Father's Day at Birch Bay

This Father's Day we spent the afternoon out at Birch Bay with family and friends. It was a beautiful day and I got a little sun burnt. We had a good time. The kids love to play on the beach.
Lots of good food and fellowship!

Roy and his dad barbecuing.

It was a little chilly at first. Gracie is wearing her auntie Krista's coat.

Krista and Gracie.

Cowboy Jon.

I was trying to get a picture of Roy flying the kite, but the kite flew out of view and I got an action shot of Phil throwing the football.

The children digging in the sand.

Gracie using a cup to dig the sand.

Using her hand to put sand in the cup.

Having fun in the sand.



She finally looked up at me.

Carson by the water. Soaked up to his knees.

Having fun on the beach.



A picture of Krista's and my sandy feet.

Sitting around the fire.

Three of the Van Cleve men.

Mom Van Cleve doing what she loves: holding a baby!

Field Trip

Today the two Kindergarten classes went on a field trip to Appel Farms and Hovander Park. No, I did not misspell Appel. It is the family name of the owners of a cheese farm. The kids had a great time. We first went to Appel Farms for a tour and also had the opportunity to try several types of cheeses. Then we proceeded to Hovander Park to have lunch, see the animals and play!


Carson's class.


Carson and the cute calf.

All the kids petting the calf.

Silly faces!

Learning what the cows eat.

Carson's buddy Miguel.

Carson looking at the bunnies.





Turkeys.

I've never seen so many kids get so excited over a peacock opening its feathers.

Who knew putting a tractor on a playground would be such a hit!



Carson's class.

Another tractor.

On the bus back to school.

Silly faces!

Delft Square

Yesterday Delft Square caught fire! I was one of the many responders to go fight the big blaze! Since I was involved in it I didn't get the chance to take pictures during. But there are many pictures on the different news websites. I took these today at 2pm. A lot of damage!!! I know a lot of people were not happy about the weather yesterday, but as firefighers we were glad. It made a big difference! Give thanks to God!!!




Not often do you look IN windows to see the sky.




Our Ladder Truck ready to hit any flare ups with water.


Our first out Engine and Chief's Command rig.






One of our FF's on the Ladder.


The windows the fire first shot out of.






The north-west corner.


The back side in the alley.


Above the Hallmark store.


The professional cleaners cleaning the Hallmark store where there was a lot of smoke and water damage, but luckily no fire damage.


The alley view again.


Setting up above the Hallmark store to spray more water.

New Backround

I got bored with my blog so I made a few changes.

I took the picture you see at the top of the page up at

The Summit at Snoqualmie pass.

Dressing Up

Gracelyn loves to dress up! Not always very good at matching. But still very cute! These are her princess clothes and her Dora stocking hat!

Bowling Ball

I like to call May my month b/c our anniversary, mother's day and my birthday are all in this month. Roy usually gets me one big gift for all three. This year he got me a bowling ball. I was so excited. We've been bowling once a month with a group of friends so this was a perfect gift! We went bowling last Saturday and I scored my highest ever: 161!!! I told Roy he got me a good ball! Check it out, isn't nice? (Please ignore my dirty rug, my vacuum broke and it's a black rug that shows everything)

Reading Books

Ever since Carson started learning to read, he loves reading to his sister! I think it is so sweet, I just had to capture the moment!