Sea Creatures & Ice Cold Ocean

We went to the beach early, since the sun was out. It ended up being very nice ... and hardly any wind. The tide was way out (-1.0 ft), leaving lots of tide pools and stranded sea creatures. The kids spent most of their time catching them and putting them in a bucket. They caught a crab, a clam, and dozens of sand shrimp.

The kids tried the ocean, but it was just too cold. Jillian still did some body surfing, though.

Bridget and Tor spent at least a half hour digging out their sand fort. They worked hard!

Quick Beach Get-away

It's a short trip to the beach this time - just 2 days until Mommy has to work. So, as soon as we arrived, we ate lunch and headed to the beach. We didn't stay too long, though ... it was super windy. Tucked behind the car, the kids dug out their own pits (Daddy's back was hurting) and then set up an economy with shells as currency.

On the way back, the kids got the usual ice cream at Adelaide's.

Right away, we took off on a bike trip to the park for a basketball game.

The kids showed off their skills that they worked on at cousin Brock's basketball camp.

Then, it was time for a football game, with Daddy as all-time quarterback ... everyone had trouble catching his perfectly thrown balls.

Back at the cabin, the kids went to making their gourmet sand creations before having hot dogs and s'mores, and watching Jumanji: The Next Level.

Toutle River-Basketball Camp

On Tuesday when it was 90 degrees, they all wanted to go to the Toutle River. We went to Harry Morgan Park where Aunt takes the twins. The water was very cold and they were pretty hesitant at first until we saw a dad who walked clear across the river with his young child and the water never got above the child's waist, so then they felt pretty confident. Next time we will need to take inner tubes to float down the shallow rapids. 

 Since there aren't any summer camps I had Brock set one up for them. He had drills for an hour with only a short drink break. They listened very well and learned a lot. Tuesday was so hot they were pretty red faced at the end. Wednesday was more comfortable so they worked on advancing their skills even farther. Here is a correct shooting drill.

 Then it was on to foul shots, again with correct form.

 Tor is using his form here but it's a long way to the hoop for him. Brock then gave them an assignment to practice before their camp next week. Brock did a great job!

Ty and Deb Wedding, Father's Day

On Friday we had the family members who couldn't go to Sacramento for Ty and Deb's wedding come to watch it outdoors on the deck. I did not get Lynne in the picture as she was the tech person on the computer helping us keep the show going. It was a nice wedding and everyone cheered when they pronounced Ty and Deb married. It was a perfect day to enjoy pizza and dessert outside.

 Father's Day: Before dinner I guess it's now a tradition to have a tournament of some kind. I picked Ladderball as it was new to us but I guess popular elsewhere. The kids caught on quickly.

 Tor had one set of partners who lost so he switched to Dan and Robin who were doing well and went to the Championships with them.

 Next Rick opened his surprises the kids had made, which were really creative. Jillian made a picture with a big "D" and a picture of Dad, Tor make a Yoda card, and Jillian made a picture frame with rocks around it imprinted with "Dad Rocks!"

 Papa was excited to have all the kids helping him celebrate.

Last Day of School Parade

For the last day of school, the teachers had a drive-by parade set up. The kids made signs, and waved at their teachers as we drove by.

Jillian had lots of teachers to wave at. Later, she watched the virtual 6th grade awards ceremony, and won awards for math and work completion (and narrowly missed winning the PE award).

Tor saw Mr. Wells, and received yet another gift card (Dairy Queen) for completing all his work.

Bridget received a gift bag from Mrs. Wilson, including a water bottle with her name on it.

Boat Contest

Bridget decided to design a boat for the pond made out of popsicle sticks. Soon Brock, Tor, and Jillian were on board designing their own boats but with a twist. They were going to see which one would survive going over the waterfall at the pond. Bridget was the only one doing popsicle sticks and the others used foam and whatever. Tor and Brock even had a passenger on their boat. Jillian named her boat Ship Sally.

 Before the waterfall they decided to see if their boat would even float. They did all float.

 Here is the excitement as Bridget was the first to try the waterfall. She was sad as her boat split in two pieces.

 Tor was watching carefully as his went over. His boat flipped over and he lost his passenger but came through relatively unscathed. Ship Sally ended up in many pieces. A good try!

School Projects

As remote school has gotten close to the end, Bridget and Tor have been assigned some projects, which are always popular.

Here's Bridget's longhouse, as part of her months-long study of Native Americans in social studies.

And here's Tor's diorama of a sloth's habitat, as part of his study of animals in science.

Pet Snake

Jillian, Bridget, and Tor did all the normal things like riding ripsticks, scooters, and the Playfort. Then when hiking through the cedars they found a snake and got a pail to capture it. They named it but I forgot it's name.

 They made sure he(she) was comfortable in his (her) new nest. When it was time to go home I prevailed on releasing it here to make it happy instead of in their yard at home. They didn't want to part with their new pet. I'm sure Mommy and Daddy were happy with that.

Canyon Adventure

Daddy took the kids on an adventure to one of the places he liked to explore as a kid ... the canyon and waterfall. It's just down the hill from Grannie and Papa's house. Tierney and Brock (and his dog Beau) joined us.

We started behind Tierney's house, and had to fight through quite a bit of brush to get to the forest. Finding the right path down the canyon was the tricky part, because it was SO STEEP!!!  Tierney eventually bailed on us.

The path we chose had one really scary part ... slipping on it would mean a long, fast slide to the bottom. The kids managed to cross it by holding onto clumps of ferns. Then, it was a slow descent down a dirt and rock path.

At the bottom, it was a short walk up the creek to the waterfall. Daddy started hitting the rock wall with a stone, and chipped off some pieces, and found some shell fossils! The kids were pretty excited, and tried their hand at finding them.

On the way back, we all ran into some nettles, and got stung, though Bridget got it worst. It was a long, hard trek back up the canyon wall. We took a bit different path, but it was still tough (not as scary, though).

Here's a pic of some of our treasure that we brought back. Looking back, the kids liked having a fun story to tell of our adventure.

Camera and Hike

Tor saw the camera and asked me to show him how to take pictures. The first one he took was a "selfie" that shows his new haircut.

 Then a lot of the pictures were of wild flowers and close-ups, taking after Jillian's pictures.

He took a very good picture of his dog Mocha. He is so kind to all animals and he is constantly petting them.

Another picture of a daisy close-up. He took a little video too but very short. Later in the day I took them all for a hike down through the deer trails to the bottom of our property. They were sure we were lost several times. They also found several spots where the deer bed down under trees. They also got good at spotting deer poop.