Our first trip to the park

Wednesday evening we met Landon at the Lynden city park. It has the coolest playground and this was Hale's first trip.







Does he look Dutch?

He took a spill off his tractor this week - you can tell his nose is still healing.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a wonderfully sunny weekend. Hale and I experienced the local culture with Tom, Dawn, Carson and Libby at the Ski to Sea parade on Saturday. After the parade we went for bagels and then to the farmer's market.

Libby and Hale at The Bagelry.

We also had the chance to take a trip to Sandy Point. It was fun to catch up with Aunt Liz and family.

Susan brought strawberry marshmellows for roasting - can you tell that these are pink? I love that she is willing to try new things. I'm not sure if anyone else was willing...

Hale in the tree swing.

Photo a week update

I figured I should update the blog...but I'm not done editing my pictures from our adventures over Memorial Day weekend! So I thought I would add some of the pictures I have been taking for my photo-a-week group.

"Signs" Challenge:



"Blue" Challenge:



"Textures" Challenge:






"Leading Lines" Challenge:



"Forgotten" Challenge:

The Pool Experiment

It was beautiful weather when we were in Bellevue last week so we decided to let the kids splash in the pool a little bit. Here's how it went:

Approaching the pool



Testing the waters





"See Hale...this is how you splash!"



"...and you can put it on your head..."



"...and you can throw it in the air!" Meanwhile, Hale has his own idea...



A stick!!



Unfortunately, Hale is not as tall or as steady as Rocklyn. So leaning into the pool doesn't go as well for him...



Grandma and Mom are just laughing, and the kids can't quite believe that they're not in trouble. "Are you sure it's okay that we're doing this?"



Hale is already soaked from head to toe...but it's about to get worse.



Grandma thinks a bowl of water might be kind of fun.



It IS kind of fun!







They had such a great time splashing themselves and each other, that we decided to lose the wet clothes...



...and let them play in their diapers.



The end.

Adventures with Rocklyn

Last week Hale and I got to travel with Grandma Susan to Bellevue to see cousin Rocklyn. I was so impressed with how well the kids played together. Rocklyn is especially social and didn't leave Hale's side...even when he was eating.




We walked to Top Pot doughnuts on a beautiful morning and the kids ran around in their PJs. It was so cute!



Rocklyn has a slide on her deck and they loved playing on it together - though coordinating the turns on the slide got a little tricky sometimes!



This was another favorite game this weekend - called "find Rocklyn". Rocklyn is a good hider and the kids just laughed and laughed together once Hale found her.



Rocklyn and Grandma

Mother's Day part II: Family Chaos

I felt the need to split my Mother's Day post into two because a.) I took a few hundred pictures that day and b.) it kind of felt like we packed three or four days into one. After picnicking in the park as a family, we got to catch up with the Van Dyk side of the family and then headed to an early dinner with the Kroontje family. We were celebrating both Mother's Day and Grandma Hilda's birthday which was also on Sunday!

We were fortunate to have all five Kroontje siblings in attendance.



Kohl feeding Hale and Susan feeding Thijs.



Libby



Libby's dog Faith



I took a few family pictures:





After dinner we walked/biked/drove across the road to see the animals.

The family "parade" crossing the road:





Grace peeking at the goats:



Tek-tek the swimming wonder goat...just kidding Jake.



Libby and Fiona peeking at...hmm...I'm not sure what's in there?



The men checking out the cows.

Mother's Day part I: Berthusen Park

Landon and Hale made my Mother's Day so special! We took advantage of the morning sun and had brunch in Berthusen park. Besides eating delicious food and playing together as a family, the boys were very patient as I took pictures - the best Mother's Day gift of all!

Hale while Landon and I ate lunch. He's never far from his tractor these days!



He found a walking stick and was using it around the trails. It almost poked out his eye a few times.



Resting on a log...




and looking at nature with Dad.






We made our way to the creek to a spot where Uncle Grant taught Landon to skip rocks. Have you seen Landon skip a rock - it is amazing!!! Uncle Grant must be a great teacher...or maybe it's just the fact that Landon also has a really good arm.
Hale didn't learn how to skip rocks yesterday but he had a great time throwing them in the water.



Playing in the sand.




Family picture by the water.