End of Summer Fun

As the summer wound down, we had a few things we wanted to squeeze in before school started.  The drive in was one of those things.  I was frustrated because the drive in really didn't show a lot of kids movies that summer, but finally on weekend they were showing Planes:  Fire and Rescue.  So at the last minute we made it happen.  Ethan had gotten some money to pick out his own birthday present from my parents and he chose a semi trailer that had two tractors on it.  It was so cute because he said he chose it because he didn't have anything else like it and because it had two tractors so he could share one with Carter.  So sweet.  Here they are showing them off.

Ashton loved climbing around all over in the back of the car.

We had so much fun.  And even though it was crazy and last minute, we were so glad we went.

This boy grew and changed so much over the summer.  I just love his sweet smile.  One day the ice cream truck pulled into our driveway and the driver came up to the door asking for "grandkids" and saying she had ice cream for them.  I was totally thrown off and feeling like something weird was going on, but it turns out that she had passed my dad's house (he lives in the same neighborhood) and he had paid her and sent her to our house so the boys could pick out their own ice cream.  It was such a fun surprise.  Ashton loved the ice cream treat.

Another face I love...

Ethan picked out a Ninja Turtle ice cream treat.  Love those green teeth!

Ashton being a cool dude one day.

I ordered 100 pounds of fruit--which was crazy.  But we ate lots of fresh peaches and apples, made several batches of spaghetti sauce and canned some tomatoes and also ate some yummy fresh pears and made pear fruit leather out of it!

It's always sad to see summer end in Washington, but our falls are always so beautiful here!  And I like the routine that back-to-school brings.  :)  Must be the teacher in me!

Sand in the City

Sand in the City was on a HOT, HOT weekend this year.  They had a new shuttle system set up and since the boys love riding on buses we decided to use it--we won't do that again.  Lol!  We waited so long in the heat.  But we decided to snap some pictures while we waited in the parking lot.

Such a beautiful a day on the Puget Sound!

By the time we got off the shuttle, the boys were ready to eat.  So we found a little spot and had a quick picnic.

Ashton loved the duck slides!  Carter showed him how it was done, since he's a veteran now!  ;)

The boys are showing off their construction hats and the bracelets they made.  Ethan's shirt is soaking wet because the first thing we did when we got there was paint birdhouses and he got some on his shirt so Tristan tried to wash it out.  No luck, it's ruined.  But the birdhouse is great!

All the boys enjoyed playing in one of the big sand pits.

Doing some digging!  We actually ended up running into some friends while we were playing so it was fun to visit while the boys all played.

Blowing some bubbles while waiting in line for the petting zoo.

Carter loved this llama.  I swear he was going to kiss it several times.  It was really cute.

Petting the bunnies!

We didn't get a lot of time to hang out because of the time the shuttles took up and we had plans that evening, but we did take a quick walk through the sculptures.  No pictures, for the second year in a row!  Next year I will have to get pictures of the sculptures.  It was a fun day, even in the heat!

Happy Birthday to Me & Camping at Ocean Shores

Oops!  Got my posts out of order.  I still have some summer fun to share!  The end of August is my birthday and our anniversary 2 days later.  So typically we end up celebrating out one evening and home another.  I decided with all the HEAT I didn't want to bake a cake, so a frozen Hershey's Pie it was!

I think the kids approved of my choice!

Our anniversary was spent preparing to go on our second camping trip of the summer.  This time we went for two nights to Ocean Shores and we were on our own.  The weather was just o.k., but I was so glad it didn't pour (until the last day when we were packing up to go home).  We got there on a Wednesday night, so the campground was fairly empty, which was nice and quiet for us!  The boys helped Tristan set up the tent.

This time around was different with Ashton because he was no longer crawling, which was so nice.  In a lot of ways it made things a lot easier.  The one downside was he really didn't like having to hang out in the pack-and-play like he did earlier in the summer.  It was also a little tricky with the fire, but overall he did great!

Such a big boy!

The boys thought it was fun to hang out under this tree like a little hidden fort.

Enjoying some time by the camp fire

We brought some Jiffy Pop and the boys thought it was really cool to watch it pop up.

Ready for bed in the tent!

The next day Tristan took the boys for a short hike while I got lunches packed for our day trip down to the beach.  They found this cool Banana Slug.

We thought these tree branches were really cool.

We had a great day down at the beach.  The weather was great.  It wasn't cold or too windy, so we were able to be comfortable and spent the whole day hanging out and playing.

Ashton loved digging in the wet sand.  He was a MESS by the time the day was done.

Toward the end of the day we moved down the beach to the jetty and the boys had a blast playing on the rocks and having their own little cove to play in together.

We got some good waves crashing into our little cove!

The boys had me pretending this was my bed.

We had a good time watching this guy fishing and even saw him pull a small fish out, which he released.

We packed up and decided to drive to another part of the beach where cars can drive along the water.  I thought it was funny that our GPS actually showed us in the water at one point (we weren't)!

Ashton and Carter fell asleep in the car, so Ethan, Tristan and I decided to get out and wander out by the water.  Ethan snapped this picture of us.  It was so weird to relive the (quiet) days of only one little running around.

A group of horseback riders came by while we were there.

Ethan found a hole someone had dug and was pretending to be a gopher.  Lol!

That night we did camping haystacks and S'mores by the fire.  We also played some board games and the boys had fun playing with some kids who had come in during the day and set up camp.

The next morning was pretty wet.  We packed up earlier than we had planned, but we were ready.  All the kiddos were out cold on the way home--a sure sign that a lot of fun was had!  Ashton really didn't do well at night on this trip, so he was wiped out!  We are loving camping with our boys.  I'm already ready to start making reservations for some trips for next summer!