4th of July Celebration

When we lived in Maine the 4th of July was pretty "ho hum" we lived too far to go to the fireworks and there wasn't too much to do worth the driving distance. So we usually just went to the lake for a day of swimming. Nothing wrong with that but I love my childhood memories of the 4th of July with fireworks. So now living here in Washington we discovered we actually had a choice of things to do. First we could go to Blaine, or we second we could go to Bellingham. We tried to first hit Blaine for the parade, but we got stuck in traffic and didn't make it. (note to self...leave much earlier next year) So we were disappointed but decided to head to Bellingham. There they had lots of stuff for the kids and vendors for me =). They had 3 huge jumpy houses, face painting, music, and food. The kids had a blast. After that we headed home for some r and r and then headed back for the fireworks. They were really amazing. The best I've ever seen. I felt like a kid again. I "ohhhhh, awwwwwwed" right along with the boys. It was a great day.


Elijah isn't looking too trusting of the lady doing his spider.

But in the end was happy with the result.

At first I thought she was going to paint his whole face green and I was not too happy.

But she turned his nose into the head of a dinosaur. Pretty cool.

Everybody was KungFu fighting. This KungFu panda needed to eat a few more bowls of noodles.

They had huge chalkboards that they invited people to do sort of a "chalk by number"

Cotten Candy of course.
The big flag. God bless America...better yet show us mercy!

Finally dark at 10:30.

First Visit to Seattle

We took our first trip into Seattle yesterday. Sort of on a whim. We didn't have a plan just to take a look around. Next time however I will be planning a more"cultural" trip. It was a beautiful day...not a cloud in the sky. We stopped at the Space Needle...and should have taken the trip up as soon as we got there because later on the line was so long, I just didn't have it in me to stand in line. Next time we'll take the trip to the top. Next to the Space Needle is where we ended up spending most of the time. The "Fun Forest" is basically a carnival type deal. There are rides and games and food. Of course this was exactly what the boys wanted to do all afternoon. We took the Monorail into downtown Seattle and did a wee bit of shopping. There is so much to see!


Space Needle from the ground.

This is a statue of liberty built completely from LEGOS! It was very impressive despite the look on Elijah's face.

WEEEE

Bumper cars of course

The look on Isaiah's face is priceless. Elijah laughed and smiled the whole ride, but Isaiah had a look of horror. Peter and I got a great laugh.

bowling...oh boy

So the local bowling lane offers free summer bowling to kids. The kids have been begging us to go. I've never bowled and Peter said maybe a few times in high school or college he did. So we were in for an adventure. The balls were so heavy. I could barely lift them. Then with my pregnant belly my balance was all off. I didn't do so well. The boys had fun just trying to knock the pins down.



Elijah stood to watch every ball he released.
Isaiah just chucking the ball. LOL it was awesome.

Score board...Elijah won (with help from dad)

one fish two fish

The kids had swim lessons all week and they will continue next week. They have had a blast. They are in two different classes this year. Elijah has always been comfortable in the water so this year we are trying to match up his no fear attitude with his skills. He'll be swimming on his own by the end of the summer for sure. Isaiah can swim but he strengthening his technique and learning endurance.

Kicking at the wall.

Practicing with the noodle.

Swimming the length of the pool.

Swimming the length of the pool on his back.

Exploring Blaine

We continue to be blessed with nice weather. After church we decided to do a local exploration of Blaine. We live in Birch Bay which is technically part of Blaine. We hadn't really explored what was beyond Birch Bay so we decided to take a look.

This is Semiahmoo Park. It's a beautiful area with places to have a picnic, beach comb, and just enjoy the views. There were many sailboats out.

Semiahmoo also is the home of the Semiahmoo museum. It's small but very interesting. Native Americans occupied a village on the spit for hundreds of generations, making a living from land and sea. The Alaska Packers Association Cannery was a center of salmon processing for nearly 80 years .Numerous artifacts from the cannery are displayed in the museum to tell the story of fishing and canning in days gone by

Tons of cans, and they all were filled with??.....Salmon.

We headed over to Peach Arch Park. Which is a park that straddles the United States and Canada. We think it's pretty neat how we lived in a border town in Calais, Maine, and now on the other side of the country we are in another border town. The park is really beautiful. The flowers alone were worth the visit. On the United States side there is a US flag made with flowers. It's huge.

Here is Isaiah with one foot in Canada and one foot in the United Sates.

The Peace Arch stands on the international boundary between Blaine, Washington, and Douglas, British Columbia

And not to be outdone, on the Canada side there is a Canadian flag made with flowers.

This is Blaine Marine Park. This is an Orca Whale sculpture. I really want to go whale watching out here because these are the whales we'll see. In Maine we've done whale watching and we see Humpback whales. But I have always loved the Orca whales.

Saturday Fun

Ok I am not trying to brag but the weather here has been amazing. Seriously we've been here since the end of May and it's only rained once and that was just in the morning. We are very thankful and we are trying to take full advantage of the nice weather. Because we hear rumors that it rains allot here. So yesterday we took the kids to a park in Bellingham, took a walk in downtown Fairhaven for homemade ice cream and then to the driving range. The boys of course had a blast! And Peter enjoyed teaching them how to swing a golf club. I have a sneaky suspicion some golf clubs will be purchased in the near future. =)


Isaiah getting ready to swing. He was getting the hang of it.

Elijah only wanted to use the driver. He has a very aggressive swing so back up.

The park we went to has a playground and then this water spouting area. The water shoots out randomly and seriously it was endless shrieking with delight from all the kids.

Video from VBS

Blast OFF!

This was Elijah's favorite song!