Forest Park/ Lake Roesiger

This last weekend felt more like summer! Friday we went on a fun picnic with the Bettilyons to Forest Park. It was hard to get the kids to eat because they were so excited to play. Even though the sun was almost down, they still got their swimsuits on and got a little wet.

Last year they were so afraid of splash parks, but this year . . . . I could see potential for them actually enjoying it . . . maybe.

Saturday we loaded up the kayaks and drove to Lake Roesiger. I really love this lake. I'm going to adopt it for the summer I think. Not many people, clean water, and 20 min. drive.
Braydan dared me to swim out to a buoy. I waded in and out about 10 times up to my waist and would come back shivering. He said, " I knew you wouldn't really do it." That did it! I dove in and swam out there just to prove him wrong. It was really cold and I got tired, but I made it!

The boys tried fishing, but no luck.

Eliza didn't want to leave. This video is at 4pm after playing since 10!

Forbidden Peak/ Leavenworth

Braydan climbed Forbiden Peak last weekend.

He summed up the trip, "The way up was fun, challenging, and exhilarating. The way down was cold, wet, and miserable."

Matt said Braydan looked dead when they got back to camp. He climbed in his tent and fell right asleep. They asked him if he needed water and he was already out. He didn't even eat dinner.

Last year they didn't summit, but this year they did! He says he's officially retired now, but I've heard that many times.

So, we found some fun things to do while he was gone. I can't remember most of it now, but Saturday we went to Leavenworth with Amber, Rebecca, and Danette and kids. We wanted to escape the weather, but arrived to pouring rain. We said a prayer and started our hike around Blackbird Island. I didn't even bring a jacket! Luckily, after about 1o minutes, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Yeah for prayers! We had fun exploring, playing by the river with friends,

or not . . .

going to lunch, getting ice cream,

The kids had a blast rolling down this hill in the town square. Once they got bored with that, they started pulling each other down. They all had brown bumbs by the end of the day.

Eliza screamed the whole way home because I forgot her blanket and she was soooooo tired. But, other than that, the day was a success.

Crabs

Kaleb's been looking forward to crabbing with Braydan for weeks!

Every day he asked how many minutes until he could go on the boat.

They caught lots of crabs,

took some naps (doesn't that look comfortable?),

and had fun eating them. We had to watch several youtube videos on how to cook and dissect them.

Yum!

Summer

I got this bike for Eliza at a garage sale last weekend and she loves it. She's working on peddling and steering, (which means we have to push her the whole way). No more fights with Kaleb for stealing his bike! (just lots of fights about other things . . . )

We got dressed up, did our nails and took picutures while the boys went crab fishing this last weekend. I'll have to blog about their adventure later.
I love this complicated girly. She has to do things by herself, but at the same time I hear "I can't" a lot from her. I guess it depends on what I want her to do and not do :-) For example, in the car it takes her about 10 minutes to climb in the van and pull herself up into the car seat and get her buckles on. If I try and help her to move the process along she gets so angry! One time I gave her the tiniest boost into her seat and she immediately slid back down and climbed out of the car to start over, yelling, "No mom! I can do it by myself!"

Playing with their buddies

Braydan got to go to Logan for Sym and Josh's sealing last weekend. I tried to buy a plane ticket to go with him (now that Alisha's here to babysit :-), but prices went up to $500! He loved being with all of his family, especially eating at Bluebird and Juniper Takeout (our old favorites (sniff!), wrestling with his cute nephews,

and playing with his beautiful nieces.

Thanks for taking care of him everyone!

Kaleb had swim lessons last week. He grinned ear to ear every time he got one-on-one attention from his teacher. Then he would look at me to make sure I was watching.

He said he learned "monkey, airplane, banana." It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about, then remembered we used to call it, "zip, tee, down." His variation sounds more exciting :-)

A word about Alisha: From my last few posts, it doesn't even sound like she's here, but that's because she rarely is :-) Every night is some activity and I've started living vicariously through her exciting life. I love getting her ready, telling her what to wear and what to say and do. (I'm bossy remember). We're always asleep by the time she comes home, so I'm always eager to wake her up in the morning (evil laugh) and get the latest scoop about all her drama with boys. I never realized how boring I've become until she came. We did get to go on a date this last Friday (miracle that she was around to babysit) and it was so fun to not worry about anything!

Happy Birthday America

The 4th of July was awesome! We hosted the biggest party we've ever had at our house. 65 people (including kids) came. It could be because of this little thing in our backyard . . .

The Thatchers so kindly let us use it and it was a hit.

We played psychiatrist, ate good food

did fireworks,

And loved playing with so many friends!

In the morning we went to the flag raising and pancake breakfast. That's right, these white shirts the kids wore only lasted about 30 minutes before strawberry syrup found them.

We raced home to do chores so we could go play games at the park before the party started.

Happy 4th of July!