Saturday, October 08, 2011

Summer Wrap Up

Yes, I know summer is long gone.  I have been absolutely jammed with back-to-school, work and photography.  I am thankful that it's all working out and I truly love doing it all, but it's been hard to juggle the needs and wants of my family, my work and my photography.  I'm hanging in there though and feel good that I'm currently caught up on it all.  YEAH!

Now comes the time for a bit of a close to summer by posting some photos left over from our summer fun. 

In no particular order...

Carissa and the boys were all cast in a movie called "Pageant Girl" that was filmed here in Scappoose this summer.  It's definitely not a Hollywood Blockbuster - it will be lucky to make it to a film festival somewhere.  They didn't allow us to film on set so I got nothing of the boys, who both spent about 6 hours on set as extras.  Carissa, however, was part of the pageant scenes, which called for paparazzi - thus I was allowed to take photos.  Here's a shot of her and a friend from the neighborhood, Jami, while they were waiting to go on set as well as one of her on set with all the other pageant girls.


 The boys went to Camp Parson's this year for their Boy Scout summer camp.  I wasn't needed as a chaperone so I didn't go, however I did snag a CD with photos on it that someone else had taken.  There's another set that I'm looking for that show the boys bouldering and rock climbing, but this set has a few that I kept for their scrapbooks.  Parson's is up on Hoods Canal in Washington and is one of the premier scout camps.  It was quite a wonderful week for them!
 Tristan is in the grey sweatshirt above.

Chase has the opportunity to go on the Boy Scout 50-miler this summer, however because the snow still hadn't melted all the way they couldn't make the 50-mile trail.  Instead they did 30 miles of backpacking through the wilderness and had a pretty great time.

Here they are just ready to take off. 

And here they are along the trail.
 


 One of the motorcycle club events this summer was a family picnic at the Indigo Ranch, an animal rescue organization that the club has done fundraisers for.  The kids really liked the alpacas and got to feed them, even though they were a bit timid.
 We went to Pacific City and stayed at the cabins this summer.  We didn't have a chance to go last summer and missed it, so we made a point to do it this year.  On the way we finally decided to stop at the falls... unfortunately I can't remember the name of the falls right now!  We always see the sign when we're driving 101 south of Tillamook and this time we just decided to go for it.  It was a great little hidden place with a short trail to the falls.  The kids ran ahead...
 When we got to the falls we took all sorts of photos...
 Then I set the camera on a fencepost and put the timer on.  I love this camera!  I set the timer so it would take a series of photos about 10 seconds apart.  We got some good smiling ones, but this silly one was my favorite.
 Then we turned around and headed back to the van.  The kids went at a run.  I, however, did not! LOL
 While at Pacific City we had our traditional dune climbing race.  Little Miss Rissa has been the victor for the first 3 years we held it, as she could scramble up the dune faster than her brothers.  This year there was a new winner... Tristan!
  
 After the dune climb we all go to the west side of the dune and climb up along the side of the ocean.  We ignore the signs (which apparently many others decide to "correct" by peeling off the extra word)...
 ... and g0t a little closer to the water.  I didn't climb down there with them but stayed at the top to take photos.
 After that adventure we went down to the beach and looked at the tidepools (which were mostly covered with water, as it wasn't low tide).  Chase decided to climb atop one of the rock formations there.  I love this picture of him!
 While we were in Pacific City, it was Tristan's birthday.  He awoke to a little birthday banner, a breakfast of donuts and ...

... an early morning Twinkie birthday cake!
 One of his presents started making noise and when he opened it he found out why... it was a cell phone!  He was so excited! 
 We made the requisite stops at the Tillamook Cheese Factory while in the area (twice!).  I go for the cheesecurds (yummy!), Brian goes for the ice cream (double scoop of Caramel Toffee Crunch in a waffle cone) and the kids go for it all!  We watched them make and package the cheese and then went back downstairs for ice cream.  Since it was Tristan's birthday, he got his unrestricted choice of cones and scoops.  He went for his favorite, Grandma's Cake Batter, in a chocolate dipped, peanut sprinkled waffle cone. 
 Before we left I made the kids pose for me for some cheesy tourist photos...

 That's it in a nutshell.  Summer is over and I'm already lamenting the loss of warm and sunny. But you know what comes next... CHRISTMAS!!!