We spent the last 3 months in Washington State, hosting once again at Belfair State Park. We renewed old friendships, made new ones, and had the opportunity to be close to grandsons, Jonathan, Jayden and Joshua.
The site assigned us was first class!!!! A very large pull through with a beautiful and large cement patio, complete with covered 'party hut', two picnic tables and a full size bar-b-q. It was a terrific place to host a couple of potlucks with the other hosts, park aids and rangers. But having it at our personal disposal made having the boys (and their parental units) over, comfortable with lots of room to move around and play.
 |
| Jonathan - Senior Picture |
 |
| The Family at Graduation |
Our stay was especially important to be here in Washington this year, as Jonathan graduated from So. Kitsap High School. No words to explain how proud we are of him. Not only did he earn his high school
diploma, but also completed enough credits from Olympic Junior College to
receive his AA degree. He is off to college at Cal State Stanislaw in California.
 |
| Jayden Pitching |
 |
| Jonathan Pitching |
Once again, being here is not only to reconnect with everyone, but to watch the two older boys play baseball. This was Jonathan's last year and the boys play for a league called Blaze. Unlike Little League, Blaze games are never just in the local area. Boys and their parents needed to travel many miles and hours to get them to games and then stay and watch. Because of our commitment to the park and the distance to their games, we did not have the opportunity to see as many as we would have liked. But what we did see, we truly enjoyed. Not that we are proud grandparents or anything.....but the boys are quite talented! Both are pitchers, strong hitters, and play 1st and 3rd bases.
One game we were so happy to see, was where Jayden, who is 15, was asked to play on this brothers team of 18 year olds, as they were short players. Since this was most likely going to be the last game the two boys would play together, the managers set it up so that Jayden would pitch and Jonathan would catch. And to top it off......Josh was bat boy. Was a pretty special game!
 |
Low Boys playing on the same team
one last time. |
Besides baseball, Jonathan and Jayden are definitely growing up. Both boys have girlfriends now, Sara and Mackenzie. Girls were a delight to get to know and it was fun to see the boys in such a different way.
 |
Sara, Jayden, Jonathan & McKenzie
|
Joshua
When we arrived here in May, Josh who does not play baseball, was in the middle of horseback riding lessons. He learned not only to ride, but how to groom and take care of his horse both before riding and after.
 |
| Using his new knife to cut a rope |
 |
| Fusing the rope |
Once riding lessons were done, Josh joined the Boy Scouts and is fully engaged in obtaining badges. He wanted to work on his camping badge and part of it was to 'fuse and whip' a rope and make a fire.
 |
| Building a fire |
When he spent the night with us, Deane worked with him on fusing and whipping the rope and showed him how to build and start a fire.
 |
| A great fire! time for smores. |
 |
| Second One |
 |
| Finding the first one |
The other badge he worked on was Geocaching. Josh took my phone and with the Geocache App, we went looking for the 5 caches in Belfair State Park. Each time we found one, it would give us coordinates and a clue for the next one. Josh eventually found all 5 of them, just before my phone battery died.
 |
Reading the next coordinates from
find #3 |
 |
| Last cache #5 |
 |
| Batboy Josh |
 |
| Getting the bats off the field |
This summer Josh was also offered the opportunity to be the bat boy on both his brothers teams. He got a uniform, batting helmet and did a great job hanging out in
the dugout with his brothers, retrieving bats from the field and organizing them.
Roadtrip with J2 and J3
 |
| Our train |
We actually found a day where Jayden did not have a game or a practice. So we picked he and Joshua up and headed for Mt. Ranier for the day. We had tickets to ride the steam train from Elby Wa.
 |
| Jayden and Josh on the train |
The train ride was about 2 hours long as we traveled the tracks of lumber trains that traveled the area about 80 years ago. The views were scenic, of rivers and Mt. Ranier.
The train ride was a bit of a disappointment, but our time with the boys fun as we played games while driving there and back.
 |
| View of Mt. Ranier |
Family Camping
 |
| Kim, Josh, Kristopher and Kathan |
 |
| Peggy - Deane's cousin |
The fun part about being back in Washington, are the friends and family that come to visit and camp with us while we are here. Deane's cousin Peg, along with her daughter and family, once again made a trip out to see us and camp. We had burgers, hotdogs, all the normal campout food, and of course wampums. Dad Josh, had made his own wampum sticks from the last time they camped with us.
 |
| Kelsey, Kathan and Kristopher |
 |
| Cute Kathan |
 |
| Josh and Kristopher |
Camping with friends
 |
Joe and Leslie setting up their
bedroom |
 |
| Putting Kites together |
Friends Leslie and Joe also came for one night and camped in their tent on our site. Another perk of this host site is a huge clear pad for friends and family to put a tent on and not have to pay for a site.
Joe brought his kites and we actually had enough wind to get the his and Deanes kites in the air.
Being a very warm day, margaritas were in order after kite flying. Grilled steaks, corn on the cob and grilled peaches for dessert finished the day.
 |
| Deanes Kite |
 |
| Leslie flying Joes Kite |
 |
| Joe flying his new kite |
 |
| Joe and Deane rescuing the kite |
 |
| Bush ate Leslie's Kite |
Matthew
 |
| At Northwest Trek |
Last week of our stay, Matthew, Deane's grandson came up from Portland to stay with us here at Belfair. We saw three movies, visited NW Trek and while here in the park, he met new friends of families camping, climbed trees, had his cousin Joshua spend the night and helped Grandpa clean campsites.
Our time here was not all family and friends... we did manager to get out and enjoy the area on our days off. One such trip was to Victoria BC. You can see pictures of our time there on the next blog.
We are now back in Oregon, heading to Cove Palisades State Park, on Lake Billy Chinook, for the month of August.
