Camping in Winthrop

We had a great camping trip to Winthrop last weekend even with three extra teenagers along for the ride. Thankfully everyone got along and there were no squabbles. Alyssa and her friends slept in our tent, and Noah and his buddy, Nate, slept in Nate's small tent. Forrest and I got the trailer to ourselves until Saturday morning during a downpour when Noah got fed up with Nate rolling over on him and he joined us at 4:00 AM. The temperatures were cooler than the mid-90s that were forecast because of the thunderstorms that rolled in during the afternoons. On Saturday afternoon the kids took over the trailer with the computer to watch a movie. Alyssa fell asleep with the computer on her lap and the other kids watched while she slept.

Because of high fire danger we couldn't have a campfire so we made smores over charcoal briquets and cooked with our dutch ovens and the trailer's gas grill. The drive through the North Cascades was glorious. The mountains, rivers, and lakes are spectacular.

Sunday Drive

I can't remember taking any leisurely Sunday drives last summer when gas was $4.30 a gallon. It was great to get back to this family tradition. Forrest had some outdoor locations for taking photos of Alyssa for her senior portraits so we set out for Skagit County on a beautiful Sunday morning. You'd never know by this photo that right behind me is a large Shell oil refinery. Our plan was to have lunch at Gere-a-Deli, a great lunch spot that Forrest and I frequent when we have lunch meetings in Anacortes. But, alas, it was closed. Many of the downtown restaurants aren't open for lunch on Sundays so the few that were open were packed. So we decided that ice cream would make a yummy lunch.

This view is from the top of Mount Erie. The lake is called Heart Lake. At the top of this mountain we came across a group of Austin Healey enthusiasts out for a drive. There were a dozen of the sporty little cars parked by the viewpoint. We took lots of test shots of Alyssa and got several good ones that might become her official senior portrait, but we decided that the rest of us needed to be in some photos too.

From the top of Blanchard Mountain, a popular hang gliding starting point.

More Test Shots

Alyssa didn't like what she was wearing when I took these photos, but I wanted to play with lighting. She refused to rest her chin on her hand (the traditional pose from my high school days). Lately it's been too sunny and Alyssa's been too busy for us to work on her senior portraits.  When she's not at work, she's sanding her table, or going to movies at midnight. We've not seen Noah much this week.  He brought home a friend from open gym on Monday night.  Then Noah went home with the same friend after football last night and has been gone all day.  Forrest and I are meeting Alyssa at Noah's friend's house for dinner soon. Then he'll be off to another friend's house tomorrow afternoon.  Forrest is playing poker tomorrow night so Alyssa and I can have girl's movie night with both boys out of the house.  We have the Broadway production of "Rent" from Netflix to watch.

Senior Project

Alyssa working inside on a rainy day on sanding the base of  the antique table she is refinishing for her senior project.  We have to document all of the steps so she can include them in her presentation in January.  She'll give a 15-20 minute oral presentation which will include her employability portfolio, her scholarly paper on nuclear energy, and the 40-60 hours she will have spent on refinishing this table. She will give a Power Point presentation using the photos to document her work since the table will be too big to carry to school on the day of her presentation.
Most of the time she's been able to work outside or at least with the garage door open for fresh air.  When it's finished we'll use the table until she gets a home of her own.  Her biggest problem has been that someone at some point in this table's life painted the base baby blue.  It looks like the paint was put on raw wood and it seeped into the cracks.  I don't think she's going to be able to get all of it out. Thankfully most of it is on the feet, and you'd have to be lying on the floor to notice it. 

Next week she's going to be working 49 hours at the daycare (one lady is on vacation and one is on maternity leave).  Usually she works 20-30 hours. She won't have much time to sand so she'll have to put in some time this weekend.  I'm looking forward to an almost unscheduled weekend.  The only thing we have to do is take Noah to get fitted and pick up his football gear.  It's hard to believe that football practice starts in three weeks.  From August 3rd on Noah will have 3 hours of practice daily Mon-Fri.  After school starts they cut back to only 6 hours a week of practice.

Alyssa and I are trying to schedule a tour of Eastern Washington Univ. sometime in August during the end of their summer session.  Eastern has an Early Childhood Education program, and since she wants to teach kindergarten this school should definitely be on her list of schools to apply to.  

Hometown Fourth of July Parade

Noah and his teammates march with the rest of the basketball camp participants.

The "Old Bags of Arlington" make their annual appearance.
You can't have a parade without Boy Scouts.
Every fire engine in town was in the parade as well as every single tractor too.

Alyssa and Chloe wait for their brothers to walk by.  They were the 58th entry in the parade. They had a long wait. But Chloe collected a huge bag of candy.