in a nutshell: september 2012

for labor day the girls and I took a drive up to artist point at mt. baker with my parents and the yorks. talk about beautiful scenery! we are so lucky to be living where we are. we had a picnic lunch and the kids played in the snow a little. if we had been smart we would’ve packed their snow gear so they could really play around, but they had fun nonetheless. I guess we know for next time. on the way home we stopped in maple falls for an ice cream cone. yum!

lauren LOVES peanut butter! there was a period of a couple of weeks where she would continually go to the cupboard, pull out a jar and beg for a spoonful. it was so dang cute!

we took our annual camping trip to washington park in anacortes the weekend after labor day. joining us this year were the dahlstrom family and shanna and her boys. we had a total blast. the weather was darn near perfect for september in the pacific northwest. we hiked the paved loop around the park, played at the playground, threw rocks in the water, and ate lots of yummy s'mores.

we also went to double bluff beach and spent an afternoon playing in the sun and the sand.

ellie was either dumping sand or water on brooklin.
it was quite funny to watch brooklin's reaction.

stomping off!

usually these two are buddies, but for some reason ellie insisted on covering brooklin with sand/water.
again, I just couldn't help but laugh and take pictures.

they all had a blast!

the jelly fish that crystal rescued and helped get back to sea!

our master fire builder.

say cheese ryan!

we had so much fun and really look forward to next years' trip!

brooklin's first day back at preschool! she was so excited to go back to school and most of her classmates from last year were returning this year, so she knew she'd be surrounded by familiar faces and good friends. I am so glad that we decided to send her to preschool, she absolutely loves it and her teachers are really great. the pictures I took didn't really turn out great because the sun was so bright. hooray for sunny September days!

brooklin's first field trip of the school year was to the marine life center. the kids got to watch the big octopus eat breakfast. the octopus actually came to the front of the tank to show off what he had caught for his meal. it was pretty neat!

there was a little tank/pool where the kids could touch different sea creatures. brooklin was brave enough to touch a star fish, but that was it. lauren was just interested in splashing in the water, which was freezing cold.