Deception Pass

We went to Deception Pass on Thursday, to meet our friends, the D family who used to live in AZ, but moved back to WA. We had a great, Great, GREAT time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for inviting us Summer. We were going to go on Wednesday, but we got a late start and it was cloudy out, so we decided to postpone it for a day. What a difference a day makes. It was absolutely beautiful!!!!!! I hadn't been there in YEARS and forgot how utterly beautiful it is there. Mommy is missing WA more and more......................if only it didn't rain 9 months out of the year...........She's getting pretty tired of 4-5 months of 100+ degrees in AZ.

Here's the view the other way. I was surprised when I walked out on the bridge how scary it kind of was being so close to the edge. It almost felt like I was going to fall off. The sidewalk isn't very wide, but there is a railing on both the outside and the side by the cars.

I hadn't really ever explored the area that much and didn't know that there was a lake there also. One side is the ocean and one side is Cranberry Lake.

I didn't know that we would be down by the lake, let alone going in the water, so I didn't bring bathing suits for the kids. I had brought an extra change of clothes though, so they went in in their shirts and diapers/panties. It's amazing how warm 70 degrees can feel. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and the water.

The girls were having a blast playing in the sand...........Fiona is behind Patrick, in the blue shirt.

The girls are venturing off on their own a bit.............Patrick is supervising

When I was telling Sidney we were going to visit the D family she was having a hard time remembering them, but as soon as she saw Fiona the girls became fast friends again...........Summer and I joined the MOMS Club on the same day, when Sidney was just 8 weeks old and Sidney had spent quite a bit of time with their family.

Summer watched Sidney for me when I started working at a new hospital and had to go to orientation and training when Sidney was nine months old. She was just talking about this picture of the girls...................

Early Mornings..... as I had to be to work at 7:00am and it was about 1/2 hr. away

Summer also watched Sidney nearly every day for a month while I was in the hospital, pregnant with the boys......(they tried to come about 16 weeks early! They ended up being 5 1/2 weeks early and did great!) I don't think she'll ever know how much that meant to me to have Sidney in such a loving, welcoming environment when I couldn't be there for her. It's making me tear up now just thinking about it............ok, ok...........I'm full-on crying!

She would call me and give me updates on the girls adventures and bring Sidney to the hospital every day so that I could see her, even though it was a long drive for her.

She took lots of pictures for me to see the fun Sidney was having and it made me feel so much better!

She even took Sidney trick-or-treating for me that year...............I almost didn't recognize Sidney at first when I saw these photos..............she never lets me put her hair up...........they all look amazing! THANK YOU AGAIN SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They were getting dirty and loving it! (I think Summer is giving them tips here on how to make sandcastles.)

They did venture out into the water sometimes too............we had to make sure they didn't go out too far.

Summer helped with the boys too............she took Cameron down to check out the water while I tried to get Carter to settle down.................he was having a moment (not a good one)

"OOOHHHHHH, that's kind of cold........... "

"I guess it's not so bad............it just takes some getting used to..."

I eventually got Carter to calm down and he decided to test out the water too.

"Hey, this is kind of fun!"

Both boys are watching the F-15's (at least we think that's what they were), fly by. They were overhead a good part of the day. The noise was kind of scaring them, but Mommy kept reassuring them that it was ok, "It's just a loud noise........airplane." Cameron even starting saying airplane.........it sounded more like "nairnane", but he was trying. Carter was trying to say it too I think, but it wasn't quite as clear..................they are really gaining a lot of words these days.

They were having fun in this little puddle

I pose for a moment with the boys.........then Summer takes Cameron back, who wants to go explore some more...

We even rented some boats................a peddle boat, with all four kids in it (Summer and I thought that we wouldn't be able to walk the next day, but my legs were feeling pretty good.....how about yours Summer?) It was hard to really get anywhere as the peddle boat didn't want to go straight, so we went back and exchanged it for a canoe. The kids loved it!

After our fun day at the lake we went back to their campsite and hung out for a little while. I tried to get the boys to lay down in one of their tents......They were quiet for awhile, then were giggling and wrestling with each other (of course not any more by the time I got the video camera out..........that always happens!), then they started crying.

Here Patrick is pretending to be a bear attacking the tent and the girls are loving it.

Ahhhhhh......RUN!

they are just waiting, wondering where another attack is going to come from....

Tee, hee, hee

This is so much fun!

The whole family

having a snack back at the campsite

"Now don't get too close to the fire Fiona.....it's HOT"

Sidney and Fiona were running around, looking for sticks to put on the fire

all the kids loved this chair (thanks for the jacket Deb, it worked perfectly!)

Getting ready to go. We really didn't want to, but it was getting late, the boys were very tired and I needed to get the kids fed and to bed. Hopefully we can get together again next time. It had been too long since we got to see each other as last year when we were up here we didn't get to connect due to scheduling conflicts.