ocean shores

This weekend we packed up the car, sardine can-style, and went to Ocean Shores. We stayed here, at the "Clam Castle." Nice place...definitely more on the clammy side than the castle-y side, but that's OK.

Alan brought his friend Nathan ~ here they are playing air hockey.

They all enjoyed the hot tub on the deck.

Pizza at Dugan's. I don't know what Alan is doing with his head...

The weather wasn't great on the second day, so we didn't spend much time on the beach ~ just long enough to fly a kite, feed some seagulls, and get the car stuck in the sand.

See? It was good & stuck. The boys are all in back getting ready to push. Wade is putting something under the tires to get traction. I pretty much just took this picture.

Mine! Mine! Mine! (this will only make sense if you've seen Finding Nemo)... We got all the way back to the cabin before realizing that we'd forgotten the dog at the beach! Ooops.

She was standing around waiting for us, so we brought her home and made it up to her with a little steak for dinner.

Larry brought his friend Jacob ~ here they are after racing Go-Karts

Neil ponders his next shot at the miniature golf course...

Nathan & Alan

Neil up in the bedroom loft

This deer was around quite a bit the first day, but must've gotten sick of Ruby because we didn't see it after that.

Jacob & Larry

16 days till school starts, not that i'm counting

Larry trying to teach the dog to use the remote.

she thinks she's people.

We went to a back-to-school party at the home of our friends, The Q's. True to Washington weather in August, it mostly rained. Here's Neil with his friend Taylor.

Ginormous water slide

Mr. Q at the barbe-Q (heh)

camping @ belfair

All the mosquito bites from our last trip have healed, so it must be time for more car camping... Here's the "car" part :) You are now leaving Seattle...

Windy ferry ride

Belfair State Park. We were joined by the Armstrongs & one Milham (Derb)

The ever-popular sport of tent wrestling

Alan

Derb visiting the campground beauty parlor...

Nelson getting ready to fish, with a little help from his Mom

Alan, Neil & Larry swimming in Hood Canal. Brrrr.

Muscle beach.

neil's 1st sleepover

Neil & T.J. bonding over Gameboy. T.J.'s mama Andrea & I have been friends for going on 20 years, Aaaaaah!

camping @ kopachuk

On the beach

Tree Monkeys

Alan with a crab

Little crab vs. Big foot

Larry

Neil, Larry & flaming marshmallow!

Neil scooting around

Ruby with a nice seaweed hat

Cribbage lesson from Dad

cooking and other good stuff

Neil has always loved to cook, and watching the movie 'Ratatouille' really got him fired up to play chef. I had to nix his first few ideas... fruitcake (not in season), fruit soup (? yuck)... then we finally decided on a recipe.

Voila...Ratatouille!!!

Audrey & Meg. I love that Audrey wears her tiara at all times, even while swimming :)

Larry & Natalie. Soccer practices start for Larry this week, no more slacking off!

Neil: "Hey, I'm eatin' here!"

Eleanor feeding a carrot to the "mouse" :) ... after she beat me twice at Hi-Ho Cherry-O.

shipping alan off

Today we put Alan & his friend Kevin on a boat bound for Vashon Island to spend a week at Camp Sealth. I've always had a random (yet heartfelt) belief that all kids should go to summer camp at least once. We sent Larry last year and he had a great time, so this year it's Alan's turn!

That's gotta be one noisy boat...

beating summer boredom

In our ongoing quest to periodically pry the boys away from all things electronic, we took a little summer road trip, due East. First stop was Ellensburg for a picnic...

...then a little snooze.

Overlooking the Columbia River ~ Alan, Neil, Dad & Larry.

This is the Wild Horses monument near Vantage. If you look closely to the left, you'll see that people can hike up to check out the iron horse sculptures. We, of course, are far too lazy for such nonsense.

Mom & boys overlooking the river.

We spent a couple of nights in Spokane, and visited the Boulder Beach water park at Silverwood Theme Park in the northern Idaho panhandle. Here Alan shows off his scrawny gams while applying sunblock. Even with 50 spf, we all got burned! So sad.

A Three Boy pile-up in the bumper boat lagoon.

Log ride! Just like Splash Mountain at Disneyland, except instead of animated vignettes featuring Brer Rabbit, Bear and Fox with "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" playing in the background, the scenery pretty much consisted of a bunch of weeds and one dead bird.

Here I am... on the left. Ha! This water slide claims that you hit 55 mph on the way down, but the truly scary part is how it turns a nice conservative mom-suit into a thong by the time you hit the bottom. Yeow.

Larry, Alan, Wade & Neil, possibly in the early stages of heat stroke.