I {heart} Swummer time

If you watch Phineas and Ferb then the title of this post will make sense to you. 

If you do not watch Phineas and Ferb (a.k.a. the funniest cartoon on tv right now and possibly ever) I will explain:  in one episode the brother duo decide their "to do" for the day involves winter activities but in the fabulous warmth of summertime... behold, Swummer.  Now go watch the show. 

On a gorgeous sunny warm Sunday afternoon we headed up to the mountain with the fam.  (a real mountain that stays snow capped all year long... everything else is a "hill" in my book)

The highest point one can drive to is called Artist Point and that area does not open each year, depending on snow fall and melt.  This year it had just been opened that week we went up after three years of not being open.  (yay!)

WARNING:  reeeeeaalllyy heavy on the pictures on this post. 

proceed:

miss baby had a hard time at first walking on the snow

 

but she caught on quickly and was loving the snow (i do believe she may have thrown the first snowball)

this is what i get when i tell her to smile for a picture. niiice.

secretly she is not loving swummer and sort of stays off to the side and away from the upcoming snowball fight

 

this girl loved swummer. and fully embraced it.

 

straight to the top

 

so i asked my sister to take our picture and she is "snapping away"  later i look to see if the 10+ pictures she took were any good and this is the ONE and only picture she actually took.  thanks so much yvonne.  ha ha.  (and again, Chad with his inability to smile normal)

 

 

cousins and Grandma D

"INCOMING!"  (that would be a snowball flying in overhead while we are forcing them to sit there nice for a picture... yeah, that's what kind of parents we are)

 

snowball fight... i tried to use my camera as a defense, my sister is not buying it.

 

picnic lunch

sledding! my eldest is finally getting a little more accustomed to swummer

 

double trouble

this girl didn't even bother with the sled.

 

breathtaking views that move your soul

i love my family.

oh yes i do.

 

 

We are Fam-i-ly

all my sisters, sisters and me. 

(apparently vacation posts require song lyrics as titles)

hanging out with the fam on vacation.........

lots of time on Grandma D's patio, coffee, knitting, reading, bubbles, relaxing.

 

hanging at my sisters.  my nieces and nephews are pretty awesome and despite the big age difference they entertain my kids and love up on them.  Miss J had Tonka pretty much wrapped around her finger ;)

my mom plays boccie ball twice a week so we went to cheer her on (for a few minutes and then the kids found the playground nearby)

we had a short lived bbq at the bay with extended family.  the one day we had yucky weather was the day we had this planned.  not to let a few raindrops hinder our plans we stuck it out for awhile but when the thunder and lightening came right over top of us we made a mad dash for the vehicles and headed back home. 

my family is completely normal.

and i love them :)

and friends are friends forever....

do you now have that Michael W Smith song stuck in your head?

your welcome.

we spent a day with some very good friends.  i have to say this special couple are amazing fantastical hosts and we really enjoyed spending time with their family catching up, relaxing, sliding down a giant slip and slide, eating yummy food and drinking yummy coffee drinks, the guys went golfing (took aaalllll afternoon) and the girls went shopping after dinner (honestly the fasting shopping trip to the mall i have ever been on in my life, only one store, as quick as i could get around it all and then back to their place) we also had a bonfire at night (after returning from said fastest shopping trip ever).

some of the day in pics:

ice cream break

the mom's spots for the afternoon

the gorgeous mountain view from their home
sigh, i miss this sight

so i asked my friend to take our picture while relaxing on their deck after dinner.... this is what happened.  my dear dear husband apparently lost all ability to take a normal picture.
seriously. 

Thanks guys for a wonderful day!

Vacation all I ever wanted....

Vacation, time to get away.

Vacation, meant to be spent alooonne.    

So that old Go Go's song doesn't apply to us I guess, cause our vacation was spent full of time with family and friends.  That is what made it so great though.

One of the first things we did was visit a cheese farm.  Not just any cheese farm, but the one that my family used to get cheese from growing up, before it was really an official cheese farm  Just a dutch couple from our church who made cheese on their dairy farm.  Not just any cheese though.  The BEST cheese.  It was such a treat when we had a wedge of cheese from the Appels.  Long story short, it is a special cheese farm.

their old farm sign

my "town" girls loved the farm and the cows

they even loved the fake cow

 

words

We brought home several wedges of fantastic cheese.  The favorites were the smoked Gouda, bacon cheddar, and the raw milk aged Gouda (most like the original cheese that Jack would have made.)  Mmmmmm I love cheese (as does everyone else in my family as it is looonng gone!)

KOA is A-OK

sooooo,

continuing on with Road Trip 2012. 

let me just say that i really really reaaalllllly love KOAs. and we don't camp.  (we really like the idea of camping, it sounds nice and fun and earthy and all, but the reality is:  we don't camp) and i may be just a smidge biased toward KOAs since i worked at one for my summer job through high school and college.

we stayed in Missoula at the KOA.  we rented a "deluxe cabin" (in other words, a cabin with everything included, so you can just show up with yourselves, your pj's and toothbrush and you are good to go)  it was awe. some. 

see:

our adorable cozy cabin had a full bath, two bedrooms, main room with kitchen, fire pit, picnic table, grill, cable tv, and it was super duper clean.  awe. some. ness.

we arrived early and the cabin was already available.  (the staff there were super duper nice and helpful by the way)  the girlies and i hit the pool while chad crashed (remember he is "super driver" and had driven for almost 16 hours)  a thunderstorm rolled in and we got kicked out of the pool less than a half hour after getting in.  bummer.  so we went back to our cabin

the storm hit. it hailed.  chad slept.

post storm i took the kiddos to the playground and exploring around the campground.  the eldest was trying to spot as many different license plates as she could since she didn't seem to remember to look for them while on the road.  then we went back to the cabin and chad was up looking for us.  he took three girls back to the pool (that lasted all of three minutes because of another thunderstorm) and i took our eldest to the shopping center that was located right in front of the campground for some girl shopping time.  i also did a load of laundry to wash out miss j's car seat and clothes from her puking incident.

everyone got cleaned up, chad grilled some food we had packed along from home, the tractor came by and picked the kids up for hay ride (see KOAs are so fun, i tell ya.) 

these girls absolutely loved the campground and our cute cabin.

these two especially loved their cozy bunk room. 

we crashed while it was still light out.  chad and i slept out in the main room on the pull out couch (good thing we were so exhausted that lovely bar jamming into our backs through the mattress was not felt until the morning when we both woke up a little sore, ha ha)

the next day we had a great day of traveling.  we left Missoula by 8:45am and only had to make two stops the whole day (once for lunch and another for gas).  we arrived in Lynden by 5pm. i took zero pictures this day so just imagine sunshine and smooth sailing all day, yay!!!