Its been raining hard all week, except today which has had sunbreaks, and cloud, but nothing wet.  So when Rob woke up early he asked me if I wanted to go to the beach I said no.  I wanted to go see if the falls we found last weekend was more impressive thanks to the rain.

So we did...alas it wasn't.

But several others I had never seen were.

They weren't big falls, but they sure were pretty.

babbling creek on the way to the first fall.

Jamari sitting at the bottom of the first one.  This one was so loud.  The sound was mesmerizing, Rob and I could have just sat there for hours...if there had been some place to sit.  *snicker*

Zeria re-sprained her ankle just before this picture so she stayed in the car, and Samuel twisted his climbing down at the first falls, so he also stayed in the car, so no pictures of them at either falls. 

Both of them are sore tonight still.  Samuel came out crying a few minutes ago.  His isn't swollen, but it definitely hurts, as he rarely admits to pain.

The best view I could get of the first falls.  The  brush/brambles are growing fast this time of year, so it was very hard to get a semi-unobstructed view.

Kaylin checking the culvert the falls emptied into.  I love this picture, just captures kids natural curiosity.  She said it was scarey down there, as it is in at a slant.   This is one of these falls that you could drive by day after day without seeing, I know we have for the last four years.  ROFL

Some shamrocks getting ready to bloom.  That's not there "official" name, just what I've always called them.

And the second falls, yes that's our second oldest dog on the edge of the picture.  Jamari was the "conqueror" at both falls due to his older more adventurous siblings being stuck in the car.  Although Zeria did eventually end up coming out to see this one.

I love this picture.  I love the bubbling white water.  I try and try to capture that, but I think I managed this time. 

At this falls we *did* find a nice place to sit.  So we did, and just watched it and enjoyed the green green moss, and the sound of the falls tumbling down.

KK at the falls.

And Rainee at the falls.

HMM I'll have to post that later as xanga's being a butt.

And yes it was as green as the pictures show, no editing has been done on any but the two babbling pictures.   So restful.

I usually run low on one or two things between paydays.  And the "good" snacks of course always disappear soonest.

But I'm out of flour AND bread, and cheeze, and milk  Staples in our house.

I ordered milk on pay day, it usually takes a week to come--we drink milk moos, and I typically ordered a bag once or twice a year.  And almost twk weeks later still no sign of it. 

Pay day isn't until Monday.

I made four loaves of bread with the last of the flour tonight--rather flat loaves since I ran out of flour before the bread was the right consistency. 

So that takes care of staples for tomorrow.

But Friday-Sunday is going to be creative.  *snicker*

Rob and I committed to *not* running to the mom and pop store for stuff.  And we've done really really well at it.  But I'm thinking flour is going to have to be purchased tomorrow. 

We are down to less then a dozen eggs, so we can't eat eggs for breakfast for the next four days, and we don't do cereal for breaky, Rob cooks.  And his options for breakfast without flour milk and low eggs are LIMITED.

I sure would like to know how I planned so poorly to run out of bread and flour on the same pay check.  *scratches head*

Monday can't come soon enough!

Okies so we didn't have a power outage all winter which was a first since we moved here.

But today at approximately 9:30 the power went on off, on off, on and OFF.  It just came back on about 6 hours later.  We've had wind and hard rain all day.  The river is quite full, not dangerously full, just FULL.

And it was a long day without power.  LOL

Okies, so Rob and I knew according to the forecast it was going to be gorgeous today.  It did end up being a bit windy, but still beautiful.  As a result we packed up a picnic, firewood, a blanket, a shovel and headed to the beach.  It was more complicated then most of our visits to the beach because we were planning on being there awhile.

I wish you could have heard Jeremiah's shriek of joy when he realized we'd brought "hot dogs!" with us, and were staying.

So the first hour or so I spent wandering tide pools by myself.  And the kids spent in building habitat's for the crabs they captured.  There words not mine. 

I laughed and said, so you take them out of there habitat, and put them in a new one?

Rob's comment under his breath was.  "Sounds like typical white-man to me."

While I was exploring Rob started our camp fire, and built Mt Rainier.

Seriously ridiculous volcano!    ROFL  He works hard when he plays I swear.

After that Rob and I laid on our blanket and just enjoyed each other, and the sounds of the kids shrieking over there crab adventures.  Eventually we made lunch...and had sand dogs.  That would be the winds fault.  Blecky.  The kids enjoyed them.  Rob and I were wishing for something to clean them with LOL

Eventually I got restless and decided it was time to build us a driftwood fort.  Rob followed me, and soon got into the big spirit of the thing, and we build a doozy of one. 

It was big enough that even Rob and I could sit up in it.  We had a kids space and a parents space.  LOL  We even talked about going back there on our date night tonight, but didn't actually manage that...hmm maybe it will be there next weekend--guess that's up to the tide.

Pictures of course don't do it justice.  *snicker*

View from inside it looking out.

being spied on from the outside of the fort--okay so it would get us wet if it rained. 

The wind REALLY picked up shortly thereafter so we decided to leave.

But first the kids had to erupt the volcano. 

And then Jeremiah had to sit in the crater.

He said he was a baby bird sitting on his eggs.  LOL

And yeah he's wearing his daddys coat.  Cause he went wading/swimming and got cold and wet, and that's what daddys coats are for.  LOL

We had brought the sailboard to use at the beach, but the tide was too far out, so the kids opted out on that.  We'll do it another day. 

All in all a very very perfect day.

Just gorgeous today.

It was as I mentioned last a baton day.  But even so there was much opportunity to enjoy the nicest day we've had yet.  It hit 70, and was sooooo gorgeous. 

We drove home via the canal instead of the ocean as I had to drop some paperwork off in Sequim.  And it was sooooo nice.  I think I said that didn't I. 

Any how we stopped and played at a favorite rest-stop/picnic site along the canal that I've been stopping at since I was small.  Zeria swam in the canal, (goofy).  The rest of the kids chased for crabs

It was so nice and toasty I stripped off my sweatshirt and got down to a tank top for the first time this summer.  Ahh U.V. Rays! 

Living with a nurse as a husband I've been somewhat frequently entertainned late at night with stories of the next pandemic, and how he/we would handle it.  Its a conversation I've tended to go lalalalala really loudly so I can't here it.  Its not exactly pillow talk.

Its been...intresting reading the news and attempting to process, especially since 3 cases have probably been found in Washington, and I have 2 children who are particularly suceptible to respitory illnesses. 

But for now I chose to move on, and  bury my head in the sand for now, because I have to believe what will be will be.

I'm headed to Olympia early tomorrow for baton.  Its been soooooooo gorgeous around here for days, its been just an amazing April.  I for a 1.2 mile walk on Monday, and a almost 2 mile walk today.  It felt good.  I haven't purposely gone out and got just myself exercise in quite awhile.    Its really nice that close to my house is very flat, so I don't have to fight the asthma of hills.

The part of the walk that was on CC Creek had many many trilliums blooming under the trees.  So much fun.

We have the perfect 3.2 mile loop that I could do at my house with just a little bit more work...I really want to get up to it, as we have a plan to do a three night hike to Shi Shi beach this summer.  Its a little over 3 miles, but I will be doing it with a back pack.  So knowing I can hike it now would boost my confidence for carrying a pack.  If we pull this off it will be our first pack and sleep hike, and its a perfect one as its 98% flat with just the last 1/4 mile being switch back.   So here's for dreaming.

Cupcake our Great Dane puppy is very ticked.  An invader has attacked "her" space.  A great big bumble bee.  And somehow the bumble bee is smarter then her.  She has pawed at it, bit at it, growled at it and barked at it.

But so far the bumble bee is the winner. 

Good morning.

Its been a very busy morning doing some long over due discussion of our non-working budget.  We sat down and wrote it out again, and found ourselves actually relieved.  Well I did...Rob's still getting there.

We *do* have some small credit in our over-draft protection to pay off.  If we are very very very good for the next two months it will be paid off.

We are in the process of filling out some paperwork to refinance our house and get our first and second put on one loan with less intrest.  This will cut our payments a month literally in half.  It will also enable us to pay 98% of our car off as well.  This is something we've intended to do for awhile, but finally we sat down together and just did the wretched paperwork.

We have made the decision as a family to NOT go to California to compete.  Its just going to cost too much, and mean too many sacrifices of things we love to do.  We are all rather relived about that.

In the end what the budget messing with made us realize is yes we are making enough money, and have enough to pay our essentials.  (Good news)  We even have money for luxuries DSL, and DirectTV. 

We don't have enough money to stop at mom and pop grocery stores daily for treats.  We knew this...but its just so hard to remember. 

So thats the dreary money stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday was my sister Rissa's baby shower held by her babys dads mom.  It was on the reservation next-door to us.  I got to meet a bunch of almost neighbors.  The shower was scheduled to start at 1...and got started at 2:30.  Thats typical res time, but we were giggling about it. 

It was held at the Neah Bay marina and while we were waiting at D's suggestion my sisters boy friend Zeria and I walked out to the end of the fishing docks and got to see the above sea lions sun bathing. 

We go to Neah Bay at *least* once a month and we never knew they had resident sea lions.  We will be bringing all of the kids back out to see them sometime soonish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And my sisters senior pictures turned out lovely.  I was able to give them 69 to chose from.  I have my favorites, but they are of course going to chose there own favorites.  I'm rather curious as to what they vote for.  But in the meantime these are some of my favorites.

Its gorgeous outside today, I hope I find some time to enjoy it.

It was a rather insanely busy day yesterday, but we survived.

We did our grocery shopping, and then added a trip to the swimming pool for Rainee's birthday.  She had a lot of fun. 

It was amazing as its the first time in 10 years I've gone to the pool without having to hold a baby!!!

Jeremiah has finally learn to love his water wings, and just wasn't intrested in us.  In the past he wouldn't trust them at all, but after watching his younger cousins in Idaho he made great strides in enjoying the water, and this time he just had a blast. 

I just got to take a look at my sisters senior pictures that I took for her Wednesday on her My-Space they turned out really nice she has lots of options.  I'll share some when I get the SD card back.

Today I'm going to a baby shower for my 17 year old sister.  I got to hold her daughter for a few precious seconds yesterday.  AWWW  And funny enough I'm quite content holding her and passing her back.  *snicker*

But have to admit picking out baby clothes for the shower today was WAY fun. 

Rob and I had a date night last night and went for a week hike after eating.   It was so pretty in the woods.   And fun to hike without 6 munchkins running, shrieking and jumping.  We both enjoyed it a lot.

And the sun is shining again today.  We've had really nice weather the last two weeks--not every day but enough that Jeremiah's turning tan, and I'm just so greatful for blue sky.