Our Washington Trip | Samish Island

 Oh Samish Island, I hadn't been here in years. It's where I spent several beach days in my childhood digging for horse clams with my Grandpa Reidar. I knew he was watching over us while we were there and it was just as beautiful as I remembered. 

We learned during this trip that Lyla really doesn't love to get dirty. haha Her reaction to seeing the ocean for the first time was, "there is no way in heck you are getting me to step foot in that water!" She kept asking to go back home and take a bath. haha

Liam was LOVING it! He followed around Uncle Brendan and Danika the whole time who taught him to call the squirting horse clams, "ding dongs". 

It was so fun sharing something so special to me from my childhood with them.

See Lyla pointing back toward the sandy shore away from the water. haha 

"It's time for my bath now, dad." 

She did have fun chasing the seagulls with me though!

Put me at the beach ... my heaven on earth!

It was so fun going out there with extended family too ... my Grandma Millie, Aunt Deanne, Aunt Wendy, cousin Melissa, and her two boys came along with us! Melissa's boys were not shy about jumping through the ocean waves!

Liam found something that resembled a sea snail and wanted to show me but didn't want it too close!

Another dead crab on the beach ...

"Hey momma, look what I can do!" 

The tide was out a ways and Brendan was flipping over big rocks to see what we could find underneath. He unearthed the strangest giant tadpole looking fish. They must have been spawning because there were eggs covering the underside of the rocks. 

We even found a tiny starfish!

I'll tell you what, I hope that when I'm almost 90 like my grandma that I can make this steep walk up and down this hill to the beach. I was absolutely amazed by her!

I tried to soak up every moment as best as I could because I'm honestly not sure if I'll ever have the opportunity to come back out here again. It will depend if my grandma continues to live out here for at least another year or not. It was one of those bittersweet goodbyes. I'll always have a special place for Samish Island in my heart!

Our Washington Trip | Bayview

 This was our big trip of the summer, our trip to Washington! While I wish the trip was originally planned for a different reason other than memorial services, it was so good to spend time with extended family and see so many I haven't seen in years!! 

I'll admit, I dreaded the drive. If you know me, long car drives really aren't my thing. Might have to do with the fact that I got car sick a lot as a kid. Somehow this one timed perfectly with my birthday too! haha So a 3:30 AM wake up and an 8 hour car drive with very little sleeping children was how we spent most of the day. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting but that last hour I was sort of losing my mind. haha Our kids did GREAT though! They stayed content and didn't ask very many times when we would get there (especially Liam). In fact, he thought for some reason that it would take us 2 days to get there and I let him think that so he was pleasantly surprised in the end. haha Both of them just watched movies, played games on their car trip phones, ate breakfast/snacks/lunch, and had so much fun getting a "surprise" every couple of hours (a new sticker book, magnet board, etc.). The first couple of hours before the sun came up weren't my favorite because we kept the radio turned off and tried to get the kids to fall back asleep for a while after transferring them to the car. Liam dozed for another hour but just as Lyla drifted off we think she may have had one of those startling "feel like you're falling" moments and shouted out loud. Poor thing scared herself and us, then she got embarrassed and started crying. It was so sad!

A lot of the drive was really beautiful and it was fun passing downtown Seattle and seeing the skyscraper buildings from the interstate! I really wished we could have taken our kids to the aquarium or Pike Place Market but with Covid, it just wasn't a smart decision so we passed through and kept on driving. 

We couldn't check into our hotel until 3:00 and we got into town around 1:00 so we drove to Bayview to kill some time. It was my only request of the day to spend some time at the beach and I couldn't wait to show Lyla the ocean for her first time! To our surprise, we pulled up and there was hardly a patch of water in sight the tide was out so far. haha

It didn't stop us from exploring! One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip ... Liam with his binoculars and magnifying glass!

We found a few tiny crabs to look at, some kelp, and a lot of mud to get our boots stuck in! 

One big dead crab too! Loved seeing the differences in their personalities and reactions to this crab haha ...

Loved having my arms (and tummy) full of my babies for my birthday!

June

 Well, thank goodness for semi-waterproof phones these days because I dropped it in the lake this morning and fingers crossed, it is still working! Especially because I haven't gotten all of the videos and pictures from the last month off of it yet. 

Here are some June favorites ...

 Lyla suddenly became obsessed with wearing Uncle Brendan's old football jersey. It goes down to her ankles and is the cutest on her! She is my coordinated athletic one and has the best hand-eye. Can't wait to get her in her first soccer season for the fall and maybe she'll be interested in trying flag football in the next year or two?!

More puzzles on a Sunday afternoon. ;)

From a hot morning at the playground ... this particular one has cool animals and critters carved into the rocks to find! 

Man she's cute!!!

Passed my dreaded glucose test last month! It always feels so good to check off that box of pregnancy. It gives me the worst headache and shakes afterwards. 

This year versus two years ago ...

I took a three credit professional development class for my teaching recertification in May and June and man did it teach me to be so grateful that Nic and I finished our degrees before having children. It took a major toll mentally and emotionally on me until I got it completed. If I tried working on it after the kids went to bed, it kept me up all night thinking about the task I was working on but if I tried to work on it during quiet time, I was interrupted every 5 minutes for snacks, potty help, switching a movie, etc. and I never really made any real progress. So thankful to have it behind me! One more class sometime in the next year and I'll be good for another 5 years. Just need to get over my PTSD before I start the next one. haha

The sweetest neighbor brought me this vase filled with beautiful peonies from her garden! It lived on my counter for one day before everyone in my family noticed spiders coming from the petals and crawling across the countertop and it was banned from the kitchen. haha 

We finally went back to church in person after watching from home for over a year! Liam grew so much his tie is a foot too short and Lyla is no longer in nursery anymore! 

It's amazing what a small change can do to a space ... I got these citrus stems from Target and they make me smile every time I walk past our entryway!

New birthday slippers have been heaven for my pregnant swollen feet!

Sandy Point

 This summer has set the record for daily 100 degree days starting in the month of June. Of course it happens to be the summer I'm pregnant too so if you need me, I'll either be home in the air conditioning or found by some body of water somewhere. ;) 

With how many people have moved to our area in the last year, the waterpark has exploded. We have season passes but we avoid that place like the plague on weekends so we don't have to wait in hour long lines. Sandy Point has been such a second haven! Early on in June we met our friends there to play one Saturday. They have the most fun kid kayaks that they shared and everyone had a blast! 

I was blown away at how quickly our kids picked up rowing! They both did so well with it being their first time. 

We brought the blow up floaties! I bought this cute turtle at the end of high school to take with a friend to Lucky Peak to float on and I have pictures of Liam on it from the time he was one until now. It has become such a nostalgic thing! This is their cute son, Griffin who loved riding it ...

Like I said, if that belly and I are out in the heat, we're in the water! haha I tootled Lyla around while she got the hang of using her paddle.

I'll never stop shouting Nic's praises at what an incredibly supportive husband and hands-on dad he is. When I wasn't in the water, I was sitting on the beach while he got kids on and off kayaks, helped push them around if they needed it, built a giant sandcastle with all of them, and genuinely had a good time doing all of it, keeping me from lifting a finger! Grateful for you, Nic Williamson.

The cutest crew! It has been so fun watching these kids grow together. They met when Griffin was a baby and Lyla was a little over one. Now look at them!

Once certainly wasn't enough for us. A couple weeks later (the morning I got the news about my grandpa actually) we decided to go again and invited my mom to go with us. She needed something to occupy her mind and get away from the sadness for a while just like I did. She brought her paddle board along and we celebrated my birthday early on the beach opening presents. It was the morning we all needed! 

Nic was getting his bearings and took a spill right after I took this picture. Liam thought it was hysterical! haha 

There were tons of tiny fish swimming in schools around the shore and Liam was bound and determined to catch one. That tiny cup did not prove to be successful but Nic helped trap one in a big bucket and Liam was SO excited about it!

We all took turns riding the paddle board and brought the floaties again for in-between!

I didn't want to risk falling from a standing position so I gave rides while sitting and did one on my own from my knees. It was quite the ab workout for someone who doesn't really have any of those left these days! haha

Nic and Lyla having a Notebook moment with this flock of geese. haha Leave it to Lyla to want to chase the birds wherever she goes!

My mom is such a natural!

I was impressed with Liam's balance too! He had so much fun jumping off the edge and climbing back on. 

We're headed back there again tomorrow for one last special day with our friends before they move.

My Grandpa Reidar

 A few weeks before our trip to Washington this summer, my grandpa had a fall in his bathroom. While he didn't sustain any internal injuries from it, he began to decline the moment he entered the hospital. His dream was always to live the remainder of his life at his beautiful property overlooking Samish Island. He had also shown quite a bit of decline in memory and so when he entered the hospital and didn't want to be there, he let the rest go too. First it was standing, then eating, then drinking. It was a hard two weeks of daily updates where my prayers to God were filled with, "just let him go". He lived a beautiful full life for 90 years and I couldn't ask for anything more. 

Now when I think of him, I hear him playing his harmonica and singing "I Love My Rooster" in heaven. He meant so much to me and I'll miss him more than words can say but I'm so grateful I'll get to see him again someday. Love you, Grandpa Reidar! Your sweet, kind, gentle, silly soul will always be remembered and your musical spirit will live on as I teach my children your favorite songs.  

Liam Graduates Kindergarten

I'm pretty sure he was counting down the days for the last couple months of the school year but finally, on June 10th, Liam graduated from Kindergarten! While he didn't get an actual graduation ceremony at school and his last day family picnic was canceled due to the rain, we made the most of it and surprised him by checking him out of school early on his last day. He told us he always wanted to do "parent pick up" once and that it was the best day ever!

It was quite the year for him ... from virtual school initially, to mask wearing every day, and not loving it because it wasn't challenging him enough ... he was trooper through it all! He participated in a class that taught coping skills for putting out your anger fire with his counselor and grew so much from it. He made several friends! We were proud of him on so many different occasions with the good choices he made in challenging social environments like the bus. He mastered every Kindergarten concept and began reading chapter books! 

Last day ...

First day ...

He grew so much! So excited to see him thrive as a first grader at a new school next year!