Summer of Sixes

It’s summer! And I have big plans. Despite wanting a quiet summer. It’s been years now, where I say I want a quiet summer and then proceed to fill every summer day to the brim. I think I’ve found a balance for this summer. Think being the operative word. I’m calling it the Summer of Sixes. Because I like catchy, cheesy names.

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My plan is to check off six things from different categories this summer. I even came up with six categories, each with six things—I got carried away. Which is why quiet summers never happen. Perhaps one category should be stay TF home and literally do nothing, for six days. Hahaha.

This will mostly serve as a checklist to reference. And accountability. I’m more likely to actually do whatever if I say I’m going to do whatever. Plus, the kiddos read anything I post here and I know they’ll bug me to do all the things.

Without further ado, the Sixes.

Hikes.

This one is pretty standard. The kiddos and I hike often during the summers. No surprise here. Last year we did our own Hiking & Ice Cream Camp. We’ll do this again, in August. The plan was to check it off in June but days filled up, doing other activities with friends. Our August hiking camp aside, these are the six hikes I’d like to check off.

1. Gold Creek Pond
2. Moss Lake
3. Talapus Lake
4. Ring Hill Forest
5. Boulder Garden Loop
6. Iron Goat Trail

This list is mostly toddler-friendly hikes. Because Maive is a big girl and wants to walk like the siblings.

Parks.

A few summers back, a fellow mom’s summer goal was checking off visiting a new park each week. I like this idea. But every week—with our schedule—seems a bit much. Six new parks over summer seems more reasonable for us.

1. Lake Wilderness Arboretum
2. Hartman Park
3. Si View Park
4. Osprey Park
5. Tanner Landing Park
6. Gold Creek County Park

This list seems doable. I can’t believe we’ve never been to Hartman Park. We technically have been to Osprey Park but it was for a short period and we didn’t explore; we stayed put at the playground.

State Parks.

Other than always wanting to check out Flaming Geyser—from seeing the sign driving on the 18—I randomly picked the other five parks from the Washington State Parks map.

1. Flaming Geyser State Park
2. Nolte State Park
3. Federation Forest State Park
4. St. Edward State Park
5. Kanaskat-Palmer State Park
6. Kopachuck State Park

This is the one category I’m not confident will be completely checked off. I like to avoid crowds and state parks tend to have larger crowds during summer.

Trips.

The most exhausting category, haha. Well, in fairness, almost anything with five kiddos is exhausting. My goal this year has been—and continues to be—to take the kiddos on a trip somewhere each month. It doesn’t have to be fancy or far away, just somewhere. Looking back at my childhood, we went almost nowhere. I’m switching this up for our kiddos. Hopefully they look back on their childhood and appreciate all the trips. Memories and all.

1. Silverwood
2. Lincoln City
3. Redwood Forest
4. California
5. Leavenworth
6. Camp Orkila

A few of these are repeat trips; we’re creatures of habit. No link for California. Because we go a few places when we go back home. We’ll be staying with Brian’s family where the kiddos will get their swim on all day, every day. And have ice cream sundaes every night. Lucky kiddos!

Day Outings.

Some of these are standard summer day outings for us. A few are new this summer.

1. Berry Picking
2. Bowling
3. Tourist for a Day
4. Evergreen State Fair
5. Geocaching
6. Farmer’s Market

The one I’m most looking forward to is Tourist for a Day. Laine watched a TikTok about being a Tourist for a Day locally and asked if we could check off this idea over summer. Sold. We have a new friend who is from Edmonds and she has offered to be our tour guide. I think we’ll take her up on this! Apparently it includes a ferry trip across the Sound for ice cream. Heck yeah.

Kiddo Requests.

Each kiddo was asked to come up with one thing they want to do over summer. I love Maive’s answer, a lake. I’m not exactly sure what she means?! But we’ll hype up a lake visit for her and she’ll be a happy camper. Baby means the park playground at Flowing Lake we visited a few months back. She really liked the playground there and has been asking to go again.

1. Blaise: Make Donuts
2. Laine: Roller Skating
3. Saige: Make Popsicles
4. Baby: Park Playground
5. Maive: A Lake
6. Bonus: Make Ice Cream

All seem totally reasonable to check off. I added a sixth one, because Summer of Sixes and all.

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Summer of Sixes all outlined! Now comes the fun part—checking off things. Hopefully the PNW gets the memo that it’s summer FFS. And I say this as someone who absolutely loves the overcast, rainy, chillier days. Just not for 1,000 days in a row. Because it feels like it’s been gray and cold for that long.