boating and swim lessons

It's been fun having our boat, and being close to lakes.  One night, after a weekend of work, Mark had packed up a picnic dinner and had the kids ready in their swim suits to go to a lake.  It was a fun way to end a busy day just relaxing and swimming with the kids

Then, we came home to the "super" moon, we all sat on the front porch eating popcorn and watching the moon rise.

 Hayden and Lilly also did a couple of weeks of swim lessons.  They improved a lot and are becoming good little swimmers!

Glacier Trip

Another fun camping trip is in the books!  We went to Glacier again this summer.  3rd year in a row, but with only 5 hours of driving, it is well worth going for the scenery!!  We met our friends Jen and Grant for a long weekend and had a great time hiking, playing in the water, and experimenting with more recipes for the campfire!!

1st night....campfire cones! (ice cream cones filled with marshmallows, chocolate and butterscotch chips melted over the fire!!)

 Full of energy, ready for the 1st hike!

 Karate chopping a tree

 Beautiful forest scenery.

 Giant dandelions!

 Stopping for a fruit roll-up snack mid hike....who is the goof ball in our family??

 Jen made a scavenger hunt for the kids.  They thought it was great! Here they are decorating their bags to get ready for the hunt.

 Grace loved to follow Grant around...copying his every move

 One of my favorite drives - the "going to the sun" road.  The mountains are amazing!

 Mountain goats just resting near the road

 Earning more junior ranger badges

 Guess what Hayden spotted on our drive (good thing we weren't hiking)!!

 If you blow up this picture, you can see the grizzly in mid lick eating berries.  Hayden was the 1st to spot the bear.  We turned the car around and got a good picture.  By the time we had turned around again to go back the way we were driving, there was a traffic jam of people trying to get pictures.  Hayden said "who knew a 7 year old could cause such a big traffic jam"!!  He was pretty proud!  AND it was awesome seeing a bear in the wild!

 Hiking to St. Mary's waterfall...picture taken by Hayden

 The falls

 Playing in the water...brrr!!

 Showing off their scavenger hunt findings

 Buddies

 The NEW version of s'mores

 Little Beauty!

 This year's Christmas picture perhaps??

Scary Ghost stories by the fire

Can you see the wheels turning in Caleb's head??

Invisible Space Bench

Campfire skits this weekend in Glacier.  Hayden "i moved that bench weeks ago!"

North Cascades National Park

Last weekend, we took a trip to North Cascades National Park.  It was a great weekend and we could have stayed longer.  No too far from home either, so we may have to go back and explore some more!!  It was beautiful!  I didn't get any pictures of the lakes, but there were some pretty ones from the glacier melt off.

 The 1st night, we met some friends from church.  The kids loved the campfire time this year the best, telling "spooky" stories!

 Big girl camper

 Attempting to make a fire with flint....no success!

 Our hikers...is Caleb having fun??

 Our friends Jen and Grant came the next day and the kids showed them the big hollow tree.  They were brave enough to get inside, as long as Grant went first!

 So strong, he bent the tree!

 Stopping at the amphitheatre to tell jokes and stories on stage

 Tent trailer shenanigans

 We definitely did not go hungry this weekend!  Everyone took turns making meals and each were creative and cooked over the campfire.  My brother Brian and his wife Jamie and daughter Aspen, also met up with us.  Here is Brian's surprise creation cooking over the fire.

 Getting ready for the reveal!

 Yum!  Corn dogs, cheesy tater tots and brussel sprouts.  They also made smores with fudge stripe cookies rather than graham crackers and Hershey's chocolate (I don't think I'll ever eat smores the regular way again!!)  We also had smoreos the next night (marshmallow in the middle of an Oreo!!) YUM!

 Hiking buddies.  The kids loved having Aspen there!

 Skagit river

 Checking out the forest

 We hiked to a cool overlook called the Rock Shelter, which was a giant rock cave/shelter that the Upper Skagit Tribe used for over 1300 years as a shelter.  You could still see the fire marks on the rock.

 Grace became Uncle Brian's buddy and would only let him carry her!

 A frequent resting place for this weary hiker

 On Saturday, we headed out for a hike in search of the Trail of the Cedars.  Mark told us he knew the way, but we had no map...it ended up being a 3 hour hike trying to find the trail, but the kids did great and we thought it was funny to see this GIANT sign at the end of the trail that we had a hard time finding.  We entered from the campground side rather than the road side, so the trail wasn't easily marked...oh-well!  It was an adventure!

 A huge cedar tree trunk big enough for 5 kids!

 Just hangin' out

 Almost falling asleep

 The kids earned their Junior Park Ranger badges.  They had to complete a few hikes and some fun work books.

 Taking the park ranger pledge....I thought this was a funny progression of pictures and shows each of their true personalities... "raise your right hand...no, your other right hand"

 Hayden: serious, Caleb: look at me mom, Lilly: my arm is tired

 Hayden: still serious, Caleb: which arm is supposed to be up, Lilly: my arm is really tired!

 Hayden: serious, but has an itchy knee, Caleb: balancing his book on his chin, Lilly, thinking about something else now...

 Beautiful views.  You can see a neat rocky range of mountains if you blow the picture up

 
Happy campers with their badges

It was a fun weekend!