day hike up to Bridal Veil Falls below Mt. Index. It was a great day for a hike - sunny but not hot. The trail was steep in some places, and mostly through the forest, but the falls at the end were worth the hike. Both of the kids seemed to really enjoy hiking, although Tegan napped most of the way in. It was great to get out into creation for the day!
some of the pictures have captions, if you click the "show info" button in the slideshow they'll pop up.
Lots, and lots, of things have happened this summer already. Let us start with:
Darren sold his truck on Craigslist, giving us room to add this lovely Honda Pilot to the family:
Tegan has already made herself "at home" in it.
We were hoping to have some fun camping this summer, but needed a single night "shakedown" to make sure our little girl was also a little tent-camping-sleeper. Turns out that she is, and we had a lot of fun camping with Grandpa & Grandma Larama out at the Red Bridge campground on the Mountain Loop Highway.
We had a great 4th of July barbecue with our community group. Lots of food, visiting, and even a little Bocce Ball. No fireworks though, the kids are a little young for them!
We spent a cool, cloudy morning at the zoo (that really helps cut the crowds down!) and saw some fun animals. Tegan got face to face with a gorilla, but Dad couldn't snap the shot before the gorilla lost interest.
We visited a berry farm out in Carnation and brought home nearly 5lbs of strawberries! Tegan ate another pound or two while we were there...
And we had another CG barbecue, this time down at the Mukilteo Lighthouse Park - which is much improved these days thanks to a serious renovation!
We went on another camping trip to Athol, Idaho (yah, say that name outloud) with Darren's folks and had some fun at the Silverwood Theme Park. We rode all three roller coasters, including the death defying upside down/forwards/backwards/dangle you from a coat hanger "Aftershock" - it was thrilling and terrifying, aided by the fact that we were hung on the front row of coat hangers. It was a great weekend, Megan & Bob & the kids joined us - lots of good niece/nephew hangout happened. Tegan was almost always in awe by what the big kids could do.
And, finally, we spent a fun morning at Forest Park in Everett with Faith & Gabe. The kids played on the playground, visited the animals at the petting zoo, and ran around in the splash park despite the low temperatures.
