VACATION PHOTOS and a FIRE UPDATE

According to The Chronicle...
...the fire is now contained. Jeff, Kendal, Shawn and I went back up on the hill last night and watched as the fire went around the house sitting there on Jack Ass Butte and roared towards the airport. Kendal got some great photos because she had her awesome 30x zoom and a tripod. Here's what our house looked like with the fire on the hill behind, a smoky haze in the air, and ashes falling on top of it.

So, onto something more pleasant. Here are my two sweet nieces and my kids. Max was reading the girls a story. It was a very short visit with Randy, Shannon and the girls this time. It is always hard to see everyone when we visit Vancouver because Jeff's whole family lives down there too. We went over to their new home last Tuesday for a BBQ and cousin Rob made it over too. We even took in a geocache hunt through the blackberries in the dark!

We left Randy and Shannon's to go do a little touristy stuff and visited Fort Vancouver, and Esther Short Park where the kids played in the basalt column water park. I enjoyed the rose gardens and took several shots of the flowers which will inspire me to make a rose themed kit shortly, I am sure.

At the Beach...
we had more fun! We met up with Corey, Amanda, Jonathan and Casey for some splishing and some splashing. The first day was so windy on the beach, and COLD WATER (of course). You can tell by this photo that it was a bit nippy.

The next day...Saturday, was GORGEOUS! It was a perfect, sunny day with very little wind. The kids had a blast playing on the beach. Jeff made them a maze in the sand and they enjoyed running around following the paths. Zoe made a little sand castle and drew giant flowers in the sand, and the big boys threw the balls around a bit. Amanda and I sat in the sun/shade and sipped wine while reading magazines. Not a bad day at all.

I continued to sip wine and read magazines back at the beach house, LOL!

Later that afternoon we headed a bit south to a cute little camping/recreation area that rented crab pots and boats. We crabbed from the dock this time, with not as much luck as last year, but enough to make a pot of crab alfredo noodles for supper. The kids had a blast pulling up the pots to check for the biggies each time. Between pulls we drove around and looked at the scenery a bit while searching for a couple geocaches. We couldn't find one of them. The other was out in these dunes.

And here are a few flower shots
Foxglove on the hill by the missing cache

I've never seen Cransbill Geranium this color of blue before (mine at home are more of a fushia pink color), aren't they gorgeous?

and I have no idea what this one is, but I'm quite sure it is going into my next kit. Do you know what it is?

It was hard to leave the beach. The house was perfect, the scenic beach was breathtaking, and the company was delightful! Next year I think we need to add an extra day or two to the trip.

When we returned in Vancouver we spent a couple days at Janice and Mike's place. The cousins had a great time. We had a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpas, had a water bottle fight, played the Wii Fit (which we now must get!), found another cache, and played one afternoon at Klinline Park. What a great spot. The kids splashed around in the little lake and then ran through the water feature to cool off. Here's a shot of Zoe and Jeff getting dumped on.

I'm actually a little disappointed in myself. I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked to. I guess I was just too busy taking in the memories this trip. I do have several more to share. Maybe I'll get some scrapping done too. Right now I am procrastinating and playing on the computer instead of unpacking, doing laundry, paying bills, and cleaning up the house and yard. We are trying to get it all done before tomorrow so that we can spend the day up at Patterson Lake riding our bikes. I'll make sure to take the camera! Have a great day!