I made a new friend, who’s got four sons (Wesley was so excited to finally have boys to play with!), invited some neighbors over, and suddenly we had 13 kids roasting hotdogs, making s’mores, running up, down, in, and out, and mostly (miraculously?) avoiding injury.
I’m kinda in love with this little guy, but I don’t think he will even notice me if there are marshmallows in the vicinity.
I love my friends and my Whidbey space!
South Whidbey Island always has something going on! This time, it was pancake breakfast for the Clinton Community, followed by the Porter Park clean up.
We partook in both, with glad hearts.
…is neither new, nor on the shoreline, but it does access places you can’t see by car, so it was worth the Sunday walk. The sign is new, so gets to be the backdrop for my kids’ feeling about “going for a family walk”. Kyla does great, and she and I always take the lead. Wesley usually runs to catch up with me, and periodically reminds me he is not enjoying this, but he’ll hold my hand if it makes me feel better. Piper is always chipper, but goes slower than even Dwayne. This time, she brought along binoculars for birding. We had an eagle fly over the cabin earlier in the day, but almost nothing on our trail walk!
The trail is the old paved road that was decommissioned (probably way too close to crumbling ravines straight down to the water and is narrow for cars) along the route we drive to the cabin. In a very literal sense, it is the low road. We didn’t measure it in length or time, but our best guess is about a mile each way.
Check it out next time you’re on the Island!
We finally got a weekend at the cabin and took along Parker and Cecily—my niece and nephew make great accessories at the cabin.
In between showers, we adventured down to “our” beach. I’ve never seen the tide out so far! Left behind was sand so goopy that only lightweight kids could partially walk on it without sinking to their knees.
Cecily and Parker were not impressed…and were the only kids who didn’t have to be hosed down later.
The others played and shlopped for hours.
I had to zoom in, as I am too big to take on that goop and win!
That’s Wesley, Piper, and a neighbor friend—somewhat a female equivalent of Wesley, but better adjusted.
And here’s the rest of my heart…
We finally got a weekend at the cabin and took along Parker and Cecily—my niece and nephew make great accessories at the cabin.
In between showers, we adventured down to “our” beach. I’ve never seen the tide out so far! Left behind was sand so goopy that only lightweight kids could partially walk on it without sinking to their knees.
Cecily and Parker were not impressed…and were the only kids who didn’t have to be hosed down later.
The others played and shlopped for hours.
I had to zoom in, as I am too big to take on that goop and win!
That’s Wesley, Piper, and a neighbor friend—somewhat a female equivalent of Wesley, but better adjusted.
And here’s the rest of my heart…
One of our summer highlights is going to the Whidbey Island Fair, just minutes from our cabin. To make it even better this year, my parents joined us, and we met up with some of our favorite island people on the fairgrounds.
It’s a small fair, which works well, as my kids go different directions, but we always run into each other eventually.
Since the midway ticket is $30 per kid, it’s nice that there are a lot of free things for kids, like balloon animals and cupcake decorating.
They also all got to try cardboard loom weaving.
The Crazy 8’s were new to the fair this year, and I always enjoy the pageantry.
The kids enjoyed the rides, the friends, the food…and can’t wait to do it all again next year!
Between local obligations and AirBnB, we don’t use our cabin as much as I’d like to, but we always block out the first week of July for us. I love how South Whidbey celebrates country and community.
A highlight is the Maxwelton Parade. The Maxwelton community is one street, with houses on the beach side, the garages on the other. I’m pretty sure the man with the most grandchildren in the parade is the announcer.
We met island and school friends at this event, and the kids get enough candy to last them to Halloween.
Here are the number (years):
The Goose (grocery) always sends their gorilla with a wagon of bananas to share with the crowd.
Got an old truck, tractor, or camper? Bring it down and throw out some candy. We actually know this kid-he and Kyla are in the same class at school.
Sno-Isle gets into it, too, and I cheered loudest for their “float”!
Another highlight is the Good Cheer (thrift stores and food bank) give out snap peas instead of candy. I’m as happy about it as she is!
The girls even got to pet a chicken.
I was never a contemporary prom queen, but may I can aspire to being a vintage one!
This pirate has made a good catch.
We have a lot to cheer about on the 4th of July!
It’s not the best part (the buckets of candy probably take that title), but I love the time on the beach after the parade. The tide was way out, and we could barely see Kyla. You’ll notice we often just get back shots of the kids once they hit the sand!
