August Birthdays at Jetty Island

 Saturday, Aug. 8th we all headed to Jetty Island in Everett.  It was a cloudy day, but that didn't stop Annika and Seth from getting in the water...

 ...and digging in the mud.  The tide was out when we got there, but was coming back in.  They were able to dig up a few clams before the water covered up the area.  (They put the clams back after digging them.)

 A muddy girl after digging some clams.

 Clean again.

 Some in and some out of the water.

 Annika and Gram.

 Saben getting ready to catch a frisbee...

 ...then throwing it.

 More digging in the sand, but above the water level, so it's not muddy.  Todd and Seth started building a wall and moat to keep out the tide...

 ...then Seth joined them and helped with the project.

 Ken played an archeologist digging game with Annika and Seth for awhile.

 Then back to the water to try and float on some driftwood.

 This big log was a challenge, it kept floating into shore and...

 ...was a challenge for them to get back in the water.

 The log sitters trying to keep warm.

 It was quite windy most of the time we were out there, so there were several kites flying.  This one was my favorite.

 Papa and Saben.

The birthday card that Annika made for me.

Diablo Lake Tour

 One of my birthday activities was to go on the Diablo Lake Tour on Friday.  We got there early enough, that we had time to go on a short walk before the tour started.  This is the back side of Diablo Dam (in the distance) with Diablo Lake behind it.

 Mountains surrounding Diablo Lake.

 Another view of Diablo Dam from the tour boat.  The water in the lake is beautiful!

 Looking down a gorge that the boat went down on it's way to...

 ...Ross Dam.  You can see Ross Dam in the distance, it was still around the corner when I took this picture.

 We got off the boat at the Ross Dam power plant and everyone had to put on a construction helmet.

 Lots of construction helmets headed down the road to the entrance of the power plant.

 Ross Dam is 540 feet high and was never totally finished.

 Inside the power plant, we walked around the spinning turbine shaft.

 This is the boat we took the tour on.

 Another view of the beautiful water and mountains.  We were told that this mountain is called Pyramid Mountain

 This is the front side of Diablo Dam.

 You can drive or walk across Diablo Dam.  We did both.

 Water from Diablo Dam was going down this narrow gorge.

 We stopped at what we thought was the first dam on the Skagit River, but it turned out to only be the power plant for the Gorge Dam which was further up the road.

 There was a path to a waterfall behind the power plant, which Ken walked up to.

 I was hot and tired, so I waited on a bench along the path, while he went up to the falls.  While I was sitting there waiting for him to come back, I watched...

 ...a bunch of little squirrels playing together in a tree above me.  If you zoom in on the picture, you can see at least 3 of them.

You can see all 3 of them in this picture also if you zoom in.  I've seen plenty of squirrels, but had never seen them playing together like these were.  I wondered if they were siblings that hadn't left the nest yet.

Birthday Fun

 Tuesday morning, my birthday, started out with part of my birthday present coming to clean my house for me.  We had arranged for a former MOPS woman who cleans houses to come and clean for me, while we went out to have a day of fun activities!  First on the agenda, (after stopping to get a handicapped hanging thing for our car for after Ken has his surgery next week), was to meet Betsy and Seth for a picnic lunch at Forest Park in Everett.  After lunch we headed to the playground, specifically to the swings, Seth's favorite playground activity.

 Seth finally decided to play in the spray park after Ken's arm got tired from pushing the swing so long.

 I caught him mid-jump!

 Standing in the rain fall.

 Sitting on this sprinkler was one of the things he liked the most.

 Time to rest, get warmed up, and have a treat!

 The next activity on the agenda, was for the 2 of us to go canoeing on Lake Washington.  A selfie I took of us.

 The geese and ducks were sitting on this log, so we stopped for a picture, little realizing that the log continued underwater and when we were done taking the picture, we found out that we were stuck on the log!  It took awhile and I was beginning to wonder what we were going to do, when we finally were able to push off of it.

 Lots of ducks were finding food to eat.

 There were a lot of water lily plants everywhere we canoed, but the majority of them weren't open yet.

 Our last stop was the Mariner game that evening.

 We didn't know it when we decided to go to the game, but Felix Hernandez was pitching, which meant...

 ...that the "King's Court" was in session.  We were sitting on the other side of the field from them, but it was fun to watch them.

 A close up of the "King's Court" when they cheer Felix on to do a strike out.

 Morrison and Cano conferring before the start of the inning.

 Sitting at the game.  It was a gorgeous night and the Mariner's won, what more could you ask for?