The Nomadic Neuman's
June 2007

June 16, 2007
We arrive at SeaTac Airport to pick up our granddaughter, Lily, who is arriving from Michigan for a 6 week stay with us.
Unfortunately Dan got waylaid by security because he set off the alarms as he walked through the scanner.
Was he ever surprised at how thoroughly they checked him over! He'd not been through security for a few years.

Lily de-boards and finds us waiting there for her.
 
She & Grandpa wait for her luggage and then we walk to the car.
Lily has to stop and go in circles with her small bag spinning through the air......
     
In the Jeep, Lily immediately crawls in and she is ready to sleep. It's 2AM her time!
  
We stopped at Chuck's for a couple of days, so Lily & I could shop at my favorite thrift shop. On Mondays they have 99 cent items so we got lots of great bargains for her to wear. Lots of tops, a few pants, a warm, soft robe, a jean jacket (which she loves) and even a brand new winter coat! NaNa made sure she had enough new things to wear.
When we got back, she and Grandpa played with her new Baby Bratz dolls.


Monday   June 18, 2007

After arriving in Ocean Shores, Lily excitedly discovers the dock and plays with her dolls there.

When it gets dark, she comes in and NaNa shows her how to find the right pieces to put the puzzle together.
After a while she got the knack of it and was looking for & finding specific shapes/pieces pretty good.
    
NaNa created a private sleeping enviroment for Lily. She loves it!
At night the bamboo curtains come down. In the morning, we wind them up & tie
        

Tuesday   June 19, 2007
On our way for a ride on the beach, we see this deer on the side of the road.
Lily soon discovers that we see deer every day on our excursions!
 
We park the jeep because we found a treasure trove of sand dollars in this spot!

Lily had so much fun collecting sand dollars. She found 21 this day, what a blast.
        
She even found this starfish! But she was too frightened to touch it. We watched this seagull eat a clam.
      
We saw these people riding horses and I told her that we were going to ride, too, soon.....

That night, Grandpa went with us for a sunset drive along the beach. It was a pretty sunset.


Wed.   June 20, 2007
It was such a beautiful, sunny & warm day, we decided to go horsebackriding on the beach.
Lily was a bit timid, at first, but she soon felt like a pro.
   
These were our horses, Kim (NaNa's) and Jane in the foreground (Lily's).          Up she goes!
  
Cool..........This is way cool, NaNa!
  
  
Later that evening as the sun set, we went to discover another beach. Lily found some pretty wild flowers.

Also a really neat piece of driftwood that she wanted to crawl in, except for the spiders!
Oops...... I ran out of charged batteries for my camera, so that's it for tonight.

 
Thursday June 21, 2007
All these seagulls were gathered on the beach, until we drove near!
It was pretty cool to see them all fly up

I just couldn't resist this opportunity to capture her water adventure on camera.
First, just a bit of wading, then splashing, daring the wave to hit, laughing "It got me!" Oh, yuck.....
It was so cute. We continued on walking, splashing & finding more shells before heading home.
Luckily, NaNa had a blanket in the Jeep, because off came the shirt & jean jacket, too!
         
When we got back to the motorhome after our beach walk,
Grandpa had set up Lily's "Dance Revolution" in the new house. (We didn't want all that jumping in the motorhome!)
He showed her how to play, and off she went! Looks like she had fun, doesn't it?
      

Friday June 22, 2007
We went into town to see the beginnings of the "Sand Castle & Sawdust Festival".
At the Convention Center, they'd built a neat sandcastle for an opening display.

The chainsaws were buzzing all around us as they prepared for the judging tomorrow.
     
Then we went a block to the beach to find the person giving sandcastle building lessons!
People were having a great time in all sorts of ways. Lots of kite flying, too.
 
We found the instructor, watched and listened carefully. There's more to building a sandcastle than you know!
1. Start with a mounded base, 2. level your tub, fill wth sand & lots of water, stirring with each addition.
3. Remove the container 4. Add another smaller one 5. Remove     Voila.......the beginnings of a neat sand castle!
        
7. With a special tool, mark the top. 8. Shape the the top of the castle by slicing away thin layers.
9. Cut out the door, dig it out from both sides. 10. Trim it anyway you want.
For $2 we got the bucket, tube & special tool to take home.
      
We looked around to see how everyone else was doing then Lily began her masterpeice.
    
Lily begins her castle and follows all the steps as instructed.
            
When we got back to the house, Chuck & Dan were busy watering and spreading grass seed for lawn.

Lily showed them her new skill! She did great, but I think the guys mostly noticed how
absolutely filthy she managed to get and wondered how I was going to clean her up!
  

Saturday June 23, 2007
I went out earlier in the morning to see how the builder's were coming along.
People of all ages were entered. Some were huge undertakings!


When Lily & Grandpa were finally ready, off we went.
The contestants were all busy with their projects. Lily was so cute in one of her new outfits.
So cute, Grandpa couldn't resisit giving her a hug.
      
The sandcastles were so varied........some great, some good, some.....hmmmmm well, they had fun anyway!
These are just a few of the final entrants.
    
     
           
Lily just HAD to test the water!
    
After the sandcastles. we went back to see the woodcarvers' creations.
Walked around the center of town where Lily & Grandpa found some funny hats!
        
    

 
Sunday June 24, 2007
We drove to the jetty and walked out on the rocks as we explored yet another area of Ocean Shores.

Someone had built this neat driftwood hide-a-way which Lily enjoyed.
     
Then we all climbed on the rocks to explore the jetty.
      
Dan climbed down before we were ready so he took the camera and got some good pictures of us climbing around.
 
Surprisingly, Lily actually used the dreaded "Porta-Potty" as we left the jetty. We saw a
beautiful rainbow on the drive home. Lily helped NaNa make meatballs for the spagetti dinner.
     

 
Monday June 25, 2007
Lily earns a little money helping NaNa pull grass & weeds from the yard.
The sheetrock is delivered today.
    

 
Tuesday June 26, 2007
A doe & her 2 fawns were grazing right outside our motorhome this morning.
We had another relaxing day at home. On an evening drive along the seashore,
I saw this proud bald eagle resting on the beach.

 
Wednesday June 27, 2007
A good day for the beach! We had a front row seat, too.
The horses came by on their walk. See how close we parked to the water?
  
Lily created another sandcastle.
  
Then went to play in the waves........
      
     
After a couple of hours, she asked to move to a new location so she could find some friends.
So we did, and she did! What fun for her to have some young playmates.
     

Thursday June 28, 2007
It was a rainy, gloomy day outside so we stayed in our pajamas all day and enjoyed a quiet day,
playing Boggle, Pass the Pigs & putting together a kitty puzzle.
  

 
Friday June 29 2007
We had an adventure drive to see where the tsunami evacuation route would take us.
We made it to the Olympic National Rain Forest! We saw a couple "Largest in the world" trees
before heading back to the theater to see Evan Almighty.

These two huge trees were nearby, so we decided to hike a bit and see them! Well worth it!

 
Saturday June 30, 2007
The sheetrock crew came and finished sheetrocking the house. While Dan & Lily went out exploring,
Leanne cleaned the awful mess the crew left in every room.

 
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