Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Endless Summer? (winter)

Jon finally found some ski bums in the family


to spend the day at Mount Baker with him.  They loved the snow day
and we may convert Jon to north-westernism yet.


Jenny and Emily had never skied so they took lessons.  The instructor referred to the younger as Kamikaze Emily.  She has come a long way since quitting snowboarding at Jackson Hole three winters ago.


While the kids were falling off the ski lift and unintentionally eating snow face first
Lonny traveled to Ecuador.  And to the equator.  I had to include this picture because this is so out of character for Lonny to pose like everyone else.  He is such a rebel.


This monument at the equator was a little off.  Someones longitude was fishy.


And good thing Emily had some winter sport that last week in WA because it was back to summer in South America and just in time to attend EFY, the first ever in Peru.


So if a Peruvian girl came to EFY in the states would everyone want a photo with her?  I think not, is there something wrong with Peruvians or Americans?


The youth in our ward had such a good time.  


These three girls all have dads that work for the church.  The other two speak Spanish fortunately and translated for Emily.  When Emily has to explain how she learned Spanish it will honestly be from talking to boys on Facebook.


And they all just kept posing 


and posing 


and posing.


And when your entire EFY group is from Lima you can have a reunion, they have had two since EFY in January!


They went to the water park (no slides just fountains in every imaginable configuration)


on the bus.  She never would (could) have done this without the Peruvians.  There is some innate ability to know which bus goes where exclusive to the natives.


And they have been to the mall.


Everyone knows my kids don't hang out at the mall until now.


Emily and I went to the beach with friends on a Monday.  She came home with the mother lode sunburn.  Bryce, Dallas, Nicole and Emily had jumped the waves all day trying to remove their sunscreen.  A successful attempt.  Wednesday she had blisters, scabs and hail mary's said in her behalf.  Thursday she was back to normal. 

The rest of the summer Emily has hung out with friends from dawn to dusk.  What am I saying, it's been longer.



They told this poor guy that they knew him, didn't he remember them?


Another bus ride.


And frozen yogurt and a suntan.


And a mustache.


This week Emily is at girl's camp.

And next week? School. The end of summer. Fortunately she has another summer in July.


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Port Townsend

Once Bryce had a pirate hat it was permanent.
Max and Bryce were sailing comfortably in a cardboard box


but the ferry on the open sea was so much more authentic for a pirate boy.


And since we are Townsends we sailed to Port Townsend, duh. 

Reese wore her hat from Peru.


As did Camryn.  It was a chilly day in WA because it was winter up north.


All the siblings posed which you have no idea how miraculous this is because at least one of them would have been face down on the ground kicking and screaming with someone's foot on their back during the dark years.  And with a negotiable railing and potentially child maiming killer whales below I could easily imagine a kid or two overboard following the skirmish.


And there are no words, just shake your head and move on.


We always go to Port Townsend and eat pizza, I have no idea why except we like to eat.  That left so little time to explore


so there was running


and stopping.  Colton has grown taller than Bryce for now but nobody is done getting taller yet.


Max was being persuaded to not jump off the dock.


Miranda took the family photo in front of a Townsend sign,  I suppose we should have waited for the random strangers to move along but we had a ferry to catch.


More persuasion and cuteness.


More looking out the window


and over the railing,

some cousin bonding

and more trying to shock their mama.


It was a perfect day for some awesome photos of our return to Whidbey Island 


and Fort Casey.


There was time to explore the old military fort




inside and out.


It was a picture perfect day



and finally our favorite photographer in front of the camera.


It was also the beginning of the 24 hour bug that had already claimed the first victims.
Not everything is perfect.