Camping by the beach!

Back in the summer in between birthdays, some friends of ours got a camping spot at a state park called Cape Disappointment.  They had some days that they weren't going to us, and so we got a chance to take their spot.  The weather was perfect that weekend and it was anything but disappointing.

On the way there, we stopped at a boba shop in Astoria, OR.

Our campsite was one amongst dozens at the park but it was possibly the best one.  It was a mere thirty yards away from the beach, so the kids spend a lot of time there.

There were castles being built.

There were lots of Dungeness crab shells on the beach and they were used in the structures as decorations.

Digging in the sand never gets old!

Someone got a little sandy.

We went camping with our friends and the kids right now are really into kick ball.  So we played a round on the beach.  The challenge was that they drew up the baseball diamond themselves, but the distances were not that similar to a real diamond.  The distance from home to 1st base was incredibly long and then from first to second was super short.  It made for an interesting game!

There were also big boulders on the site and Gabe enjoyed climbing those.

There was also setting up the tent.  The kids (all six of them) all slept together in this one big tent. 

It was never boring in there!

There was also a fair amount of hanging around.  Luckily, the burn ban had not gone into effect yet, so there was often a fire going even in the middle of the day.

There were some mosquitos so on goes the mosquito netting.  

For lunch, we had Pillsbury crescent rolls that were baked and toasted over the fire.

In the evenings after dinner, we would go for a walk on the beach.

And then come back to the site for s'mores.

The nights were pretty with a very full moon.

On the last morning, the kids were TIRED and had a hard time waking up.

Here they are for an obligatory picture at the end of the trip.

They did want to play kick ball one last time, so when driving back, we found a baseball diamond and played a few innings.

On the two hour drive back home, Gabe zonked out...a sign of a good camping trip!

Crafts & Cooking

Karina continues to be the person in the house that is most interested in crafts etc.

The other day, she decided she was going to make butter from heavy cream.  So she poured a bunch into the mixer and started mixing away!

Eventually it curdled.

Then she separated it from the whey.

She put it into cold water to wash out any remaining whey.

Eventually she formed it into a loaf and added salt.

And here's the butter, which was yummy and we ate with crusty bread.

She also is willing to help out around the kitchen.  Elvin was making hand pies filled with curried ground beef.  Karina eventually took over making them...


Including basting them with egg wash.  They were yummy!

She is also into crocheting.  She decided she was going to make a jelly fish.

It had a disc shaped head and various tentacles.

And this is the finished product!

There are other things Karina likes to do.  One is that she wanted to paint white the stand she uses to hold her houseplants.  She wanted it to match the rest of the furniture in her room.

She also works on her diamond dots picture.  She got it for Christmas last year but only earnestly worked on it this summer.

Xiao also got a couple, that are smaller and simpler to do.

His is of a little monkey.

And here is the finished product!

The Little Mermaid

Our girls are involved in a local youth theater company and this summer, they tried out for and joined the production of The Little Mermaid.  Here is the cast decked out in their costumes and rehearsing in a gym.

Karina played the role of the little seahorse named Leeward that heralds the entrance of Triton the undersea king.

Here she is (on the right) during rehearsals and pretending to blow on a bugle.

And here she is during a performance.

In another scene, Karina talks to King Triton.

Eliana played a school of fish and in this shot, the school is surrounding Sebastian the crab.

Here she is during the show.  She had lots of fun!

And got to know some of the other "fish" pretty well.

Here is the entire cast in their colorful costumes!

Before each show, there is someone that comes out--the curtain warmer--to introduce the show to the audience, and tell them stuff like "Please silence your cell phones..."  This time around, Eliana got picked to do that and she did a great job!

Eliana also played a maid in the show.  These are all the maids that work in Prince Eric's palace and help take care of Ariel.

The theater company has a tradition that after the show, some of the actors go out late at night to "fork" the houses of other actors.  It's mostly the teenagers that do this.

When our house got forked, Lucky, with his keen hearing, immediately knew that there were strange people on our front lawn and started barking like crazy.  He's a good guard puppy!

They left behind lots of plates and plastic forks.

They write encouraging message on the plates and sometimes funny things too.

Uncle Charles, Aunt Sara, and cousin Millie came to watch a show.

For one show, Elvin went out with the boys to grab some BBQ tacos from a food truck before the show.  They were super yummy.  This was during the heat wave, so we also got some drinks.  Elvin ordered horchata and the boys had freshly squeezed lemonade.

And we really enjoyed the show.  It was very well done.

The obligatory picture after the show...

And Elvin's parents drove up all the way from California to watch the show as well.   Good job girls!