Lake Wenatchee Camping Trip

This last weekend we headed to Lake Wenatchee for some fun family camping.

We met up with the Bates, Adams and Gansneders for some good food and relaxing times by the fire. Since we have a few more camp-outs planned this summer, here's a list of things I need to remember for next time:

1. Bring warm clothes-----like socks would've been nice

2. Take a family picture with me actually in it

3. Don't be lame and watch Braydan have all the fun. Get down in the sand with the kids and play!

4. Take Kaleb potty before letting him sleep in my sleeping bag! You'd think that would be an obvious one, but I guess not.

5. Braydan proved himself an excellent camp cook with his new grill, so relax and let him cook!

6. Don't pick the windiest camping spot in the North West

7. We need a bigger vehicle

Eliza LOVED filling buckets with sand. I had to wash her hair 3 times to get her clean again when we got home.

Braydan was on the only brave one to dive in. The water was FREEZING!

Kaleb was in pure outdoor heaven with his friends. I'm not sure of all they did, but when we packed up camp and they thought they had to separate but then learned they could play longer at the lake, they both hugged and screamed for joy, Henry repeating, "I love you, I love , I love you!"

The only picture I have of everyone (except me and Steph's family)

Braydan completing my dare. I'm a wuss and didn't complete my end.

cleaning out toes before lunch

Braydan capturing more cowboy prisoners for the abandoned island (he was the designated pirate)

Paint, pools, and pretty princesses

So I blogged about Braydan's weekend, but skipped mine. To make a long story short, I had to repaint my downstairs kitchen area. It's still green, but oh how I love this green! It's soft and warm and not so minty. When it was at this stage, it looked like manure color. I was seriously worried.

But then it got better. Amber, Steph, and Angie helped me Friday night and then Amber helped me again Saturday! Thank you friend! (especially because she climbed into all the scary spots).

The kids had fun eating popcorn and watching a movie.

Amber was experimenting with my camera later and took some cute pictures of Eliza. I really want her lens now (and her skills :)

The sun is finally here and hot, so we've had fun going for dips in the backyard.

Life is good.

Happy Father's Day Braydan

Since it's Father's Day weekend, I'll devote this post to Braydan. I mentioned in a previous post that they climbed Sahale, but I got mixed up. They did Ingalls Peak and this weekend was Sahale. He left early Friday morning with his humongous pack that I can't even lift off the ground.

heading up Hi Wes

Base Camp

Playing Cards
Hiking at 4 am

One step . . . breathe. . . . one step . . breathe

A little vertical On top

The Summit

Looks a little sketchy. . . so . . .

. . . . close enough. Take a picture (braydan's on the left)

Happy Father's Day Braydan! You are the best Dad to Kaleb and Eliza. I love seeing your face light up when they come running to give you hugs after work. You are not afraid to dance crazy with them or let them crawl all over you. You are always the first one to jump up to take Kaleb potty or rescue Eliza from dangerous places. You make the coolest robots with Kaleb and dress Eliza in the most creative outfits. I love that you let them tag along while you do yard work or other projects. You are more patient with them and you take time to listen and laugh with them. Thank you for all you do. We love love you!

XXXOXOXOXOXO

Kaleb, Eliza and Jessica

Sunny Saturdays

I know . . . I know. I always write about the weekends. Do I do anything in the week? Yes, but it's not that exciting: endless loads of laundry, dishes, cooking, and cleaning. Actually, cooking is pretty exciting to me, but I'm not to the point where I want to devote a blog to it. Maybe someday (I really love My Kitchen Cafe right now). There's also playing with the kids, park trips, VT, enrichment, primary meetings, shopping, running, piano, gardening, play dates . . . But that about sums it up.

So, on to our sunny Saturday. Here was my list for the day 1. teach piano 2. Garage sales! 3. Lake Stevens 4. Asian Spice 5. Stake Conference 6. Prison Break

Okay, this is going to sound awful, but it's honest at least. We accomplished all but stake conference! I know! Braydan has been gone the last 2 weekends and he will be gone next weekend again, so we rebelled and stayed at the lake until we got hungry. I felt guilty after, especially watching prison break after the kids went to bed (talk about night and day to stake conference!), but I got my punishment. I couldn't sleep that night because I was so scared from the show! I decided I can't watch it anymore. Braydan likes it because the main character is an engineer. Can someone just tell me how it ends?

I have to add some funny Kaleb liners:

1. I was trying to hurry and finish dinner one day and he and his stool were in my way. I impatiently said, "will you please scoot over son?"

He quickly responded, "I'm not a son! I'm perfect!"

2. Every night before he goes to bed, he instructs me not to clean up his "robots." Most of the time I ignore him, but one day I didn't. He came downstairs in the morning and almost screamed with delight, "Mom! Good job not cleaning up my bad guys!"

3. A few days after Kaleb's 3 year old check up (where he got a sucker for shots) he was trying to get my attention but I obviously wasn't listening fast enough because he suddenly said, "Mom! I'll give you a sucker if you watch this."

4. We have salad a lot and I just about gave up getting Kaleb to try some, but one day he surprised us all when he shouted, "Mom, Dad! I ate some salad! It tastes like ice cream I think!

5. And finally (my favorite) he randomly said one day, "Mom, you're my best friend."

Last weekend was lots of fun, despite Braydan's absence again! He went to Special Olympics for youth conference and had a good time. More on that later.

Saturday morning we had a primary activity and I just brought the kids. It was "Follow the Prophet" theme so I was Noah and we had relays to fill the boats with animals. Kaleb had a blast and I think he'll do fine next year in primary. . . . . maybe . . . as long as there is lots of running around crazy I guess.

It was a gorgeous day and we probably should have done yard work after, but instead we went to the lake. I finally got my new swimsuit so I was excited to wear it. Oh what a pain to find a swimsuit! Here it is Alisha:

Well, I never took my shirt off because it was windy. Kaleb wasn't a wuss like me and it didn't take him long to take off his clothes.

We splurged and went to dinner after with Julie and had fun catching up.

Braydan got home at 8 and told me lots of stories about the athletes. There were thousands of people there from all over. He said one of the runners did a 10k in 30 minutes. I've been training for a 5k and I can barely do that in under 30 minutes!

I guess I better add some Kaleb and Eliza updates:

Kaleb:

• Is excellent at entertaining himself --playing "robots"
  or building "treehouses." His "treehouses" are piles of sticks, rocks and leaves (outside). He's at the stage where I constantly hear, "Mom, watch this!" over and over again. Even if I watch and say "wow!" or something creative, he still repeats this at least 20 times.

• He loves playing with his friend Henry.
  He really looks up to him and can't wait to invite him over.

• His favorite argument goes something like this:

Eliza: Hi Bubba!

Kaleb: I'm not Bubba! I'm Kaleb!

Eliza: Hi Bubba!

Kaleb: I'm not Bubba! I'm KALEB!

Each time his voice escalates until Eliza cries. Drives me crazy! I'm like, "just let her call you what she wants!"

Eliza:

My sweet curly sue is talking more. She says: all done, cracker, thank you, what's that, I'm tired, swing, outside, nose, eyes, puppy, kitty, bless you, slide, a bite, moo.

My favorite is when Braydan and I say, "Who wants to ______?" She'll always answer, "me!" Even though she doesn't understand what she's agreeing too. We did an experiment once and asked, "who wants to eat worms?" She immediately said, "me!"

Resurrected Squirrel

A few days ago I was driving fast and ran over a squirrel. I saw it crossing, but I thought I could beat him. I felt the thump as the tire went over him! Poor thing. Kaleb was in the car and heard me apologize to the squirrel. He always asks a million questions so I had to explain what I did.

Anyway, today he was eating breakfast and suddenly he was screaming, "Mom, Mom look! It's a squirrel!"

I humored him and went and looked out the window.

Kaleb turned and hugged me excitedly, "you didn't squish him with the car! He's okay!"

It was so funny that I couldn't tell him the truth :)