Whidbey Pond

Finally, we made it up to Gabe's parents property up on Whidbey. Gabe cut the drive into the property back in spring but sure enough it was overgrown already. Loved the scratching sound as we drove down in my expedition. Briers! I just closed my eyes. "Those will just buff out" is always Gabe's reply. It was beautiful as always, the plus of cutting back briers is we get to catch a lot of BASS! It started raining before we left, drove out of it on the way up. About 3 hrs. after we got there it started raining again, wind was blowing and it was a wheeee bit chilly for July. Dalton had spent the night at a friends and we picked him up and his friend went with us. They stayed up until 2 a.m. and I was worried they would fall asleep while fishing, they made it until the drive home. Dalton's friend had never fished before and Gabe did a great job teaching him how to cast. It's always fun watching the joy in a little guys face as he catches his first one by himself. Got a kick out of it. Came home and Phoenix was spending the night at her friends so drop friend off, drop daughter off. One thing about living on the island, when the kids go to a friends house it usually on the other side of the island. It's alot of run around.

Bonus for Gabe, we kept about 20 of the Bass and brought them back to our pond. We will see how they co-exist with our trout. lol

Mukilteo House

As of June 30th our renters moved out of our Mukilteo house, well, we decided for them. We are taking the "Selling Step", a little unsure, but we our tired of being landlords. Of course before selling we have to do ALOT of work. So, that's where the past few weeks have taken us. Yes, we know it's summer, what where we thinking. However, it's easier to get yard work and patio work down when it's not raining. Phoenix and I have pulled weeds and more weeds (about 8 huge bags full). We still have alot left to do on the yard. We started cleaning but are waiting until the dust clears. Gabe has gutted the main bathroom and Master bath. I mean gutted. I took before photo's so I'll post the after when he is finished. They are going to be NICE! He is also going to slate the patio off the master. We are also considering replacing the kitchen cupboards. After all this work is done and it does not sell, we will just rent it out again until things pick up.

favorite 4th....

The 4th is always one our favorite days on Camano. Last year we were in Alaska so we decided this year we did not want to miss it again. Gabe woke up and checked out the tides, deciding it would be fun to go clamming. He talked to one of his friends up in Skagit and he gave us a spot. Nice spot but we have never been clamming where it was so rocky. Digging was interesting. After watching some oldtimers we figured out the rocky areas were the best, so dig we did (more like moving a mountain). We all had fun and got a big enough bucket of clams to satisfy us. Got home and I got busy doing something in the house, before I knew it they were back in the house with the clams cleaned. How did I miss that? LOL

We cooked clams, then ran to the store to buy SMORE ingredients for the beach. Loaded up our backpacks with fireworks and munchies and headed down to the beach about 9:00. Fireworks had already started. For those of you who have never been down to the beach with us, we live in a bay. You can see the other beaches surrounding in a distance. Both side of the bay have a fireworks shootoff which last for a good 3 hours. Way in the distance you can see about 4 other towns fireworks. So for 3 hours it is constant, beautiful fireworks. We built a small bon-fire and ate smores while the kids let off their fireworks and sparklers. Headed back about 12 then Phoenix and I went out on the deck and watched more. It was indeed sparkly and so nice to not have to drive!

Washington dc in MAY - Gabe's family

Just a couple photo's from our Washington DC trip. Gabe's grandmother was buried there in
May and we had a great family get together. First photo....BBQ at the park. Gabe's cousins, brothers, uncle, aunt, mom and dad upper right. Of course we had great food. THE GUYS COOKED!! Lower photo...after the private tour of the capital. Thanks to Gabe's mom who
set up the whole thing. It was amazing.