Our summer ...

It seems that the only way I'm going to get to blog about our summer is in updating posts. I never seem to find time to blog when things happen so this catch-up will have to do. Here, in no particular order, are some of our summer highlights so far.

The new Stephenie Meyer book came out. YEAH! Read the whole thing the day I got it. Couldn't put it down. Of course, that's how it is with her books. This one was a little wierd but good anyways. It was nice to see the story move on.

In June the kids took part in the River City Childrens Theater summer production of "The Emporers New Clothes". All 3 kids were able to act in it this year. They did a great job! Chase was a swindler called "Hoax".

Tristan was a spy

and Carissa was an orphaned Cadet (good thing she was orphaned ... her pony tail got all ca-ca and none fixed it so she went onstage lopsided! LOL).

Last week we took the kids to Mt. St. Helens to hike the Ape Caves. This is a large cave that formed because it was once a lava tube. The lava is all gone, of course, but there is this huge cave to hike. It took us several hours to hike the couple of miles, as you have to climb over boulder pile after boulder pile. We had such a great time together, really working as a family and enjoying the challenge of a new experience. Sorry, no pictures. The kids camera broke and I couldn't risk taking my camera along on a hike like this. :(

I did however take the camera to the beach when we took our one and only night away this summer.

On the way to the beach we, on a whim, decided to stop at the Tillamook Forestry Center. This place was great! Neat exhibits, fun activities for the kids and some hiking trails behind where we wandered around for a while. The best thing is that it's free. Gotta love that!

We took the kids to our favorite place -- Cape Kiwanda. We stayed in the cabins at the bunnies resort and took lots of time at the beach. The kids climbed the huge sand dune

then we cut over to hike the top of Cape

then it was a fun run down the steep dune hill and back down to the beach where we checked out the tidepool area
and just walked along the beach. The kids, of course, were on the search for shells to take home. Our rule is that it has to be a whole shell to go home. Not so easy to find whole shells either. Here's what we ended up with this trip.

We were sooooo sandy after this that we washed it off in a swim at the resorts pool before heading over to the yummy pizza place we always eat at when we visit.

Back at the cabin Chase made a fire and we make s'mores before heading off to bed.

The next day we made another trip to the beach and another swim in the pool before heading out. Chase had to organize a family activity as part of one of his merit badges so he planned a hike for us.

We visited the Cape Meares lighthouse. Now, growing up next to a lighthouse in Newport I was surprised that this thing was so short. It's this stout little lighthouse. Cute but small. We also hiked to see the "Octopus Tree" and then hit the road again.

We stopped at our fave place - the Tillamook Cheese factory -- for fresh ice cream and cheese curds. YUMMY!!! Cheese curds are my absolute fave and I only get them when I visit the cheese factory.

Then we were on our way up the coast. We stopped in Seaside and walked, stopping for yummy elephant ears (are you seeing the trend here ... vacationing does nothing for the waistline! LOL) and a round of mini golf. Just for the record, I kicked ass. I even got a hole in one the last hole and got a free ticket, which the kids promptly used for a ride on the Tilt-a-Hurl.... oops, I mean Tilt-a-Whirl. Looks cool but I get green in the face just thinking about riding that thing. Ugh! They loved it though. After Seaside we headed our way home. It was a short trip but we really enjoyed it.

Chase went to scout camp in July. I went for the first few days and then left him for the rest of the week. While I was there I did get some pictures. Here he raising the flag at a campwide flag ceremony.

He got to go to the cold Lake Chamberlain to work on his Trail to First Class swimming, where he learned some minor lifesaving techniques.


Of course, the best part about Camp Merriwether is that it's on the beach! The boys spent as much time as they could down there, enjoying the sand. This is Chase and his 2 friends, who have all been together in scouts since they were Tigers at age 6. Six years and 5 camps later they still love hanging out with one another. Gotta love that. OK, I think that just about wraps up anything big so far this summer. Yeah, I'm caught up. One thing crossed off my list of to-do's!