Cooking and Art

A nice quiet day at home with the girls today. We made S'mores bars (one of our favorites) and painted some animals from a kit that Maria bought.

Bridget crushing up the graham cracker crumbs. This is a perfect job for her.

My wonderful kitchen helper.

The artists at work.

Colorful animals are much more fun then just your run of the mill stuff.

Great Wolf

So Maria and I have been calling this the "Summer of Fun". It's such a privilege to be home with them and on top of that, we have had some great trips, visits, and plans.

One of the big plans this summer was a night away at Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA. Last year, I won a trip to the resort for two nights. Ever since that visit, Maria has been wanting to return. The rooms can be expensive and so it's not really party of our budget. But Maria was determined. She saved up money for the past 9 months to get us a one night stay there. We are so proud of her.

When we got there, I mentioned the story to the lady at check in. She was in tears thinking about Maria saving her money and was nice enough to upgrade us to a "Wolf Den" suite on the house. Maria went and thanked her later. So thanks, Lori, with the blonde hair. We loved every minute of our stay!

Kid's splash area.

Girls in their wolf den bunk beds.

They even had their own TV.

Outside of lodge.

A little coloring before heading home.

Posing with Great Wolf.

Remlinger Farms

There's a farm about 40 minutes from our house with rides, ponies, other farm animals, and a large store and u-pick areas. I've heard about people going there for years and we've never gone. I got a 2 for 1 admission deal on Groupon earlier this summer so we took advantage of that and a nice, overcast but pleasant day to head over there.

We had it practically to ourselves so we went on many of the rides several times. The girls loved it!

Hay jump area and climbing wall. Fun but I was pulling hay our of our shoes for a few days after. :-)

Train ride!

Bridget loved the pony ride. She giggled during the whole thing.

Driving the old roadster cars.

Maria told me she never wanted to leave. It was pretty fun.

One more ride in the canoe.

A Visit From Gammy

After returning from Michigan, we got to enjoy a wonderful week with Grandma Lorraine (Gammy) out here in Seattle. Weather was lovely and we loved having her here!

Bridget tried chopsticks for the first time.

We worked on some homemade cards for John's birthday.

Welcoming John home from work.

Spent one morning over at the beach. Fog burned off in time to see the Olympic Mountains.

Enjoyed a picnic lunch at the playground.

Celebrated John's birthday with a cool whip chocolate cake. Obviously we were out of regular birthday cake candles.

Wonderful Week

Lots of activity during our week at the lake. Maria and Grandpa made a bird house out of a coffee can.

The "Cornhuskers"!

Proud of her fish!

Playing games with Aunt Beth.

Maria's catch of the day.

The bingo caller.

Swimming with Aunt Beth.

Fourth of July!

Happy Independence Day!

Outfits from Grandma.

Duck prosciutto that Patrick made.

Festive homemade donut holes from Grandma.

Fourth of July table.

Maria being festive on a sunset cruise of the lake.

Boat ride with Uncle John.

First time trying sparklers!

At the Lake

We got to Grandpa and Grandma's lake in Michigan yesterday and are enjoying some extremely warm weather. I forget what humidity feels like! Maria got a set of golf clubs from Grandpa for her birthday. Pink!

Bridget decided that the head cover for the driver would make a good sock.

Bridget enjoyed the sand table and Aunt Beth enjoyed watching her.