Squirrel Fun

Beren asked me a couple weeks ago if he could have a pet squirrel and I told him he could if he could catch one...knowing that he wouldn't be able to. What I hadn't thought about was him getting help from the neighbors' dads on how to trap a squirrel. They told him if he lined up nuts leading to the house that he could catch one. The first day I saw him line up his little trail of bird seed leading to the door I thought, "Dang, beren's smart." But then I realized he hadn't thought that one up on his own. Anyway, the squirrels ate all the seeds but didn't come in b/c I kept making beren shut the door. Then a few days later he set up his acorn trail and made sure that it was all lined up just right. Yesterday when we all took asher down to the bus, beren came running out with no shoes on so I had him go back to grab a pair. Then he ran out of the house yelling about squirrels inside. I totally thought he was joking but he wasn't. One climbed up on top of the bookshelf in our laundry room/office and the other was in the living room. Yes, there were two in the house!! Thank goodness they just ran out without much prompting b/c mice scare me a bit and to have those big nasty bushy tailed rodents inside I was feeling a bit jittery. Beren still thinks he should have a pet squirrel and I was actually kind of proud of him for being so diligent with his goal. He's a cutie.

Pool time fun

The water is pretty nasty b/c they put sand in it...and yes, Indiana does own a swimming suit.

Fishing at Westport

The lens cap wasn't open all the way so it's dark on the edges. I'm pretty sure this was the first fish Asher caught in his life...they can only get bigger :)

As you can see he was totally proud of himself.

Beren loves fishing. The only problem is that he gets a little disappointed when he doesn't catch one we can take home to eat...which is every time for him. Beren actually caught a starfish on his hook and Asher pulled up a crab. Kind of weird.

Bart used the crab net to pull up one we could keep. Those little buggers are hard to catch...at least ones that are 6" across the shell and in their hard shell stage. Sometimes we pulled up 7 or 8 crabs at a time but they were too small. Bart also caught a ling cod that was so tasty.

Building on the Beach

The boys made rock castles since we didn't have any buckets for sand castles.

Asher in the Fort

They included a window...

And Beren was persistant that there be a toilet...and no, he's not going...although it looks like it.

Fort Warden

For the second half of Bart's week long break between spring and summer quarters we went out to Sequim. Which isn't the most cool place we could go but we got a really good deal at a time share place from some friends and took advantage of it. The Dungenous Spit was pretty sweet and we spent a day crabbing and fishing too. On the way home we stopped by Fort Warden. It was super huge and even has old military housing you can rent out.
Beren whipping some kelp. He was mostly tying to get the attention of some older boys....He has no shame and sometimes it's pretty embarrassing to be his parent...sigh.
We were checking out all the sea life on the pilings.

Chucking sand is an all time favorite activity when we are at the beach.

Ann, this one is for you!! There are deer everywhere on the peninsula!

Camping at Potholes State Park

For the first part of his break we went camping to Potholes. I got this picture after we'd already taken down part of the tent.

Bart taught beren how to cast on the grass with just a weight on the fishing line.
Beren fishing up a storm. Bart encouraged him to pray to catch some fish and beren told him that sometimes you don't get what you ask for. It was pretty cute. And of course, beren was right. But I heard local guy say that all the fishing was bad so far this summer there.

Soap Lake and The Grand Coulee

We went to Soap Lake, a mineral hot spring north of Moses Lake, after my triathlon. There are 23 different minerals in the lake and the water was really warm. The mud is so silky and feels so nice squishing between your toes. The boys had a mud fight with their dad and then took turns covering themselves up with it. This sign said, "This is indeed a God-given body of water for the ills of mankind." (I guess people used to go there for the healing powers of the minerals in the water. We thought that was kind of weird so of course bart took a photo.

Always tired on long road trips

The boys at the Grand Coulee Dam. I'm not sure who asher is trying to be...maybe spiderman.

All of us. Bart's great grandpa helped with the engineering of this dam.