First Day of School

Avery had mixed feelings before the first day of school this year.
Mostly excited....but a little nervous to be going to a new school.
We decided to put her back at her home school in hopes of meeting some new neighborhood friends, as well as to have a little independence from her Mom!

She was happy to report at the end of the day that it was GREAT! 
She especially LOVES her teacher, Mrs. K.

And after a couple days under her belt, she's making new friends and settling in pretty well. 
We our so proud of our big (sassy!) first grader!!!!

**Annalise REFUSED to pose in ANY pictures with her sister....OR get out of her pajamas.  Precious.

Girl Scout Camp Out

Last weekend was the Girl Scout Camp Out.  As the troop's new Assistant Leader, Avery and I were invited to join the other Mom "Volunteers" and their daughters at Bayview State Park.  Avery was THRILLED to have some time ALONE together! (Meaning NO little sister around :) !) 
She was ready to GO!

She had been to a birthday party the night before and gotten the green teeth.  Nice.

We got there Saturday afternoon and had a great time exploring the mucky beach with our friends Alice and Michelle.

We got back to camp and set up the tent.  (Avery's first night sleeping in a tent EVER!)
Then the Girl Scouts had to get busy making dinner for everyone.
Avery was assigned a knife (eek!) and started her chopping duties!

The girls prepared two entrees....a pasta and vegetable casserole thingy and a chicken curry with rice dish.  Both prepared over the coals in a dutch oven.  They also made biscuits using the coals, a cardboard box lined with aluminum foil and a baking sheet.  They were hardcore! :)

And here they are....enjoying the fruits of their labor!   Avery, Alice and Emery.

After dinner it started to rain.  Just a little bit during s'more time.  Then it really geared up.  No problems though....we stayed nice and dry and warm in the tent.  Turned out to be a pretty good night's sleep.  In fact, Avery says the tent is a little better than the trailer.  (I had to disagree with her on that one!)

Here's the first picture of the morning.....

And Avery's commentary:

It was a pretty wet morning, too.  We gobbled down some pancakes and then started packing up in the rain.

It was a lot of fun meeting some other Girls Scouts as well as spending some time with the girls in our own troop.  We had a great time.  It's not often that the two of us get such a big chunk of alone time. 
I'm sure proud of Avery....she continues to be such a sweet and respectful girl.

Big Girl Bed

It was time.  After doing so great all summer sleeping in the trailer on a big bed, we decided it was a good time to put away Annalise's crib.

She was hesitant to say okay, but once we got the crib out of the room and brought in the Princess bed she started to get more excited!! :)

Such a big girl!

So far, so good!
She's adjusted quite well.
In fact, we're still a little blown away that she actually stays in her bed.  Especially in the morning when she wakes up.  She just hangs out on her bed until one of us goes in and gets her.  Fingers crossed that she keeps that up! :)
Ahhhh.....our little Annalisee. :)

Home Again, Home Again.....

After a VERY full summer of travel and camping, it was nice to be home and see some of our friends! 

We got back just in time to catch the final day of the Lynden Fair.  We went with the McCormacks.  Did the usual fair things....animals, food, rides, "moo-wich" ( http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/08/16/1573577/lynden-fair-food-boomed-beyond.html ).

I wasn't sure if Avery was going to be up for the "BIG" rides.  She was right there beside Payton every step of the way!!!!  They had a BLAST!!! :)  Jordan got to choose first.  He was ALL about the "SIZZLER".  Only problem was....once he got to the front of the line, he realized he wasn't quite tall enough to ride without an adult.  Mark stepped up to the plate!  He took Jordan....look at the expression on his face. :)  Heehee.

 

Then they headed for the Ferris Wheel.

They loved that, too.
We decided that Annalise might like to try something....so she got to go on the big slide.  Once with Daddy and once with Mommy.

We had our lunch, cruised around for a little while longer and then went to try out the Hang Glider. (Not sure what it's exact name is?!)  By far the hit of the day!!!!

Yes....the Fair took on a new meaning for Avery this year!!!!  It's ALL ABOUT THE RIDES now!
I still wonder exactly what it is that happens when you become an adult that makes these rides so brutal?!
It was a great day at the fair! 

Fort Flagler

We headed straight to Ft. Flagler after Westport and Ocean Shores.  We were excited to be there!!! This is typically our favorite trip of the summer.  It didn't disappoint again this year!!!!

Here's our campsite looking back from the beach.  We were glad to have some space again!  And we really lucked out with the weather!!!!  It was beautiful and sunny the entire time we were there.  In fact....there were some heat records broken that week!  We were thankful for the shade shacks!  (Much better than rain shacks!)

We did our usual time on the beach, playground, hanging out around camp, flying kites and riding bikes around the loops.

Geoff and Robin came over and camped with us for a couple of nights, too!  Robin brought her trademark Jiffy Pop.....

We had some fun campfires....

Each Saturday night throughout the summer, they have concerts in one of the artillery bunkers.  It's always a fun show.  This time there was a performer from Bellingham named Dana Lyons.  He had a cirque de soleil type dance troupe performing with him.  Avery thought the concert was the coolest thing EVER. 

Need I say more about the concert?!

We did the museums and bunker exploration, too.  Annalise figured out this year how AWESOME it is to scream in the rooms of the bunkers.  Nice.

We decided to take a day trip into Port Townsend while we were there.  Turns out the Jefferson County Fair was going on.  AND....the day that we were there was the 4 x 4 Mud Drags.  So....we decided we'd do the fair thing.  The Mud Drags were pretty cool....but the highlight for Avery was definitely the pony ride!

It was a great trip!  We'll be making our reservations soon again for next summer!

Westport and Ocean Shores

We take a trip with Grams and Gramps each year to Ft. Flagler. 
This summer we were having such fun camping we decided to see if they wanted to extend our week at Flagler and try camping in Westport for another week.  They said YES!  So we booked some random campground and headed out.

Avery and Annalise became great road warriors this summer!  A lot of time was spent plugged in....to save Mark and my sanity!

When we got to Westport, we discovered that our "campground" was more of a "fish camp" for fishermen.  Not so kid friendly and right in the heart of town.  The spaces were tight....and it was a good thing we were next to each other....we could literally reach out the window and touch the other's trailer!

It happened to work out that Grams and Gramps' neighbor was in town with his fishing boat.  Mark and Gramps were able to spend a day out in the ocean and had great luck!!!!  The two of them were giddy at the end of the day!

                             (Just a small sampling of the day's catch!  Salmon and rock fish...yum!)

The girls all spent the day hanging out.  It was pretty wet and cold, so we did some bike riding and walking on the boardwalk in between rain showers.  Otherwise....we hung out with Grams and did some shopping in town.

On our way to dinner one night we saw a GIANT sea lion hanging around the boats waiting for someone to drop a fish his way....this thing was HUGE!  The pictures don't do his size justice....but take my word for it!!!  People on the docks were saying one of the sea lions had taken someone's full-sized dog right off the dock just a few days before.  Yikes!  (We held on tight to the girls when we were down there!)

We took a trip to the Westport Lighthouse one day, too.  It's the tallest lighthouse on the Washington Coast.

Annalise was too little to climb up to the top so I stayed at the bottom with her while Mark and Avery climbed their way up the 135 steps.

Avery said it was cool up at the top, but was glad to see her sister back on the ground! :)

 

 

We had planned on staying the whole week in Westport, but discovered that unless you're out fishing every day, you can pretty much do and see enough in just a few days!!!  So....we packed up and headed over to Ocean Shores for a couple of nights.  It was great....we got to spend some time at the beach!

Next year Avery thinks it would be super cool to ride horses on the beach.....

Then we were off to our week at Ft. Flagler!!!