The last days of July

July was so fun because my sister Erin and her kids Wade and Elle were here with us the whole month. We tried to do lots of fun little outings and also just fun stuff around the yard. I can't believe how many posts I had for this month! I'm glad I took lots of pictures so we can remember all the fun we had. These are the last few miscellaneous pictures from July... Erin and I took a day and went to Seattle to Pike's Place. We had a good time looking at all the shops and even stopped in at my friend's new shop there called The Chocolate Market. It's so cute!

We went to Ocean Shores for a day to play in the sand. The kids love the new souvenir shop there called Sharky's. They have every shark related souvenir you can think of!

Zoe loves being silly for the camera!

Elle turned 6 while they were here. She got an ice cream cake with starfish candles (she LOVES the beach!)

Wade, Hayden, and Carson. Cousins united by a common love for video games. They would be happy sitting there the whole day in their pajamas.

Board games were fun when Mom said "turn off all the TV's!"

My strawberry plot did really well this year. Last year I had 6 little starts from my friend Amy and this summer they completely filled in the space and produced a lot of berries. They are so much sweeter than the berries from the store too! We ate all these fresh! Yum!

Carson's Redondo Nap

We went to Redondo for some fish and chips and to do a little beachcombing. Carson got tired and fell asleep on the sand. It's not even comfortable sand, it's totally rocky! But Carson can sleep just about anywhere. The gentle lapping of the waves must have been too much to resist and he just drifted off...

Three Boys in a Tent

Hayden, Carson, and Wade had so much fun sleeping in the tent in the backyard. They played Uno and had fun with the flashlights and lanterns. Summer is so great for yard camping!

Puff's shade spot

Puff found her own shady spot on the front porch, right underneath the hydrangea bush. She dug a cool spot in the bark and made herself comfortable. It was really funny watching her dig.

Puff was so hot from running around in the sun. Madeline was holding her in the shade and put a cute flower in her hair.

On the lake

This year we got a new tube that the kids loved. Here we had 5 kids on it. It's nice and roomy and stable. Here's Hayden, Zoe, Carson, Wade and Elle taking a ride

Girls only for this ride

Boat Puff. She loves going on the boat.

Floaters

Emerald Downs

We took the kids to see the horse races at Emerald Downs. Aunt Erin had given Madeline a little makeover, so she was looking beautiful in the sunny breeze... Carson the jockey

Wade, a little bit shorter jockey

Elle (the littlest one) standing at the fence to watch the horses go by. It was a fun day. We watched a few races, Hayden picked 3 winners in a row, and we had some delicious garlic fries and nachos.

Summer Bubbles

We made some super bubble potion for the bubble wands we found at Target. Zoe and Elle had the most fun. They had giant bubble blobs floating all over the yard!

Portland Rose Garden

On our way home from the soccer tournament in Beaverton, we stopped to check out the Rose Garden in Portland. There are really neat parks there. Here is Zoe by a monument. This was a pretty fountain. Everything around was so green and lush

Then we got to the roses. There were SO many different kinds! We had fun smelling them all.

The name of this rose was Elle, so we took a picture of Elle by her namesake. She thought that was pretty neat.

These were my favorites. They kind of look like peonies. I wish I had an English tea garden with a huge trellis of these!

Elle found a slug. Ugg!

Gross! This thing was huge!

Erin found a tile for Queen Erin from the past. Funny because we all call Erin the princess...

This was the Holocaust Memorial in the park. It was so austere and solemn. It was hard to read some of it. The stories were just so heartbreaking.

Tillamook, Oregon

We took a trip to Tillamook since we were going to Beaverton for Madeline's soccer tournament. It was Elle's birthday and she LOVES the beach, so we went straight to the beach. When we got there we had a picnic on the grass. It was SO WINDY! Birthday girl Elle turned 6

After our picnic, we walked down to the beach

Elle was doing her best to catch the seagulls.

Cute Zoe

All the kids. We are missing Hayden because he had a soccer tournament back home the same weekend, so Dad stayed home with him.

The beach was rocky and windy! But it was still fun to walk around.

The water was pretty chilly, but Carson and Wade splashed around a bit and had fun jumping waves. The wind had the waves pretty whipped up!

We found a cool tunnel that went through the rock to another beach. The tunnel was so windy it was hard to walk through it.

One of the peep holes drilled through the tunnel

After the beach we went to tour the Tillamook factory. We sampled yummy cheeses and saw them packaging the cheese.

Then we sampled their delicious ice cream, yum!