Summer Success

This was a really busy and really fun summer. We went on four road trips throughout the Pacific Northwest.

To Richland, my parents' new hometown in Eastern Washington.

To Suncadia, a resort in the Cascades.

 

To Seabrook, a beach town on the Olympic Peninsula.

And to Nanaimo, my aunt and uncle's town on Vancouver Island. 

Starting in June, we also got to show lots of visitors around Seattle. 

Adam's oldest brother, Jeff, his wife, Jenn, and their daughter, Estelle.

My parents, younger sister, Allison, and younger brother, Scott.

Our good friends from college, Matt and Kelly, with their two sons, Jude and Finn.

And Adam's mom and younger sister, Katie. 

Claire took two weeks of swimming lessons from the private swim club down the street at the end of June. On Tuesday evenings in July and August, she went to a parent-tot soccer clinic at our neighborhood park. We switched off taking her to soccer and playing with Maggie at the park, which was a great way to make sure we both got some one-on-one time with each child. Maggie became absolutely fearless in the water and on the playground. She's such a little monkey.

During the week, the girls and I went...

Strawberry picking.

Raspberry picking.

And blueberry picking.

We went to six kids' concert at our local beach park.

 

But we only made it to the public pool and the splash park once. The public pool is only open in the mornings on Fridays (because of swim lessons) and it rained all but one of our available Fridays! The splash park had greatly limited hours this year because of the drought, making it tricky to get to.

We saw all the animals at our favorite city farm parks in Redmond and Bellevue. This Friday, we're officially ending summer with a trip to Fox Hollow Farm in Issaquah.

We absolutely loved Saint Edward State Park but we were definitely let down by Cougar Mountain Zoo. It's smaller and less crowded than the regular zoo, but the admission price is way too steep.

Of course, we also set up the baby pool and the water table in the backyard many late afternoons. We spent lots of time outside drawing with sidewalk chalk, blowing bubbles, finger painting, doing play dough, and picking apples from our tree. 

On the weekends when we weren't traveling or showing visitors our favorite Seattle spots, we took several day trips.

To Whidbey Island.

To Alki Beach.

And to Mount Rainier.

We also went on an anniversary getaway to hike Rattlesnake Ledge and stay overnight at the Salish Lodge, while my sister very generously watched Claire and Maggie.

The last few weeks of August, we just stayed in our town and took it pretty easy. We went to the farmer's market, made two trips to the beach with Dad, and took two family bike rides to the ice cream store.

 We also enjoyed two summer events our town put on - the annual festival, complete with Maggie's first roller coaster ride, and a food truck night with live music.

Technically, we still have two more summer weekends before the autumn equinox on September 23rd. I'm hoping the weather stays decently warm and dry so we can check the final items off our bucket list: having a picnic at Gasworks Park, going to the Woodland Park Zoo and the family fun park at Remlinger Farms, or maybe a bike ride along the Sammamish river trail to Woodinville.