Edison and Floyd's Birthday + Summer Activities

We celebrated Floyd and Edison's birthdays up in Bellingham again this year. It was great to get the whole family together for the occasion. Edison was loving his time with Floyd and Reed was loving the spray park.

 

 

We spent a week doing our usual summer activities: Civic Club (with Katie, Todd, Sully and Kellan), house projects - this time sanding and painting a sideboard with Reed's help, and swim meets.

 

  

 Charlotte and Jenabel.

 

Edison with his Sheridan Beach buddies: Alex and Eli.

Sucia Island Getaway - Part Two (joined by the Adams family)

Eben picked them up by boat at Lummi. They brought a giant tent with them and this humongous mattress that had to be inflated with the boat battery and then carried to the tent like the old Ivars clams commercial.

Once our friends arrived, the kids spent hours roaming the beaches near our campsite and playing in the cove, even paddling out to the little island.

 Using the paddleboard as a dinghy to anchor the Whaler.

 Last smore before heading to watch the sunset only to be met with a torrential squall at 9:00. We heard the first clap of thunder, then ran back to secure camp. In 10 minutes we had very heavy rain lasting over an hour. Fortunately our tents kept us dry and we used the sunshade as a rain awning and had the campfire anyway after the kids were tucked safely into bed.

 On Saturday morning we hiked the northern bluffs out to the far point at the entry to Shallow Bay.

 This point has great tide pools at low tide. The kids had a blast playing with the sea life, finding crabs, and making their own "aquarium."

 We stopped at the China Caves on the way back. These are really interesting caves cut into the sandstone cliff by erosion. They are perfect for the kids to tackle.

 After lunch we went back to the north end of Shallow Bay to hang out at the sandy beach there.

 Followed by dinner time at camp, sunset viewing, and another campfire.

 The kids continued to roam as a pack on Sunday as we had breakfast and packed up camp.

 Heading back to Lummi and civilization. Until next year!

Sucia Island Getaway - Part One

We added a few days vacation to July 4th and ended up with six days at Sucia Island! The tide was out when we got to Lummi, so we used the boat mover which was really cool to watch.

 Edison did a lot of driving of the boat during the trip.

 It felt so wonderful to be back up in the San Juan Islands!

  The view of Mount Baker from our campsite was stunning.

 On Wednesday we headed northwest over to explore Patos Island, another state park island. It has a snug little harbor on the western end.  It definitely feels like an outer island in terms of being more remote and weather-beaten. It was interesting to find old elements related to the lighthouse operations and the ligthhouse keepers and their families who lived here. There was also a small hike around the island which helped us see a lot more.

 

 

We headed  to Roche Harbor for dinner and the Independence Day celebrations. The bunting and decorations were incredible. The harbor was packed full of boats and the docks were crowded with people wearing red, white, and blue. We had a picnic dinner near the playground and it started to sprinkle. We ended up leaving after dinner as the fireworks were not going to start until 10:30 and a long boat ride back to camp after dark in the rain did not sound appealing. We did get to see a lot of fireworks facing Lummi Island and Birch Bay while having a nice campfire. It wasn't spectacular, but it was just what we needed.

 On Thursday we had a low-key day around camp. We played a lot of games with the kids including "Pass the Pigs" in which two pigs the size of small footballs are thrown in the air on a person's turn. The way they land (standing, on their back, etc.) determines how many points are scored. Hilarious and we can all play which is fun.

 

Reed found these glasses on the beach - total Harry Potter look-alike.

 We got visited by a large family of otters on the outskirts of our campsite at low tide. It was incredible to watch them preening each other and doing their little otter things.

 At sunset we saw all nine of them swimming together.

 We walked over to the south end of Shallow Bay on Friday morning to enjoy the sun and the calm beach.

 We used every tile in Bananagrams - all kids helped.

 We played in the kayak at our beach. And then.... the Adams family arrived and made our vacation a lot more fun!