Saturday fun with Josie

Josie was full of giggles, constant giggles, playing with the girls Saturday morning.  She loved the balloons

and just about anything the girls said cracked her up.

She worked for the longest time filling her boot with sand. 

Baylor came over to visit, too.

So cute, Josie had to hold both girls hands, and Baylor wanted in the picture, too.

Making cookies to take to cousin Noah's first birthday party.

Playing their new "midnight birdie" badminton game, you only play at night and with no rules.

 

Beach trip

Friday was overcast when we got to the beach, but still comfortable.  Our goal was to find a whole sand dollar, and after moving up the coast and beach combing for miles-we finally found one!  In all, we found four whole ones, and many that were still alive that we put back in the water.  

After getting ice cream at Colleen's, we went for a drive and ended up at the Eric Wiegardt Gallery.  The host took us on a tour and even showed the girls his work space.  Interesting to see how even professional painters are very messy!  Then we bought some kettle corn and visited Jack's.

Back at the beach house, we had a fire pit dinner and settled in to watch Frozen, with the girls singing along to every song.  Then we watched Free Guy.

Saturday we first headed to the Farmer's Market in Ilwaco, where the girls got to pet the many dogs that people had brought with them, Ava even saw a mini-Aussie, her dream dog.  Then we went to FunLand, had lunch at Drop Anchor, did a little shopping and visited the bakery.

Then it was back to the beach in the sunshine.

They filled this hollow log with sand and then made a castle on it by dribbling wet sand.  

We rode bikes in the evening and watched Uncharted, then went for a late night stroll around the neighborhood.  Sunday we slept in, then sent the girls to Colleen's for ice cream while Papa and I closed up the house.  On the way home we stopped at Starbucks in Astoria for the breakfast muffins that the girls love.  

 

Summer fun

The Gourdes were gone on vacation last week but the pool was open so we invited Emmy and Josie up to play.

The water was a little cold but it was so hot out that it felt good.

The girls played inside for a long time afterwards.

Finally it's badminton and corn hole season.

The girls made up a new badminton game they call "Midnight Birdie" where they play until dark, with no rules.  

 

Norma and Alina

Look who came to visit!  

We haven't seen Norma since 2013 and Alina since 2010.  Alina is now an English teacher in Poland and will finish law school next year.  Norma found fame and fortune during the pandemic.  After she lost her job teaching English she started posting lessons on TicToc, Instagram and YouTube.  Suddenly it all took off (she has 700,00+ Instragram followers) and she started a company with some partners selling English language videos.  She wrote a book (and brought us a copy) and has another one coming out in the fall.  She's the most famous English teacher in Italy!  It was such a joy to visit with them, they're both just as charming, sweet and funny as they were in high school, it was as if no time at all had passed.  

 

2013-we were at Toutle Elementary for Rielee's talent show performance.