The 4th at Tokeland

The 4^th of July wouldn’t be the same without going to Tokeland, watching the little parade and visiting Westport for doughnuts and boat watching.  This year, Mom and Dad and Hailey and her boys came. It’s a tight fit in the cabin, but this year Mom and Dad build an addition onto the house, the “sleeping shed”. So we all have places to sleep comfortably.  For years Mom has dreamed of having her own place in Tokeland, and thanks to her mom’s generous gift she left when she died, they bought a dumpy, unlivable cabin with a completely overgrown yard and turned it into a family haven.  Mom and Dad have been working their butts of, literally, building and landscaping the Tokeland property for the past 2 ½ years.  It’s a kid’s dream. There’s a platform treehouse with steps and a railing.  From the platform the kids can get a great view of the ocean off in the distance.  There are short trails that weave around from the lawn through their little forest to the ocean grass and back again.  Mom and Dad creatively put up a limb gazebo from branches on the property.  I swear it looks like it came right out of Better Home and Gardens magazine.  It’s so cool, Mom!  Mom plans to have tea parties there.  They made a permanent fire pit from cement that is lined with rocks Mom and Dad collected from the yard.  It’s great for making roasting marshmallows. Next to the deck they made a sand box for the kids.  Isaac, Linnea and Eli spent most of the weekend playing out in the yard.  Linnea’s legs are all scratched up and bruised from her fun.  There aren’t many places in Seattle that she can do that.  This year we went to a new beach area to swim and play that we’ve never been before.  Linnea, my never cold child, was out jumping out in the surf with Daddy.  He finally had to make her get out because she was shivering so much.  “I’m not cold, Daddy!” she’d said.  I love going to Tokeland, like Nathan likes going to Puget Island.  I’ve been going to Tokeland my whole life for vacations, first to Nancy’s cabin (a friend of my mom’s) and then to the RV Park.  It’s so amazing to have our own place to go to.  Thank you Mom and Dad!

Walking to the Tokeland 4th of July Parade
Yes, that's dad in the crazy wig

Most of the parade is old cars and firetrucks



Linnea and Isaac shared a bed, how cute!