Freaky Big Airplanes

Mid July we headed to the Joint Base McChord Lewis airshow. Alistair has developed an obsession with airplanes ever since he and Grandma checked out Freaky Big Airplanes from the library. He received his own copy of the book for his birthday. The first airplane we saw was the C-5 Galaxy, one of the Freaky Big Airplanes in his book. He brought his book to get an autograph from a C-5 pilot!
Flying a transport plane

Flying an instrument training plane

Big tires!

Sitting on the C-5 with his book

Last week I took the kids down to Colman Park on the west side of Lk. Washington to watch the Blue Angels. I thought Alistair would be totally into them. He was kind of into them, I think he would have loved to go see them on the ground at the museum of flight instead. He kind of paid attention but the fact that I had to say, "Stop staring at the ice cream man and watch the Blue Angels!" was telling of his interest in the show. I was there for my own entertainment too, so it wasn't all wasted!

Fat Albert flying right overhead. We were on the shore of the lake, within swimming distance of the hydroplane course. The planes flew right over, you could almost reach out and touch them!

The foursome flying low and over the lake.

Alistair flying his own plane while wearing his ear protectors!

So close! Whew!

Turns out Alistair did pay quite a bit of attention. He now flies his airplanes in patterns similar to how the Blue Angels flew!

Ike Kinswa State Park

This past weekend we headed down south to Ike Kinswa State Park. The weather was less than desireable, but we made due.
Alistair and Natalie helped with breakfast one morning. Natalie cooked the scrambled eggs and Alistair added the cheese - it was a team effort.

Alistair playing with his airplanes while sitting by the fire.

Natalie having her nightly s'more and this night an ice cream cone too!

Alistair and Natalie adopted a pet slug. They set-up chairs and gave it leaves and watched over it.

The pet slug...not sure he/she ever got a name

Saturday we headed into Mossyrock for the Blueberry Festival. They have a parade, car show and farmer's market. Here we are getting ready for the parade to start.

Everyone going by throws candy. The Red Cross passed out bags for people to collect their candy. Alistair and Natalie ended up with quite the loot.

After we got back from the parade and had some down time, Alistair and Natalie wanted to go swimming...even though it was raining. So my mom and I took them down to the swimming area, drug a picnic table under a tree and watched them swim. Then we got them dried off, dressed and they played on the playground in the rain for 10 minutes. The true meaning of the saying, "when life gives you lemons..."

Sunday we decided to go do something and be active. After some searching we found a place we had been to years ago and wanted to revisit - Takhlakh Lake at the base of Mt. Adams.

There is a little 1.4 mile trail around the lake that we did. Natalie was all into it, Alistair was not so much. He whined and complained and then freaked out about the mosquitos - a true outdoorsman! I think it was more due to being tired and working on a cold or something. (:

Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho!

Gillian enjoying her ride

Pretty!

A nice, serene scene

Cooling off after our little hike

Camping in the Mountains

Two weeks later we headed to Lake Easton State Park over Snoqualmie Pass for the weekend. The weather was gorgeous and warm! We pulled our awning out of our trailer and put up some lights...we felt like real trailer campers! (: It's what all the trailer-goers do!
Alistair spent most of the weekend either riding his bike or flying his airplanes and making airports for them. I think he missed Natalie! (:
Gillian had a good time getting dirty. She came home with more dirty clothes than the rest of us!

If you zoom in on this photo you can see just how dirty her face is!

It's really too bad we eat so poorly when we go camping!

Old School Camping

The weekend after the fourth, we headed to Potlatch State Park on Hood Canal for the weekend. I call it old school because it is a park we have not been to in quite a LONG time. We used to do A TON of camping on the canal when I was young. The park is a bit smaller than we remembered, ie it took those with big trailers almost 30 minutes to get into the spots. There is another part of the park that is "newer" that has easier spots to get into. Perhaps once the trauma of getting in and out of the spots wears off, we can return and camp in the other spots!
Natalie got to join us for the weekend and Alistair was in 7th Heaven. They kept themselves busy riding bikes, coloring and lots and lots of swimming! The weather was nice and warm and sunny on Saturday. It was a nice day to spend by the water!

Jumping waves...before they donned the life jackets and noodles and went for it!

Gillian even got into the mix. We have a little floating seat that Alistair never liked, but she seems to enjoy it...when the water isn't too cold!

Alistair and his Moss-tauche!