July Favorites

Here are some of my favorite Instagram and Project Life photos for the month of July.

Kyle during his last week of swim lessons. He did such a good job, I can't wait until he can do it again next summer.

Story time sandwich. Mom. Book. Carmelita. Tyler.

 

On an evening walk with the boys.

Another evening walk, but I was the only one actually walking. Kyle likes to take his tricycle and Tyler likes to take his scooter and leave me in the dust.

We went to the middle school library to look for books and leave it to Tyler to spend the entire time playing with a Minecraft Lego set rather than look for books.

Kyle cashed in his tickets at the fun center on his birthday and got this knock off slip and slide. And with temperatures over 100 degrees all week long, it's getting lots of use.
 

Hiding in the ball pit at the Kids' Castle.

Handsome boys.

Tyler is kind of big for sitting in shopping baskets, but at Costco the carts are jumbo size and he likes to climb in and read while we shop.

Speaking of reading, here are my books for the month. The Girl on the Train was not as good as all the hype.  And Splendors and Glooms, an Inklings summer pick that I'm reading to Tyler is the worst. Ugh!

Where's Waldo 2015: Part 3

With one day to spare, we visited the last few Waldo locations and completed our passports.

The farmer's market is a new location on the passport this year and also the dumbest. It's only open for a few hours on Sunday mornings so the opportunity of going there is much less than for the other locations. And the worst part is that they apparently didn't get their Waldo and so they had nothing hidden. We walked around and around, finally asked at the booth and the lady said oh I'm Waldo, here let me sign your passport.

Patina was also a new location this year, a used clothing store in the downtown area. We found Waldo hiding on a lamp near the register.

 

At Encore Books Kyle was so busy playing with the mega bloks that he didn't notice Waldo on the shelf right behind him.

In the Yakima Valley Museum gift shop, Kyle was surprisingly the first one to spot Waldo.

At the Kids' Castle, Tyler found Waldo in a place I never would've looked. I always seem to miss the ones hidden up high.

Same story at the Family Fun Center. I wasn't looking high enough so Tyler found him first.

At The Big Red Barn/Barret Orchards Waldo blended in with all the other red and white things on display.

At Revolution Cycles, Waldo was hiding near all the protein bars. When we went up to the counter to get the passports signed, the man asked, "So where did you find Waldo"? Kyle responded, "He was next to something". And the man goes, " Yes! That's exactly right! And whenever people come in, I always tell them he's right next to something....you can't miss him".

All done!

Fountain Park and Scenic Train Ride

Harborside Fountain Park

On our way out of Bremerton, we stopped to see the Fountain Park, which is more like a plaza than a park. Still it was worth the stop to see the fountains and the view of the Bremerton ferry, which was loading the departing while we were there.

You can see where we were going with this...right? Stacked family photo in the rock sculpture. A for effort.

Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad and Museum

We got some tickets on Groupon for a scenic train ride in Elbe and let's just say that we thought it was okay, but nothing fantastic. The train ride itself was not great and from our car we could smell nothing but diesel the entire time. Also the term "scenic views" was a little misleading as we saw nothing but trees, a tiny stream and some run down houses. Not really worth the price.

On the upside, the train museum was interesting and everyone's favorite part of the excursion.

Tacoma Children's Museum and Point Defiance Zoo

Tacoma Children's Museum

On Saturday we headed over to the Tacoma Children's Museum.

It's the smallest Children's Museum we've been too, but just as busy as any other. They have five different playscapes, and Kyle bounced between three of them.

He loves water, so of course the waterscape was an instant hit.

Then he played in the invention playscape for what seemed like hours.

He also played in the Voyager for a bit, but really I think the invention area was his favorite. Actually he could easily have spent the entire day at the museum, but Tyler is getting a little old for such things and we also wanted to go see the zoo so we had to split after a few hours.

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

It was the most perfect weather for the zoo with temperatures around 70 degrees. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. And most of the animals were out and visible so it didn't feel like we were missing anything.

This particular zoo has a lot of tigers and they were all enjoying watermelon during our visit.

My favorite exhibit and the one Tyler was most excited about was the budgie buddies. You walk into the open air exhibit and can buy seed sticks to feed the birds. They end up flying right onto your hand (or head in Tyler's case).

So fun!

Tyler also really enjoyed watching the puffins, especially the ones paddling around in the water.

The polar bear was neat to see. It's not an animal you see at every zoo.

The boys watched Finding Nemo in the car on the way to Seattle so the characters were fresh in Kyle's mind, and he easily found Nemo and Dory in the tropical fish tanks of the aquarium.

 

Sharks!

We stayed at the zoo until closing and before we left, the kids played on the playground in the kid's zone. It was funny watching Kyle go down the otter slides. He made sure to put his feet up so he could go down faster.

Birthday Fun!

On Friday morning (Kyle's birthday) we took the Kingston ferry over to Edmonds. We were staying in Bremerton and this was the quickest way to get across the water to the fun center in Edmonds.

The whole process was kind of cool.

We drove our car onto the ferry and had the option of staying in it or getting out and going up to the top deck. Like nerds we stayed in the car. Or with the car. We never went up to the top deck to check out the view.

Then we spent the entire day at the Bullwinkles Fun Center and Kyle had an absolute blast.

Look at this big boy! Four years old!

I took too many pictures to narrow it down, so here's a collage of my favorites.

In the evening we took another ferry back across the water, but this time we took the Seattle to Bremerton ferry. And this time Tyler and I went to the top deck and I'm SO glad we did because the view at night was amazing!

Back in Bremerton we got clam chowder at Anthony's, which is conveniently right next to the ferry terminal.

Truth be told, Kyle fell asleep in the car and was down for the count as soon as we left Bullwinkles and so we didn't end up having his birthday cake until the next day. But he still made a wish, blew out his candles and all was good.