Rodeo Queen

Late post from last weekend - we went to the Cowlitz County Fair on Saturday to watch cousin Lindsey participate in the Thunder Mountain Pro Rodeo as its reigning queen, riding around the arena, and turning over the title.

Snake, Toutle, and Dogs

They hadn't been here very long when Bridget spotted this smaller snake and hollered for Tor and Jillian. They used to hunt snakes a few years ago but this time Bridget was the only one to pick it up for a very short time before letting it go hide.

The next day it was very warm, so after some work in the morning we headed for the Toutle River where it was very pleasant. This spot was very shallow so when we left we saw a deeper area down river a short walk away. The next day we went to that area and it was deep enough to swim some and float around on the big inner-tube. 

This marked the end of their week of dog-sitting for Aunt Julie and Uncle Kevin. It was Jillian's main job and she was very responsible. But they all loved to see Bo and Bella all day. Tor really took a liking to gentle Bella. 

 

Working Kids

The first thing in the morning we did was to take Jillian and Bridget blackberry picking at my friends logged-off area. This was to be the last picking of the season so the berries were harder to find. We walked all over the area and got quite a few in 2 hours but we were all  hot and tired. Later that day Bridget decided to make these delicious Nutella swirl brownies. Pretty and tasted great. Jillian spent a lot of the day dog-sitting for Aunt Julie's 2 dogs.

The next day was work day for Jillian to earn money for her trip this fall. I wanted to move this flower from it's rock bed, which proved to be a harder job than we thought. She had to rake the rock away and we found most of it was buried in 4 inches of clay. This whole operation plus replacing the plant and planting 3 more plants in a different place took almost 3 hours. She got a good muscle work-out.

Meanwhile, Bridget w/o Jillian was bored so she asked for a job too. I had her clean out and organize the shed where they have all their playthings. Normally they just throw them inside the shed and they land on the floor so Bridget labeled many bins and sorted everything out plus cleaned the floor.

Wow! It looks so much neater now and I think Bridget will be getting on anyone who puts something in the shed and doesn't put it in it's proper place!

They all did a lot of dog-sitting and playing with the dogs Bo and Bella, who loved the attention.

 

3+ Hours at the Beach (+ Some Golf)

It was about as perfect a day at the beach as you can get ... sunny, warm, not too much wind. So, we stayed and played for over 3 hours. We made a dam on a tidal pool and soaked in bath-temperature water.

The ocean was a bit cold, but that didn't stop Jillian and Bridget from board surfing the waves. The water was amazingly clean and clear.

Of course, Tor and Dad went golfing in the morning at Surfside (Tor woke up before 7 am, ready to go!), while the girls walked into town to shop, and strolled the beach.

The long beach day took its toll, as Tor didn't feel good in the evening -- he ended up with a bit of a sunburn.

Mid-Summer Beach Trip

After arriving last night and having hot dogs and s'mores over the fire pit, the kids had a late sleep-in this morning. The sun was out, so we biked to the park to begin our day.

No football, since we couldn't find the rainbow football. We played a game of basketball instead ... girls beat the boys on Jillian's final long-distance shot.

They had ice cream at Adelaides, using their coupons for wearing bike helmets.

We spent most of our time wading in the ocean ... it was actually kind of warm -- first time in a long while. The tide came in very fast, though, wiping out everything we tried to build.

We ended the evening with baked potatoes and the Hotel Transylvania 3 movie.

Queen Lindsey

On Saturday night, we went to the Elks lodge to watch Queen Lindsey at the 2021 Thunder Mountain Rodeo pageant.

Cooking, Hula-hoop Olympics, Cooking

Bridget and Jillian brought a couple of cookbooks with them so the first thing Jillian and Bridget made was a chocolate mug cake, which Tor thought was very good.

That Thursday evening they stayed outside until way after dark to have a hula-hoop Olympics. They did the javelin with them, rolling and racing, plus many more. I never did hear who was the Olympic winner in each event. 

Then it was back to cooking Friday. Bridget brought all the ingredients to make fruit parfait for everyone. Uncle Barry was here so he also got to try her parfaits.

Lots of fruit and granola which turned out very pretty and delicious!

After that they decided to have a baking contest. Bridget made strawberry shortcake and made her own biscuits. Jillian made chocolate brownies with a peanut butter swirl. Us judges were happy to give our input. Cale liked the shortcake, Papa couldn't make up his mind between the two, and I voted for the brownies so they ended up with a tie that they weren't happy with. So Bridget decided to take a sample of the two to Aunt Julie to decide. At the door, one of the dogs jumped on her so they got a treat and Aunt Julie didn't get to vote. 

The next day Bridget decided to make pulled-pork sandwiches for lunch. She made the sauce for the meat from a recipe that turned out to be a big favorite. Yum! This cooking fad is great! Tor busied himself with the dogs and got to help Uncle Kevin fix the propeller on their boat and then he took Tor to golf at the JAL field. Plus he enjoyed all the treats.

   
 

Chef Bridget

Bridget decided that she wanted to cook dinner tonight, so Daddy helped guide her in making pasta with chicken and rice, with sides of green beans and apple slices. She enjoyed doing it, and is now reading through cookbooks to find more food to make.

Jillian and Tor enjoyed the meal.

Seattle Trip

This is where the kids spent a lot of their time ... bouncing on the trampoline. This pic is when they woke up on Sunday morning:

After a slow Saturday morning, waking up at 10:30 am, they had a big breakfast and then went to a local park to climb on the playground, play badminton, throw a frisbee, and wade in a creek. In the late afternoon, they went to Lake Samammish to swim.

The adults enjoyed relaxing on the backyard patio, while Tor worked on his golf game.

Golf Cart Driver

Tor was able to score 3 pars the last time out on the short course, so his reward was to play the big course at Mint Valley, with a golf cart. Daddy let him drive it a few times ... the highlight of the day.

He played really well, scoring a bogey on the final hole ... not an easy feat! The other highlight was buying a Gatorade and chips out on the course from the beer cart girl.

Independence Day

It was a long wait until fireworks, so the kids made one more trip to the vendor booths, and then played with the neighbor girls.

We trekked from Papa Ken and Bev's to our traditional spot at the lake reserved with some blankets. It was a good show!

Dolan 4th Party

We kickstarted the fireworks with some Roman Candles at the Dolan get-together on Saturday night. Here's Bridget shooting some pyrotechnics:

The lead-up was full of games, lots of them including water balloons, such as this back-to-back competition:

And the partner towel toss:

They also played an old favorite of Jillian's that she won along time ago at a Nickelodeon event (Bridget won this time):

And took some golf swings at marshmallows:

And shook their hips and Kleenex boxes to empty out the ping pong balls:

Go Fourth Vendor Booths

The cousins walked to the lake on Saturday afternoon to check out the vendor booths. Numbers were lower this year, but still some fun stuff to look at, plus the Elephant Ears were delicious. The shocker was no bouncy houses ... though the kids are too old for them now, anyways.

Per tradition, they picked out some small beanie animals at their favorite booth.

Then, Tor, Andy and Daddy tried their hand at the charity hole-in-one. Tor brought his driver and got close to the island green.

July 3rd Parade

The kids went to the Fourth Parade at the usual spot, and were joined by Papa Ken. It was a shorter parade than usual, but they still pulled in a lot of candy.

Working, Golf, Twins

Papa and I were out removing poles from the strawberry patch when Tor joined us without being asked. He cut wire and mesh from the poles and then helped Papa lift them out with help from the tractor. There were probably 12 poles and he had to wrap the chain around the pole and then around a hook on the bucket and stand back while Papa lifted it out. 

Then he had to take the poles to the pile. He worked for at least 45 minutes and then asked how much per hour we were paying. I really appreciated the help as it would be me doing that job.

Later that day Kevin called Tor to go golfing at the Elementary field with him. Tor's highlight of the day as he had been waiting all day but Kevin had to work. Sounds like he had a great time practicing hitting the golf ball a long way.

The next day Ava and Harper came to play and then after lunch they went to Aunt Dianne's and were excited to see Josie there.She took an immediate liking to Tor, so she let Tor push her around.