The Fair

 Our calendar for the month of August was a bit ridiculous...we went from one fun activity to the next, with a few days of work tucked in there! The Fair was no different! We came home from camping at Deception Pass on a Wednesday; after unloading the van, I had to go to work and worked Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday was the first day of the fair and Annaliese spent the entire day at the fair with her friends. Friday through Sunday we went camping with church. 

Monday was our day at the fair! I took the girls and met up with my mom and we saw all the shows and all the animals. 

Giant Turkey

Annaliese telling us why this is her favorite quilt

Tap dancing

Clydesdale Horses in the Grandstand arena

Lydia's friend Kenna showing off her cow

Animal Races

Baby Donkey (was born on the first day of the fair!)

Trapeze artists...they actually messed up more often than not, but it was still incredible!

High Divers...they were incredible!

The platform is 80 feet high...and the pool is only 9 feet deep!

Monday evening we went back for the rodeo! I don't have any good pictures, but we had a great time! Annaliese thought the roping was the best and Haleigh loved the barrel racing. We actually saw one of the cowgirls set an arena record for barrel racing!

Annaliese went back on Thursday for another day of rides and hanging out with friends, and Kyle, Annaliese and I went back Friday night to work at the LC food booth. And now the fair is done, which means it's almost time for school to start!

The Second Annual CrossPoint Church Campout

 Our final campout of the summer was back to Silver Lake, but this time to the group campground with our church. We headed out on Friday evening and spent the whole weekend playing and relaxing. Kyle and the girls brought their bikes, so they did several different bike rides. Saturday morning, Kyle and I took our paddleboards to the lake and went paddleboarding while the girls stayed at the campsite. It was rather smoky, but also so nice to be out on the water together. 

Saturday afternoon several people who weren't camping overnight came up and the kids had a water fight, we played badminton and Kan-Jam, and Kyle, Annaliese, Haleigh and I went for a hike. We wanted to hike Red Mountain Trail, which I had seen when we were here several weeks ago and wanted to check out. We made it about a mile on an overgrown trail, covered with lots of spider webs and stinging nettle, before Haleigh got stung by a bee and we realized that Kyle and Annaliese, who were in front of us, had disturbed a whole hive of bees and there was a huge swarm on the trail! We decided we would not be going any farther, so after they settled down a little bit, Kyle and Annaliese ran back down and we made great time down the rest of the trail! We had one or two bees following us all the way down and Kyle got stung once, but overall, we were very lucky that we didn't get stung more!

Lydia, John, and Haleigh

Our hike!

The bee sting

Rose and Lydia, just chillin'

We are so grateful for this church family. It was good to be together for the weekend, and we look forward to all that God is doing at CrossPoint!

Camping at Deception Pass

 Our next camping trip of the summer was at Deception Pass. For this one, Kelsey and her kids, Grandpa and Grandma, and the girls and I were headed out on Sunday afternoon. Kim, Thane and the boys would join us after Elias' soccer tournament, so either late Sunday night or sometime on Monday, depending on how his team did. Kyle had to work and Ben was near Lake Chelan fighting a wildfire. 

On the way down, the truck started making weird noises, so Mom and Dad decided to turn around rather than risk getting stuck somewhere along the way. However, they had the majority of our cookware/dishes and we still wanted to be able to join us, so they packed stuff from the trailer and piled into Kim's van and then joined us. Kelsey had an extra queen-sized air mattress along so they were able to sleep on the mattress in Kelsey's tent. 

Elias lost his game on Sunday, which meant that they were able to join us late Sunday night and the rest of the week went smoothly! 

We did all the things you do when you camp at Deception Pass...hike to the bridge, play on the beach, explore the tide pools, build driftwood forts, and swim/paddleboard in Cranberry Lake. This time we also fit in a 'walk' (the kids wouldn't go for a hike but they would go for a walk!) to the top of Goose Rock. 

My cavernous new 12-man tent had so much space!

Check out the tube worms!

Picture on the Deception Pass Bridge

View from the top of Goose Rock

The girls all took their own paddleboard out!

And then the boys had their turn!

This trip is always a highlight of the summer...Deception Pass is such a beautiful spot! It wasn't quite as warm as it usually is, so we didn't spend as much time playing in the lake, but that meant we had more time for hiking, playing games at the campsite, and staring out at the ocean.