The Perfect Storm

Sunday night, after a 90+ degree day, we had a great lightning storm. The kids were tucked in and asleep, so Mark and I opened a bottle of wine and headed out to the porch to to watch... it was amazing.

Our Happy Place - Camano with the whole family

We spent another great weekend up at my parent's house on Camano. The weather was hot, hot, hot (over 90) and when the tide came in over the hot sand, the water temp was 98 degrees. (No joke, we put a thermometer in it!) We spent a good part of the weekend wandering the beach, ate far too much yummy food, the gals hit the library book sale (score!!!) and we had a great time. There was far less mud than our previous trips, but Josh & the girls still managed to find it. Mom finally got her fire pit built, we managed NOT to get sunburned, and we can't wait to go back.

Austin running with the birds

Avery and Malia spent a good portion of the weekend creating "secret handshakes". One of the favorites was, "BFF, Cousins... Word!" They are inseparable when together - they had so much fun playing on the beach for hours at a time.

Josh in the sprinkler
Us
SBK
Me and Kay doing our morning exercise of pull ups

Some people's idea of a good time on Camano consists of building a new fire pit

Mine consists of sun and a good magazine after a nice long float on the air mattress.

Kaylie made herself a "lolly" out of a pretzel and a grape. Inventive.

This wackadoo flew by several times. It was amazing to watch and he made the kid's day when he zoomed low and waved at them.

The girl plays hard, and sleeps hard. She slept in the yard for over 2-1/2 hours in the shade.

Our newest neighbors

Kaylie's Quote of the Day

"I'm glad I don't have a penis, Mommy!"

The Perfect Cookie

So, the kids and I are on a summer long search for the best cookie recipe. We've decided to make a different cookie recipe each Thursday until the end of summer. Last week was Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, today was Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip (yes, we do have a love for the chocolate chip). If you have a great cookie recipe, please share! We'll let you know how they turn out each week and and at the end of the summer, we'll make a batch of the BEST cookies we found to share. Please email your best cookie recipes to me at leslie.g.hughes@gmail.com. Wish us luck!

Class of 2008

Joshua graduated from Kindergarten yesterday from View Ridge Elementary (which is the same school Mark went to!) We're so proud of our little scholar!


As you can tell, Josh takes his education very seriously. When asked his favorite parts of school? Lunch and recess.

Father's Day with the Hughes'

We celebrated Father's Day with Mark's side of the family with an afternoon ice cream sundae party. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the sundaes were great. Josh said it best: "This is the best day of my life EVER!"

The manly Hughes men: Ken, Mark, Josh, & Braeden

Ken opening his gift of new work gloves

Ken and Mark

Vena and Kaylie - they kind of have the same hair in this picture, don't they?

Kaylie sporting Braeden's sunglasses

Vena and Malia

Momma April

Baby Braeden


Us

Linda and her 4 grandmonkeys

The women and kids gathering around our new swing set. The kids are in heaven and have already said, "We'll never have to go to the park again!" I may hold them to that!

The Hughes/Hickey/Scriven women. Mindy wanted us to build a pyramid, April and I were pretty sure she's nuts.

Malia and Braeden hanging out in the hammock

April, Braeden, and Melinda. Braeden is going to be one on 6/23!

Father's Day Morning 2008

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad! We celebrated Mark by sleeping in until 7:30 (unheard of in our house - thank you kids!) We banished Mark to the hammock with his coffee and book while we made him his favorite breakfast: an omelet with blue cheese, steak, and grilled vegetables, lemon blueberry muffins, sausage and a latte.


The new Father's Day bbq... our old one stopped working just in time for Father's Day. (hmmm.... didn't his camera "stop working" just before his last birthday?!?)

The loves of my life!

My new haircut

and the back...

A Mishmash of pictures

Kaylie and Grammy (Mark's mom)

Mt. Rainier from the front yard... she decided to peek her head out again after hiding for quite a awhile.

Seven Sleepy Seals napping on our neighbor's dock

Jen, Tony, & Kari Adamski

Kari and Malia - born 4 weeks apart from each other and (usually) the best of friends

Kaylie's Weekend

At the Gig Harbor Maritime Festival, Kaylie built a sailboat at the Home Depot booth:
And she rode this wild stallion....

At Kitsap Kid's Day, she got sniffed by a bloodhound search and rescue dog (talk about bad breath!) We went with Bryan McConaughy and his sons Sean and Adam. Watch out Caden, Chris, and Gabe... there are some new boys in town that just may win Kaylie over! (Yes, we are currently taking applications for her arranged marriage)

At the park, Grandpa Ken pushed her on the swings



And the day ended with a nice bath...