We took a long weekend vacation to get some sun – to Roslyn! It was a perfect trip, the temp was in the 80s and we had a cool condo to hang out in. We spent a large majority of our time in the pool.

I got the underwater camera replaced, so I got some amazing shots of the kids in action. I love our family vacations, such a chance to mellow out and enjoy our little guys.

So…there is a trend on Facebook these days representing people’s hometowns. I couldn’t find one about Bainbridge, so I decided that I would make one. Who knew it would go completely viral in a matter of days. The page went up on Sunday night and today it has 969 followers!

My blog might be seen by few, but the You Grew Up on Bainbridge If…. page is going strong.

Check it out, the memories are so fun to read.

The sun has been seriously lacking in the Northwest this summer – I mean seriously lacking. The sunny days we have had, we have tried to take full advantage of. A trip to our beach with Levi’s new boogie board was so much fun. We threw the ball for Abbie and the boys rode some killer waves (well, not so killer but a boat did go by at one point and there were a couple waves). Love the beach, love playing with the boys at the beach and that we can spend hours down by the water with no fights, no complaints and all having a great time.

So, I went into Costco about a month ago and ended up leaving with a brand new impulse buy – a waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof, dustproof camera. I have always wanted to take my photography underwater, as I’ve always enjoyed the cool sense of peace being underwater brings. At the pool, I’m often times doing laps to see how far I can get without coming up for air.
I took my great new camera over to Helen’s pool (thank you Helen, we LOVE the pool!) last week to try out my new toy and was amazed at the cool pictures it was taking. All was going great until I bonked it (so much for shockproof) and the battery compartment came open and got it wet. I was able to pull the memory card and battery out quickly and was hoping to salvage the camera. I got a the few pictures that I had taken off the card, but the camera is toast.
It’s off to Costco to return it and see if maybe the one I had was just a dud.

It was a rainy, wet July day…but we went out to the beach to re-create a great childhood memory I had. When I was a kid, the USS Missouri came into port in Bremerton. Our family drove out to Rich Passage to see it go through and it was incredible. The passage is so narrow, it seemed as if you could reach out and touch the gigantic aircraft carrier as it went by.
Today, the USS Stennis left on a mission to Iraq and I wanted our boys to see it leave. In the many years that have gone by, the foliage has overgrown so there wasn’t a good place to watch it go through Rich Passage, so we headed over to Fort Ward boat launch. We waited, waited and waited. It was neat, though, because we had a chance to teach the boys how to skip rocks. Around the corner came the support ships and then the Stennis. It was HUGE and the boys were impressed. Carlos was very serious about seeing the soldiers and respectfully saluted as the Stennis went by.

Carlos and I were lucky enough to be invited our on our friend’s boat to go crabbing. It was drizzling but not cold. I haven’t seen Carlos so happy in a long time. He LOVED it! After we checked and reset the pots, we went to see some baby seals and the salmon farm. I wish we could throw a line in there, there were huge salmon jumping all over the place.
Came home with some tasty crab and had Nana and Papa over for dinner. It was incredible!
Thank you Curt!

We celebrated Trey’s birthday with a family dinner (toasted cheese sandwiches with tomato soup) on the day, then with his friends at the dojo for Surf’s Up movie night. It was a GREAT party and everyone had a blast.

A few more pics from the 4th!