Back to School - Holly and Sam Edition

Tuesday was back to school for Holly and Sam.  One was ready, one was not.  I'll let you guess which was what.

My fourth grader.  This is Sam's last year in the elementary school.  Wow.  

 My eleventh grader.  Isn't she pretty?  She's going to have a busy, busy year. 

I like this one.

It's still okay for me to go in with Sam and take his picture with his teacher.  I think this may be the last year I get away with this.

  And the best part about back to school...

Coffee dates for mom.  We wasted no time this year.  I missed these ladies.  It's good to be back.

Summer Vacation Wrap-Up

I've said it before that these two either play so nice together or they make each other cry, there is no in between.  This was one of those nice days.  They were playing cops and robbers (that's why Sam has a purse, he thought that was important for you to know).

My boy got a first place ribbon for his "The Wild West Meets Star Wars" Lego creation.  Yes, I know he really, really needs a haircut.

On one of those there-is-absolutely-nothing-to-do days, they painted rocks.

 They made this fort and slept in it a couple of nights.

 This girl LOVES to dress up!

We hiked Oyster Dome with Mark and Edie.

I took this one before church last Sunday.  Mom, Katie is wearing that dress you repaired.  Thank you!

 Sam loves these plastic army guys.  He has this whole battle scene set up on the coffee table.

I think I'm caught up now.  Tomorrow is back-to-school pictures!

The Fair

I can't believe another fair week has come and gone.  Holly worked again this year.  She actually had two jobs.  She picked up garbage again but she also added a couple of shifts selling poffertjes which, for you non-Dutch people, are little spiced pancakes served with butter cream.  Yep, they're yummy.  I did something I have never done before.  I went to the fair twice.  I found myself all alone on opening day since Sam and Katie were having a special getting-spoiled-rotten-by-Becky day.  I had a free ticket to the fair since I was working the lost and found booth that evening so I decided to go all by myself.  It was so nice.  I could spend as much time looking at the hobbies and crafts as I wanted (my third favorite thing to do at the fair).  I got myself a big old corn dog (my second favorite thing to do at the fair) and sat on a bench and people watched (my first favorite thing to do at the fair).  I might have to make this an annual tradition.  On Thursday John and I took the kids and it was all about the rides.

This was the first year Sam had entered one of his Lego creations in the fair.   It was lots of fun seeing his masterpiece displayed.  It was called "The Wild West Meets Star Wars". 

More rides...

I had a hard time letting Katie go on this one.  I was so afraid she was going to fall out.

This was much better.

Holly working hard.  You should have seen the line for those things - I had to wait twenty minutes!


We took a break from the rides to watch the horse show (my fourth favorite thing to do at the fair) and eat supper and then it was back to the rides...

I went back again because embarrassing  her just once wasn't enough!

I almost bought this little number for myself.  John really wanted me too. Everyone knows how much I love animal prints and yes, those are metal spikes on the top.  And Holly thought me taking her picture selling poffertjes was embarrassing...

A day at the lake

John and I purchased a "Day on Lake Whatcom" at the school auction back in March.  We cashed it in a couple of weekends ago and had a WONDERFUL time.  Thank you so much to our awesome hosts - we were spoiled rotten and loved every minute of it!

We invited two other couples to join us and Sam and Holly each brought along a friend. 

Sam and his buddy graciously allowed Katie to ride in the paddle boat with them.

 Here they are getting ready to go tubing.  They were a little nervous at first, both of them had death grips on the handles of the tube!

 Katie kept yelling, "When's it my turn?!"

The boys kept wanting to go faster and faster.  The crazier Mr. K. drove the better.  He finally had to teach them both a lesson and flip them off!

 Here's my girls just enjoying the ride.

Next up was Holly, John and I.  I told Mr. K. I wanted the "old lady ride'.  I don't think he really listened to me.

 It was finally Katie's turn!

 Then Cassie joined us.

 These boys were tired out by the end of the day!

 Holly and Cassie solving the problems of the world...or maybe just talking about boys.

After lots and lots of tubing and boat rides, we were treated to a delicious steak supper.  When it got dark we had a fire with smores and ice cream dessert (yes, I ate both).  What a fun day!  Definitely one of the highlights of our summer!

Pierced

Guess who got her ears pierced??!  Our Katie Kat has been asking for a while now and I promised her we'd do it right before she went to kindergarten.  I made the mistake the night before of telling her she had to ask her daddy.  Big mistake.  John told her she could get them pierced but it was really, really going to hurt and her ear might fall off.  Oh yes he did.  Good thing I have a brave girl (either that or she's caught on that her dad loves to tease) because the next day she hopped right up in the chair. 

Here's a before picture.  She was so excited!

This is during...she held very still.

And after...admiring her new ears.

Naturally, when Katie saw the selection of starter earrings she picked out the Hello Kitty ones.  I am not a fan of Hello Kitty so I told her I got to pick the first ones and when her ears were all healed up and she could change earrings then we would come back and she could choose different ones.  While I was paying for the piercing, her and Holly were browsing around the store and Katie found just what she was looking for...long, dangly, hot pink feathers.  Yep.  I told her we'd have to come back later.  Wish me luck.



Her Gramma wanted a close-up so we took this one last night after we cleaned them.  

My baby is growing up!

Rachel gets married!

Our Rachel went and got herself married this summer.  How come everyone around me gets older when I don't?  When we moved here Rachel was just starting high school and Holly thought she was the coolest girl in the world.  She used to beg me to get Rachel to babysit...even when she was too old for a babysitter just so they could "girl talk".  Anyhoo, she picked a great guy.  Jordan couldn't be any sweeter and despite that, fits in well with our crazy family.  Aren't they cute?  

I actually had to steal that picture off of Facebook (no, surprisingly I was not with them in the get-a-way car) because I was too busy taking pictures of this talented girl at the wedding...

Holly played her violin when Rachel walked down the aisle so instead of watching the beautiful bride like everyone else, I was taking pictures of my beautiful girl.

She did such a good job!

I also found this self portrait of some crazy cousins on my camera.  

My daughter the picker

Holly worked raspberries again this year.  Since she is sixteen she was able to work longer hours so she's guessing she put in about 170 hours in about three and a half weeks.  Last year she was too cool to allow me to come and take pictures but this year she said I could...as long as I brought treats.  I knew my Midwest friends and family would really enjoy seeing how the pickers operate and what exactly she does.

Here is the picker from the front.  The raspberry bushes go in between the "beaters" (those things on the left) which shake the bushes so the berries fall off.  The berries drop onto a belt which carries them up to the top.  The sorter (there are sometimes two of them) picks out the bad berries, twigs, bugs, etc.  On this particular day, they got a baby bird.  The stacker (which is what Holly is doing here) takes the flats and stacks the full ones.  When they are all full, they load the flats onto a truck.  

 Stacking with a smile!

 Heading to the truck.  You can see the sorter sitting up there.

 Now Holly is the sorter.  Sam and Katie got to take a ride too!

 A picture from the back.

Sam thought it was lots of fun.  Holly told him it wasn't exactly fun after you've been doing it for ten hours!  They both had very sticky fingers and mouths when they got off!  Holly, on the other hand, won't eat raspberries...I wonder why???

Some very special visitors

Last week we had some of my most favorite people stop by on their way home to Arizona.  I grew up with the DeBoer family, they are very dear friends.  If you have a really good memory you will recall that we met up with them on our summer vacation to Utah.  They are some heavy duty travelers, John and I live vicariously through them now and hope to be just like them when we grow up.

It was John's "golf day" so he took Will with him while us girls went on a walk.   

And of course no walk in Lynden is complete without a stop at Edaleens!



On Saturday we met up with them in Anacortes.  The plan was to show them around Whidbey Island and take them on my all time favorite hike at Ebey's Landing.  First up was Mount Erie which is actually on Fidalgo Island. 

 You get a really nice view from the top.

We drove across Deception Point and then made a quick stop at the state park so they could see the bridge from the bottom.  There were lots of people fishing for salmon from the beach, first time I'd seen that.

Our next stop was Fort Casey.  We drove into the parking lot and Katie said, "Hey, I LOVE this place!"  We got there just in time to take the guided tour.  It was really interesting to learn how they raised and lowered these huge guns. 

 It didn't take long for Katie to take quite a liking to Will.

We had a picnic lunch after our tour and got to watch some amazing synchronized kite flying. 

Finally made it to Ebey's Landing and my most favorite hike.  Can you see why I love it?  You walk up a big hill (I love that the walking uphill comes at the beginning) to get to a bluff that where there are wheat fields on one side (lucky farmer huh?) and ocean and mountain ranges on the other.  Amazing scenery. 



Let's just say that Will is in very good shape.  He carried Katie on his shoulders for a lot of the uphill portion of the hike.

 Had to stop for group picture...and a snack.

At the end of the trail there are switchbacks that lead you down to the water so we walked the beach on the way back.

 I would have loved to know what Will and Katie were discussing here.

Thanks DeBoers for a wonderful time!  So glad your coming back again next summer!