Having Fun

We are camping with our cousins. We have been to the Pacific Center, Mariner's game, ferry ride through the beautiful San Juan Islands, and Whale Museum. I tried to upload some pictures, but I am getting the message "server rejected." I was able to upload a few and they are not in any kind of an order. We need to get to Mt. Rainier for our next adventure. I'll get a movie or something done when I get to my parent's house in Idaho. We are having a blast! We LOVE summer!! We LOVE camping!! We LOVE our family!!!

Dancing

The girls did a great job dancing on Saturday. Here is a sampling of their great dancing. Erin Joy really gets embarrassed performing. Watch her face:)

Let the Fun Begin!!

Summer Vacation!!! Finally!!! YIPPEE!!! We went to an Everett AquaSox game tonight to celebrate our first day of vacation. We had free tickets because my girls both reached their reading goals this year. Nice!! Good thing the tickets were free...

Bouncy toys = $7.00 x 2 children = $14.00
personal pizza, three drinks, large popcorn = $23.50

Our free game cost us $37.50.

We had fun even though the AquaSox lost. We had fun even though it was cold and started to rain.

Stayed tuned for more baseball game fun and other fun summer adventures!

Chia Pets

Talent Show Dancing

Rachel did a great job dancing today! Several schools in the area are already out and students from her dance class were willing to join her today, but she really wanted to do it by herself.  She did a great job!

The first video clip is from the dress rehearsal. You will then see Erin Joy dancing in the school-wide dance intermission break followed by Rachel again dancing in the actual talent show. I couldn't decide which performance I liked better. The view of the camera was slightly different for both performances.

My Job's Benefits

 I love running into my children at school. Yesterday was field day and the 3-5 graders were outside together. That meant....yeah!!! I saw my daughter quite frequently. She even came running up to me and wanted to hold my hand and stay with me. I had to coax her to play even though I would have loved to just walk with her...to hold her hand forever...

She is growing up so fast. Nine years old. When she graduates at age 18, she will probably move out. Yikes! That means my time with her is HALF over. I thought of that yesterday and I watched her play. It made me tear up. Being a mother is certainly bitter-sweet. I love watching my children grow, yet I want to keep them small forever. That is probably why I take so many pictures. I just want to hold on to every moment.

I want to make every moment count.  I love you, Rachel Bug! I love you too, Erin Joy! (I just didn't see you because you were with the K-2 graders so I have no pictures of you for this post.) I love being a mom to the best children in the world! It is the biggest blessing in my life.

Low Tide

In between dance classes, we went to Alki Beach to enjoy the -2 ft tide. It was so fun! The rain and cold didn't even bother us. We saw huge chiton, anemone, hermit crabs, sea snails, moon jellies, sea cucumbers, and a lot of sea stars. (We know they aren't starfish because they aren't fish. We were educated by marine biologists once at the zoo or aquarium that they are really "sea stars".)   Somebody saw moon snails and a small octopus, but we didn't.  There were several naturalists from the Seattle Aquarium there answering questions and pointing out sea life. It was really fun to learn from experts and we even got a 2 for 1 coupon for the aquarium. We meant to go with a group of single adoptive parents, but we were at the wrong beach. We only saw them briefly when they stopped for fish & chips.

Sure can't wait until school is finally out so we can play ALL the time...