Wallace Family: Summer 2019

Trip to Seattle

We had an awesome trip to Seattle at the beginning of the summer! Shortly after getting to Seattle we went with Grammie and Grandpa to Kalaloch Lodge which is in the Olympic National Park and overlooks the Pacific Ocean. We went to a couple of different beaches to see tide pools and play in the waves. It was the first time the boys had ever seen the ocean or played in waves. They loved trying to beat the tide back to the beach. It was too cold to swim, but we played ad got wet up to our knees. The tide pools were amazing! We saw see cucumbers, see anemones, hermit crabs, and TONS of starfish of all sizes - some really huge ones! At one place we saw over 400! We also made a campfire on the beach and made s'mores and went on a hike in the nearby Hoh rainforest. It was a lot of fun.

After Kaloloch we went straight to Great Wolf Lodge for 2 nights. The boys had a blast on the magi quest and playing at the water park. There was also a show every day with characters and songs that Logan loved especially!

Back at Grammie and Grandpa's house we had a lot of fun going to the figure 8 car races where we saw a few cars crash into each other and lots of super close calls, playing at parks, going on walks, playing at the beach at Lake Stevens, jumping at the Altitude trampoline park and just spending time with Grammie and Grandpa. One of Grammie's friends also took us all out on her seadoo which was a blast! We sure wish they lived closer!

Mason: My favorite things were going to the trampoline park, rainforest and Great Wolf Lodge. At Great Wolf Lodge I almost completed the magi quest. All I had to do was defeat the silver dragon. It was fun!

Camping

After we were back from Seattle, Cara came home from college and her best friend Krin came too. We all went camping with my parents and Brandt's family too! We had a blast four wheeling, hiking, building a stick fort, playing games, and roasting s'mores the first day/night. The next day we spent most of the time at the lake tubing on the John's boat. It was a blast! Even Logan really loved the boat and didn't want to get off. It got a little cold at night and Logan was up a lot the first night. We were hoping he would either keep his blankets on in his pack and play or sleep with us, but he wouldn't do either. Chad took him home for the second night and the rest of us stayed until the next morning. Thanks Chad!

Mason: We went tubing and it was the 2nd best day of my life. It was so fun riding in the tubes and going fast and bouncing around and watching Dad fall off. We also loved making smores and hiking and riding on the four wheeler.

4th of July
Cara was still here for the 4th of July, which was fun. We bought some of our own fireworks this year and did them in my parents cul-de-sac. The boys loved it! Logan covered his ears sometimes but really liked them too. Then we went to the golf course and watched the city fireworks with the Johns family.

Mason: The 4th of July was so fun. There were fireworks that looked like Saturn and they looked like they were going to hit us. We heard that a house in boise caught on fire from a firework.

Ethan: We also did our own fireworks at grandma's house and they were so fun. My favorite one was the firework that spun all around.

Fishing at the Park

We tried fishing in the pond at the park this summer. We did it a few summers ago and caught lots of fish (catch and release). We didn’t catch anything this time and didn’t really even get any fish to bit, but the kids still had fun running around and Logan had fun trying to carry the tackle box.

Golfing with Chad

Chad took the boys golfing. They loved riding on the golf cart and practicing their swings.

CJ Strike Reservoir
We went to CJ Strike Reservoir with my parents and had a picnic dinner. We were going to go fishing, but the spot we chose didn't end up being great for fishing. We ended up swimming instead. The water was a pretty good temperature and the boys loved it - even Logan with his puddle jumper on was trying to swim on his own.

We also went to the North Park beach at the reservoir another time with our friends the Calls and their friends. The water doesn't get deeper than 2-3 feet for a huge area so they kids can tough everyone and that's great for them! They had fun swimming and then chasing butterflies at the end and they even caught one.

Swimming
We spent a lot of time swimming this summer and the boys took 4 weeks of swimming lessons. They have both improved a lot. Mason has learned to swim on his own now in the deep end and jump off the diving board and swim to the side. He can't swim for very long or far though so we still have to keep a close eye on him and he doesn't spend time in the deep end much unless he is just jumping in and going right to the side. He has really learned a lot of the strokes well though and made amazing progress. He does the best at the backstroke. I've been impressed at how straight he goes!

We also tried out the Glenns Ferry pool this year and realized we like it a lot more. Unlike Mountain Home, there is hardly ever anyone there, it has a fun slide that goes into the shallow end so even the little kids can use it, and you can wear floaties there. You can also see the regular pool from the kiddie pool because they are right next to each other so that's nice and the water is warmer! It's our new favorite place to go swimming.

Camping in the Front Room:
Chad wanted to do backyard camping with the boys this summer but that's no fun in 100 degree weather so he decided to let them camp in the front room. We set up the tent, turned on a youtube "campfire" video, and made s'mores in the microwave. Then we sang camp songs and read shine-a-light books in the tent. IT was fun. Mason and Ethan slept in the tent the whole night. Logan loved being in there for a little bit before his bedtime.

AirBase Pass
This summer we also got 6 month passes to the Airbase which has been a lot of fun. We've been able to go bowling at the really nice bowling alley (even Logan is learning to do it!) and play at the amazing kid's gym!

Grammie Visits Us
Grammie came to visit us toward the end of the summer. We wish Grandpa could have come too! It was a lot of fun though! Grammie took us to the Roaring Springs water park where the boys went down a couple of slides, played in the wave pool, and spent a lot of time in the Lazy River. The Lazy River was their favorite!

We also went to Pojos with Grammie and took Mason's best friends Trapper and Weston. They (with Ethan) all had a blast and said it was the best day of their life.

Urban Air
One of the boys favorite places to go is Urban Air. They have a ninja warrior course/ball pit, tons of trampolines, laser tag, mini golf, a big play structure...at the end of the summer they earned a trip there for filling up their "listen the first time" jar. Logan really enjoyed it this time too and was really cute to watch!

Here are the pictures from all the fun things above and a few extras!

The boys always love watching Grandpa fly his drone and helicopter

Logan saw his big brothers hanging on the tree and wanted to try. He was actually able to hold himself up all on his own for a few seconds.

Logan loves mowing the lawn with daddy

Logan loves this rocking horse, but he scares me because he always stands up and never sits down! He's such a daredevil!

Movie night with Dad while mom and Mason went with Grandma and Grandpa and Cara and Krin to hike Box Canyon.

Rock climbing date night with Chad

Date night with Chad

Logan LOVES hiding behind all the pillows on the couch

Logan loved his BBQ sauce and chicken nuggets in the car - not doing that again - too messy!

Our front room campout!

Maybe not the best clothes for playing in the stream?

We also went to Birds of Prey with Grammie and the boys got to see their favorite bird - a peregrine falcon.

Wrestling is a daily occurrence around here! Even Logan loves to tackle his brothers!

Roaring Springs!

Mason and Ethan tell me they are related to Spiderman. Looks like it!

One of Logan's most favorite things to do is play in the water at the sink. He will often push a chair over there all by himself, climb up, and grunt for me to turn the water on. He's always so sad when he has to get down.