Keeping Cool

We've had a heat wave since about the middle of last week and this weekend our main focus was cooling off! On Saturday morning, the Toews boys (including Cousin Chris) had a job chicken-catching in Aldergrove (yes, as in Napoleon Dynamite and no, these chickens did not have large talons). Elissa came over for the morning and joined Micah and I in the "cold tub" (the hot tub filled with cold water). It was a lot of fun, but when the boys came home at lunch we knew we needed to find someplace bigger to cool off :)

We ended up at Cultus Lake which was pretty packed, but great fun nonetheless. All of my memories of swimming at Cultus include freezing to death in the mountain lake, but the water was actually quite bearable and very refreshing! Micah was happy to find a beach full of rocks and spent the afternoon throwing them into the water.
Sleepy Micah at the beach.

On Sunday Erik and I decided to have a family day and go someplace new, so we packed up the car and headed into the States. We ended up at Deception Pass State Park (Whidby Island) in Washington. I think we only got to the beach around 4 pm - once we finally got out of the house and made the necessary stops at Target in Bellingham and Krispy Kreme in Burlington, the day was pretty much over. But, the sun was still blazing hot and the beach was a welcome sight. We had never been to Deception Pass before and didn't know where the nice spots were so we stopped at one of the first beaches we saw. It was PACKED! I could understand the appeal since there was a nice warm lake and then a thin strip of land separating the lake from the ocean. But there wasn't a great beach area and we kept trying to run after Micah, so after we cooled off in the lake we packed up and drove a little further. That's when we found North Beach - a long strip of nice sandy ocean beach that had less than half the people. The ocean was FREEZING and far to cold for Micah and I (though Erik braved the water twice!) but by that time the heat was starting to subside. Micah was completely content playing in the sand while Erik and I relaxed. The only challenge was changing Micah's dirty diaper on the beach and dealing with all that sand on his little naked body!

Our little family with the Deception Pass bridge in the background.

Now we're looking forward to having a visit from family. My sister Nichole and her husband Brad are coming from Winnipeg with their three kids, Kailyn, Josh & Noah. We're all looking forward to seeing them and I'm glad Micah will have a chance to get to know his cousins a little bit better.