here they came a-wasselling

after months and months of excitement and preparation for the wassells to come visit, it finally happened! all six of them were here for almost two weeks in early july, and we had a wonderful time together. noah really loved following the big boys around and being followed by little asher. it was great to see how all the boys work and play together, and it was fairly easy for noah to join into the fray. i know he misses benny, eli, jude and asher a lot now, and always smiles and laughs at their pictures.

aaron took a whole week off during the wassell visit, so we had a great family vacation time, jam-packed with adventure. we began with a festive fourth of july party in a neighborhood park, where the wassells got to meet many of our and noah's friends. here are noah and asher sharing some watermelon:

of course we made a trip down to the harbor to see the boat, and though the rigging isn't up yet aaron gave the boys a small motor-ride around the harbor. here we are motoring up to the dock:
we also bought some live crabs from grumpy dan's crab boat, which the boys played with at home in the bathtub for a while. they were given names (flunky and mr. wimple, i believe) and we said sad goodbyes as aaron dropped them into boiling water and he, chris and scott devoured them dipped in butter. (i agreed with the boys: yuck!)

we also did some crafting, and everyone made their own animal shirt with freezer paper stencils. noah had a turkey (due to jude calling him turkey instead of turtle), we made an elephant for little henry back in beverly, benny made a crab, eli made a wolf, jude made a bear, and scott made a butterfly.

we biked around town and around lopez island. jude fell in love with noah's bike seat, which he called the "green seat," and noah didn't mind jude having a turn.

we took lots of walks and wagon rides around the neighborhood, most of which stopped at nelson's market for penny candy.

we went for an awesome three-day biking and camping trip on lopez island, the nearest of the san juan islands, where we saw wild bunnies, eagles, great blue herons and a jellyfish. we spent a day lounging and creating on spencer spit beach--chris, eli and jude made a faerie house; aaron, scott, benny and eli made a driftwood raft; aaron made a driftwood chair and the wassells made a rock rainbow. noah and asher munched on driftwood and rocks. we even made it to storytime at the lopez island library.

after we returned from the island we headed north to b.c., where we swam and lounged at grandma and grandpa bandstra's house in ladner for a day, and then headed into vancouver for a busy day of city activities. i'm sure the boys would say the highlight was seeing the beautiful beluga whales at the vancouver aquarium...

but for me the highlight was definitely the melt-in-your-mouth scones made by the french pastry chef for high tea at the hotel vancouver. christina and i had tea with jessica thistle and aaron's sister irene, and we all agreed it was one of the loveliest things ever. we also had a great lunch picnic in stanley park with the thistles, the boys took a train ride in the park, and we had yummy indian food and arcade fun at granville island. here we are in grandma and grandpa's backyard:

what a lovely two weeks! we all had such a fun time with chris, scott, benny, eli, jude and asher, and hope that it won't be too long until we see them again. i felt lucky to get to know the boys a bit better and for them to know noah. (i think they all understood him better than aaron and i do!)

though the house is empty of wassells now, i keep finding little wassell treasures hidden in dark corners (like eli's red underwear hanging from my bookshelf). wassells, we miss you!


lots more wasselling pictures here. also a video of the driftwood raft adventure here.