Travels with Jon & Kate Part Two!: Race Week, Youth Fun, and Loganberry festivities- July

July was a pretty chill month, which was needed after our busy June. To begin with, we went down to Penn Cove to see part of Whidbey Island Race Week. Each year, for one week, sail boats race around different parts of the island. Turns out, someone we know from the Anacortes church ended up winning the regatta (he also holds the record for the fastest sailing time around Vancouver Island).

Nom nom nom

The month of July also contained a couple of fun youth activities. First we had a day where we took the kids go-karting at the local drive-in. You had to be a certain height to drive, so Jon, myself, and another mom were roped into driving some of the younger/shorter ones :) We had a good time. Later in the month we had a sleepover at the church. I went home for the night to sleep, but I hear they had a good time. They played games, watched movies, and went outside to play hide and seek in the dark, with glow wrist bands. The younger ones stayed up till about 2am, and the older ones were up till about 5am :) I came back in the morning to make them breakfast; most of them were not coherent at that hour, having only been asleep for about 4 hours. That's the sign of a good sleepover though.

Winner!

First free Jamba!

Also during that month, I found out I won a Jamba Juice contest, meaning I received a $500 gift card! I didn't really believe it until I got the letter and gift card in the mail, but I have been thoroughly enjoying it ever since. Luckily, the closest store is about 30 minutes away, off island. I say luckily because if it were any closer, the card would probably be used up by now. As it is, every opportunity we get, we stop. They even have delicious food now, so the card is going quicker than planned. The first chance we had to use it was when we went hiking on Camano Island. We stopped on our way there for lunch, and on our way back for dinner :) Why not?

mmm Loganberry Pie

The only other event in July left to speak of was the Loganberry festival. Down at Greenbank Farm, they had a series of booths, similar to what they have at the farmer's market each week. What we were most excited about were the dog agility contests. They were 4H kids trying to qualify for state championships, either in the Novice, Intermediate, or Expert level. So...some of the dogs were hilariously bad :) But one little guy, the only one in the expert level, was really good! Inspiration for Gromit :) Maybe next year. After the agility contest was a display of dogs known as "disc dogs", and man were they good! They got some serious air! The only odd thing about the Loganberry Festival was its lack of Loganberries. At the different booths, we saw various farmers selling blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, marionberries, boysenberries, and tayberries. But no loganberries! We managed to get some at the farm cafe, in the form of pie ... I suppose it'll do :)