Carol decided at the last minute to take a trip to Iowa to visit her mom, Grandma Dirks and Aunt Jo & Uncle Fred. Which left the rest of us home for the week to fill the days with fun things to do. And we did find a lot of fun things to do! Monday Marina spent the night at her good friend Sydney's house and Dakota and I spent the day at Northwest Trek with Porsche, Mircea and Casper Appleman. I forgot my camera and Dakota only took a couple of pictures but we did have a really fun time. A stop at Krispy Kreme on the way home didn't hurt! Tuesday morning we picked up Marina and set off for a night out at the property in Shelton. Our first campfire, boat ride and night in a sleeping bag of the season! Wednesday afternoon we zoomed home in time for a wonderful Bible Study at the Modines'. Thursday was spent at the Pacific Science Center and Friday found us heading south again to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It was Raeden's fourth birthday so we spent the day with Aaron & Dani & the girls as well as Grandma Verna. Saturday morning we picked up Carol from the airport and then spent the day at Raeden's "Farm" Birthday party in the Schwartzenbergers' barn. We lucked out weather-wise; it was sunny & warm for our campout and the rest of the day it just sprinkled here and there despite being overcast most of the time. We had a terrific week and are not at all thrilled about going back to school/work on Monday.
The kids had a great time shooting their new Airsoft guns. Well, actually it turns out that just because an Airsoft gun is bright orange and therefore very attractive to Marina, it doesn't mean it will shoot very well. Marina's gun didn't shoot at all. Dakota's worked great though so we all took turns with that one. 
Dakota was also very excited to play catch with his brand new glove.
Off we went for a ride in the paddle boat around the lake.
We saw a whole bunch of big frogs in the water. We could paddle up very close to them but just as we'd get close enough to reach out to grab them they'd disappear quick as a, well, quick as a frog that doesn't want to be grabbed by some grubby little kid.
"Daddy, how come those two frogs are hooked together?" Hmmm... I'm starting to see now why there are so many frogs around here, all "peeping" and "chirping" all around the lake!
I'd be lying if I didn't say that we ate like royalty. We brought hotdogs and marshmallows. Well, that was for dinner. For breakfast? Hotdogs and marshmallows, of course! And then chocolate doughnuts for dessert. Mmmmmmmm!
We played games for a while until it got dark. Then we sang songs and talked around the campfire for a while. 
We should've brought some nice dry firewood from home because the wood at the property was still wet. We had to keep adding lots and lots of little twigs and small sticks to keep our fire warm!
What a beautiful sunset!
The morning after: it was hard to get out of those warm sleeping bags into the damp cold morning air... but chocolate doughnuts did help us make the transition!
