Of bays and farms

Thursday brought more adventuring and time with family. First off, we headed down through the Skagit flats, via Farm-to-Market Road (possibly the best name of a road ever) for a picnic at Padilla Bay.

We met up with NanaNan (Grace's Great NanaNan), Aunt Patty (Grace's great aunt), cousins Hunter and Caleb (my second cousins? i can't keep it straight past first cousin), and Pop. Aunt Patty brought quite the picnic spread and we enjoyed yummy food, sun and great company.

Grace had a wonderful time with Hunter and Caleb. Despite their being middle school aged, they were incredibly sweet with her - they played with her, walked with her to the beach, and taught her how to steal one another's noses.

At one point the three of them sat down at a picnic far across the park from ours. They sat giggling and talking for quite a while. We were dying to hear what they were talking about.

After saying good-bye (too brief a visit!), we took off for Hovander Park while Grace snoozed in the car. Grace was still asleep when we got there so Dad and I took a walk while Steve stayed with Grace. After we checked out the animals, a woman with two kids trailing behind her ran up to us asking we knew where to find a ranger. When we asked if she needed help, she said she had dropped her car keys and the pig ate them. The kids were crying and saying "we'll never be able to get inside our house!" We were pretty sure this would be the end of the pig when the keys sliced his intestines, but in the end the pig had just munched on the keys and spit them out, destroying the fob. I assume the kids were able to get into their house eventually. Dad and I kept snickering, imaging when Mark was a ranger there and picturing him climbing into the pig pen to retrieve the keys.

Eventually the action was over and Grace woke up. She was quite delighted by the animals

Cows!

Turkeys and chickens!

We checked out the barn and the old tractors.

And the buggy.

Then we headed over the playground. Grace had so much fun playing with Pop and climbing everything (currently her favorite activity) and then insisted on climbing everything in bare feet. Because everything is more fun when you're flirting with the threat of splinters.

We taught Grace how to play hide-and-seek. She had a fairly loose grasp of the rules, but we all had fun.

Grace always adores spending time with Pop.

We headed back to town for pizza at Chichetti's, a Bellingham institution (it had probably been a million years since the last time I went there!). Oh, long Washington summer days! How I love thee.