Back on the Wagon

Yes, it is summer... I seem to have trouble finding time to blog in the summer and yet, there is so much to blog about!

Our camping trip to Orcas Island:

Orcas Island is beautiful. I love visiting the San Juan Islands, and Orcas is my favorite. I've been there 3 times now. This was my first time camping on the island. We camped in Moran State Park and though our campsite was a little closer to the road that I would like, this was offset by the fact that we were right on Cascade Lake.

We were hoping to be able to fish from our campsite, but the water was a bit too shallow to fish from shore. It rained.

It rained lightly on Friday night, and we went to bed early because we were all tired from our ferry boat ride and setting up camp.

On Saturday, we drove up to the lookout on top of Mt. Constitution. This is the highest point in the San Juans and on a clear day you can see about 100 miles in every direction.

Unfortunately, it was cold and cloudy at the top, so we didn't stay long. On our way down the mountain, I took off on a side road to do a little hike. We ended up finding Cascade Falls about 1/2-mile off the road, and it was beautiful. The kids enjoyed being able to get right down to the bottom of the falls.




Sunday, we were just finishing up breakfast and starting to leisurely pack up when the sky opened up and it started to POUR! We scrambled to get everything packed up and get out of there but missed the ferry by 10 minutes and had to wait 2 hours for the next one.

We had a fun weekend, despite the rain, and look forward to one or two more camping trips this summmer.

Summertime and some FOs

Summer is definitely underway in our neck of the woods. Our first camping trip of the year is planned for next weekend. I promised Ethan a ferry boat ride this summer, so we decided to combine it with camping and are headed off to Orcas Island.

The weather has been warm and dry (unusually dry for June actually) and Ethan has been participating in all kinds of activities. He just finished PeeWee Baseball and swimming. Next week he starts PeeWee Sports Camp and soon starts tumbling. I'm still trying to find that balance between what he wants to do without over scheduling him, and what our budget will allow. We don't stop school in the summer, but we are taking a slower pace. I also hope to make more time for field trips and special things as the summer weather cooperates, plus camping trips are great learning opportunities!

On to the FOs! The small monthly KAL/CAL I participate in has chosen the Wishy Washy Fishy Tawashi for our June project. This was a quick and easy knit. This is sort of a dish scrubby and I chose cotton rather than acrylic, because wet acrylic just feels gross to me, though it probably has better scrubbing power. This project is item #22 in my 52-craft challenge.


Item 23 in my 52-craft challenge was another apron for Ethan. This one he will use at home while helping me in the kitchen or working on art projects.

We broke it in on Friday while making Strawberry Ice Cream from The Book of Days, a wonderful book by Stefani at Blue Yonder. The Summer book 1, the first one I purchased, is more than 30 pages full of kid-friendly and family-friendly activities that encourage families to slow down and enjoy their time together. There are recipes, nature activities, art projects, science projects, games, and more. Stefani has done all the work for you, including supplemental resources and ways to expand each activity in the Parent's Field Guide, included in each issue. I can already tell that this book is going to be a great source of fun and adventure, because it is all right in front of me, with minimal planning.

By the way, Stefani hand-illustrates the book (and her website), and the pictures are adorable!

Summer

Summer is a busy time, which apparently means little time for blogging (for me). I finally finished my Monkey socks for Summer of Socks 2008. So, what happens right smack dab in the middle of SOS? The Ravelympics*, of course! I couldn’t resist signing up. I joined Team Browncoat (if you don’t know what a Browncoat is, check out the TV series Firefly) and signed up for THREE events! I must be insane. It took me almost two months to knit the Monkey socks, but now I’m going to knit Spring Forward for the Sock Put, Mossy sweater for Baby Dressage, AND a Clapotis for Scarf stroke? All in 17 days? My saving graces are the fact that the socks double for SOS and that we’re going on road trip in a couple weeks so I’ll have lots of knitting time on the road.

So far, we’ve had a busy summer of hiking, camping, berry picking, local festivals, and all the great things we love to do in the summer. For my birthday, Cliff surprised me with a trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. We managed to squeeze in the Royal London Wax Museum, the Royal BC Museum, and our primary reason for going, The Butchart Gardens. I hadn’t been to Victoria in about 20 years, so this was quite a treat. We even found a yarn shop, which is where I bought the yarn for the wavelength scarf and the Mossy jacket, not to mention my first skein of Casbah Sock in the most gorgeous colors.

*For those who don’t know, the Ravelympics is a Ravelry-base self-challenge knitting event that spans the actual Olympics.