On Sunday, August 31st, we went out to dinner at Red Robin to celebrate The Back To School Bash.
It was such a gorgeous day out!
I love getting to celebrate these kids and their upcoming school year!
This year Justine is doing Running Start so his school year is going to look completely different than his last 2 years of high school. Ella will be continuing with her 9th grade year which she should finish up in February and my Jackson is starting his Senior year!
Ga-Ga & Pa were able to come with us!
As well as Papa & Miss Ruth!
Love anytime I get to go out with my guy and spend time with family!
Poor Zeke put the rounded portion of the table down and then lifted it back up and it pinched his finger. It caused a blood blister so after that he wasn't in the best mood.
Zeke is starting his last year of middle school! Next year I'll only have 2 kids in school and they'll both be in high school...how is this possible!?!?!
Cutie Patooties!
First year Owen isn't going back to school! Crazy!!!
This summer Owen had a season maintenance job with a local Water District. He worked M-F from 7 - 3:30. It was so close to our house he was usually home by 3:40pm. He really enjoyed the consistency of it and the work wasn't necessarily difficult....it was the same thing over and over again. He got to use the weedeater, pressure washer and he painted fire hydrants. It was a great summer job and it paid good money.
Owen knows he does not want to go to school unless it's maybe trade school for a specific vocation. We know and trust that God has good things in store for him.
While we were at Youth Summer Camp, Justine went to Silverwood with his family. He bought Ella a new bear...they named him Cuddles.
On Friday, August 8th, we went to Hobby Lobby so Ella could buy some more beads. While she was looking at all the beads these two were goofing around.
Since Jack got all those Disney Cars for his birthday he and Zeke really wanted to make Willie's Butte from the movie Cars. They made this all on their own. They are SO creative!
On Sunday, August 10th, we had a youth day at Wild Waves. Since Ella and Jack both worked there they were able to save up enough free passes for everyone to go. They used a total of 12 free passes. We did have a couple other people come with us, but they had their own season passes so it worked out perfectly!
This was right after Justine got his haircut. I thought it looked great and he said that it must be terrible because if parents like your haircut that means it's no good.
The day we were there it was so crazy busy! I should have known with it being a Sunday, but it was the only day that worked for us. For some reason the wave pool kept getting shutdown for 45 mins at a time. I never did get a good explanation as to why, but if we had paid for tickets I would not have been happy.
We of course came right after church....we ate pizza from Costco for lunch and then were on our way. I had to park almost all the way in the back of the parking lot and the only place we could find to set up our stuff was on the ground to the right of the wave pool. It was nuts! It was also SOOOO hot that day!
The youth all split up into groups and went their own way. I went with Bobby and his kids. We did a few rides on the dry side and then Abby and I came back over to the wet side to just hang out. The youth would stop by and check in every once in a while. Abby and I did go on a couple of the tube slides together. It was crazy how you'd randomly see people you knew even with it being so busy.
My plan at first was for us to eat dinner at the park, but the lines were so long and the food was so expensive we decided to change that up a bit and take the youth to DQ instead.
Once it got closer to closing time the youth started coming back to get their stuff and then changing out of their wet clothes.
My favorite thing from DQ is a Peanut Buster Parfait, but they're too big and I can never eat the whole thing. This time around I ordered a small hot fudge sundae and asked for peanuts and it was a smaller version of a PBP! So yummy!
Since the passes were free the kids didn't really need to pay anything, but I don't like the idea of people getting something for free because then they don't have any skin in the game and it's much easier to decide not to come and then the free ticket ends up going to waste. So we had each of the kids chip in $10 with the thought that I'd pay for everyone to have ice cream at the park. When it was time for me to leave church one of the other youth leaders slipped me a $50 bill for "incidentals". Most of the kids paid, but some of them forgot to bring money.
When we got into DQ I told the kids they should try to share. For instance they have the 6 piece chicken strip basket it would be easy to split that and each person would get 3 chicken strips and some fries. Some of the kids got ice cream treats and some didn't. I just had them come up one at a time and tell the cashier what they wanted. The guy told me the total when we were almost done and it was over $100. I didn't even know how much cash I had on hand, but I just knew it would work out. The last couple people came up and ordered and the total came to $139. I started counting out all the money I had and it came to $130. Craig had told me he would cover whatever was left over so he only had to cover $9!!!
The kids all got what they wanted and were super happy!
A couple of the youth got picked up directly from DQ, but we took the rest of them back to the church. We were a little bit later than we thought we'd be, but the parents were totally cool with it. It helps that quite a few of the youth are now driving as well.
On Wednesday, August 13th, I was playing around with the white board and decided to turn it into an announcement board since we had so many fun things coming up. It was fun to make!
Justine threatening to erase all my hard work! Stinker!
Ella really wanted to have a day at Wild Waves with just her and Justine. Thankfully Ella had earned enough free passes for her to take both Justine and I on Wednesday, August 20th. I parked myself in front of the wave pool for a day of relaxation and reading.
They hung out with me for a bit until the park actually opened and then they changed into their swim clothes and headed out to have fun. They would come back over every now and again and check in and we did ate lunch together. We were able to stay until 4:30ish and then had to leave so we could head to Saltwater State Park for the Youth Beach Night.
We live in such a gorgeous state!
Families were encouraged to come out and we did have a few parents come and bring the younger siblings.
We prayed for the food, ate dinner and played some fun games.
When the sun started going down Ella and Justine wanted to try to get some cool pictures.
I love this one!
It's harder than it looks to get it just right, but they still turned out cute.
Ahhhh!
We finished off our Beach Night by sitting down on the rocks and singing a couple worship songs. It was a really fun night!
Love this guy even though I don't like his sunglasses. :)
On Sunday, August 31st, after church Justine gave Ella a gift. He bought her a Faith shirt that matched the one he already had.
I decided for fun write down all the matching clothes they have.
Our last hurrah of summer was our camping trip to Seaquest with Michael & Robin. We headed out on Sunday, August 24th. Michael and Zeke left with the truck and trailer while Jack, Ella and I waited to leave in the van until Owen could get back from church with Justine. Owen and Justine weren't coming with us since because they both had to work, but Ella wanted to say goodbye to Justine so we stuck around for a few minutes. We ended up needing to take two vehicles because we were going to need to drive up to the Ape Caves with 7 people and the truck only fits 6. The reason we would need to take the van was because Michael and Robin's tent connects to the back of their truck and it would be a pain for them to have to take that all down to drive up to the caves. Robin felt so bad that we were bringing two vehicles that her and Michael decided they would provide the food for two dinners which I wasn't not gonna say no to!
I thought when I booked our site that we were in a different site then we were when we went camping last year with the Kuch's, but nope we got the exact same site. Which was totally fine with us since we really liked the site.
Since Michael wasn't able to put up my hammock at Oasis I really wanted him put it up on this trip. This was my view from the hammock. Nature is so pretty!
My view of the campsite from my hammock. Since this site isn't super level where we park the trailer Michael put the Blackstone and the outdoor kitchen over here by the canopy. We usually try to have it set up right outside the trailer door that way I can hand Michael anything he might need from inside the trailer.
While I was inside the trailer making breakfast the next day, I heard Michael and the kids out at the picnic table talking so I decided to take a picture of them. One of the main reasons I love camping so much is it gets everyone away from technology and we are able to reconnect.
Like I mentioned Owen wasn't able to come camping with us on this trip. He had a seasonal job at a water district and he only wanted to ask for a little time off so he chose to ask for time off when we went to Silverwood and then Oasis. Since he wasn't with us we didn't really have to set up the tent. We can totally make it work in the trailer with 3 kids.
Ella had to sleep on the dinette which is not my favorite because then there is no table to use if it rains or if we start getting attached my bugs, but for this trip it worked out just fine.
Jack and Zeke shared the bed on the other side of the trailer from me and Michael.
Since this trip was at the end of August I wasn't really sure how the weather would be, but it turned out great. It wasn't cold, but it also wasn't blazing hot.
Earlier in the month, I had signed Ella up for Driver's Ed. Her classes were on Wednesday's and Friday's starting August 27th. Her class started at 4:15pm and ended at 6:35pm so she'd still be able to make it to youth group on time. Due to this camping trip, she was actually going to miss her first class, but that was okay because you can miss and make up two classes and there wasn't anything else that was going to interrupt her class schedule again.
We went to the DOL on on August 19th to get her permit. She had driven just a couple times before we left to go on the camping trip. At first she was really nervous about driving, but after that initial hesitation she was all in. So much so she wanted to drive while we were camping.
Michael had her drive around the campground a couple times and then he drove across the street to the Mount St. Helen's Visitor Center so she could drive around in the parking lot. Later on she drove again and this time she actually drove across the main road into the parking lot of the Visitor Center herself.
I had checked the weather and it was supposed to be the warmest on that Monday so once it had a chance to warm up a bit more we drove over to the boat launch that's on Silver Lake
Michael and Robin brought their two paddleboards and we brought ours. Ella and I were taking turns pumping up one of our paddleboards, but it was taking forever. Michael decided take over for us, but it was still not airing all the way up. He investigated and the pump ended up getting overheated so it actually warped so it wasn't working properly. Thankfully Michael and Robin had the same kind of paddleboard so we were able to use their pump and it aired up so quickly with theirs.
When we got home I went ahead and ordered an electric pump so the next time we go to use the paddleboards it's gonna be a dream to air them up.
At first I sat on a stadium chair on a little patch of sand that's next to the boat launch. Ella joined me for a bit. Then I got in the water and paddled all over the place. Robin and I tried to make it to Walden Island, but we paddled forever and we still had a long way to go so we decided to head back.
On Tuesday morning we got a slow start!
Here's the view of the trailer. As you can see it's on an incline.
Lounging around at camp! I love camping at Oasis, but it always seems like that is a more active camping trip. Whenever we come to Seaquest it's definitely more laid back and chill.
I also love that it's not windy so we can play card games....lots of card games!
This was the actual day we planned to drive to the Ape Caves. We did the same thing we did when we went with the Kuch's. We ate breakfast, got ready, then packed a lunch and headed out. It's an hour and a half drive up to the Ape Caves.
The weather was so nice!
The first time we went to the caves we way over did it in regards to clothes. This time around we learned our lesson and wore less layers.
I completely forgot that you're supposed to register online and print out a receipt. I didn't ask the employee in the little shop there if we could buy a day pass since I didn't want them to know that we didn't have one. Michael put up our Discovery Pass instead....which we saw that a bunch of other people had done the same things so we figured we were okay. We figured if we got a ticket we would just pay it, but it ended up being just fine.
I could not for the life of me find all of our headlamps so I ended up having to buy a whole new set of them. Thankfully they aren't that expensive and they come with all the batteries you need. I decided to wear my bright yellow camp sweatshirt so you could see me from far away.
We did the same thing with Michael and Robin that we did with the Kuch's where we all got close together and then we turned our lights off.
It's funny how much of the walk your brain cuts out...its just not important information. I kept thinking we must be almost at the Skylight and then it just kept going and going.
Finally reached the Skylight!
Both of the Michael's wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt the whole time.
We hadn't been in the caves very long before I decided to just take my glasses off. It's so humid in their that my glasses kept fogging up.
Once we got to the Skylight it really didn't take any time at all to get to the end of the caves.
This gate at the end was new since we had been there last year. We're pretty sure there was a gate at the beginning of the cave, but there was definitely not one at the end when we came the first time.
Ella and Jack wanted to jog back to the main entrance so they ran up ahead and Michael and I brought up the rear.
Back and camp we were greeted by a silly squirrel that kept running around and around and around this tree.
Wednesday, August 27th was are last full day and we wanted to do....nothing!
We wanted to lounge!
We wanted to hang out at the campsite!
We wanted to relax and read books!
We wanted to play games!
We wanted to eat yummy food!
We wanted to snuggle in the hammock!
We wanted to climb on tree stumps!
We wanted to walk through the forest!
We wanted to find some cool fungi!
We wanted to chat around the fire!
We wanted to make s'mores!
So I guess we didn't actually do nothing...we did a lot of somethings, but it was all done while staying at the campground!
Thursday, August 28th it was time to pack up and head home!
Cute girly!
I'm always so bad about taking pictures at the end of the trip so I snapped a couple of shots.
Michael was taking the inside of the trailer down.
We ended up meeting a really nice couple from British Columbia...they had the sweetest dog and they let us see inside their storage trailer that they converted into a sleeping trailer. Michael and Robin might be doing that so it was fun to see. There's was really really basic, but still fun! After we chatted with them it was time to get on the road.
On our way home, Ella was texting with Justine. He rode the bus to our house, but he wasn't quite there yet. He texted Ella and said something along the lines of, "Come find me!" He knew which direction we were coming from so I knew we'd probably be driving right by him. It turned out that we got stopped at the light on Pac Hwy and he was able to just jump in the van and ride home with us.
Whenever we get home the first thing we do is jump out, love on Charlie and go to the bathroom. After Michael backs the trailer up into the driveway and gets it set up again we start unpacking the trailer. That's when Michael asked me for a broom because we had a stowaway onboard.
That was sure an eventful way to end camping season 2025!
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