Short Day 3 on Lopez

Our final day we spent the morning gathering all of the stuff my children have an incredible ability to scatter about any house we occupy. It doesn't matter how long or short the stay or how big or small the house is, they can occupy and then litter the area with personal items in no time at all. We wanted to catch the 345pm ferry so after we packed up we headed down to the village to visit the Saturday Market and the little Historical Museum they have, both are quiet island small but worth the time. Then, with the time we had left, we stopped for a quick hike onto Spencer Spit. Turns out, after arriving at the ferry staging area, we read the ferry schedule wrong! Seriously, you'd think that with the two of us reading the same schedule that we would have seen the little dash marks following the time that means that the ferry does NOT stop at Lopez. The next ferry wasn't until 5pm. We decided to just explore the area around the ferry and not head back to the house. We would've gotten there then shortly would've had to return anyway so we stuck it out. We hiked around a little trail for a bit then snacked and watched a movie, the time passed quickly.

Oliver made a bow with a stick he and Joel painted silver and yellow twine from one of Aunt Nana's hay bales. The bow got broken and the twine got re-purposed. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

(chuckling) There are clam beds all over Spencer Spit, walking around would irritate them and they would squirt out water and dig deeper. We started to dig after them a little just to get them to spray and jump out of the way. Loved the giggles that came from my boys. I got hit a couple of times and came out of there with  soaked lower pant leg.

Noah marching along...

Our only cloudy day on the island.

My guys.

Joel and Bruce...can you tell if they are related????

Me trying to get a picture of my boys together...(sigh)

Forced to sit nicely while dad takes a picture.

Lopez Day 2 Photo Tour

It's amazing how many pictures I take on a trip. Yes, I have my camera with me pretty much at all times but I don't feel like I'm taking that many pictures. I'm talking, I'm hiking, I'm exploring, I'm slowing my boys down and pointing things out to them, etc. and I still manage to take a LOT of pictures. So off we go on our pic-tour of day two on Lopez Island...

Joel and I went up to the church that Heidi's mom, Nola, got married in. It's an adorable little church with a small cemetery on the grounds. Walking around, Joel saw this little lost Valentine Bear and took this picture. I told him I wasn't sure if I loved this picture because it's so cool or if I hate it because it seems so sad. You decide and let me know which one it is...

Losing my mind in my old age...ALMOST certain this is at Shark Reef Park

GrandPop and his Grandsons

This looks a lot scarier than it really was...

The current was very swift through here.

Claims he needed a rest...I wasn't buying it one bit!

Second hike of the day out to Iceburg Point

Oliver liked the lichen.

We climbed up to a U.S. boundary marker at the top of this hill, the view was amazing!

My eldest in Lopez Village

Persistent pestering to wade into the water pays off.

I was cold watching them, what is it with kids and their ability to wade into ice cold water and not think twice about it?

Noah getting ready to throw/skip a rock.

The cute little church on the hill.

Sunset on second day, not as brilliant as the first day but still pretty and relaxing.

Trip to Lopez Island

GrandPop Bruce and Grandma Heidi invited to come stay with them on Lopez Island this month. Heidi's Mom recently remarried and her new, very kind, hubby lets folks like us stay at his home on the island. Lopez is one of the islands in the San Juans and the first stop after taking the ferry from Anacortes, WA. It is beautiful! It took us passing a few cars before we realized that EVERYONE waves to you as you drive by. At first we were thinking they were just chatting with their passengers or pointing at something, nope they were waving. There was the one finger barely raised from the steering wheel wave, the two finger lift wave, the nod, the double two-finger (two fingers from each hand), the salute, etc. It was fun to see how each passing car was going to wave. We lucked out and ended up having two very nice days of weather to explore the island. The first day we headed over a bit earlier than Pop and H so we drove all over the 29.5 square mile island almost covering it's entire 63.3 mile perimeter. We met up with them later and headed to the house which is located right on Fisherman Bay. Once again, I've taken a ton of pictures so I'm going to break the Lopez trip blogging experience into days, day one....

One of my favorite pictures from the trip. My boys on the ferry ride to Lopez.

Bye-bye Anacortes!

One of the first beaches we stopped at was Odlin County Park. All the beaches there are quite rocky, very hard to find a sandy beach.

This kid can ham it up!

My new homestead! Just kidding, but I wish I wasn't.

This is at a spot called agate beach and Joel is recording the sounds of the waves. It was a very different sound. The water moving through and shuffling all of those little rounded rocks made a unique noise.

This is a little bay we found, barely noted on the map, road not marked as clearly as it could be. However, it was a gorgeous little lazy bay. The Brady "Blackie" memorial beach was one of my favorite spots.

This was at a little beach area at one end of Lopez Village.

Sunset from the house...relaxing.

Remember Noah?

Seems that most of my pictures these days are of my youngest. He is with me a lot more and he loves to ham it up for the camera a lot more. Noah is growing up. He comes home, is here for a few minutes, then is off to play with friends. He gives me "the look" when I ask for a hug or kiss when I drop him off late to school (but he still gives them to me so far!). He rarely holds my hand when we are out walking these days. He also doesn't like me sticking the camera in his face and does whatever he can to avoid being photographed. When I get the rare chance to snap a few pictures, I do.

Okay, it's just his feet but it's how the allowed pictures started.

Hi Noah!

My handsome boy, I love you even if you do remind me a lot of my pesky little brother.

I asked him if he would show me some karate moves.

So he showed me these moves. I have no idea what these series of moves, punches, blocks, steps, etc. were called but it was pretty cool.

We went out to drop off some cinnamon rolls to my friend, Jodi this weekend. Her parents let us take the boys down to the cabin and creek. Noah skipped a few rocks then asked when we were coming back.

Soccer Stuff

Another soccer season has quickly come to an end. Oliver has improved so much in the few short seasons he has participated in that it makes me wonder just how many more soccer games I will be watching as he grows up. We have been very lucky to get a couple of great coaches for Oliver to give him a great start to a fun sport. I'll be signing him up again this week. GOOOOOOOOAAALLLLL!

Oliver practicing soccer with a bit of flair!

Fun drill to teach ball control...lift the ball with your feet and drop it on your head. The giggles that happen during this drill make me laugh every time.

Coaches daughter showing Oliver who's Queen of the field!

Last game, coach giving Oliver an encouraging pat or maybe a shove in the right direction.

Oliver is going to miss his last practice and game so Coach gave Oliver his trophy this weekend. Go Red Dragons!