Simpsons in Seattle

We were lucky enough to be invited to go to Hawaii again this year with our friends Greg and Lauren, and their two kids. We went with them 3 years ago, before we were pregnant with the two little ones, and had a ton of fun and this year was just a good! The flight to the Big Island was pretty non-eventful. I'm a little embarrassed to say that it's because Paw Patrol pretty much occupied both kids for the entire 5 hr journey. It's terrible because at Nora's age, we hadn't even let Evie watch TV let alone 5 hours of it!! But, hey, we all survived. Once we landed, we were in a for a treat! The timeshare his parents are a part of is very luxurious and great for families - lots of space for us to spread out, walking distance to the beach and the grocery store, plus a private pool for the kids to splash around in. Our days pretty much consisted of a mix of pool play, either at the house or at the community pool, or going to the beach. Thankfully, Nora was much more

We dragged the girls to the Issaquah Farmer's market this morning. I don't know why we don't go more often because we had lots of fun today! Even Evie admitted afterwards that "Mommy was right, it was fun" and that she was glad she went. Lasso! Found 2 apples that fell from the tree! Enjoying shaved ice. Sadly, not nearly as good as it is in Hawaii. In fact, it was downright terrible. Both girls were tired but didn't mind sharing the stroller!

Look at this little face! Don't you want to just squeeze her to bits?

We have several parks in our neighborhood and Lewis Creek is probably the biggest and best one. It has a play area for kids and a separate one for toddlers, a baseball field, basketball courts, a ranger station slash community hall you can rent out, and best of all, access to several walking/hiking paths. In particular, there's a little walking path that takes you through some marshes and meanders by apple and pear trees and lots and lots of blackberry bushes. It's not at all strenuous so it's pretty easy to convince the girls to go for a little walk when they are bored of the slides. Do you see what we saw? Stay back!! Running on the boardwalk. Evie's turn to catch up! Woah, the grass is higher than Daddy!!

I love summer fruit! And what is more summery than watermelon? Scott picked out a couple of really good ones lately and we've been happily eating watermelon almost every night for dessert. The girls can't get enough of it! Watermelon juice all over my shirt! I WANT MORE, MAMA!!

Another long weekend, another chance to hang out in Orcas Island! Since it was a holiday weekend, we were very worried about traffic going to the Island. The Washington State Ferry system kept saying that this is the busiest weekend of the year for them so when we weren't able to secure reservations, we made sure to head out early on Friday and decide to walk on the ferry instead of drive on. Thank goodness we made it! Shenanigans on the ferry. On Saturday, we woke up and walked to the Fire Station for their Pancake breakfast. It's about a mile walk from our place so not super close, but since the weather was beautiful, it let us get some exercise and walk off those fluffy pancakes! It was also neat to check out the different fire trucks and ambulances. yummy pancakes! Fire truck hi Momma! Scott was impressed by this nozzle. Orcas Island Airport is across the street so it was fun to watch the planes come and go. After breakfast, Nora ended