Labor Day Weekend on Blake Island

After having to juggle packing for a camping trip while home schooling three children, we set out Friday afternoon to drive to the Manchester boat launch to meet Chris to head off to Blake Island for the weekend.  Luckily, Ron was able to leave work early on Friday which allowed me to leave Emmett behind with him instead of having to hire a babysitter to watch him for a few hours which is what I have done in years' past with our other children who were left behind.  I say this every summer--our camping trip to Blake Island is MY trip!  It is the one trip of the summer when I leave behind all babies (after the summer that they are weaned) and toddlers and only bring children with me who are easy to take care of and I LOVE it!  I work hard all summer long to drag my children everywhere I go and I am always exhausted by the end, so Blake Island is my gift to myself.  I absolutely love it out on this island and so do my older children!  Thanks to Chris and his boat, we have enjoyed a decade of camping there at the end of the summer and this year was no exception.  The weather was stunning all weekend long and the kids and I had a great time playing on the beach, swimming in the water, walking around the island, sleeping in a tent, and playing with the cousins.  Here are some pictures of our two nights and three days out on our beloved Blake Island!

Logan and Ella were so hot after we arrived on the island on Friday afternoon that they changed into their swimsuits once I had pitched our tent.  Logan and Trenton enjoyed floating around on a makeshift raft that they made out of driftwood with Chris' help.

Logan trying to make a teepee out of driftwood on the beach.

Ella climbing on top of one of the many forts built along the beach.

Enjoying our Friday dinner together with Chris' family.

Par tradition, the kids and I had to have a family photo taken at sunset.

A close-up of my kiddos and me.

Ella really got into climbing the large tree that Bryce, Riley, and Trenton have been climbing for years.  At first, they were reluctant to let her into "their club," but after a stern talking to from me, they eventually let her join in on the fun and she loved it!

The beautiful sunset on the sound Friday evening.

On Saturday morning, my brothers organized a baseball game for the kids to play in.  This was the first time that both Ella and Logan have ever played this game and they both had a lot of fun.

It was so fun to watch Ella play as she just gave it her all with every swing of the bat.  Here she is getting ready to hit one of Lia's pitches.

Lia hitting the ball.

Before lunch, the kids and I wandered down to the huge fort made out of driftwood that has been there for years.  Here they are hanging out inside the fort.

Logan then built an adorable, gnome house on the beach.  Here he is posing next to his finished product!

Lia and Ella helped me build our own creation on the sand.

After lunch, we all walked the 30 minutes to the beautiful, sandy beach on the other side of the island.  Everyone had such a good time playing there for a few hours before heading back to our campsite.  Here is Ella doing a cartwheel for me on the sand.

I asked a bunch of the kids to do a cartwheel at the same time for a picture.  This is what I came up with.

The kids and me and the Puget Sound.

Another close-up photo of us.

Riley twirling Ella around the beach.

For the first time ever, we didn't have church to get back to on Sunday morning.  As a result, we decided to spend a second night out on the island.  So that we didn't have to drag out food to make a second dinner in camp, we decided to do something fun and take the boat over to Bainbridge Island where we picked up food at a restaurant walking distance from the marina.  We enjoyed a beautiful boat ride to the island and back taking in the sunset and views of the Seattle skyline, plus an up close and personal encounter with two huge, sleeping sea lions on a buoy.

A shot of the younger kids who rode in the front of the boat as we approached the marina.

Lia, Logan, and Ella eating their dinner on the marina dock after we picked it up.

The gang getting back into the boat to head back to Blake Island.

Trenton, Ella, Logan, and Lia in the front of the boat on the ride back.

Another stunning sunset on Saturday evening.

We woke up to beautiful, blue skies again on Sunday morning.  Here is the view of the water and Mount Rainier right outside our tent door.  When do you ever get a view like this right outside your tent?!

Another shot of Mount Rainier that I took inside our tent.

All three kids climbing up the large tree that leads to the boys' "club" up at the top.

Another shot of Ella climbing in the tree.

A group shot of all of the cousins:  Bryce, Riley, Trenton, Logan, Ella, Callie, Vivi, and Lia.  We were missing Garrett (on his mission) and Brynn (visiting friends at BYU before going on her mission in a few weeks) this year.

Toyota!

Another shot of the cousins.

A group photo of everyone before we packed up and headed home!  It sure was a glorious way to spend Labor Day weekend.

First Day of Virtual School!

We were all totally in denial last night when we rolled up to our house at almost 9 p.m. after spending the day at Lake Sammamish and at my parent's house that school was starting today.  In our eight years of having a child go to school in this district, we have NEVER started school before Labor Day weekend and before our annual camping trip to Blake Island.  So, it just didn't feel "real" that school was starting today.  In addition, since the kids were not starting school at their physical schools this fall, we didn't buy any new school clothes, backpacks, or supplies which also contributed to the fact that it really did not feel like school was starting today.  Everything is SO not what the beginning of school should be like this year and so we were all kind of out of sorts this morning.  Nevertheless, I managed to get the kids up, dressed, and fed in time for a quick photo shoot on the front porch before Ella and Logan had to join an online meeting with their teachers and classmates at 8:30 (Lia didn't start her first period class until 9 a.m.)  Although the kids are not actually heading off to school, I thought that it was important to take their traditional, first-day-of-school pictures on the porch for our family record.  Logan suggested that everyone should wear their backpacks from last year, and the girls agreed.  So, this is what I managed to quickly take of the kids outside before hurrying back inside to log onto Microsoft Teams.

The Hartland children line-up:  Lia with Emmett, Ella, and Logan sitting on the front porch steps.

Lia starting her first day of 7th grade AND her first day of junior high!  

Gasp.  I honestly felt like this day would never come--like she would be in elementary school forever.  However, she looks, acts, and thinks like such a teenager at times that this entire transition just makes sense as much as I hate to admit it.  Once "real school" starts, Lia will be walking up our hill to her junior high school every day.  It is less than a 5 minute walk from home.

Logan's first day of 3rd grade. 

Where has the time gone?!  I honestly feel like he just started Kindergarten.

Ella's first day of 1st grade.

She is still such an adorable, little peanut that being in 1st grade still makes sense to me as her mom.

We then hurried back inside to get both Ella and Logan into their first class meetings.  We then spent the next six hours jumping back and forth between four virtual meetings and classwork while juggling Emmett and several technical issues.  Needless to say, this was not my favorite way to start school and I found myself cursing homeschool again like I did daily back in the Spring.  I eventually got Emmett down for a morning nap and we figured out most of the technical issues, so the day did improve after a rocky start.  I am seriously going to try to make the most out of this, but I sure will praise the day when our county's Department of Health gives our district permission to send our children back to school.  I just was not cut out for this homeschool thing.

Logan listening to his teacher talk during his first of several virtual meetings today.  He discovered several friends during his first online meeting which was a welcome surprise as we only knew about one friend who had been assigned to the same teacher before school started today.

Lia's online learning went a lot smoother than her younger brother and sister and required very little help from me.  She met with her 1st, 2nd, and 3rd period classes today back to back for an hour each.  She basically sat quietly in the office (which is now her "classroom" since Ron has moved back to working at his high school) listening to her teachers.  After a lunch break, she went back on her computer to meet with her homeroom teacher for 30 minutes before finishing up for the day since she was not assigned any homework today.  It was surprising to see her finishing before both of her elementary school siblings, but I know that this will all change in the days to come!

Breaking the Rules

Lia's Girl Scout troop has had an end-of-school-year party every year for as long as I can remember; however, thanks to Covid-19, we decided to postpone it until we moved into Phase 3 when gatherings larger than ten people were allowed.  None of us ever imagined that we still would not be in Phase 3 by the end of August when we decided to postpone the party at the beginning of June.  As the summer months progressed, Covid cases increased even more in our area and our governor tightened down on everything and "froze" every county in their current phase.  He also announced that gatherings more than 5 people outside of the people with whom we live with were not allowed.  It all started to look pretty dismal at this point.  Parties and get togethers were never going to happen again at the rate we were going. 
Surprisingly a few weeks ago, the troop leaders sent out a text taking a survey from all of the parents about whether or not we wanted to just go ahead and schedule the party before the new school year started.  Although it technically was against our governor's rules, every mom in the troop texted back and said that she was fine with it.  I offered to host it and suggested that we do not invite parents and siblings like we have done in years past to help keep the numbers down.  Everyone seemed on board with this and so we ended up hosting a small party today with the eight members of Lia's troop, plus the two leaders, and my family.  The girls had a great time receiving their patches and cookie reward money gifts, playing in the backyard, swimming in the pool, and eating a BBQ dinner.  Ella, Logan, and Emmett had a great time joining in with the big girls and it, honestly, just felt so good to be doing something "normal" again like this after so many months...even though it really was breaking the rules! 

The troop decided to adopt-an-animal from the Point Defiance Zoo as their service project that they used some of their cookie reward money for.  Every girl got to choose an animal of their choice and received a certificate, a photo of the animal, and a beautiful stuffed animal.  Here they are all lined up showing off their "adopted animals."  Lia has known four of these girls (Mila, Mollie, Sienna, and Addy) since PreK and has been in a troop with them for almost as long.  It's rather amazing.

Striking a silly pose.

Doing a "Toyota" in the air.

All eight girls lined up in the pool with Ella posing on the ladder in the background.  Logan was in the water somewhere and refused to be in the picture.  Typical. :-)

Emmett's 18-Month Photos

Since I was unable to take Emmett into the photo studio last month when he was actually 18 months old, I jumped at scheduling his appointment a few days ago when I saw that the studio had opened back up again.  So, although he is really 19 months old now, I am still calling this his 18 month photo shoot since that is when I had our other children's pictures taken.  With the exception of waking up from his morning nap with an awful case of bed head (which required me to hastily throw him into the bathtub last minute to wash his hair), we were able to arrive at the studio on time without any drama.  However, once I brought Emmett into the actual studio, his true shenanigans began.  After taking a few pictures, he suddenly became very comfortable with his surroundings and first started running to the back of the room several times before running outside of the studio and into the main part of the store over and over again.  In addition to not wanting to hold a pose, Emmett also was not interested in holding any of the toys that I brought with us and constantly threw them on the floor.  Although I was sweating by the end of his photo shoot (which was even hotter and more miserable than normal thanks to wearing a face mask the entire time), the photographer produced a stellar selection of pictures to choose from.  She really did a great job working with him and being super fast to take the picture before Emmett moved out of his pose.  These are the adorable pictures we managed to get!

Logan's 8-year Photos

After being closed for over five months, the JC Penney photo studio finally opened up this past week!  This meant that I could finally take both Lia and Logan in to have their annual photos taken months after their appointments were cancelled just two days after the studio closed due to Covid-19!  After many months of waiting, I sure was relieved to see that this studio had opened back up again as it provides me with the opportunity to have my children's photos taken on a yearly basis for such a bargain price.  Both Lia and Logan did a great job posing and smiling for the photographer and produced some darling shots for me to choose from to order for the grandmas and me.  If only, it would be this easy when I take Emmett into the studio on Monday for his belated, 18-month pictures!

Lia's 12-Year Photos

After being closed for over five months, the JC Penney photo studio finally opened up this past week!  This meant that I could finally take both Lia and Logan in to have their annual photos taken months after their appointments were cancelled just two days after the studio closed due to Covid-19!  After many months of waiting, I sure was relieved to see that this studio had opened back up again as it provides me with the opportunity to have my children's photos taken on a yearly basis for such a bargain price.  Both Lia and Logan did a great job posing and smiling for the photographer and produced some darling shots for me to choose from to order for the grandmas and me.  If only, it would be this easy when I take Emmett into the studio on Monday for his belated, 18-month pictures!