Back to School

Summer has come to an end and that means the kids are back in school. They are pretty excited about it, and so is Emily.

Hadley enters 3rd grade this year, and even though we asked the district to move her out of hi-cap for social reasons, that didn't happen. However, based on how the class is structured this year, we gave Hadley the option, and she said she wanted to stay.

Cambri is our first grader, and is ready to crush it. She is also in a hi-cap class, but sounds like it just means the teacher will have extra worksheets for her when she finishes early or something.

Harlow got into TK, and has been crazy excited to get started. Emily took her to meet her teacher last week, and she didn't want to leave. She told Emily to go home without her. There will also be another girl from our ward in her class, and I think it will help her a lot to have someone in there that she already knows.

Meanwhile, Emily gets to enjoy the dynamic duo of Crewe and Bristol during the day. They may look all cute and innocent, but they have proven to be quite the trouble makers when they team up together.

To Grandma's House They Go

Lindsea kept asking when we were going to send the kids over for a few days. So, finally, we found a week that worked, and I met Lindsea in Leavenworth and exchanged vehicles. She took the one full of kids and headed back to Manson.

I took the one without kids and headed for home looking forward to less chaos.

Sounds like it didn't take long for the kids to settle in.

As is the usual, Crewe liked cruising around in the Escalade EV.

With the kids gone, and tons of time available, Emily and I headed down to Seattle on Thursday to eat at our favorite Indian restaurant. It's our go-to restaurants for celebrating stuff, and so this felt appropriate.

We also took care of the kids' school shopping.

The kids got to go hangout at Doug and Jama's pool. It took him a little bit, but Crewe did finally decide to join everyone else in the pool.

With it being as smokey as it was with the fire up lake, the kids spent a good amount of time inside. The smoke did get better and they were able to be outside.

They definitely got all the ice cream they could eat. Crewe really enjoyed sharing his cone with the dogs.

I never heard how bedtime went, but it sounds like he wore himself out pretty good.

Bristol really took to Lindsea, which is what Emily predicted. Apparently, this made Gma a little jealous.

And Crewe took to Gpa.

The girls had a blast playing with Lindsea's kids. Hadley was always off either on an iPad or probably doing something with Rissa's kids. I don't know, I wasn't there.

Rissa said Cambri was very helpful with the animals. It's probably one of her favorite things to do when we visit.

Emily and I decided to head over on Saturday to retrieve them. We've always driven by LouSki's in Skykomish and have wanted to try it. It was okay. I don't need to go back, but now I no longer have to wonder about it.

We spent the day in Manson, took the kids to the park, hung out, and had some BBQ chicken for dinner.

The girls insisted on taking their picture with the bike rack.

After dinner, we headed for home.

The kids had a blast. We were told they behaved wonderfully, and did what they were asked. I appreciate Gma and Gpa, Lindsea, and Rissa for helping take care of them for a few days while Emily and I binged watched Widow's Bay and were able to avoid cleaning the house every hour on the hour.

We left after dinner and made it home safely without hitting any deer.

Ward Campout

Hadley and Harlow had their yearly checkup appointments in Everett, and so I met up with Emily and the kids after work so she didn't have to take all the kids in. Afterwards, we headed over to a park on Silver Lake, close to where we used to rent when we lived in Everett. They had just recently redone the entire playground, and the kids quite enjoyed it.

Crewe actually went down some of the slides.

The zipline is always a big hit.

Then they played King of the Mountain on a little mound, when some random girl showed up and wanted to be apart of their picture. 

Here is Bristol all happy. We'll see if it lasts during the campout.

On Friday, August 7th, we headed up to Cascade Park near Arlington. While I got the tent setup, Emily took the girls down to the river for a bit.

Had we known the river would have areas where they could wade and swim, we would've take their life jackets.

But, this area was shallow and slow enough that they could walk around and be fine.

That wouldn't be the case everywhere, and Harlow found that out later on.

After we got everything setup, we headed up to the big slip-n-slide.

This would end up being the highlight for all the kids.

It was pretty bumpy, but the kids couldn't get enough.

Crewe had Emily take him down way more times than she probably wanted. 

Next time we will make sure to take some tubes to go down on.

After the slip-n-slide, we made our way back down to the river now that more people were starting to arrive. This area is a little deeper, and so we made the kids stay along the shallower side. Harlow found a deeper pocket and went under. Luckily, Tanner was close by to pull her up.

For dinner, we just grilled some hot dogs. We had about 40 or so ward members there for dinner. Less than half would actually stay the night.

After dinner, Emily took the girls back up to the slip-n-slide with everyone else. I stayed behind with Crewe and Bristol, we enjoyed wandering around, playing in the dirt, and getting pushed on the barrel swing. 

Crewe also enjoyed doing some of the pushing.

Even though we weren't supposed to, we took up our Solo Stove and made a fire. The senior missionaries running the campground didn't care that we had a fire even though there was a strict fire ban in place. The fire ban stated wood pellets could be used for cooking food, so since our Solo Stove has and attachment to use pellets, that's how we justified it. Once the fire dies down, it is absolutely perfect for s'mores.

Bristol put up a good fight, but ultimately ran out of gas. It was well past her bedtime anyway.

The kids actually did quite well in the tent. In the morning, there was still some hot pellets from the Solo Stove, so I just poured them out into the fire pit. The kids took that as an opportunity to stir the coals with their marshmallow roasting sticks.

After some muffins and yogurt for breakfast, it was back up to the slip-n-slide.

We ended up staying for about 45 minutes or so before it was time to leave. It was about then that other family's showed up, but we had some school shopping to do.

We headed over to the Target in Smokey Point for some school supplies and clothes. For some reason, they absolutely love to ask for their picture to be taken outside of Target.

Then it was time for lunch. Cambri was getting hangry, so it was becoming increasingly difficult for her, and everyone else, to agree on where to go. We settled on the Costco food court, but when we got inside, it was just absolutely crawling with people. Things got a little heated with the kids because nobody was willing to compromise on anything. Finally, I made an executive decision and we went to Popeye's. They at least had mac n cheese and chicken tenders. Once everyone had been fed, our moods were better. Even though they fought back on Popeye's, they all came to enjoy it. Hadley has already asked when we can go back, but that might have more to do with the fact that there was frozen yogurt next door, which is where we found ourselves after eating.

All in all, it was a good weekend, and I think we actually have a future as being a camping family. We'll see.