Weekend Update

The Kids

This weekend our dinner group gathered for a day at the beach at Andy and Michelle's beach house on Camano Island. Normally the adults meet once a month for dinner and we leave the kids with sitters, but twice a year we try to include the kids.

These kids have all known each other since the day they were born and they really love each other. Getting all 8 kids together in someone's home is, quite frankly, a royal pain, but it's always so worth it because they enjoy each other so much.

Badmitton

Let's go for a ride!

Upon arrival, those kids and dads could not get to the beach fast enough. Andy has an old jet ski that each and every one of them could not wait to get their hands on. Early on, Mike decided to take Ryan for a ride.

Uh oh...

This goes without saying, but Mike has never used a jet ski before.

After dumping my precious 8 year old into Puget Sound twice, Mike relinquished his life vest.

Andy to the rescue

...and Andy stepped in to give Ryan the full jet ski experience.

Eric's dream come true

Ever the daredevil, Eric wasn't going to let a little thing like Mike and Ryan's near death experience spoil his fun. Eric had all the dads zipping him around the Sound. If you ask Eric his favorite part of the trip, he will tell you without hesitation that it was the jet ski.

Rowboat

While the dads took turns chauffeuring the kids around on the jet ski, Ross and Paul, the two oldest boys, took turns rowing the younger kids around in a rowboat.

For the dads and the kids it was a day of beach, swimming in the lagoon, more beach...

S'mores

The only other thing we did that day was eat. And eat. And eat. We had chicken. Fresh crab. Hot dogs. Chips. Salads. Watermelon. Zucchini bread. Veggie trays. Pie. Mud Pie. Chocolate concoctions. S'mores. We at until we were sick.

The Girls
This picture was
taken a couple
of years ago at
another family
dinner group. Too
bad no one thought
to take an updated one!

And then we ate some more.

This picture is not from this trip. In fact, this picture is not from this year. Guess who takes the pictures? Yep. Those girls over there. So guess who is never in a picture? Right again. But that's us. We were there too. Sitting in lounge chairs, drinking pineapple margaritas, laughing at my husband, watching me knit socks, and throwing food toward our children when they complained they were hungry. And we are also the ones who washed our dirty disgusting kids the next morning only because it was too late to wash them when we got home that night. We are the ones who washed the dirty disgusting clothes from a day at the beach, and who vacuumed up the sand from the kids' beds, and, inexplicably, the couch.

That day was even better than a day at the yarn store.