June 2011

I’m trying a new deal by using Windows Live Writer to make this blog post! Hopefully this will help me overcome the problems that have kept me from blogging this summer…i.e. no computer, no internet, no internet some more. Anyway….

Welcome to June! Remember that month so long ago? June is GORGEOUS in Washington because everything is green—so green your eyes have to look away and take a break and stare at something beige or creamy. BUT, it is also still cold and wet. May teases you with a glimpse of summer and then June slaps you in the face while you are trying to ask summer for her phone number. SO, to combat the June doldrums, the kids and I decided on 30 DAYS of JUNE ADVENTURES and we did one out-of-the-house adventure everyday. I won’t bore you with the specifics, but it included simple things like the McDonald’s playground (it was raining TOO hard) and taking a walk, to crazy stuff like driving to Oregon and going camping. We made a calendar and wrote each day’s adventure on the calendar. We also took a photo of each day’s merriment… but only a few of the photos made it to the blog so sorry. I just have too many months to cover.

 

Not related to June’s adventures, but Cam lost his two front teeth in June!

 

But he’s getting some HUGE muscles!

 

Po had her SIX month birthday! She was a happy sitter and crawler already, but we waited until her half bday for her first baby food. Mmmmm.

 

 

Jonah is going to kill me for posting this, but I love the looks on their faces!

 

 

Ana’s Spanish language tutor from last year came back to Sequim to visit! Her name is Lola, and she was a foreign exchange student from Spain and we were so thrilled to see her again and hear all about college and how much she misses June in the Northwest (I think it rained the whole week she was in town…).

 

 

Elsie had her end-of-the-year Joy School party and graduation. Joy School is just the BEST! It’s a co-op preschool curriculum, and we are 100% Joy School fanatics (and I’m not just saying that because my in-laws created the program). It really is an inspired and smart program. Glad I still have another year with Elsie and a couple more with Po to look forward to!

 

 

Cam and Ana LOVE Joy School too and beg to skip school when we are hosting it at our house. Sometimes I let them. I did let them skip school for the graduation party because Ana truly knows how to party like none other.

 

 

Here’s Elsie getting her Certificate of Completion.

 

 

Po is just chillin’ during the celebration.

 

 

Here is the great group (minus Julia who moved two weeks before). These kids are the best.

 

 

Size difference.

 

 

For one of our June Adventures, we went out to meet Jonah when he came in from halibut fishing off the west coast. He had gone out of the Quileute Reservation, also know as La Push of Twilight fame. The kids and I played on First Beach for a few hours while he cleaned the amazing 100 pounds of cod that he and his two friends caught. No halibut, but I like cod better. Mmmmmm. Fish and Chips.

 

First Beach is truly stunning, just like most of these West Coast beaches in Washington. Supposedly they get warm enough in the late summer that you are tempted to take a swim, but I think that’s just a tall tale.

Yes, Po is on a toilet. She’s potty trained, but sometimes it takes a few minutes.

 

 

Check out the driftwood!

 

 

Baby driftwood!

 

 

Those pinnacles out in the ocean are called sea stacks.

 

 

Ana likes to build with the driftwood.

 

She made a horse corral.

 

 

Another one of our adventures was taking Jonah’s “new” 1979 Mercedes GWagen to the annual Northwest GWagen convention at a vineyard in west central Oregon. We got to camp on this gorgeous property with all sorts of GWagen enthusiasts. Happy Father’s Day Jonah! It actually ended up being a lot of fun and a good vacation, since they cooked all the food for us and had lots of fun activities and endless wine (which we didn’t drink, of course, but it made everybody else very friendly). We definitely had the most derelict GWagen there (there were some brand new ones with ALL the bells and whistles)… but thanks to Jonah’s buddy who brought a truck load of parts for Jonah to add to his car onsite, we left in better shape than we came.

 

We did a big caravan of GWagens into some old growth forests, and except for/thanks to our small engine fire, it was a memorable day of exploring the backwoods of Oregon. Elsie and I took a hike while Jonah tried to fix the window wipers and the older kids played with their friends in the forest.

 

 

Jonah’s GWagen was an ex-military car, so it had a functioning turret on the top so he could pop up and wave. Sadly, the turret had to be sawzalled out of the roof so he could but a one-piece roof and headliner in the car. But, he sold the turret to another guy at the convention, so it’ll live on!

 

Here’s a small part of the caravan after we finished the trail ride. Ours is the red one, of course.

 

 

The kids ended up having a GREAT time, which they weren’t expecting. They just came along because it’s what Jonah wanted to do for Father’s Day, but they all ended up finding kids their own ages at the event and had a three day long playdate.

 

We did have one June adventure where we didn’t leave the house, and that was pedicures!

And that’s June!