Fourth of July 2009

We spent a very hot but fun Fourth of July long weekend camping out at the property in Shelton. Bryan and Porsche Appleman were along as usual and we were also very happy to have Marina's friend Emily Brown with as as well as Bryan's sister Candy and her husband Steve and Bryan's brother Brad and his wife Esther. The heat was, well, hot. Which made us all a bit sweaty and stinky and lethargic during the middle part of the day. On Friday I ran to Shelton and got the kids squirt guns and ice cream from Wal-Mart. I won't say I hurried... the air conditioning was a welcome relief!

On the Fourth we drove up to Hood Canal in the evening and watched fireworks over the canal. That was very fun too. People sure spend a lot of money to blow things up in the sky.


Lots of pictures below of the weekend. Too many pictures to post them all here so I put them into a slideshow. Here are a couple of my very favorites though:


Dakota wading out to go swimming in order to cool off.

Mircea being her cute self.

Casper being his cute self.

Marina being her cute self.

And Dakota being his cute self. He caught the tiniest little frog and was excited to show it to me.

Marina on the rocks in front of the Hood Canal where we were watching fireworks, wearing all of her glow-bracelets and glow-necklaces.

The girls had a blast with the squirt guns in the lake. I'll never quite understand what the point is of squirting each other when you're already entirely wet, swimming in a lake. But judging from all the screaming and laughing I guess it's fun.

A very patriotic little Casper.

Being the good auntie that she is Candy knows that Casper's favorite thing to do is hang upside down.

The heat melted Emily's Strawberry Malt Balls into a big Malt-Ball-Brick!

Four days together out in the woods without electricity, running water or showers and they are still willing to get this close to each other... now that is LOVE!

Spring Break 2009

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.