Wailua Shave Ice

Our whole family all worked on memorizing Psalm 1 this summer and celebrated our accomplishment with a trip to Wailua Shave Ice at the end of the summer. We invited Grandma to join us (Grandpa was busy) and ventured downtown, something we do not do often. After a few frazzled minutes of circling to find a parking spot, we found a lot not too far away and made our way to the shave ice place. It did not disappoint--delicious!

Bike Ride & Playground

With summer winding down, we finally squeezed in a family bike ride to East Orient. The bond allowed them to get a new playground, so we went to try it out before school started. The new tunnel slide was so slick, it spit Aubrey out swiftly on her backside the first time she went down. The kids approve of the new equipment, even our soon-to-be high-schooler who took an unconventional approach to the monkey bars.

Aubrey--Trout Creek

Aubrey had a great week at Trout Creek, once again. She had a good handful of friends there and surprised us by saying she liked every meal they served. She had no complaints!

Rockaway Beach

The weather cooperated and gave us sun four days! The kids played on the beach and in the ocean every day we were there.

We managed to hit the new and improved Tillamook Creamery twice that week. We also adventured and found the "Big Tree" of Rockaway. It was indeed a big tree.

The second to last day we were there, Greg and I took all the kids down to Nedonna Beach to look at tide pools down by the jetty. We didn't see many creatures (tide wasn't out far enough yet), but we did witness the rescue of a man whose boat capsized. A man on the beach thought he saw a boat flip over, and when we came up over the sand onto the beach, his wife saw I had a camera and asked if I could see better what was going on through my camera. He called the coast guard to report it while we continued looking through our cameras trying to see far out there. I had my longer lens on my camera, and we could see a man sitting on what looked like his overturned boat. A small fishing boat eventually got to him and pulled him into one of the boats, and then other rescue personnel and the coast guard came, too. It was nuts! A teacher/friend at East Orient was there at their beach house and watched the whole thing, too. She saw my FB post and texted me right away. She told me later that it took the Coast Guard a couple hours to retrieve the sunken boat. 

Greg and Kari went for a 3 mile run on the beach, once we saw that the man was being rescued, and the other kids and I wandered down the beach to the jetty. It was a beautiful morning! 

Grandpa got in on the boogie board action.

Sansel & Urpae's Diner

I came downstairs one late afternoon to quite the fancy food service operation. "Sansel & Urpae's Diner" was serving quite the menu. The girls were all dressed up, complete with make-up and face paint, and Joel (Sansel) and Kari (Urpae) were cooking and serving them whatever they ordered. It was pretty cute. They cleaned everything up, too!

Grant's 8th Birthday

It was a family party only year for Grant, since he's had multiple friend parties in a row now. Grant went to birthday breakfast with Grandpa the morning of his birthday while we went to pick up Joel from Trout Creek. We had a birthday lunch rather than dinner since Aubrey had another party to go to later that day. We all sat down for Grant's requested zita bake meal, had him open his presents from us, and had cake and ice cream a little later. He was so happy with his 3DS! He was happy about everything, though, really. :-) He also got to play Wits & Wagers with some of his favorite neighbor friends and shared some birthday dessert with them, too.

His family party got delayed by a week after we realized only half the family could come on his actual birthday. He decided he'd rather wait for everyone to be able to be there. He asked for a luau/beach theme at the pool and wanted everyone to wear leis. Not sure why he decided on that, except that was the theme for our church retreat back in June. Who knows?! It made the party festive, though, with everyone wearing the multi-colored flowers.

Summer fun

I love summer. Here are just some everyday happenings that I'd like to remember. Pool time, Uncle Brian's swing, Aubrey making Grant and Joel her puppies (and feeding them treats), and Kari's "sheet home" she made with Kylee, using her duvet cover and fans, and then shared with us, too.

Joel Trout Creek

Joel's week at Trout Creek was "the best one yet" he decided. This was his fourth year going, and he loved being at the junior high level because they had a later bed time and more fun activities like paintball and the zipline. He said they also had the best counselor, Squints.

This photo we spied on the FB page let us know he was doing just fine--ball in hand on the basketball court, one of his favorite places to be. We also laughed when we noticed he is in head-to-toe Nike gear.