We've Been Making Memories

*edited: photo links are fixed, thanks guys!*


We've been over the mountains for the past week. The Cascade mountain range act like a giant filter to squeeze out all the water that blows in from the Puget Sound and the Pacific ocean, so while the West part of the state has rain forests and mild weather year-round the Eastern part is sunny and dry in the summer, with cold winters. (i.e., the Eastern part has actual seasons.)

My parents rented out three big 'ol houses near a big 'ol lake, and filled them full of family and friends. Yes- on the last evening, everyone got together for dinner and that was hamburgers for 25! Lucky for LoLo and I (the resident cooks) our brothers volunteered to head up the cooking crew for the last night. Before counting heads :)

We've been coming here for years, it's such a fun tradition. It's getting so big, I don't know what will happen in the future, but MAN has it been fun to get everyone together. This little "resort" community has so much to do- boats, ski-doos, mini golf, a beach, tennis, pools, lots of hills and roads to bike around on, basketball, volleyball, a little farmers market across the road, and on and on. This is our first time in a few years with ALL the siblings here, and that's been a real treat too.

The kids have been inseparable- Aunt LoLo went way over the top and made new dresses for all the girls so they could match. Here's Ming-Wai and Ernie in their red and white dresses (do you agree with me that they're pretty hard to tell apart from the back? The joys of having cousins with genetically identical mothers :)

Ernie and Mimi playing at the beach. We were out there every morning by 9:30, before the crowds. For some reason, the crowds thought that 72 or 75 was too cold to go to the beach. Excuse me? 75 degrees is about as good as our summer afternoons get at home. It's FINE beach weather :)

Mimi playing mini golf. She was pretty good at this- whack the ball off the tee as hard as she could, toddle over to grab her ball, then toddle over to the hole. She'd carefully place the ball a few inches from the hole and smack it in. Yay!!

This was Ming Wai and Ernie's favorite perch at night- after dinner they'd split a popsicle and sit at the very corner of the lawn. We had a great lot, right at an intersection with a stop sign. Ernie figured it was her duty to stick her hand out and yell "STOP!!!!!" at all the cars whose drivers, obviously, couldn't read as well as she could.

It's been such a fun time, but it's time to be home! Just a week left until Ernie and I start Kindergarten together, so there will be plenty to keep us busy this last week of summer.