Live, Love, Learn -- We choose what we do. We enjoy where we are. We find passion in life.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Final Campout in Washington









Ezzy had a final overnight camp out on Marrowstone Island with friends. This was part of the weekly nature hike he was doing with a group of naturalists and about 25 kids every Friday. He really had a blast doing the hikes -- rain or shine.


As usual it rained a bit in the evening and Ezzy and his friends forgot to zip up the front of their tent, so they got to spend a very cold and wet night in their tent. Ezzy told me he likes camping in our little r-pod better.


We crossed the over to Seattle fro the last time as we start to make our way down to Pagosa Springs Colorado for a Bluegrass Festival.


J

Friday, May 25, 2012

Unschooling Conference in Vancouver





I'm running a full month behind on my blog posts so bear with me. I'm going to try and keep these short...


We went to the "Life is Good" Unschooling conference in Vancouver Washington the weekend of May 24th-27th. We all had a great time and there was lots of really awesome activities for the boys. By the time we left they were exhausted from nerf wars, capture the flag, swimming and endless hours of mine craft.


Here's the link to the conference so you can sign up for next year!
http://lifeisgoodconference.com/

Friday, May 18, 2012

Bed Races





What's a bed race you ask? It's a very serious event where competing teams must construct their own custom race vehicles following very ridged and strict guidelines to insure both safety and high performance for all the competitors. Or in this case, simply slap together an old bed frame by attaching some discarded wheels and decorations.


However you must have 4 burly guys who can sprint at least 1 block and 1 passenger weighing at least 100 pounds or more. Stuffed animals are optional.


There is also a rigorous warm up routine prior to the race. All competitors and some spectators are required to complete the Macarena to ensure they don't pull a muscle during the run. And you don't take yourself too seriously.


For all you hard-core sport enthusiasts, the Port Townsend Track and field team won, best 2 out of 3.


Later today is the big Rhody Parade, and the mysterious "Running of the Balls". I know you can't wait to see what that is...


J

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Rhody Fest Carnival







Opening day of the carnival at Jefferson Memorial field. This is where Ezzy has his soccer games. No games this week. The boys had a fun time and ran into lots of friends at the carnival.


The boys went right over to their favorite ride, the "Giant Slide". Ezzy really loved the bumper cars too!


Oh yea, it stays light here really late this time of year. I think it was about 8:00pm when I took these photos. We're having a hard time convincing them it's bed time when it's still bright at 9:00pm...


J

PT Pet Parade







The Children's Pet Parade is part of the week-long Rhododendron Festival (Rhody Fest) that happens every year in Port Townsend. 

There are dozens of events and activities; tricycle races, carnival, Kiddie parade, bike races, 17K run, bed races, running of the balls, fashions show, arts and crafts, spaghetti feed, pancake breakfast, flower show and home tours. Port Townsend knows how to throw a party!

The Pet parade was just blocks from our house in Uptown so we had to go. It was very fun. You can see our favorite little coffee shop (1012 Coffee) and Paula's yoga studio in the background behind the little girl on her pony. Later we went down to the carnival for rides and cotton candy!

Tomorrow is the kiddie parade and bed races. Looking forward to the bed races!!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day





For Mother's day we spent the day exploring the south end of Whidbey Island. We took the ferry out of Port Townsend and ended up over in Langley. It's a cute little town full of artists, cafes and the ubiquitous natural beauty of this beautiful area. 


We're surrounded by the Olympic Mountain Range to the West and the Cascades with Mount Rainier dominating the landscape to the East. And everything else is Amazing forests and scenic waterways of the Puget Sound and Straight of Juan De Fuca.


We had a wonderful Mother's Day, and everybody came back with all their fingers and toes.


J

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Levon's Toe




About 10 minutes after we arrived at Sol Duc Hot springs Levon got injured. He was just walking around the pool and his big toe slid across a narrow drainage strip about 3 feet from the edge of the pool. There was a very sharp edge and he managed to slide his toe across it with the right pressure at the right angle and it sliced off a 1 inch x 1/2 inch chunk. It was such a clean "razor-sharp" edge, he never even felt it. 


He walked over to the pool stairs and blood was pouring out everywhere. We elevated and applied pressure but 10 minutes later it was still bleeding profusely. So we all got dressed and hoped back in the car for a 2 hour drive back to Port Townsend and the emergency room. 


Everything is going well this week. He's healing nicely and hopefully the injury will be completely healed shut in a couple weeks. It could have been better if we could have collected the chunk of missing toe, but it went down the drain.


J

Olympic National Forest







It was beautiful this morning so we decided to take a drive over into the Olympic National Forest. We heard about some really great hot springs and we're running out of time to explore this area. The drive was great and the natural beauty of this area can't be captured on film. It's truly a magical place. 


Sol Duc Hot springs is really nice. It's nestled way back in the forest and is surrounded by waterfalls, rain forests and tall pines. It happened to be their 100th birthday weekend celebration, complete with a bluegrass band. 


We were all started to relax as the band began to play. It was shaping up to be a great day... see next post.


J

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Low tide





I haven't posted anything for a while so I have to do some quick catching up. We went out to breakfast last Saturday morning at Ezzy's favorite restaurant, "the Chum", it's actually called "the Cup" but he kept calling it the Chum so it stuck. A little Freudian slip.


After breakfast we went down to the beach and did some exploring at low tide. It was a little cold that morning.


J