Fort Casey

 Hi everyone,

While visiting the lighthouse we also were able to check out the old embattlements of Fort Casey. I had so much fun running around the huge fields, climbing up the ladders, checking out the big guns, scouting from down in the watch dugouts and from high in the watch towers. The only thing I really wasn't a fan of was the main building where there were some really dark passageways and rooms. I forgot to bring my flashlight, that might have helped.

Here's my smile when I'm getting tired of smiling nice!

Dog standing guard!

Until next time . . .

Lighthouse Keeper

Hi everyone,

Do you like the lighthouse we made out of blocks? Pretty neat, huh. After it was up for a while the people starting falling and jumping off the top of the lighthouse into the water. I guess they were into extreme sports!

I learned a bit about lighthouses and beacons this past week and we even took a trip to a real lighthouse. I was a bit disappointed when I found out that the actual light is down in the museum portion of the lighthouse and not in the tower currently being used. It was still fun to climb the spiral stairs and steep ladder to get to the top. We were able to see all the surrounding area, the bay, and even a bald eagle circling over the water and then landing on the top of an evergreen tree.

Until next time . . .

Goodbye April, Hello May

Hi everyone,

What you are about to see is not super exciting. It is basically just a wrap up post and a few cute pictures of me. The first pic is when Grandpa came up and stayed the night and read my bedtime story to me. Love Lightning McQueen and my Grandpa! The other is when we visited some friends of ours who moved to Seattle and I wanted to look at the pretty skyline with the binoculars. Those things were heavy!
 

I have been so excited to do preschool each day. Mom is super impressed with how well I am holding my writing tool and even more impressed with my memory. She says it is like a steel trap. Now I haven't actually seen a steel trap so I'm assuming that's a good thing. Anyway, just to catch you up to speed we have now covered the letters A, B, C, and D; the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4; a square and diamond; the colors green and blue; and the theme of cows, jungle, kittens, and eyes. That should about do it.

Until next time . . .

Sloshing through the Tulips

 Hi everyone,

This year we decided to take advantage of the free locals night to head out to the tulips so that meant we were limited on the date and time we could tiptoe through them. Unfortunately, that also meant that dad couldn't come because he had a training meeting that night.

The day started out rainy, gray, and cold but by evening most of the clouds burned off and we had beautiful sunshine. That being said, mom didn't realize that there would be huge puddles between the rows of tulips so she decided to forego my rainboots because it is a bit of a walk out to the fields and she wanted to avoid blisters on my heels. 

You can see I still had fun though. I managed to jump over every row of water and not fall in once! I did get a little jealous when I saw the other little kids splashing around in the puddles (lakes) but I think a trolley ride helped curb my splashing envy pretty quickly.

Until next time . . .

Garden Gnome

Hi everyone,

Farmer's almanac reader Isaac says, "If you haven't started preparing your garden, now just might be the time." A few weeks ago, we tilled up our soil and then worked the chicken manure into the ground, then we were able to get our cool season veggies and fruits planted. We started some of our plants from seed and others from transplants, and we plan to do some successive planting where we put in seeds every two to three weeks so we have a staggered crop. We are looking forward to enjoying our garden's bounty later this spring, summer, and fall! I'll probably be bringing you pictures of the garden as it transpires.

I enjoyed watching dad use our new rototiller. I made sure to have my stylin' ear protection on while the engine was going. I also pretended to drive my dump truck down into Skagit Valley and I had to have mom document the journey. Getting tips on knot tying from an expert.

I worked so hard helping shovel soil from one garden to another so we could make the stepping stones even. How do you like my technique for planting carrot seeds? Here is my planting method: pour seeds into your hand, pinch seeds with fingers on opposite hand (preferably not right after you've been sucking on them because they will be wet and the seeds will stick to your fingers), and don't forget to stick out your tongue while sprinkling.

Until next time . . .

Cold Weather Camping

 Hi everyone,

I thought I'd share a bit more about our camping trip. We ended up having great weather in what was supposed to be a stormy three day trip. We had a few sprinkles after we got there but we were already set up by that time. The second day was beautiful for out excursions away from camp and my Easter egg hunt. We had some rain in the night and the morning on our pack up day, but wouldn't you know it cleared up just in time for us to dry off the trailer and get it packed away.

Mom ended up doing her long run while we were out there and she said she felt like a VIP athlete with a support vehicle trailing her the whole way. We read her times at each mile, handed her energy thing-a-ma-jigs partway through, and gave her lots of encouragement. Najia got out and ran with her for a mile and I decided that I wanted to run with her too. She was only going to run 9 miles but she decided she'd meet me at mile 9 and I could run half a mile with her. I had so much fun and am such a super athlete that I decided to just keep on going. I ended up running a mile (making mom run 10 miles) before it was time for us to head back to camp. We saw some beautiful waterfalls running along the lake and dad drove through every puddle hole he could find. It was great! We ended our morning eating waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. Yes, I know it doesn't look like we are roughing it (and we aren't when we camp with our trailer) but we get enough of that with our backpacking and biking trips. Did you notice that we had to use the generator to run the waffle maker? I think that's the best use that thing has gotten so far!

We did learn from this trip that we probably need to just pay for an electrical hookup when the months are cold because running the furnace so often drains the little 12 volt battery. We found that we probably spent as much in diesel charging the battery every few hours as we would have just paying for a hookup site. Oh, the lessons you learn as you go through life.

Until next time . . . 

Egg Hunt in the Woods

Hi everyone,

I know it's been a few days, maybe even weeks, since Easter. What can I say, I'm a bit behind on my posts. We ended up going camping that weekend, and while I know the true reason we celebrate Easter is Jesus' resurrection I have to say I was excited that the bunny still managed to find me out in the middle of nowhere.

I ended up hopping through the woods, over tree limbs, and through drainage ditches to find all the hiding places my loot was stashed. And let me tell you, I was glad to find it all. You see, I happened to spy mom packing my Easter basket the night before we headed out so I was a little concerned when we arrived at our camping spot and unpacked and this basket with the fun toys was nowhere to be found. It did come along though, so it all worked out in the end.

 

Until next time . . .