Memorial Weekend - Deception Pass 2013

 
Deception Pass is one of my favorite places to be.  I love our annual camping trip to the beach.  
        
Friday was beautiful.  We got camp set up and went and hiked up the beach.
 
Saturday we woke to a little bit of rain.  After breakfast we decided to go tour Anacortes.  We hit a couple of stores and then found a fantastic park.  The community all donated pieces of a large boat that they made in to a large park with musical instruments, climbing wall, swings, slides....the works.  It was so much fun.  The afternoon and evening we spent on the beach.

   

 Kenzie was Grumpy on the Beach...I got some good pictures :)

The kids also had a chance to become Junior Rangers.  They each had a packet of stuff they had to accomplish.  They had to learn about animals and plants in the park, pick up litter, answer other questions, and other things.  Once they were complete we went to campfire sing-along and they were sworn in as Junior Rangers.  It was a lot of fun.

Sunday it rained most of the night and morning.  We couldn't start a fire so we decided to take a ride in the car and get dry.  This time we went to discover Oak Harbor.  We found a really great windmill.

   

Jack and Jaron both went in to the Ocean more times than I brought underpants for them.  We had to dry out their underpants so they didn't have to go home commando.

Kurt went fishing and caught a lot.  He caught a baby salmon - of course he threw it back.  Then he caught a crab.  It actually caught him and then pinched him while they were trying to get him off the hook.  Pretty cool.  Later he caught a TON of herring.

We stayed at the beach on Sunday to see the sunset.  We watched an eagle catch a fish and take it to his next twice.  It was SO cool. 

All in all -a really great trip.  Looking forward to next year!

Little J Turns Five!!!!

My sweet baby turned 5 - I can't believe how big he has become. We had a Team Umizoomi Party.  If you don't know who that is check out Nickelodeon :)  As the kids came they all made paper airplanes and tested them out.  Once we had all his friends there they created Shape Belts so they could be like Geo.  The girls also got Millie hairbands so they could measure with their piggie tales.  Here is a picture of Jaron and his friends:

Here are the photo bomb versions :)
 
After they were dressed like the team umizoomi crew we went on a shape hunt around the house.  They found shapes and numbers and had to complete an entire sheet - it was so fun.

Jaron was lucky enough that his friends bought him some fabulous presents:
 
We played pin the shapes on Geo and then while I was preparing the dessert they watched an episode of Team Umizoomi

They got to create and eat and ice cream pizza

All in all a very successful party.  I can't believe my youngest is five already.  He is such a fun challenging individual - we just love him so much.  Happy Birthday little J!                                             

Gail's 60th Birthday Celebration!!!!

Gail turned 60 this year and to celebrate we surprised her with a dinner with the family at Anthony's at Point Defiance in Tacoma.  It was so beautiful!

On the way to Tacoma Jack learned how to play happy birthday on his recorder and then played it for Grandma in the restaurant - he did a great job.

Here are some other cute random pictures :)
      

Walk for Babies 2013

 
We had a great time doing the March of Dimes Walk for Babies.  We had an extra special trip this time as I got to be the representative from my company to speak in the opening....talk about scary.    It was a beautiful day and we had a really great time.

Jack and Jaron got to meet an ice cream cone and Jaron got to high five an apple core :)  There was also a large Gooey Duck, but it was a little inappropriate looking and scared the kids (Apparently it is Evergreen College's mascot - not quite sure how to feel about that).

Kenzie adopted a bunny.  It was very cute and pink, but it didn't even make it to the car without popping.  It was very sad, but she enjoyed  him while she had him!

Here are some pictures from the walk - so fun!


The fire department is there right at the beginning and this is one of my favorite parts.

Our company raised $11,000 for the March of Dimes - it was a great day!          

Hail, The Zoo and the best baseball tickets EVER!

We have had a wild week at the Sampson house.

Living in Washington we get a significant amount of  rain.  We don't see a lot of snow, hail, thunder, lightening....mostly just clouds and rain.  So when it hails we usually stop and watch.  This hail storm came and then  left, and then came back and the heavens opened and hailed for a good 5 minutes.  The kids ran outside and took buckets to collect the hail.  We ended up with an inch of hail.  Pretty crazy.
 
Jaron wanted to put the "crunch ice" in a soda for me and starting collecting it off the ground.  As sweet as that is, I didn't take him up on it!

The next adventure - learning to trim the dog!  Poor Mosley - we went a little short :)

Earlier this week Paul was handed some baseball tickets a vendor had given his office.  We made arrangement to leave Jaron with Aunt Emily (thanks Emily and Brian), and Jack, Kenzie, Paul and I went to the game.  Little did we know what exactly we were getting!

The tickets were two rows behind home plate and were part of the Diamond Club!  This means that all of our food and drink were part of the ticket.  We got to partake in a 5 star buffet before the game began.  Then during the game we could fill out a form and our attendant (Joe) would come get it and bring us back our stuff.  It was AWESOME!

 
The game lasted 14 innings....Kenzie only lasted about 6 :)  She was a trooper though so we didn't leave until the top of the 12th inning.  We actually made it home with the kids in bed and still had time to finish watching the game.

The last adventure was the 1st grade fieldtrip to Woodland Park Zoo!  It was so much fun!

Hopefully this next week will be a little quieter :)

The Monster Party....Kenzie turned 7!

My sweet baby girl turned Seven!  To celebrate she wanted to have a Monster Party.  If you review previous birthday posts, Monsters was not what I was anticipating.  Also, finding Monster stuff in April is a little tough.  I had to get creative.  First we got up and Kenzie helped make Chocolate filled cupcakes - she got to eat the extra :)

Then we created "Mike Wasowski" cupcakes - they turned out pretty cute.  We also had spider legs (cheetos), Monster Eggs (Egg shaped marshmallows), Monster fingers (Veggie Straws) and Frogs

When her friends came we went on a Monster hunt around the neighborhood while Jack hid monsters in the house.  They were each given special rings to ensure they didn't become monsters as well as a small squirt gun to get the monsters.  Once the monster hunt was complete - we played "mummy"

The following Sunday we had a family party to celebrate.  She wanted her cake to be a cupcake....so - we made that happen as well.

We are so grateful to have our sweet girly face and can't believe she is getting older.

Happy Birthday Mackenzie!!!!

The Concerts....

It was concert time for the elementary school.  Jack received all of his "belts" for recorder karate - meaning he memorized and passed off several songs.  He is a recorder whiz!

 Kenzie also had a concert and did an amazing job.  The video is of her "solo" of the Recycle Rap.