Arboretum

Late in July the kids and I went with our friends from church Becky and her kids Jo-jo and Zoe to a place called Finch Arboretum. We got advice from our mutual friend Erin what to do there. Head for the shady place beneath the willows where the creek goes and where the rocks are good for adventuring. So we did. And the kids got to do the "stuff of summer". Mucking about in the water, playing with the mud, throwing sticks, sending things down the stream, adventure walking in the creek-bed, bounding on the rocks and eating a picnic, all amongst beautiful trees. Can you think of a better way to have lunch?

Summer 2012

I'm not sure we could have fit more into our summer this year. It felt like a very busy time and I wish that I could have had more time to blog/keep track of all the adventures we had. Ah well. No time like the present to start, right?

Since the last post when we started doing things in Spokane etc, many things have happened.

I am going to make a little list of all the things and you, dear reader, can suggest for which you would like more details. My computer (after suffering a collapse of its hard-drive) is still not behaving as I would like. I want to show you photos of all our adventures but I can't yet. My programs are not behaving as they once were... grrr. I smell a new computer in my near future.....

The kids did a week (4 days actually) of summer day camp at the Corbin Arts Center. Very affordable and i think they had fun too. There was a girl in Ami's class named Aviel! Ami studied Leonardo Da Vinci and he was the only kid to make a model of a bridge that had moving parts- of course! Mimi did fairytale adventures and forest/woodland creature things. (not quite sure what it all was but she made costumes out of paper for various things and had a good time).

The kids and I went to Idaho to visit my friends from my ABM training.  My classmate Nikki lives in the countryside near to Sandpoint and our other friend, Karinna, and her two kids were visiting from Southern California. It was so great to be at Nikki's beautiful house and to meet each others kids!  We spent the day at the beach and then Karinna whipped up an amazing feast for us all.
Ami fell in love with the paddle boat in the pond that they have on their property.
Nikki and her sister have kids born on the same day (sound a lot like C and me)!
We stayed the night.
Timo slept an alarming amount- kept having to wake up to check that he was still alive. . .
We forgot toothbrushes and our bag with sleep over supplies- friends to the rescue!!
It felt like a real get-away. Will do it again soon!

B and T and J and T came to visit.
Green Bluff, Manito Park, Splash Pad, Visiting Duff's family,
hot days hang outs, camping in the Idaho Panhandle at Round Lake State Campground, attended Bonner county fair, Amazing J and T cooking at the campsite (they're experts!) BTW it is always better to have more adults when you go camping- more fun for everyone, baby playpen at the campsite = godsend, new tent slept 6 great! super awesome swimming in the waves at Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced Ponderay around here), swimming at coeur d'alene with Martin
Much cousin fun had by all! Theo does all sorts of things he normally resists doing because Mimi is doing them! Yay Mimi! Eat those greens!!
B tries out bows made by the same maker as her new bow (he lives close to Spokane!)
dinners out in the back yard, jenny and dave, nice big table from St John's across the street.

kate and jeff and liam visit from Vancouver both when we were here and when we were not.
We went to Camp Cross for 4.5 days- stayed in the "fancy" cabin that had running water (toilet and shower). I think it is generally reserved for the Bishop! It reminded me so much of being on a gulf island. Great swims in Lake Coeur D'Alene. Wish we had brought a baby monitor so we could have hung out in the main space while children slept.

Let me know what you want to know more about! :)