My Girls

Yesterday was a great day for many reasons.  The main one....I got to visit with my girls.  There are five of us that have been friends for over 25 years....one I have know since 2nd grade.  Four of us are local but Jen lives in San Diego so for us all to get together is far and few between.  The bonus is that all of our families joined in the fun.  Jamee and Marty were kind enough to open up their digs to host a wonderful event.  Thanks to all for making it a special day.

All of our kiddo's.  Not an easy task to get them all to sit down and actually look at the camera!  Starting on the bottom row left...Ben, Harrison, Edward, Max.  Top row from the left....Cassandra, Niko, Emily, Madlyn and Lincoln.

My girls...less Karla.  She took off before we had a chance to snap a photo.

Emily and Madlyn had to show off their mad gymnastic skills!

Karla and Ben high fivin'

Birthday Cheers

We celebrated my sister's birthday on Saturday at my parents in Oly town.  What a beautiful, fun day.

There was lots for pea picking, veggie eating from Papa's garden!

Can't beat this great view!

 

Survivor Camp

I mentioned in an earlier post that Emily was in camp all week.  It was themed after the Survivor show.  Each unit had a 'tribe' name and the units competed in challenges.  Friday afternoon was a dessert potluck where the families could come and watch the final challenge.  This camp was awesome!  Emily's favorite part was archery and the arts/crafts.

Happy Birthday Little Sis!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDI!!!

Today is Brandi's birthday!!!  Hope you have a great and special day.  Looking forward to celebrating tomorrow.  Do you know who's who? 

Archery With a Side of Wood Work

Check this out.

Emily made this by herself at Girl Scout camp.  She was so proud.  She told us how she stained, sanded and assembled it.  One of her favorites at camp is archery.  Yesterday was the first day of that event and she LOVED it.  She is asking for a bow / arrow set for Christmas!  Girl Scouts rock!

A Little Late...

Chris and I finally got to celebrate our anniversary with a date night out.  Only three months late.  Given that we were married in April and I'm a tax CPA celebrating on the actually date is difficult.  Plus it took a good 2 months for Chris to get back to normal from being so sick in February.  We dined at Daniel's at Leschi and it was worth the wait!

We were treated to a celebration dessert compliments of the house.

Stars and Stripes

Go red, white and blue!  We celebrated the 4th of July with the Hopkins family.  Totally low key, relaxing and a great time.  The big attraction for Emily was the swimming pool and all the fireworks.  Plus she got to hang out with her third cousins; Koldyn, Stella and Jaxon.

Lederhosen and Flash Rain

A girls trip with Mandy, Krista, Trina, Carrie and I took us to Leavenworth last weekend.  It was a great time with lots of laughs and funny memories.  We decided to tube down the river on Saturday afternoon.  Well, mother nature decided to order up a major rain, thunder and lightening storm at that same time.  We aren't talking a little sprinkle.....it was pounding rain!  On a side note, Chuck Norris is our hero....

Dinner at a great Thai restaurant

Our digs for the weekend.

 

VBS

It's tradition...the 4th year that Emily and Taylor have attended VBS together.  This year was cool since Jack and Luke joined in on the fun.  The theme was great...Hang Ten.  Fun surf, ride the wave stuff.

Dash Point State Park

We did a 2013 maiden voyage with our camper to Dash Point State Park last weekend.  Just to make sure everything worked and to get reacquainted with our trailer before our big trip to Entait.  It was a success!  We had many visitors which made the experience that much better!  Thanks to the Pederson's, Eatons and Servance's for joining in on the fun.  Remember the Jiffy pop over the stove?  Well Teri brought one to make over the camp fire.  See Amara below patiently waiting for it to pop over the fire.  I think that was the biggest hit with our group!

Three Cheers for Chelan

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll let them tell you the story of our Chelan trip.

 

Happy Dad's Day

This year we spent Dad's day in Chelan.  Not a bad gig since the weather was awesome and we cruised the lake in our boat!  The only bummer was that we didn't get to celebrate Dad's day with Al or my Dad.  But we got to celebrate it with Uncle Ryan!

 

 

 

Field Day

Emily's last day of school is tomorrow.  This past week has been a whirlwind of year end school activities.  Luckily there has been very little homework!  Yesterday was field day.  I had to work so I wasn't able to volunteer but Mandy took this picture at field day.

More Scoop on GS Camp

In a previous post I written that Emily went to GS Camp.  It was a big milestone since she spent the night.  This was the first time she spent the night away with a non family member.  I think it was a huge plus that Mandy is one of the leaders and she is like family to us.  Here are some picture from the weekend.

Troop 45202



Emily's art creation in process

Emily and Taylor hanging out in the Lodge of Nations

The Brownies holding up the bridging certificates.  These girls are now Juniors!

It's Called Life

Between my sister and I this weekend we attended a celebration of life party, a retirement party, a wedding and a graduation party.  About the only thing missing was a baby shower!  Oh and we participated in the annual community garage sale.

My friend Christie lost her Dad, Jack in May.  They had a celebration of life party on Friday afternoon.  I will remember Jack's big belly laugh, smoking a cigarette and teasing me about my golf game.

Most of you already know but after 35 years with North Thurston School District my mom decided to retire.  I'm so happy for her and hope she enjoys this time doing things she wants to do.  Brandi and I headed down to Oly town on Friday night for a dinner party.  It was great to meet all her co-workers.  Her boss Monica said some wonderful things and I can tell she made such a difference and a positive influence in her workplace.  Love you Mom and am so proud of you!

Brandi and Ryan attended a wedding on Saturday evening for his good friend Doug.   Since it was going to be a late night out, Kaitlyn spent the night with us.  Always fun to have that little peanut around.  The girls are so funny.....laughing, playing so well and then bam fighting like siblings.

Saturday night we attended a graduation party for Shane.  We have become good friends with the Sankey family and are proud of Shane and Trina and Pat (parents).   Congratulations!

Hello Sunshine...

and sidewalk chalk.

Camporee

This Girl Scout Camporee was themed around art and crafts.  Emily had a GREAT time.  Her favorite part was swimming.  Yes, swimming.  Luckily it was sunny but I was still surprised the girls swam in the lake.  Another favorite part for Emily was the bridging ceremony.  Not sure if that was because they got a box of junior mints candy after crossing the bridge or from the excitement of becoming a junior.  Mandy took lots of pictures so I'm post some more later.

A collection of her goodies from Camp.

   

Not Sure

As in not sure what to do.  Yesterday I found myself with a whole day for me!  Chris is on a guy quad trip and I took Emily to girl scout camp in the morning.  I hadn't really planned anything and it felt odd.  Odd that I had 24 hours of me time.  I know it probably sounds heavenly to most people and it was but again it was weird.  So I read, sat in the sun, took a nap, cleaned and then the best part....met my sister at Dukes in Tacoma for drinks and dinner.  The weather couldn't have been better, we even sat out on the deck.  Thanks Brandi for a fun girls night!