Welcome Felix!

Felix, our 16 year old exchange student from Germany, joined our family today. After a long flight, he was quite awake and excited, so we enjoyed the 83 degree weather at Alki Beach. And, since he wants to play football, we watched the high school team practicing, then went home and settled into our new normal. He's a great guy and we are all looking forward to a special year together.

Wedding ready

Lisa and James got married! Kenzie and I got our hair done in Seattle in preparation.

pig party

We hosted a party for my work last week. We had a beautiful day and 175 people, plus the Maximus Minimus pig truck, and a 40' blow-up obstacle course!

The Guns

We have a no guns policy around here, with limited exceptions.

San Juan Island

We had the chance to spend five days on San Juan with a great group of friends and family. There were five kids in total. We watched the Orcas from the kitchen, walked to a calm bay, and spent a bunch of time cooking and just hanging.

One of the kids was an outgoing nine year old, Kendall, that quickly hit it off with both kids.

And of course we found time for some photo opps.

And to ride bikes...

The last night we celebrated Rick's birthday by renting a 21' foot electric Duffy. We all took turns being "captain."

Swimming with Emilie and Nick

Bye AJ!

AJ has spent the summer here, but it's time for him to go back to Oklahoma and finish his senior year. One thing that he did....he fixed the blog! Since I moved it years ago, all my old pictures and videos were messed up. AJ patiently went into each month and cleaned it up, so they almost all appear now. I'm very happy about that.

Mason told the entire church this morning that he's sad to be losing his Checkers partner. AJ, we hope to see you next summer! (With the rest of your family maybe?)

Camp Pilgrim Firs

Kenzie went to her first away camp this year, Camp Pilgrim Firs, near Poulsbo. She and Emilie stayed for four days.

Here is her account:

"The lake was really fun. There was an outline of buoys and you and to pass the swim test to go beyond them. There was a large dock that you could jump off of. There was also a Slip-n-Slide that you wore your bathing suit and poured soap and water all over yourself! And then you slid down like a penguin on your tummy!

There also was canoeing! We didn't go on Monday because it was pouring down rain and the boats would just fill up with water and sink. But we did go on Tuesday. We went out to a super long tree that was in the middle of the lake. Just the top of it was rising above the surface. The tree had fallen from the shore. There was one little plant on top of the tree. In the canoe there were four of us, Emilie, me, a counselor and a boy.

We also did arts and crafts. We made balancing butterflies, kaleidoscopes, and journals.

In our cabin there were five girls and two girl counselors. The counselors names were Kristen and Anna. The campers names were Kenzie, Emilie, Anna (little Anna), Molly, and Greta. On Tuesday night the boy cabin was about half a mile away from us and that night they were screaming and shouting, and they had a disco ball and they put it up and were shining it all over. So we got jealous and had our own dance party! On Kristen's computer we played songs and sang along. It was an iMac laptop, it was cool.

There were three study groups, Dance and Movement, Arts and Crafts, and Adventure. I chose Arts and Crafts, and we would do those study groups Monday and Tuesday for an hour. In Arts and Crafts we made clay pots and a painted picture.

On Tuesday night we roasted marshmallows and put cookies on the outside! People asked where the chocolate was since it was really dark we couldn't really see. The chocolate was in the chips inside the cookie!

In the mornings after breakfast we went to morning watch, and we sang songs and prayed. In the evening we had campfires and sang songs again. We also made a big circle and held hands, and one by one we went around and said our prayers if we wanted to. That's about it.

I am going back next year for seven days, a whole week!"

Kristen, Kenzie and Anna

Beaver song

This is one of the strangest camp songs, which, of course, means it's their favorite.

The Reptile Man was at the Issaquah Farmers Market yesterday when Kenzie and I went to get fruit. I knew I was about to lose her when I saw a giant tortoise. She planted herself and would not move. I shopped, then came back to get her. It wasn't hard to find her, even though there was a massive crowd - I saw the yellow boa constrictor and knew she wouldn't be far. Turns out it was around her neck.

Oh Tooth Fairy...

Mason turns seven in two months and still has not lost a single tooth. I was wiggling them today to see if any were getting close. I explained the process to him, not sure how many questions I was going to get. Turns out he is much less skeptical than his sister.

Me: "You lose a tooth, the Tooth Fairy gives you money."

Mason: "Is it really the Tooth Fairy, or is it you guys?"

Me: "You think I would pay you to lose teeth? Why would I do that?"

Mason: "Yah, that would be silly."

Growing up

Gorgeous Day!!!

Prior to today, Seattle had something like 78 minutes of summer this year. We more than doubled it today, I'm sure. When it's nice here, it's beautiful. The paragliders were in full bloom above our house. Mason loves to yell up to them.