Girl Weekend

My friend Rita and her family moved up to San Juan Island several years ago and we have been wanting to take a trip up there to visit ever since, however with the two little guys that is easier said than done...  My friend Tasha and I decided to plan a girls trip and have a relaxing, kid free weekend in Friday Harbor with Rita and her family!!!  YES PLEASE!
My parents picked up the boys on Thursday afternoon and Tasha & I hit the highway (thank you Nonnie & Papa)!!!  Friday Harbor is not a quick trip, it is about 2 1/2 hours North of Seattle and has the added bonus of an hour long ferry ride to get to the island.  So, we decided to have a night out in Seattle and then finish the drive on Friday morning.  We found a fun/interesting restaurant called Poquitos downtown, had some awesome Mexican food and possibly the strongest margarita I have ever had in my life (strong but delicious :)!  After dinner I decided  I needed to have some kind of yummy dessert so we headed over to a less interesting part of town to have some AMAZING desserts and maybe another drink!

A little silly but of all the places we checked out in Seattle this is the
only picture I took from the evening...
I heart Tiramisu!!!

After our long night of possibly a little too much to drink and definitely way too much to eat we hit the highway at 7:30 a.m. (had to leave enough time for Starbucks stops) and headed for the ferry!

Ferry self portrait!

Pulling into Friday Harbor on the Ferry, seriously beautiful!

We had a whirlwind weekend with lots of catching up and trying to see as much of the island as we could in the short time we were there.  It is so funny how the three of us can somehow revert back to our 13 year old selves after all these years, needless to say there was a lot of gabbing, laughter and goofiness...  I can't wait to go back with the whole family, the boys are seriously going to love it there!

The Girls

Checking out English Camp

They were having a special reenactment of what
life was like at English Camp in the mid 1800's complete
with a cook out, soldiers, music and lots of folks
dressed up in Little House on the Prairie garb!

The beautiful English Gardens

These nice young soldiers spent quite a while telling us
how their giant guns work so of course I had
to ask for a picture!

View of the Olympic Mountains from our spot on the beach!

The beaches are slightly different than ours...
Madison had a blast playing in the tide pools and
climbing all the rocks, I know the boys would
absolutely love it here!

Looks like a good picnic to me :)

Rita and sweet Natalie!

Apparently it is whale time around San Juan Island right now.  They swim up
 and down the coastline feeding on the salmon near the shore.  We had a
 last minute change of plans and ended up at the beach for a
 picnic instead of hiking one of the mountains and I am so glad we did.
As we were enjoying our lunch and the beautiful view a huge
pod of whales swam by.  It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.
They were so close we could actually hear them breathing or snorting or
whatever it is  they do out there when they come out of the water!
I have it on video and will try to upload that one of these days!
I know I keep saying this but AMAZING!!!

Beautiful sunset at Rita's!
LOVE the island!
Thanks for such a fun trip ladies (& Justin for putting up with us :)

Silas + Blueberries =

Zoo Camp

Noah had zoo camp this week and as usual had a blast!  I love that he looks forward to camp each week and gets pretty excited about all his special projects!

Finger Print Giraffe!! 

I just love any project that has their hand prints!!!

Zebra Stripes

Love the lion hat!  Silas and I walked to pick Noah
up from school!  So happy to finally have some
weather that is nice enough to do this!!

Noah wore his lion hat all the way home!  So cute!!!!

Busy Weekend...

Last weekend was a wild one full of lots of firsts!  We started on Friday with a fun day at the zoo with Jason & Victoria followed by Noah's first sleepover (Victoria stayed on Noah's bunk bed with him), we headed out to Tree to Tree for our friend Kenzie's birthday party on Saturday and then took the boys to the theater for the first time to see Cars 2 on Sunday!!  Noah made it through the whole movie while Silas and I made a quick exit about 45 minutes in (good thing we planned ahead and brought two cars :)  Sorry there are so many pictures, Noah and Victoria were just too cute together!!

Silas was did awesome and stayed in his stroller without too
much complaining!  

Taking a snack break!

One of Noah's favorite parts of the zoo!

Climbing the rock wall!  Silas actually got
to get out of his stroller :)

Checking out the dinosaurs!  We were at the
zoo for over four hours (a long time for us) and this
was the first time I have let Noah walk the entire time.
I usually bring the double umbrella stroller so Noah
can catch a ride here and there.  Needless to say
he was seriously dragging his feet by the end
of the day! 

The giant T-Rex!
Both the bigger kids were a little
scared and did not want to go near him so
poor little Silas, stuck in his stroller, got
to be in the shot!

Not quite as scary as the T-Rex!

Is it time to go home yet??????

We were the only ones at the otter tank and he was going crazy
right in front of the window.  Noah and Victoria must have
run back and fourth with him like 50 times!

We ended the day with them getting completely soaked
in the waterfall in the Great Northwest!   

Back at home taking Victoria for a ride in his Jeep!

He even let her drive it (very big deal)!!!

Then she crashed into her dad's car...

The boys at Kenzie's Party out at Tree to Tree!

They had such a great time!  There were lots of grassy fields to run in,
a bounce house, a play giant play structure, lots of rocks and Noah's favorite part - cake...

If you ever find yourself  looking for something really fun to do I would seriously recommend checking out Tree to Tree Adventure Park!  My friend Marissa and her family own it and it is absolutely amazing! I can't wait to go back without the kiddos to play!!!

Bug Camp

Last week we had bug camp and Noah came home with all kinds of buggy treasures!  He learned all about spiders, stick bugs, lady bugs and butterflies and even made his own little bug house!

Sporting his super cool bug hat!

The bug box.  I got a huge lecture about taking the lid off because
all the bugs could get out...

Ocean Camp

We signed Noah up for lots of fun camps all summer long (gotta keep these kids busy)!  He had his first camp a couple weeks ago (Ocean Week) and has been counting the days until his next one!  They are through his school and I think there are about three a month with fun themes like bugs, bubbles and cooking!!

All the kids got flip flop lollipops on their last day!
Probably the highlight of the whole week for Noah
and his sweet tooth!!!

Noah and the GIANT fish he made!

I thought this was a kite but was quickly
corrected and told it was a jelly fish!

Congratulations Uncle Jordan & Aunt Kassie!!!!

Here are a few pictures from Uncle Jordan & Aunt Kassie's 4th of July wedding!  The boys have been pretty pumped about this and were definitely not disappointed (they are going to be counting the days until Uncle Dusty & Erika's wedding in September)!   The original plan was to have both boys be ring bearers but after the rehearsal disaster involving some screaming, a little rock throwing and dirt eating, we decided that Silas was not quite ready for the job so Noah went at it alone and was awesome!  I don't have any pictures of the ceremony yet since we were both in it but I am sure I will get some soon.  It was the perfect day for a beautiful wedding!  We are so excited for Jordan and Kassie!!!

We actually got a family picture for once!!!

Cake time!

Noah "taking a picture" of me taking a picture of him!

Finally taking a break for some cake!

I love the look on Kassie's face in this one!

Showing off his break dancing skills... 

 The kids still dancing like crazy!
This is like at 9:30 p.m. seriously late night for the boys...
The night was complete with a huge firework show and a few
blasts out of my dad's cannon!