Fun in the Sun Part 2: Larrabee

Walking down the trail together.

Jackson clinging onto Mama's hair.

Jackson trying to hit the camera; apparently even kids don't like the paparazi.

Picking up rocks together

Jackson sometimes will grab my nose, or cover my eyes when getting a ride. He is so cute and funny.

Shanna took this picture when I wasn't paying attention, but I really like it for some reason. I'm not sure what I was doing, maybe skipping a rock.

Fun in the Sun Part One

Caution: Jonathan Post

These are some pics of us at Silver Lake.

Okay, here's my review of Silver Lake. If you don't want to read a possibly boring review just read the last sentence in this blog. This place is a visually stunning location, but then again so is nearly every place here in the northwest. So its a nice woodsy, green location. A cool part of this park is that you can rent canoes, rowboats, and paddle boats. We rented a paddle boat, since it looked to be the funnest, however it was a lot of work. Maybe we are just really out of shape, but by the time we got to the middle of the lake we were both tired and ready to come back. After a while we realized that it doesn't matter how fast you kick your legs on those silly little paddle boats, you will always go about the same speed - which is about 0.5 mile an hour. So, if you get the paddle boat, its best just to relax and go slow, and not wear yourself out.

Also, there were a ton of geese at this lake. This equates to tons and tons of goose poop. There are some sections of the park where you can't walk anywhere because of the carpet coverings of goose poop littered all over the grass - and into the lake. This tottally grossed me out, and almost ruined the experience for me. The water at the lake is very warm here, propably about a 100 times warmer than lake Whatcom. It would have felt nice, if it wasn't for the huge amounts of goose poop surrounding the lake. I give this park a 5 out of 10, cool location, but also very gross. Take away the poop, and it would easily be a 9 out of 10. Someone needs to hire a bunch of rednecks with shotguns to clean up the place and get rid of the geese, and it would be an amazing park. We spent an afternoon at Silver Lake.

GREAT WOLF LODGE

We just spent a fun weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge just south of Olympia. It's and indoor waterpark and hotel. It was a great little getaway for the fam. This hotel is perfect for families with all ages. We weren't too sure how Jackson would do for a few reasons: 1. He hasn't slept anywhere but his crib since he was nine months old, so we weren't sure how he would sleep. 2. He is not a huge fan of water (other than the tub) but we want him to be more comfortable with it so we are trying to spend more time at pools and splash parks. and 3. We haven't traveled further than Marysville in the car since last summer (we flew to Vegas in Sept.) and didn't know how he would do in the car. But we figured that you just have to jump in and deal with things as they come. He did awsome!

This was one of Jackson's favorite things to do there. He couldn't quite get the ball into the hoop, but he kept trying anyway.

He also loved sitting on these jet skis and squirting water at other kids. The funny thing was he would get mad when he got sprayed.

He even took Brooklin for a ride!

There was this huge bucket that would fill with 1000 gallons of water and then dump every 15 minutes or so. Just before it was ready to dump you would hear a bell and people would run to get under it to be drenched. I never went under, but Jonathan was a brave one!

This picture is as it was dumping.

A look at two of the bigger slides. The best one was called Hurricane or Tornado or something like that. Liz and I went on it together, I don't think that I have ever heard her screem so loud in my life. It was pretty scary, and I was the lucky one who was facing forward, so I saw what was coming!

Wavepool

Jonathan being the entertainer on the way home. They were both fast asleep by the time we hit Marysville. Which made for a quiet ride the rest of the way home!

We really enjoyed getting away, and will definately be going back!

Fireworks at Maritime Heritage Park

Note: this is not your average post, that's right this is Jonathan. I've taken over the blogging for today. Actually, Shanna is right beside me walking me through this.

On the 4th of July, Liz and Scott invited us to watch the fireworks with them at Maritime Heritage Park. This was my 1st year being able to watch the fireworks in a while, since I usually have to work. I was especially excited because this year I attempted to take pictures of fireworks using my canon rebel xsi. After we laid Jackson to bed, we took off to the park on my motorcycle, while Ma and Pa Jones stayed home to watch Jackson. When we arrived we met up with Liz and Scott and their friends Jonathan, Jessie, Jason, and Crystal. My wife did most of the socializing while I stood in the back and nerded out with my camera gear. I set up the tripod, and here are a few of the pictures that I took.

Warning: taking pictures of fireworks is pretty hard, at least for a newbie at the camera like me. Most of my pictures didn't turn out, these are a few that were halfway decent.

The kids in the back ground were playing with sparklers

I really like how the lights make a diamond shape when using long exposures.

Jessie drawing in the air with a sparkler

The first fire work shot of the evening.
This is the Death Star exploding.

This was the last shot of the night, I edited the picture so that the red smoke would look like an explosion of blood. That's something you won't see on my wife's girly blog. HA HA HA.

Fairhaven Park

Yesterday we went out to enjoy the sun and try and get Jackson used to cold water. He is still not sure about it, but definatelly getting better. A few more times at the splash parks and he will be good to go.

Crazy child of mine

Jackson goes to bed at 9pm. When I lay him down I cover him with his favorit blanket that he loves to snuggle with. I then check on him before I go to bed around 10:30 or so. He is always uncovered so I put another blanket over him with the hopes that he will stay covered the rest of the night ( I know, wishful thinking!!) This is how I found him in bed the other night. He is laying the short way in his crib so his head is touching the bars on one side and his feet are sticking out the other side. It cracked me up, it was hard to stay quiet and not wake him from laughing. Thankfully he slept through the picture taking. He definately makes me smile!

Hovander Park

We are trying to get better at getting up and out of the house earlier in the morning so that we can do more fun things. Now that Jonathan is out of school for the summer, it means no more homework!!! ( I couldn't be any happier!) And a lot more fun. Last Saturday we went out to Hovander park in the morning. It was nice because there wasn't the crowds that you would see later in the day, which meant that Jackson could run freely in the grass and look at all the animals as long as he wanted.

Self timers are great!

Jackson's first experience with a big kids swing. He held on pretty good.

Isn't family time great!