Birch Bay . . .

For the last 5 summers or so, we have stayed out at the "villa" . . . my aunt's Birch Bay beach house. Last year we decided instead of staying just 2 or 3 nights, we should stay a WHOLE week. When it got down to it, I was thinking "a whole week? that's a long time." Let me tell you . . . we LOVED every second of it.

Monday night . . . Grace couldn't stay out of the water.

Grace had to learn the word "gentle" while playing with Max . . . she loves her some babies, and it's even better when they are "real" and not dolls! Tuesday morning we went for a beach walk . . . A couple weeks ago, I made Grace some homemade play-dough. She wasn't really that into it, so I saved it to take out to the bay. I think Grandma had more fun playing with it than the kids did though . . . G for Grace, M for Max and J for Jake. Grubby, happy little girl . . . This is what you call a redneck bathtub . . . Which can also become a redneck ride . . . Jake took us on lots of "boat rides" . . . I'm sure this time they were heading over the Sol Duc river on the way to Forks. Wednesday morning . . . We went for another beach walk, and then Grace and I headed to the fair (those pictures to come later)so we'll fast forward to Thursday night. Jen's sister-in-law came out to take some family pictures (I'll post those later too)YAY! The Mt. Vernon Jones's are here! Friday:
Grace and Jake watching Grandpa kill bees outside . . . Hooray for the hot tub!Tom got there early Friday afternoon and we all went to the Pt. Whitehorn Marine Reserve. It was a long, pretty hike down to the water . . . Grace's lucky day . . . a PUPPY walked by!Crazy enough, the chef from G&G's Country Club happened to be staying at the Villa as well, so we had goooooooooooooood food all week long. Yes, I even got in the hot tub. Mostly because I had held Grace off from going in it until Friday night and I couldn't hold her back any longer . . . The only hard part of the week was getting all the kinds to wind down at the same time to go to sleep . . . as you can see, Grace wasn't in the "winding down" kind of mood here. One of my favorite pictures from the week . . . Grace and Grandpa reading the paper on Saturday morning. Have I told you how much Grace LOVES her Grandpa? Now do you see why I cried when we had to leave?