Sadie Primrose Everdeen

We've been talking about getting another cat for about a year. Basically, Rocko is 11 and for a golden retriever is pretty old. We know eventually, when he passes on, we won't have my Mom come up here for the short 2 or 3 day camping trips unless she wants to.. We can leave Rio for a few days and it will be fine. But, we thought when that time comes, it would be nice if he had a friend at home to keep him company.

I know it can be tricky to add cats to a household. My Aunt Linda is having a heck of a time. Rio is an adult male. He probably wouldn't take to another male cat. So, we knew our best bet would be a female kitten.  About 9 months ago, our friends had a litter of kittens. She had a girl left. I messaged her on Facebook that I'd take her, but by the time she saw it, she had already found a home.

Then, she knew someone who had one girl kitty left. I messaged her friend, but her daughters were attached and wanted to keep her.  So, we just let the idea go for now.

Then, our last 2 days in Canada, my friend messaged again. Her friend had more kittens and had a girl left. We got home Saturday night at midnight and about 12 hours later we were on our way to pick up a kitten.

Emily and Ben both knew about it, but I didn't want to tell Noah just in case something happened and it didn't work out.  Here's the video when we brought kitty home. Noah's face is so cute.


Kitty was a little freaked out when we first got her. She was living in the barn and although they handled her a lot, she was still scared.

The first meeting with Rio didn't go well. Rio hissed. Kitty hissed. There was some not so great moments. But, they never fought. I was hoping for love at first sight.  Mmmm, not so much.

 But, the first night she came in bed with us and was just sweet as pie. She let everyone love on her. As you can see from Noah's face, he's in heaven.

 Kitty loves to get around our neck and cuddle. She actual suckles on my neck or shirt. She was probably pulled too early. They said she was 7 weeks. Then, it went to 6 or 7. I'm thinking she's barely 7 now and we've had her for about 9 days.

 I mean seriously, this little girl is just adorable.  We were trying to come up with names. Someone would suggest something and two of us would like. We couldn't agree on anything. Then, I suggested Katniss from Hunger Games. David liked it and Ben. Then, Emily suggested Prim, which is Katniss' sister. And everyone said, yeah, Prim is cute. So, we called her Primrose Everdeen after the character in Hunger Games. Then, two days later Emily says she doesn't like Prim and wants to call her Sadie.  The boys don't like Sadie. So, she has multiple names.

Introducing..... Mrs. Sadie Primrose Everdeen!

 Here's how things were after a few days. And this was good. But, I could tell Rio was barely tolerating her.

 Noah on the other hand was such a smitten kitten.

 Then, after about a week, this happened.

 And today they were chasing each other around the house and Prim was playing with Rio's tail.  Yea!  They aren't spooning or cleaning each other yet. But, I know that will happen soon enough.

Comic Con

Our little town hosted a Comic Con event last weekend. We're pretty small potatoes, so I wasn't sure what it was going to be like. But, David and Ben went to check it out. According to Ben, you must wear a costume. So, David went as Clark Kent. He looks mighty hot as Clark Kent, I must say. Ben put together several costumes and cut the fingers off of my best pair of black gloves and made his costume. He looks awesome too. Noah was going to go, but changed his mind. I think he would've had a blast, but oh well.

We didn't really know what they would have there, but they had this cool Jurassic Park jeep.

And the Batcycle.

David said Ben was in his element. Chatting it up with all the people dressed up. Like this Ghost Buster guy.

And Batman, of course.

There was a big Thor hammer.

And I'm not sure who this is, but I think Ben is winning the fight.

A few kids stopped Ben and wanted to take a picture with "Spiderman". Ben's showing them how to throw a web here

He got to make something out of marshmallows. He said it was Baymax from Big Hero 6. It looks just like Baymax.

And another with Batman. Ben was doing the Bat ears.

Just some goofing around.

Ben with some Star Wars folk. I'm so glad so many people were dressed up and it wasn't just Ben.

And to finish off the day, Spiderman climbed up a wall and was out of there.

He had a great time.

Orientation

I'm not sure if it's a girl and boy thing or just different personalities or kids. In any case, I went with Emily last week to pick up her schedule for high school, get her books and pay any fees for classes.  Who knew high school was so expensive? $50 for color guard (on top of the $100 we already paid for uniform and duffel bag), $50 for winter guard, $100 for passes for the family to get in to the games to watch her perform. $10 for biology. It goes on and on.

In any case, when we were almost done, I wanted to get a picture of Emily in the middle of the school.  She was mortified. She also told me about 10 times to quit talking to everyone. Do I really talk that much?  Maybe I do.  I thought I was being good. I wanted to stop the principal and tell him that I know his sister and I went to Prom with his brother in law. But, I figure I'll wait until Emily isn't with me. She'd just die because you know, I'm so awful.

These were the only photos I took when she thought I was texting someone.

 

Now, wouldn't she look a lot better if she actually looked at the camera and smiled?  Ok, this is all payback. Mom, you can say it now...karma is getting me. I was a royal pain about pictures as a kid. Now, I get Mom. I get it, and I'm sorry.  

 

Then, we have this kid who went to his Jr. High orientation today. He got his locker, schedule and we walked around to his classes. He's ready to be a new and improved Ben which is kind of hard since he's already pretty incredible. So, he wanted contacts.  We went to his orientation and then went to his appointment for contacts.  Here is he after the hour long appointment to get them in, and out and in again. They need to be able to take them out and put them in. In any case, it'll take some getting used to, but he looks pretty handsome.

We were driving to Costco for the contacts and I realized I forgot to take a picture. He actually wanted to go back and get a photo. So, we drove back to the school and he hopped out of the van, so I could get his picture.

 Talk about two different kids. He was hoping to have lunch with his good friend, but of course, they have different periods for lunch. I hope he makes new friends and the next two years are full of all good things.

As for Emily, I think being in color guard will be wonderful for her. She got lunch with all of them and she's been at color guard camp for 2 weeks now. She's really enjoying it. I hope the next 4 years are full of good times and a great high school experience.

Noah has his teacher meet and greet on Thursday. I know he'll smile for pictures.

 

Tres Beaches

We wanted to do it all for our last day in Gibsons. Unfortunately, Emily woke up not feeling great. She just has a tummy ache, but it's enough to make her feel blah.

We pushed on without her for Hopkins beach, which includes pier jumping. Just Amy and Ben jumped. I reached my one jump per year on the first night.

 

Ben got in a half dozen jumps. 

 

Then, we headed to Soames. It's the beach right by the house and our favorite. Emily did join us for this beach. The ibuprofen was kicking in a little. We just played on the beach and looked for sea glass. 

 

Then, Amy had to head back home as she was going with her friends on a little vacay tonight. This girls are so sweet and are like sisters. 

 

The boys did some sword fighting. 

 

Then, we headed to the house for some leftover Chinese food for lunch and we headed to Flume Beach, which we call Starfish beach.  We knew the tide was high, but we went anyway. With it being a half moon, there isn't a huge difference between low and high tide, so it is what it is.

We headed to the beach. I love the walk there through all these gorgeous trees. 

 

And then...say what?  See those two rocks almost covered in water? That's where we normally walk to and climb on.  All of that is normally not under water and that's where we find the starfish. We wouldn't  be finding starfish today.   

 

But, there is normally this huge sandy area between the rocks and we could see it, so Ben decided to see how deep it was. 

 

It was pretty past his chest, but he was able to walk the whole way.  

 

He made it to the rocks. 

 

 Noah didn't want to be outdone, so he started to go. But, then got scared when I told him it would be over his head and he'd need to swim some of it. So, he went back to skipping rocks on the shore.

 

David went for a walk . He's right under the Canadian flag. 

 

We came home and Uncle Terry made us a delicious dinner of Kings Mac for dinner. It's noodles, meat, tomatoes, cheese. It's delish.  He also made a blueberry crumble for dessert, but these boys wanted gelato.  So, off we went. 

 

We walked down to the water a little. It's a gorgeous view.  Well, my boys are gorgeous and the view is gorgeous too. 

 

We ended the night watching Teddy Bear's Picnic. This was a favorite of Amy and her brother Greg back 25 years ago. We watched it the first time we were here, and it's tradition to watch it every year. Even if the boys are too old for it.  We all still enjoy it. It's actually on VHS.

 

We head home tomorrow. It's a super long travel day. We will leave here about 10 in the morning, catch a ferry, drive through Canada, cross the border, drive to Seattle, take a plan home, get on a shuttle to get our car, and drive 90 minutes home. It'll take about 15 hours. Then, it's back to reality. 

It's been a wonderful vacation. We are so grateful to my Dad and Suzy and Uncle Terry and Aunt Paula who always welcome us into their home year after year, smother us with love and give us memories to last a lifetime. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Jellyfish and Chinese Food

We had a nice slow morning. Uncle Terry made breakfast and we headed to the beach. Amy stayed home and rested as she didn't sleep well.  The first thing Emily found was a jellyfish. They don't have the tentacles and we think they are dead and wash up, but who knows. The point being they don't sting anybody.

 

At some point, they found 4 of them. 

 

My kids are happiest at the beach. Literally, we can sit there all day and do nothing. There's log jumping, swimming, sitting in the sun, snacking, I don't know. We somehow manage to entertain ourselves for hours upon hours. Noah was a ninja turtle and battled bad guys for like 2 hours. I think he won.   

Then, we got showered up and went for Chinese food. Oh, it's soooo good. The first few times, the boys got french fries. Now, they get chicken chow mein and Ben was trying some of everything. We love this place. I wish they made Chinese as good as here, but even our favorite Chinese food place back home isn't this good. They make this ginger beef and honey garlic pork that are our favorites. We get all this food and share, it's delicious.

 

Emily and her cousin Amy are great buds. It's like the older sister that she never had. I love that they are friends and hang out. Amy took Em for a Starbucks this morning. They stay up late talking. I love it. Emily always misses her so much when we leave, but they stay in contact with Snapchat and stuff like that.

  

Tomorrow is our last beach day. We head home on Saturday. Then, we have 2 weeks before school starts and it'll be a busy 2 weeks. I'll enjoy tomorrow and worry about everything else later.