Early Summer Catch up!

Whew! What a whirlwind. I know I am very behind on the blog, but it's been hard to catch a breath. In early June, we attended Jack's Kindergarten music concert, which was very cute. Jack seemed to know about half the words and hand gestures. He likes the music, but he's not much of a performer.

 Then, in quick succession, I finished my Ed Leadership Program, graduated, got a new job, and worked hard to wrap up the old one. Then, right after the last day of school, I headed to San Antonio for 4 days to present at the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). We didn't have much time for sightseeing, but here are a few images.

 The cathedral across the street from our hotel does a light show on the weekends. We were able to watch from the balcony of our hotel.

 The Alamo...

 The Riverwalk...

 They have their own tower, which they delight in noting is taller than the Space Needle. It wasn't any more interesting...

 Before the first of our two presentations...

And before the second:

I started my new job on July 3...So far, it's been pretty boring, with just me and the custodian in the building. It's paperwork and reading this month. I can't wait until the teachers and students come back in the fall and things get interesting. In the meantime, we've got our house on the market and have started looking for new houses.

This past weekend, we took a break and went camping at Kalaloch in the Olympic National Park. It's a beautiful area, and we could have spend far more than the weekend there. We'll have to go back again. We had the dog with us, which meant the National Park trails were off limits, although luckily the beaches were still open to us.  Next time, we may have to leave the dog home so we can explore more, but she had a great time this time.  The coast was teaming with sea otters out in the waves, but really, really hard to get a picture. We also saw whales spouting water, but they wouldn't surface for a good picture either.

 The beaches here are very fun. Jack enjoyed digging and collecting sticks and shells.

 My favorite was Ruby beach, which we visited at low tide and were able to see all kinds of cool tide pools full of anemones and star fish.

 The first day, Friday, it was very sunny. As you saw from the pics above, Sat and Sunday were overcast and quite cool.

 Jackson wrote "Jackson lovs this beche" in the sand.  We'll have to work on the spelling.

 We also visited this big old cedar tree and took a drive up to the Hoh, but didn't go in because we were short on time and had the dog.

 Friday night, we had dinner here at Kalaloch Lodge...

While all of this has been going on, we've also been attending karate twice a week for Jack. He earned his white belt so far...Sam has been coming too. Not sure if the boys will continue, but they've been enjoying it for now.

 For the Fourth of July, Jackson again rode in the neighborhood bike parade. Mike and I made the mistake of riding our bikes too. A mistake because there are so many kids and you move so slowly, that we really couldn't get up to speed enough to right...But Jack enjoyed it.

 Then, we went to Lesa and Colins for dinner and then down the Seattle to watch fireworks from the deck at Zymogenetics. It stays light so late here that we had a long time to wait...They didn't start until almost 10:30pm.

 Hard to believe it's July 10 already.  Lots more busy-ness to come this summer, much of it not very much fun! It's packing time.

Fort Flagler Camping for Memorial Weekend

After a crazy couple of weeks at work and in the job hunt (more on that in a day or two), we needed a break. We headed out Friday at about 1:30pm for our camping trip, but the ferry line was really long, so we didn't arrive at Fort Flagler until about 5:30pm.  Hours to travel only about 50 miles, but that's what happens when a ferry is involved!

The location is amazing, and the weather was beautiful. We spent some time right away down on the beach, running around, looking for shells, and enjoying the view. There are some campsites right down at the beach, but we were in the upper campground, up in the trees overlooking the bay. It was pretty amazing.

 Aspen came with us and enjoyed herself. She's still excited to be with us and on the go, but it reminded me that she's getting to be a senior citizen too. She still likes to walk and play, but by the end of the day she was stiff and in pain, and she needs help jumping into the car now.

 The beach was pretty cool, with lots of shells and things to look at. There were also lots of pigeon guillemot nesting in the cliffs along the beach and lots of swallows.

 Then, when we went to check out the fort, this guy was sitting in a tree enjoying the scenery. He stood still for quite a few pictures. The zoom on the little camera was able to pick him up, but barely.

As always, Jack enjoyed looking at the military installations. 

 Since we were near the canal, we had to get fresh oysters. Mike ate his raw, but I don't like them much, so I roasted mine for a bit over the fire.

The next day, the boys enjoyed flying their kites at the beach. The wind was just perfect for kite flying!

 Later in the afternoon, we spent some time playing games and fixing dinner.

 We also took a quick trip to the very picturesque town of Port Gamble, where Jackson was excited to find another playground.

 Then, back to the beach for more fun.

We came home pretty early today so that we had some time to clean out the cars, do laundry, and all the prep for another busy week at work. Jackson's Kindergarten has a music concert this week and we have lots going on, so it's going to be another fun week.