Bainbridge Island

We had about enough time to unpack from our trip to Banff, wash clothes, and repack for our trip to Bainbridge island. I'm definitely not complaining. I think I could travel 361 days a year without a problem. Ansel could too. The girls and Corey, however, need a little more home time. We have some great friends from our time in St. Louis who rented a quaint cabin on Bainbridge island and invited us to spend the week with them. How could we say no?
Corey had to work the first part of the week and so I took off with the kids and made an overnight stop at my cousin Marika's house in Olympia. We took a hike down to the bay and did some clamming and discovering of many things weird and slimy. Marika is the queen of creativity and had the kids write letters for a time capsule which we buried in a secure location. Marika's daughter Alexis and the girls are attached at the funny bones when they are together and I had to perform an emotional surgery of sorts tearing them away when it was time for us to leave.
Ansel did some bonding with Isaac.

We made it to the ferry later that afternoon and enjoyed a windy 40 minute ride to the island.

Jeremy and Leigh were our first and dearest friends in St. Louis. We were there for 4 years and shared the woes and wearies of Medical school, the birth of three of our collective children, and the many adventures and misadventures of living in St. Louis. I don't know if I would have made it through without them. Now we have six collective children and after a few hours of excruciating shyness, they were soon running through the woods together like close-knit savages.

This was the cabin surrounded by 5 acres of lush forest, salmon berries, moss covered cedars, and waist-high ferns. I must admit that we didn't do much sight-seeing as it was too hard to tear ourselves away from this ideal setting.
Ansel proved himself to be quite the pyro and spent many an hour forging fire sticks. It was cool enough to have a fire going from morning until bed.

The kids spent most of the week (literally) fashioning bows and arrows out of the native sticks, feathers, and rocks. The last day they wanted to increase their arsenal and started working on knives and tomahawks. If we had stayed any longer, they may have skinned a squirrel.
Savanna became almost frighteningly proficient at archery. I shudder to imaging what damage she could do with a real bow and arrow. The day we got home I found her ogling an authentic Mongolian bow and arrow set. Unfortunately she doesn't have $250 at her disposal.
On the 4th of July, we pried ourselves loose from our cozy cottage and took the dusk ferry to Seattle to see the fireworks. The view of the Olympic Mt. Range was much more impressive than the firework display.

We also made it to the beach our last afternnon. It was too cold to swim, but there was a massive amount of mud in which the kids immersed themselves completely.
All the kids built an elaborate city with a government and council meetings. All to no avail. The city was soon swallowed up by the rising tide and the governor was the first to abandon.

Hmmm.

The kids were much too busy in governing and running the mud city to notice Corey's kite flying. I, for one, was really impressed. But the wind was so shifty and the kite was so pointy, that I began to fear for our lives and the lives of the other beach combers. It was far more dangerous than any of the arrows shot at me recently. I think Corey soon realized that there was a vital amount of control that was lacking retired the toy/weapon.