Memorial Day Weekend at Blake Island with Chris and Meg

We braved the lackluster forecast and headed to Blake Island for Memorial Day Weekend.

 We met up with Chris and Meg, Dillon and Liam, and Chris's parents. They had sailed down from Everett. I love this picture - you can see the kids busy on the beach with the Whaler in the foreground and their sailboat (Flagship) in the background.

 We had the lowest tides of the season.... good thing we didn't need to go anywhere anytime soon.

 The kids searched for crabs under the rocks and we even found an eel.

 This was a scene from their "gorilla dance."

 Gone fishing....

 The kids argued about who would get to help wash dishes. Since we weren't in a rush, I let them do it all themselves - 15 minutes for a couple plates and pieces of silverware. But if I can hook them now - it will pay dividends for a long time!

 Edison and Charlotte adored the fishing poles Matt and Lisa gave to them at Christmas. This was the first time we had them out and I swear they were in constant use.

 Scouting dear at twilight.

 Checking out the sunset.

 With Meg!

 Gotta love the Northwest. Blake Island is also home to the Tillicum Village which serves up a salmon feast for tourists who arrive by a small cruise boat from Seattle twice daily.

From India With Love

Eben's brother, Palmer, traveled to India earlier this year and brought back some beautiful presents for us. I love this stylish dress and Eben looks handsome in his tiger shirt - we just wore them to Hannah and Tucker's wedding today! Hannah is our neighbor's daughter and we've seen her grow up to be a lovely young woman - we wish her all the happiness in the world!

Edison really likes the tiger shirt that Uncle Palmer brought back for him. He wore it on two different days to school last week. Thanks, Palmer!

 

We went to the cabin again last weekend. We've been meeting in Monroe after work on Friday afternoons and leaving a car at Matt and Lisa's house. We've been able to enjoy their garden flowers each stop like these beautiful lilies.

 We had a lovely picnic at Nason Creek on Sunday afternoon. The lake was windy, so this was a pleasant alternative.

Changes at the Cabin / Mother's Day

I took my mother to the cabin for the first time on Mother's Day Weekend. Eben was out of town visiting his college buddies on the east coast. We had a logging company come in and remove the downed trees.

They were two-thirds of the way done when we showed up for the weekend. It was a pretty drastic difference.

If you look beyond this log pile, you can the road their equipment made (N/S) through the center of our property.

Mother Nature also impressed us by swelling the Wenatchee River with the spring snow melt. The river was about 10 feet higher than it has been and trees on the banks were under water.

Charlotte really loves her time with Nana.

On Saturday we went to Maifest in Leavenworth. They had a parade, including these mountain dogs, the high school band, and the Maifest royalty float. The kids thought it was fun to see.

 

But I think they actually liked going on the bouncy slide even more. Edison has begun working on multiplication in school (1s and 2s) and got lots of practice calculating how many slides he could get for various amounts of money when knowing that each $1 gets a person 2 slides.

The highlight of Maifest for me and Nana was watching the traditional Bavarian dancers perform the May Pole Dance.

But the kids' highlight was getting to ice cream (Edison picked bubble gum, Charlotte chose rainbow sherbet).

Later that afternoon we went to Lake Wenatchee to cool off. As you can see, the high water at the lake made the boat dock impossible to use. But playing at the beach was still a big hit.

We celebrated Mother's Day at breakfast on Sunday. It was really nice to share it with my mother and kids! Eben gets points for hiding cards in Edison's backpack and also leaving me Mother's Day flowers before he went on his trip.

After deciding we'd never have time to do a garden this year, we decided "what the heck" and stopped at Lowe's on our way home from the cabin to grab a few veggies to plant. To my amazement what I viewed as a chore was fun to the kids and we planted the whole garden in thirty minutes due to their help.

They both have learned about how seeds grow this spring at school. Edison is very protective of his garden and is the designated water boy.

MAY - Enjoying a Weekend with Meg and Chris

The summer weather has hit and we're excited to break out the shorts and spend time in the sun!

 Meg and Chris came to the cabin this weekend with their two boys: Dillon and Liam.

 The kids had fun stuffing pinecones down the knot-holes in the bridge.

 The kids were inseparable.

 The next morning we played down by the creek behind the cabin. Dillon and Liam had brought water squirters to play with - so much fun!

 It is pretty exciting to have to cross this log to get to the creek's bank. I played with the three older kids while Eben, Meg, and Chris went for a run with Liam.

 After seeing the kids playing in our vests lately, I decided to get them their own when I saw them on sale. They adore them. Yay!

 Dillon and Edison.

 Then we headed out of the creek and walked into town.

 I always love crossing the footbridge and ending up in the beautiful Plain valley. The kids did a great job walking and I got my mocha at the hardware store (yes, that is also the espresso stand in town).

 Then we headed over to Lake Wenatchee to play.

 We had a great time together and were sad to see them leave Saturday night. But this was the first of many weekends up here together, I think.

 The Phillips' took a picnic to Lake Wenatchee on Sunday - soaking up all the sun we could before we had to head home and get ready for the work week.