Summer Recap

This summer seems to have gone by in a flash. We had a lot going on.

The first week of summer break, Anya attended Sail Sand Point camp. They learned to sail on Hobies (small catamarans) and ended the week with a sailing trip across Lake Washington for lunch in Kirkland and back. This was the second year Anya did Sail Sand Point. Last year was a combined camp with Mountaineers (half sailing and half rock climbing). This year she wanted just sailing and had a great time...and managed to lose a hat.

About a week later, Chris and Todd took Anya, Eva, Javier, and Robert on a backpacking trip near Sol Duc.

Anya, Eva, Javier, and Robert. Robert is either going to brain li'l J or Chris

Drying firewood on the fire.

Playing "hot lava" on the Dungeness Spit. Todd in flip-flops.

After backpacking, we had a few weeks where we had long, unstructured days. Anya often played with neighborhood kids or walked over to a park. She had a lot of autonomy (she just had to take a phone and check in with us) and it was the exact kind of summer fun that our generation all had as kids. She most likely lost a hat along the way.

Big Summer Event #1 was a three-week stay at Hidden Valley Camp up near Granite Falls with her friend, Clara. We had tried to get her into a 2-week session, but I hear it was filled up by Autumn of the previous year -- it's a popular camp! Since she's a pretty independent kid and her friend would be there, we went ahead with the other option of 3 weeks. I'm glad we did it this way. Overall, Anya had an amazing experience (minus some major drama with a cabinmate that was compulsively stealing). She did all the traditional camp things (fishing, archery, horseback riding, hiking, camping, etc.), went to dances, sang songs. She met Collin (a boy from Charlotte NC of all places),  and they were "boyfriend/girlfriend" for most of camp. Pretty cute. She still talks about camp all the time and sings the songs. She is already looking forward to going again next summer and has asked to do multiple sessions (no). Two hats went missing.

Camp supplies.  I don't see her fishing pole.

Anya and Clara waiting to board the bus to camp

Anya and her camp horse, Dixie

Family day. Eloise came with us to visit Anya. 

Then we had a short stay in Birch Bay with Lynn and Steve. Thanks, guys, for having us!


Big Summer Event #2 was our Alaska cruise. It's our PEPS 10 year anniversary, so we all decided to celebrate big. While it wasn't anyone's top choice, we could all agree that we'd only want to do a cruise with friends and no one had done an Alaska cruise before. So the cruise won out over more exotic locations.

We all flew into Anchorage (on different flights) and made our way down to Seward via various modes of transport. From there, we were on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas for 7 nights. We saw the Hubbard Glacier, Skagway, Juneau, Icy Strait Point (Huna), Ketchikan, sailed through the Inside Passage, and got off the boat in Vancouver.

Overall, we had fun (mainly because we were all together) and enjoyed the amazing scenery, excursions, taking over a bar on the top floor, and cleaning up on trivia competitions. The kids had a lot of freedom to roam the ship and loved the swimming, rock climbing, and running around. There were some things we didn't care for as much, too. Cruising probably isn't "our thing," but we're glad we celebrated this way. And thank you, Lynn and Steve, for picking us up in Vancouver. That was pretty awesome and much appreciated. No hats were lost as there were no hats left to lose.

Anya simulates an ascent of the Hubbard Glacier.

Anya atop the 10 story atrium.

The boat at port in Juneau

Atop Mt. Juneau

At a pretty lake on a hike in Skagway

The 10-year circle of PEPS friends (plus a few siblings)

The most difficult photo ever taken...

Once we were back, we got the rest of Anya's school supplies, had some playdates, time with various friends and then school started up.

I can't forget to mention Big Summer Event #3, which kicked off while Anya was still in camp: our attic remodel. We were finally able to revamp our attic, which before consisted of my sewing room, an office at the landing, and a storage/playroom (jokingly called The Dog Food Room for years). It's currently being converted to a master suite which will consist of a bedroom, bathroom, an actual closet where I get to put clothes (yay!!!), and a nicer office at the stair landing. It's coming along nicely (knock on wood!) and should be ready for move-in in 2.5-3 months.

First Day of School

I'm almost a week late in posting this, but Anya had her first day back to school last Tuesday. 5th grade. This summer went by crazy-fast (separate blog post forthcoming), but by the end of it, Anya was itching to get back in the classroom and the routine.

This year, Mrs. Donoso is her homeroom teacher. Chris and I like her and have worked with her the past few years on the school play. Anya says she is magic when it comes to teaching math. So I'm optimistic for the school year. This is the first year where she moves classrooms/teachers for core subjects - kind of like middle-school lite.

So far, so good. It seems Anya has been spending recess/lunch with different kids from previous years, but is getting along with everyone too. Other than an older boy that tries to bully her a bit (he's in trouble often for this behavior with several kids), there seems to be little social drama. There's a new classmate she has befriended and she's been playing a lot of soccer with the boys/a few girls. It's only been a week, but this year seems to be off to a good start. Anya seems to have jumped some in maturity, which accounts for some of it. Fingers crossed it all continues!

Chris will also want me to mention that she is playing soccer again. The girls are combined with Our Lady of the Lake (we don't have enough girls in the class to field a team) and Chris is an assistant coach instead of head coach - he's thrilled. They've had a few practices and their first game was on Saturday (they easily won). Anya is playing so much better this year. Very aggressive (in a good way), probably partly due to playing soccer with the boys during recess. It should be a fun season.