Beach + BBQ + No More School = Fun!

Angel finished his last week of classes for his apprenticeship at the shipyard last Friday and one of his classmates had everyone over for a celebratory B-B-Q.  He lives right on the Puget Sound and the kids had a blast playing on the beach.  (Funny that we are virtually surrounded by water and we get to the actual beach so little....go figure) They chased each other around with squirt guns, flung sand at each other (Alec's favorite), and collected crabs from underneath the rocks.

Angel and the kids walked a ways down the beach and found this really cool, old boat that was shipwrecked on the beach and the kids all took turns making up stories about how it ended up there.

The kids ran their hearts out all day long and we had a very relaxing, quiet ride home. (sigh)

Picasso (I mean Stitch...I mean Alec) strikes again.....

Scene:  Mom and Son are ready to walk out the door. Mom had just finished putting on her make-up

Act One:  Mom notices it is "too quiet". . . . . .she also notices the make-up bag she left on the bed is no longer on the bed.  Mom calls Alec's name and hears a muffled noise 

Act Two:  Mom finds Alec under her bed with the make-up bag in question

Act Three:  Mom wrangles Alec out from under the bed to find he has decided to oversee his own hair and make-up for the day's production.  Mom thanks her lucky stars he only had it in his possession for 30 seconds and not 5 minutes

Act Four:  Post-Production clean-up at age 4 1/2

Bittersweet.....yes, that's the right word

We said good-bye to our beloved ski pass a few weekends ago.  It was, again, loads of fun.

After watching some of the pros come down the mountain, Grace had the hankering {is that even a word?} to try skiing backwards {her skis do have twin tips}.......this was her attempt:

Way to go Grace!!!

And since this was our last trip, my mom and dad came up to watch for a little bit.  They watched us come down a couple runs, we took a few pictures, then we went to the lodge and had lunch together.

It was also the one year anniversary of the day our sweet, wonderful, Aunt Sandie lost her battle with cancer.  My cousin, (her daughter Michelle), came up with the very cool

idea for everyone to release balloons at the same time on that day to celebrate and remember the wonderful life she lived. The kids each wrote a note to Aunt Sandie that they then tied to the balloon. Dallas's note consisted of a lot of "very much's".  I love you very much, I miss you very much, and, in not very much time I'll see you in Heaven.   Alec said: I hope you get this balloon in Heaven so you will know that I love you. Sweet words from sweet boys....

Grace wrote her own so I didn't get to see hers, I guess it was "private", but knowing her, I'm sure it was from her heart and just as sweet. 

We went outside, and on the count of three, let them go....

We watched them fly away until we couldn't see them anymore and at that point Alec declared they finally made it to Heaven  :)

It was very "bittersweet" missing our sweet Aunt, but at the same time remembering the amazing person and friend that she was to all of us. 

"WE LOVE YOU AUNT SANDIE!"