Our exchange student, Fernando, was excited to see Canada, so we took him up and visited the Peace Arch State Park. It was a fun little outing and it was nice to be able to walk around and see the park. The boys loved being able to play in the grass and on the toys. Maybe we will make a couple more trips there. Or even just stop for a stretch on one of our trips to/from Canada.
Summers are always super busy for us as the weather is nice and we can see all sorts of different things. It also helps when we have an exchange student. So, we were super busy this month. First up we had a great 4th of July party with all of our neighbors. It was a lot of fun and I made some yummy pulled pork fries and we played in the pool outside.
We also did the Skagit Valley Highland Games. The boys decided they wanted airbrush tattoos and Edward wanted the exact same one as Fernando. Then we jumped in the car and continued up to the border to check out the Peace Arch. Check out those photos here.
The next weekend, we went up to Mt. Vernon again to check out the Clayslist sale. Then we found a nearby farm where we could pick some raspberries. That was pretty cool as we spent about an hour and we ended up with almost 40 lbs of raspberries (whoops!).
Throughout the weeks, we did our normal splash parks, fun around town, and some parties for EF. We also had Darrell’s work picnic and Darrell and Fernando went out with our neighbor on his boat to do some crabbing and visiting Jetty Island.
After we dropped Fernando off at the bus, we were asked if we would be a gap host family for some 9-year old twin boys from China. It was rough with communication issues and that we had another friend in town we hadn’t seen in awhile, but we made it work. We took the boys out and did blueberry picking with them. It was super hot so we didn’t last very long, but we still got almost 15 lbs of blueberries.
Other than the festivals in the other post, we had a really quiet April. The only other big thing we had was Easter. It was the first year we did Easter with Edward and he had a blast dying the eggs, looking through the baskets, and then doing an egg hunt. He was so excited to do the egg hunt that we did it three or four times.
May was huge for our family. Darrell was laid off in March from Milsoft and our family took a hit. He focused on studying and getting ready for interviews. He went through a bunch of interviews and never got a call back so we were getting a bit discouraged. Then, beginning of May, he did an interview and got an offer a couple days later. He had one more interview scheduled, so he waited to accept until after his interview. Low and behold, his last interview called him shortly after he got home from the interview. After discussion and back and forth, he went with the last one. So he began his new job at Concur Technologies in downtown Bellevue on May 8. We were excited for the new road ahead even though we were a bit nervous as he had been working from home for the last 4 years and now he is going back to having a commute. It took Edward awhile to adjust to not seeing Daddy all day whenever he wanted.
So, once Darrell signed the offer, we celebrated. One of my friends offered to watch the boys and we spent a night just us. There was a Cirque du Soleil show, Luzia, in Seattle at the time so we headed out for the night to see the show. I love the shows and they are some of my bucket list things. It was a great date night and we had a lot of fun.
To help Edward out with Daddy being gone all day all of a sudden, I took the boys down to San Diego to visit with my family. We spent a week and my family was excited to meet Morgan for the first time. It was a lot of fun hanging out and the kids got to hang out with their cousins.
While we were in San Diego, Grandma and Papa surprised Edward and took everyone to Sea World for the day. Edward loved seeing all of the animals with his favorite being the Orca. He is all about the Orca. Morgan had a bunch of fun seeing everything and all of the activity around him. Unfortunately, around lunch, he started to throw up and then not feel good. We weren’t sure if it was the heat or what exactly it was. It only really affected him at the time, so we just kept him hydrated and cool. Then it slowly hit almost everyone else in the group. Overall, a very successful trip for the crew.
June was a blur. We had parties, lots of time at friends houses, splash parks, and we hosted another Exchange student from Spain and he arrived towards the end of the month. So we had the welcome party for him and Edward got to play in a lake and also use his kite he got for his birthday. Both boys had a blast playing and seeing all of the other people. The boys are definitely extroverts.
To round out our June, we went down to St. Edward’s State Park and attended the Midsommerfest. It was fun and Edward got to wander around and see a different holiday. We had friends with us and it was hot, so we hung out in the shade as much as we could.
We hit up two different spring festivals this year. First up was our trip up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We had a lot of fun once again. We love seeing the different layouts they do each year. Unfortunately, this year, I started feeling a little sick so we didn’t get to do as much as we wanted. I think it was related to the fact it was a really warm day for the PNW.
We also went and attended the Cherry Blossom Festival at The University of Washington. We wandered around and the boys ran and played. It was nice to see at least once and we got some really great family photos!
In January, we had a Flat Stanley from one of Darrell’s coworkers kids, so we went around Seattle and saw a bunch of the typical touristy spots. Edward loved visiting and seeing things.
We also went ahead and took Edward bowling again. He only really likes to play for the first game and part of a second, so we just finished up while he wandered and played in the arcade.
March was a big month for us. I took the boys to Fort Dent Park in Renton.
We also took a trip down to Boonville for the Ross family reunion. It was a long drive, but the boys did great! We stopped in Medford for an hour or two at a kids museum to let the boys get out of their carseats and stretch. Then we finished the drive. We enjoyed spending the long weekend with all the family and Edward loved the attention. We went to Pennyroyal Farm and got to see all their baby goats. Then on the way home, we stopped in Humboldt to visit friends and got to see the Elk herd on the way home. It was a great trip!
