We got KITTENS! Two! Arlo is thrilled. At least, he was ok with it after a week or so. The kids went to school on their first day and Jeremy and I hightailed it to the Humane Society and picked out these two nuggets of cuteness to surprise the kid when they got home. They were SO excited.

 Evie figuring out what's in the box. 

Parker naming his Violet.

Everly naming hers Pearl.

Real men watch football while cuddling kittens.

Back to school

This year marked a huge milestone. While my big (seriously, he grew an inch over the summer), mature, sweet boy went to second grade, my little baby girl got ready for Kindergarten. Amazingly enough, I didn't cry. Because this moment is so big, so propelling that there's no looking back. We were swept up in it. And I'm so excited for her. She's been so ready for Kindergarten for awhile now. She's so ready she's made us look forward in anticipation for her. My little Evie walked right in, barely taking my hand and then just sat right down and waved to us goodbye. Even Parks stood there a little stunned, not knowing what to do and double checking to make sure she was "ok". And she was. She came home full of stories, full of learning, full of growth on that first day, just as she has every day since. Oh, and oh so tired. :)

 And Parks. This boy has the most amazing, artistic and sweet teacher. He has practically skipped off to school every day. His teacher doesn't believe in homework for his age and has a "soft landing" start to school where they play for half an hour while she individually chats with kids to see how their evening went and how they're feeling about the day. To say that he is in a caring, loving classroom with a sense of community and friendships building feels like such an understatement. I just know there are HUGE things in store for this kid this year!

 Parker's second day, Everly's first.

Walking in with confidence (swagger?! :) ) - Natalie in fifth, Evie in Kinder and Parks in second.

Took the Plover Over

For our second day with friends we took the Plover Ferry to the beaches at Semiahmoo, packed a picnic of snacks and drinks and grabbed a light dinner before we took the last ferry back. It ended up being a gorgeously sunny day on the beach, despite the rain everywhere else. And I spent a perfect two hours hunting down beachglass with my best friend while the kids played and the big guys tossed around a football. :)

Annual Ryiniry End of Summer Bash

Our dearest friends. Friends whom I dream of cohousing with when we retire. Seriously. And if we get sick of each other we will also co-own an RV that we can take a break it. But mostly just always be together in. :) Labor Day weekend brings on a sense of dread for me. The end of summer. Back to school. I'm never ready. I could spend every day at home with my entire family for the rest of my life if I could. Seriously. So that's what summer is to me and then going back to school means going back to routines, schedules, events, all sorts of things that I never mind...but my heart is in the freedom and closeness of summer.

So we started spending Labor Day weekend with our nearest and dearest to distract ourselves. And distract, we did. Day one we headed out on the most gorgeous hike up to Winchester Peak. It was amazing. And quite the feat for the littles (4, 5, 6 and 7 years old!). It was a difficult hike and they did great. I, on the other hand, had several moments of shear panic because this hike is not for the faint of heart. There are several (not exaggerating) death defying little slopes where I was dizzy from the drop and the cliff alongside me, the trail gives way to a scree slope, and then the next part is a staircase of rock cliffs that we scrambled up. Of course, the kids loved it - I was panicked. In retrospect, we are all alive still so we had a great time!

Of course we had to start out with a short bakery stop with a little coffee on the side.

 The aptly named Blue Lake. The amazing thing about this hike is that you start out so high already and then hike a mile and a half above the treeline and then spend the rest of the hike along the ridge looking over Washington and Canada. So beautiful!

 Girls taking a break. Boys enjoying the view.

 The kids were thrilled with the snowline we hiked into. :)

 One of the treacherous areas. Seriously. That Blue Lake? Straight down. STRAIGHT DOWN.

 

 Success! The old fire lookout. You can camp in here - first come, first serve. Which seems a little dicey with the alternative cliff-side sleeping arrangements.

 Their own handwritten little signatures is just about the cutest thing ever.

 Then we drove up to Artist Point to see if we could do another short hike. Of course we had a to stop to see if the lifts were running yet. :)

 The amazing view from Artist Point! So the hikes were a no-go :)

My favorite plain

I adore Plain. It feels like a second home to me. I think I could live there if it didn't mean leaving all of our family behind. We spent a glorious four days there. Rafting and hiking and heading up to Sugarloaf to see the fires. We weren't sure we would even be able to head to the cabin in the middle of the summer when they closed our road and evacuated due to the fires. Luckily the winds were in our favor and the danger left after three long weeks.

The big highlight by far was rock climbing! We headed to Peshastin to The Pinnacles and harnessed Evie and Parker up so they could try on a real rock. They've been practicing on the big indoor climbing walls, but haven't ever gone where they needed to be roped and harnessed with helmets. So, we did it. And they did great. And we stood on the edge of some not so safe cliffs where they didn't even seem to notice while I was sweating bullets and tethering them to myself while we were just standing there. Oh, and then they just scaled those rock cliffs like it was no big deal and repelled down like they've been doing this all their lives. Naturals. :)