Just because I am no longer part of a big exciting marathon doesn't mean I can get away with not telling people about what's going on here in the Great Northwest. Once June arrives its like Captain Kirk telling Scotty to hit Warp 10. A roller coaster of events, most of them have something to do with either camps or birthdays, and a feeble attempt at rest in between. Understand 66% of our children have birthdays in the summer, plus a few relatives, so it makes for big fun time. I'm saddened that I can't teleport to New York to do this same thing but for now, we've got these little memories to share.

Olympic Mountains

About a week before the crazy time started, we took a short respite in the Olympic Mountains. Its really not far, just 2 or so hours, as far as our Travel Piggy bank would take us. We hit things called the Dungeness Spit , and a surprisingly enjoyable Lavender festival, but I'll save those pics for later.
The Olympics are the "other" mountain range, and with the Cascades form a chain of mountains broken only by the Pacific Ocean. We're at about a 5500' elevation in this one.



Goats

What's the first thing you do when you get to 6000 feet? Climb even higher! So, we hiked a mile up this hill, on an idyllic day. We sat down at the top when we had some visitors. A wonderful family of Mountain goats strolled by. Unfortunately, these goats were used to humans and refused to show the proper respect and cower in fear and run away. Indeed it turned out that these were a family of INSANE RABID ATTACK GOATS.

As we were returning from our hike, I had my innocent 4-year old walking along with me and down the hill here comes the crazed goat family down the hill at high speed, foaming at the mouth, eyes wild. They didnt' get the memo - these paths are for HUMANS...hello!!!

This was the ring leader....so if you see him, call the authorities immediately.

Sure he looks innocent enough (not really), but he and his little brood, a total of six mangy animals, charged at us with wanton disregard. I have the video of me saving Ryan's life. It turns out that Bryce had the right attitude, abject terror, as shown below:

We survived our encounter, narrowly, due to the small brains found in these animals, and their preference for plant life.

Sign me up for the zoo. ;)

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Brianna with Crazy Brother


When we got back, one thing led to another and we were at Brianna's Birthday, with Aunt Heidi back from Texas on a visit, and with her brand new baby, we had a true baker's dozen of people.
This image is when we took over a restaurant. After much jockeying, we eventually found a one crazy enough for us to squeeze in - namely, Red Robin, home of the Overpriced Hamburgers.




Here's Brianna getting the Standard Cheer. Of course Bryce has to jump in the picture and make a face. He's been doing that as long as he knew what a camera was.

My first teenager, my middle child is now ten...and Ryan refuses to stop growing.

I guess this is what seizing the day looks like. We'll have some more updates as we get through Bryce's b-day, and I'll lick my finanical wounds as we move into Fall.

I'm just glad we survived that Mountain Goat.