Birthday Party Fun

Stanley went to a birthday party for a friend today. It was at an indoor play place, with a huge climbing structure and slides. By the end of this party, all the kids were tired and sweaty! They ran, climbed, and jumped for hours!

Waiting for cupcakes

Going down the snake slide

Camas Days Parade

Every year, our little town has a festival called Camas Days. There's a parade, bathtub races (yes, you read that right), vendors, and fun! We haven't had any rain for over a month, so of course, on the day of the parade...it rains! It didn't spoil our fun, though.

Waiting for the parade to begin!

Lisa's candy flavor was "stripes."

Here comes the parade!

Stan & horse behinds

Look! It's a duck!
(actually a person dressed as a duck)

It wouldn't be a Camas parade, without having
toilet paper rolls thrown out of a parade float!
(The kids look super-happy about it too! Ha!)

Summer Camp Days 3 & 4

Stanley finished out summer camp yesterday. He had such a fun week and was excited to go every day!

Day 3: I forgot my camera this day, so there's no pictures. But his day included making a paper plate compass and going on a treasure hunt (the treasure was candy!), making a canteen and going on a walk, eating lunch under the trees, and going swimming!

Day 4: This was his last day of camp. He went on a long hike to a lake and ate lunch there, made a picture with leaves, and went swimming.

Getting ready for his last day of camp.

Lisa wanted to jump into a picture.

Stan's good friend, Lucy, was also at camp!

They made a picture with leaves to celebrate finishing camp.

He will have swim class Monday-Thursday for the next two weeks, and in mid-August he'll come back for another week of camp.

Summer Camp Day 2

Stan had another great day at camp! They played "Duck, Duck, Goose," made bug catchers, went on a bug hunt, ate lunch, and went swimming.

Getting ready for another fun day at camp!

Stan's bug catcher

Summer Camp

Stanley had his first day of summer camp today! The theme of the camp is Wilderness Survival. The kids made binoculars, went on a long hike to a lake, ate lunch, and went swimming at the pool. What a fun day!

Steigerwald Wildlife Refuge Hike

Steigerwald Wildlife Refuge is one our favorite places to go hiking. There is so much wildlife to see! Today we saw turtles, a weasel, an osprey, mama and baby ducks, and a great blue heron.

Stanley recording a bird in his birding journal.

Little hikers

Around the yard

Here are some pictures from around our yard right now.

A rose from our front yard

Cuties in our front yard

Our side path

Our garden beds with some veggies growing

Little cucumber

Lisa loves finding the "baby cucumbers"

Camas Car Show

Every year there is a car show in downtown Camas. They close down the streets and line up classic cars for everyone to view. Last year, we went to this car show to check out Camas to see if we wanted to move here. Obviously, we loved it! And again this year, it was a great time!

The cool kids at the car show!

Ed, check out the stained glass windows on this one!
When we get our roadster, will you make us some?

4th of July

We spent our first 4th of July in our new house this year! The kids wore their patriotic outfits. What is it about dressing kids up in red, white, and blue? It's so adorable! (Thanks for the dress, Mimi!)

We went to a neighbor's house for a cookout party. There was a lot of great food and good company. We brought jello pretzel salad, which is always a hit! (Thanks for that recipe, Grandma Wooty!)

On our walk home from our friend's party, we spotted a deer in our front yard! (Can you see it in this picture?)

We put Lisa to bed, but Stanley stayed up to watch fireworks. Fourth of July is one of his favorite holidays. He gets so excited! As I mentioned, it was our first Fourth of July in Washington...and wow! Fireworks here are a whole different story. We had fireworks exploding from every direction in the sky.  We just sat on our back porch and got to see some great fireworks up close!

Cottonwood Beach

I took the kids to Cottonwood Beach on the Columbia River this morning. It is a sandy, shallow spot on the river where the kids can play and swim. The water was warm and calm. Beautiful!