Olympic National Park

We took a long weekend and went all the way out to the coast to Olympic National Park.  We camped for 3 nights inland at the Hoh Rain Forest campground (sorry, no pictures...), and drove out to some of the beach areas on a couple occasions.

It was chilly, but actually the nicest weather I've experienced at the coast.  Being Northwest natives, the twins thought it was fine weather, and kept getting wetter than we wanted them to.

A driftwood shelter we built at Rialto Beach.

"Seastack" islands (August sitting in foreground)

Exploring a huge driftwood shelter built by someone else at Ruby Beach.

It was probably 20 feet long.

There were lots of beach rocks and cliffs to explore at Ruby Beach.  Here a tunnel/cave leads out to the little inlet featured in the video below. 

Ren Fest

Every August there is a Renaissance Faire out in near-by Buckley, and once again the kids were excited to attend.

August gets knighted by "the Queen".

The previous two years August has been fascinated by this "jail" stand where you can pay to have someone put in the cell for a little while.  He just wanted to stand and watch and watch and watch the jailers in action.  So, this year, I decided we should have them both locked up.  I paid without them noticing, so they were both surprised when the jailers converged on them and began reading the "charges" against them ("Failure to put on their shoes and to wash behind their ears").

They had to roll the big dice and perform the actions written on it to be released.

Arts Fest Visitors

This past weekend was the annual Proctor Arts Festival in our neighborhood.  Aunt Juel came up from Oregon bringing 3 of her grandkids with her for the weekend.

L to R: Rose, August, Hunter, Junior, and Samantha (and part of Becky's head) 

August gets carried away with corn silk while husking for dinner. 

On Sunday we went to the big Lemay Car Museum.

L to R: Juel, Samantha, Rose, Junior, and August 

August, Samantha, Junior, Rose and Hunter have fun playing on the only car there that you are allowed to touch.

4th of July Camping

We went camping with the Wagner and Squires families for July 4th weekend to Icicle Creek over on the East side of the mountains.  It was hot!  It hit 100 degrees both days.

 One afternoon we went to a local resort to have ice cream for a cooling treat.  L to R: Hamish, Charlie, August, and Rose--with Pat standing behind.

The campground had a nice swimming hole on the side of the creek--a welcome respite from the extreme heat.  L to R: Hamish, Rose, August, and Gabe. 

Luke, Becky, Hamish, Anna, Charlie, and Eileen on the creek bank. 

Tom and Gabe at our campsite.  Thankfully it was very shady!