Boat Races and Air Show

They are literally 18 inches a part! Now talk about focus!

We saw a lot of boat races and some really neat air show demonstrations from the blue angels (a group of 6 pilots (11 pilot in all) who create plane formations and do plane stunts. It rained on us the entire day!!! I don't have pictures of this, but Mom stayed behind while we all went to the carnival near by before all the boat races. We got some food samples and lots of free stuff. Almost joined the coast guard :), but because I can't even doggy paddle I decided against that. And then at one point Brooke, Josh, and I all did so many push ups in 1-2 minutes in order to win some free stuff from the Army. We won a shirt, water bottle and a few other things. We all passed, but I believe I did the most pushups, but don't want to brag or anything.... :)

Cute Eryn

Landlocks

Do you remember the book "Toot! Toot!"? I remember reading that book as a young girl. Loved that book. Still have it at home in the hallway. Seeing this tug boat near this huge crab ship reminded me of it. This tug boat literally was the one pulling the boat out to sea though. And, in fact, I think that happens in the book!

If you look closely you can see a seal. (Look just to the right of the cement portion)

We went to landlocks on Friday. Landlocks is a place where they trap boats, for a time, that are coming in from sea and those going out to sea so they can regulate the water level near the many homes that have been built close to the water's edge. We got to see the gate shut behind several boats returning from sea, wait for about 10 minutes as they drain some of the water, and then open up the opposite gate to let the boats drive into the lake where the homes were located. it was quite fascinating. The boat owners don't have to pay a toll fee at all, but do have to wait for awhile and accept the fact that many people are staring at them from up above. After that, we walked over to a salmon aquiriam, so to speak. It was a place where you can see groups of salmon swimming. We saw a few of them. But there are 7 different types of Salmon and in fact, Salmon will swim as far as they need to to return back to where they were born to also lay their eggs and then eventually die.

Pretty Michelle....This should be framed!!

After Landlocks we went to lunch....

What a cute Mom! Brooke and Josh bought us lunch at some new hamburger place they had heard about. It was yummy!

The scenic skyline of Seattle!!

Dancing with cute Natalie

On Thursday, I think it was, we decided to go swimming. It was sunny, of course, and so Carlie and Brooke brought their beach umbrellas. However, the sand was quite rocky and we were having a hard time digging a hole for the umbrellas to stay in so Carlie and I used our engineering brains and used water and sand (I know it sounds like an obvious solution, but we felt quite smart when we figured this one out) and used the wet sand as a sand bag around each umbrella pole. We got all three umbrellas up and they stayed up until the sand started to dry..... All the girls loves playing in the water! In fact, Brooke's girls are taking swimming lessons. (Brooke will soon be or is doing so currently ?) Anyway, Brooke and Robert have tried to get Lauren to be braver in the water and on this outing Lauren actually went into the deeper part of the lake with Aunt Rachel. This was only for a few seconds of course, but baby steps is where it all begins. Little Eryn and Natalie had a fun time playing in the water with Aunt Rachel. Natalie loved the water and at times fell face first into it. But, no crying for her! She got right back up and played in the water again! Oh, and little Eryn went face first a few times too, but because of her swimsuit -- which looks like, because of the floaty devices inside her swimsuit to keep her afloat, that she has packed some heavy military amunition -- she bobbed right back up! Michelle had not trouble making friends with about 6 other boys who were making a sand castle. (Watch out for her Mom and Dad! :) 16 years old comes quick!) She played with them practically the whole time. Josh was able to get off work early and join us.

Mom and I went with Carlie and Brooke and the girls to pick blueberries! This was the first time that Mom and I had ever picked a blueberry! We picked and picked for about 30-45 min and walked away with about 7-10+ lbs of blueberries. It was really fun.