Fun in Port Townsend

At the end of July, we went to Port Townsend to visit Randy's parents and then went to Anacortes for the day to see Grandma Alice (Great Grandma Alice to Trey). We are so glad that Grandma and Grandpa Clark are in driving distance and that we can see them more often!

Doug and Carmen have been hard at work since they retired to build up their garden and yard.  The results are amazing!  These two seriously never stop.

Trey and Grandma exploring the garden

This garden was started from seed!!!

On Saturday we headed up to Anacortes to see Grandma Alice.  We got to ride the ferry over which Trey has yet to be ceased to be amazed by.  

Another thing Trey has yet to ceased to be amazed by is Grandma Alice's bear collection.  Every time we go he goes straight to the bears and plays with them.  I wonder when that will end...

In the morning before we left for Anacortes, Randy caught two salmon in Discovery Bay.  We took them with us to his grandma's house, and his Uncle Duane cooked them up for lunch.  They were delicious!

Grandma Alice collects change in this turtle bank that she has a tradition of giving to her grandkids when it fills up.  This time it was Randy's turn, and he was surprised to go home with a stash of coins.  We have yet to cash it in, but there are guesses on how much Grandma Alice had collected.

Grandpa Doug, Great-Grandma Alice, Randy, and Trey

When we got back to Port Townsend, Randy and I escaped for a quick date night/dinner and found ourselves in a local dive bar.  It got good reviews on Yelp, and the food was decent, but it was kind of a weird spot.

Before we left on Sunday, we explored around Doug and Carmen's property.  The guys also played some frisbee which is a Clark tradition.  The greenhouse is almost done, and I can't wait to see what they grow in it this winter and spring!  Trey also got a tractor ride from his grandpa which may have been one of his highlights of the trip.

While it was a quick trip, it was good to get to Port Townsend this summer and especially great to see Grandma Alice.  I don't think we will be back up there until Christmas, and we look forward to that trip!

Summer Playdates

"Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.

"Pooh!" he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw.  "I just wanted to be sure of you."

A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

Trey, Randy, and I are all really lucky folks because we all have really great friends.  Summer was awesome because we were able to spend more time with our friends than usual, and Trey had a really great time hanging out with his buddies.  Whether he said so or not, I think it was weird for him not to see his preschool friends every day, and I tried to schedule playdates as much as I could so that he could socialize and see his friends.   We spent a lot of time with Ana, and we also got to see a lot of Camille and a few of his preschool buddies.

About once a week, if not more, we hung out with Ana and Curt, and watching those two together is a thrill.  They really get along well, and we are all so happy that their friendship has blossomed.  Curt, Randy, and I can basically ignore them while they amuse themselves.  It's fantastic.

Hammock time with Ana!

I'm sure when Trey is a little older, he won't want his father interrupting his hammock time with his girlfriends.

We got to introduce Ana to the Children's Museum earlier this summer, and the kids had a great time together.  It was hard to keep up with the two of them, but I did my best.

Chasing each other on stage

One of Trey's favorite guys from preschool is Calvin.  When I told Trey once that two girls or two boys could get married, he said, "Oh good.  I'm going to marry Calvin."  Trey even knows Calvin's schedule at preschool and doesn't want to go on days that Calvin isn't there.

One day Mindy and I took the kids to George Rogers Park.  When we took a walk down to the river, I was surprised to see this stone sculpture that kids can climb on because it used to be at the playground when I was young.

Another Ana and Trey playdate...

Swimming with Garland and Maclyn at SW Community Center Pool.

We met Ardis, Dan, Cadence, and her three kids at the splash pad at Memorial Park in Wilsonville on a very hot day.  The kids loved the water, and the adults loved the shade.

Ardis and Dan

Emmett, Cadence, Kiah, and Madden

Ardis always brings treats for the kids, and this time it was cupcakes.

Another playdate with Ana...the kids had fun with the sprinkler water ball and hid under their umbrellas to protect themselves.

One last summer playdate with Calvin.  We met at Camp Rivendale, and Trey was not a happy camper when it was time to go home.

I look forward to Trey meeting new friends in kindergarten, and I hope he can continue to play with his friends from preschool.  It should be an exciting year with a lot of new people!

Fourth of July Weekend

Another weekend that topped the charts was Fourth of July weekend.  We had a super fun day on Friday and then on Saturday morning headed to the coast with Kris and John and the dogs.   Out of the whole summer, it definitely is in my top three of summer memories (don't ask me what my other two are because I'm not sure, but I know this weekend is in my top three).

Have you been to Memorial Park in Wilsonville?  It is AWESOME.  I didn't take pictures of the playground, but it is AMAZING.  Google it, and there will be images.  We met Trey's friend Ryland and his mom, Kim, at Memorial Park on Friday morning, and they had a bit of fun on the playground but had the MOST FUN at the splash pad.  I love this splash pad.  My pictures don't do it justice.  Google it.  As a side note, this day was REALLY HOT, so the boys had fun while their moms sweated to death.

Later that day, we met Dan and Kristina and their kids at a hotel by the airport.  Is there a better way to kick off the holiday weekend than swimming a hotel pool with Subway sandwiches and growlers of beer?  I didn't think so.  The kids had a great time swimming, and we left with an extra car (Dan and Kristina's minivan while they went to the midwest for three weeks).

On Saturday morning, we headed to the beach for a long weekend with Kris and John.  We started out with a pancake breakfast and then hit the road.

We spent the weekend in Newport and stayed nearby in Otter Rock.  The weather was perfect (probably 20 degrees cooler than it was at home) and we had so much fun on the beach.  I won't narrate every picture (there are a lot of them - trust me, I have more), but I think you'll get the idea that we spent a lot of time on the beach and it was fabulous.

Lunch at an Irish pub.  

The grown ups were happy to be cool (I was wearing a coat!) and we had yummy beer while Trey was happy to curl up with the iPad.  

Walking along the beach at Otter Rock

I was in heaven with my book and my boy on the beach.  

On the fourth we headed to Yaquina Bay State Park in Newport.  The plan was to watch the fireworks over the bay.  (Spoiler alert: while we had an amazing evening with amazing sand dunes and beautiful views, we weren't quite in the right spot to watch the fireworks.  We saw a lot of the private ones, but once the public ones started and we realized we couldn't see them, we headed back to the car.  This worked out fine as Trey was Ready. For. Bed.)

We climbed to the top of this bluff which meant that Trey and the dogs could run around the sand dunes while John and I sat on the top of the bluff and drank wine.  Perfect.  Is that sand just not gorgeous?

I don't think that Kris reads my blog because she would die if she knew I was posting this picture (but, hey, I didn't post it on Facebook, did I?), but I think it is effing hilarious and I could not stop laughing that weekend every time I looked at it.  Not sure what Cooper, her dog, is trying to do, but Kris certainly doesn't like it.

Here's a better family shot:

The next day we went to Devil's Punchbowl in Otter Rock, and the tide was out.  We were able to hike down and into the area which was really cool.

Checking out a tunnel to the ocean...

Trey wasn't thrilled.  

Looking for creatures

We found one of our new favorite restaurants in Newport, which we frequented twice, called Cafe Mundo.  It's kid friendly, has cocktails and delicious beer, the food is wonderful, and they have fireplaces in some of their tables.  We loved it.

That day we went back to Yaquina Bay State Park so that we could play on the dunes some more.

Pretty flowers at our house

Before going to dinner at Local Ocean Seafoods, the grown-ups sat outside and drank a bottle of delicious Archery Summit Pinot Noir and played Cards Against Humanity while Trey watched a movie.  It was a pretty perfect day.

We are so lucky to have Kris and John as good friends and travel partners.  We are especially lucky that they tolerate traveling with a five year old and are flexible with our parenting needs.  What an awesome weekend!