What we've been up to

Something happens when you've lived in Washington for three years: 65 degrees starts to feel very hot and summer-ish. So one day a few weeks ago, I gave in to the kids' pleading for a swim in the bay. 65 and windy doesn't scream "swim in the cold ocean!" to me, but hey, the kids had a blast.

This one might be a little more sensible than the others:

Here are Liam and Grace on their last day of second and fourth grade.

The first day of summer vacation I was informed that it was time for summer haircuts. I will not go into my usually tear-filled rant here, but I will say this:

Free agency really bites sometimes.

Before:

After:

And as if shaving Liam's head wasn't emotional enough for me, then Sam went and lost TWO teeth! What?!? Loose teeth is something that happens to Grace and Liam occasionally, but not my little SAM! He does have the cutest little lisp now!

Last weekend was a great one because Garreth was home! After missing him for two weeks, it was heaven having him back with us.

There was a lot of World Cup viewing.

We also went to Cornwall Park to play in the river, and this little daredevil found some waterfalls to slide down headfirst.

All the kids eventually had to try it, too. Even Garreth braved the rapids, but if I post the pictures I took of him going down it, he'd kill me. Let's just say he looked very nervous for how small the waterfall actually was.

On Fathers Day, we went for a family bike ride through Birch Bay State Park. If I had to name my number one favorite thing about living here, it would be living so close to this place. We have had so many adventures in the beautiful forest and on the beach. I will definitely miss it.

It was a landmark day for Sam - his first time on a long family bike ride not riding in the trailer, but on his own bike!

We rode to our favorite tree for some pictures.

On Monday, we drove Garreth down to catch his flight in Seattle and left with enough time to stop by the outlets and this place:

That's right. There is a road near Mt. Vernon called Ratchford Road. WHAT? When you have a last name as unusual as ours, this is a big deal! A guy Garreth used to work with told us about it and we had to see it to believe it. As we drove down Ratchford Road, we realized that everyone who lives on that road has to spell "Ratchford" as often as we do! It was very cool to see!!

We are always a little bummed after Garreth leaves, so the kids and I stopped in Mt. Vernon again on the way home to have some fun at the Children's Museum.

I didn't see Grace in this picture until I loaded them onto the computer, and it totally cracked me up!

Living in limbo is about to end for us! We closed on our new house this afternoon, and our official moving day is July 5. (Which is funny because we actually moved into this house on Fourth of July weekend!) It will still be hard to leave, but it will be a little easier because we have lived without Garreth for three months now. It's time to get us all back living in the same house again!