Oak Harbor

Now we come to my dad's childhood home. The place where I was baptized one summer, and one of the most beautiful places on earth. I have actually only been there a handful of times in my life, because we lived so far away, but I feel like it is in my blood.

Wednesday morning we drove to Mukilteo and took the ferry Whidbey Island. Driving up onto a boat to sail across was great fun for the kids.  JB and I did it on our trip 10 years ago to see my grandparents.  (Now they are both gone, and I was sad a little when we drove by their old home with its new owners.)

Exploring the ferry:

Fort Ebey State Park on the way north/east up the island:

Oak Harbor has a newly renovated beach front park. It used to be called City Beach, now it is officially known as Windjammer Park I think. We ate pizza at the tables then explored the shore for driftwood and more sea life.

It would have been more fun it it wasn't cold and windy and off-and-on drizzly. The boys didn't mind, but Millie was v v sad.

See her blond hair peaking out below?

In Oak Harbor is a small WW2 Navy display. My grandpa served in the Navy in the war, so this I felt was important to share with my children. And I am glad they were interested.  We saw a PBY-Catalina up close.

I felt a connection to my grandpa in Oak Harbor, and I like building those family connections across generations. I think it builds pride in your family, and connection to the past.

We ate and played a bunch at McDonalds because of the covered play-place and WiFi for JB (when you are self-employed, you don't get paid vacation days. Home loans need attention sometimes!)  Then we headed to Fort Casey State Park where we were going to camp overnight. That deserves its own post, coming up next.

Jetty Island

Jetty Island is a gem. Michael and Bethany say they try to go every summer. It's a small island near Everett but the ferry operates to it in a short window over the summer.

This was very exciting for our landlubber children, to ride a boat with their cousins.

It was low tide, so that meant lots of good areas for digging.

And for finding crabs! You should have seen Andrew and James yelling with excitement each time they found something.

Here's a beach bum.

JB took all the pictures I am posting here. He took one of me and my brother Michael to send to my parents. He did such a good job keeping my parents up to date every day with pictures and details about what we were up to. My dad grew up in the area and we wanted to share the trip with him.

Michael brought a small pop up tent (genius) and Max sang songs to Millie until they both fell asleep.

The ride back to land the boys all rode up top again. 

Thanks to some clouds, hats, and lots of sunscreen, no one got burned. It was a beautiful sunny day, whereas the day before and the day after we got some rain showers. Perfection!

Washington vacation

We spent a week in the Seattle-area visiting my brother Michael and his darling family.  I knew our children would be instant friends, and they were.

They have 4 boys and a girl like us, and we match up pretty closely in ages. We piled out of the minvan after driving 13 hours last Saturday, and it was a tumble of blond and red heads and arms and legs rushing out to the big backyard playset.

(Millie was done with her clothing by the point that picture was taken)

Every day was spent outside on the playset, or playing with their cute Frenchie puppy, or snuggling darling baby Joseph, or having pillow fights, or building Legos, or anything like that.

Here's the whole crowd at dinner

We packed the week with a ton of stuff.

On Monday morning we woke up early to avoid the traffic and go downtown and be touristy.

Like Pike Place.

Millie tolerated the back pack carrier; she wanted to be carried on my hip or on the front but she is getting so big now and heavy for me.

It did get a little rainy off and on.

(that picture reminds me of the picture we took in almost the same spot 10 years ago - post here)

I kept talking about the famous gum wall, and the boys kept asking where it was. James saw a piece of gum stuck to something and he asked if that was the gum wall. Just you wait, I said. And we turned the corner and they were like "Eeeewwww!" 

We got there so early, we had to kill some time before some places opened at 10 AM.



Then we rode the monorail over to the Space Needle

There's an awesome playground right in front of it.

Upcoming posts on the rest of the week!

Lagoon-A-Beach

Saturday was perfect weather for a trip to the water park at Lagoon. 

We always get there right when it opens, and pick out our favorite shady spot by the sand volleyball court.

The boys are getting so brave! Max and Ben go off on pretty much any of the slides together, and the little boys went on the blue slides, and the Outfitter tube slide where you stop in pools on the way down. And they did it over and over. Swimming lessons really built their confidence about plunging into water and popping back up.

Millie wasn't so brave. She liked the kids water up to her knees, but I had to cajole her down the kid slides on my lap. Then when I sent her down a little one on her own (with a brother at the bottom to catch her), she screamed at me. Then she demanded to go back to daddy.

Where she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Swimmingest of lessons

I praise the heavens that this summer's session of swim lessons went so much better than the last time we tried this. James clung to me tearfully each time, and Andrew kinda did what he was supposed to but was worried about his ear a lot.

Maybe it's because I got in the pool each time nearby, maybe it's because Andrew's ear healed, or these boys are older, maybe it was their awesome teacher. But they now at least passed the first level and can jump in and dunk under and hold their breath and kinda float. 

Who is under those towels?

Peek-a-boo!

Millie and I would spend the time in the shallow water playing while the boys were in their lesson.

I find it funny that even on the last day of lessons, I still had to remind them of the specific steps for getting ready again. "Take off your swimsuit DON'T DROP IT ON THE FLOOR Now start the shower Now get in the shower DON'T DROP YOUR TOWEL ON THE FLOOR Use soap Now dry off DON'T DROP YOUR TOWEL ON THE FLOOR Now get dressed Underwear first Don't forget your shoes I'm getting your sister dressed DON'T OPEN THE DOOR YET" etc

The meanest mom?

I want to crowd source my parenting techniques.

Am I the worst?

Recently, one son wrote me a note saying "I hat(e) you," and another told me he wanted to go to live with another family. Another sassed back in a way that shocked me.

I stayed calm in the middle of it (don't over-react, say the experts) and for the most part shrugged it off and laughed a little to JB later.

But today I am weary and on the edge of weepy about it.  Sometimes I think we parents need some moments where we can look at each other and say, "SOLIDARITY, YOU GOT THIS." (Also, can we all just get on the same parenting page?)

I try and try to explain our family values, and why dad and I make the choices and decisions we do. But all my children see is that their life is unfair, because they are comparing to their friends.

Friends who have their own iphones, or a bigger house, or a trampoline, or a dog, or video game systems, or fun vacations, or new shoes all the time, or new movies all the time, or indoor trampoline parks or I can't even remember what else has been thrown in my face.

We try to save most of our money. We have Lagoon season passes from Papa. We go to the park every day. We have sports. We have shelves of books. We have good food (eg pizza a fair amount). We have comfortable beds and clean clothes. We have Xfinity OnDemand and Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and YouTube on the Smart TVs.  We have good health. We don't have big, hard, heavy labor to do every day.

(Maybe we should make the kids do more chores every day)

We have the gospel and we have love in our home. 

I don't know how to change their perspectives. I don't know how to help them see how blessed they are.


PS....that same son who wrote the note, gave me a big squeeze at bedtime said "I wuv you."  I am so thankful that I leaned into the hug and said it back.