Ending Summer with a Bang

A summer without a visit to the Moses Lake Aquatic park wouldn't be complete! The kids begged to go here so I came over and my Mom came with me and Sara met us there since she lives there. What's funny is Melanie and her kids were coming over from Tri-Cities to meet a friend so they were there at the same time and we didn't know! Kyle stayed with my Dad to help farm. 

Kate going off the high dive. She's brave!

Preston is a fish. He loves the water and the slides. 

Good thing these two were used to water now or else they would be sitting on a chair by me!

Derek, Sara and Zane came over for a visit before Sara had their 2nd baby boy. We took them to the Children's Museum in Everett because it's awesome and what 2 yr old wouldn't like it?!

On Sunday, we went down to the Seattle Temple to let the kids walk around on the grounds. It was a beautiful day and the kids like going to the Temple grounds. The flowers are always so pretty and everything is well taken care of. Very peaceful. 

Zane loves trains and loved playing with Preston's the whole weekend.

I worked 2 days a week this summer and finished at the end of August before school started. The last office I worked in was the worst so it made it easier to quit for the summer. Overall, it worked out good and I had fun meeting new offices and brushing up on my skills. I celebrated my last day with lunch from my favorite place. Yum barbacoa tacos. 

We joined our ward on a camp-out over Labor Day weekend at Cascade Park (church owned camp ground site). It was fun getting to know more people in the ward. The weather was crummy so not too many people came, but the first day we got up there it didn't rain. The kids did the slip n slide and went in the river. Through the night it poured. It woke me up it was raining so hard. We stayed dry while many others in our ward did not. We were on air mattresses so that's why we lucked out because as we were packing up there were puddles under our mattresses. Yuck. It was a mess because then a few days later when it was sunny and hot we had to set up the tent again to dry out then put it away again. 

I found this desk at Goodwill and painted it. Kate has been wanting a desk so it was a good find. Now it's filled with all her art stuff and knick knacks. 

My old neighbor, Darbi, stopped by for a quick visit. Their family was going to Disneyland so she stopped by to say hello. Kate was able to see Dallas and Dallas' cousin, Avery, who we also got to know from being neighbors with Darbi. Darbi is going through a lot in her life right now. She's trying to find happiness. Her and Mat are getting divorced and both have found other people to be with. It makes me really sad. They were a cute family so it's hard to see them break up. She is working as a personal trainer up in Fairbanks and loves it.  Mat still works as director for Fred Meyer, but he may move back down here next year. I wish them well through this sad situation.

Friends and Sun

Todd and Tawyna Valentine were back in town for a visit (they had moved away to Utah so Todd could go back to BYU and get his MBA). So a bunch of us friends got together at a park to see one another. It was fun. We have met so many good friends from our old ward, the Beverly Park Ward, so it's fun to reconnect every once in a while when people come back to visit. 

The kids had fun on this bench swing. A bunch of cute kids there!

There was a beautiful full moon out when we were at the park so we were all trying to get a picture of it. 

I took the kids to Silver Lake Park to swim on a hot day. Kate was off with a friend swimming in the deeper part. We had an awesome summer. The weather was so nice and we had lots of hot days. Our house stayed pretty cool since we have two giant pine trees hovering over our house. For that reason alone I liked them this summer. Other than that they gotta go. :) But seeing Lindsey and Chelsea in the water is a huge deal! Lindsey and Chelsea were scared of going into the water when we went to the Beach. Lindsey had come here with a friend the week before and sat on the towel the whole time! So when I brought them here I coaxed her into going in the water and once she realized it was fun and she wouldn't drown she was fine. We ended up coming back a few more times before summer ended just because Lindsey wanted to! Finally! Yay!

Remlinger Farms Fun

Remlinger Farms is one of our favorite places to visit each summer. The kids love it, but I know soon they'll outgrow it. It was a nice day and not too busy there. We get the living social deal where the tickets are a lot cheaper so that makes it even better. All the girls loved the pony rides, but Preston didn't want anything to do with them. We rode all the other rides, ate lunch and then got an ice cream treat for them since it was a hot day. 

Awww, they were holding hands while waiting in line. Super cute because this is a rarity!

Preston loved "driving" the train. :)

Lindsey's 4th Birthday

Lindsey wanted a Cinderella cake and a princess party. We invited a few of her friends over and it was pretty simple. We did some princess games and then later went out to a trampoline place as a family. We are glad to have Lindsey in our family. She likes to tease, but she's also thoughtful and is starting to be a good helper for me. She is shy around other adults and strangers, but she's not shy at home! Her speech is getting better, we can understand her a lot more. She likes Fancy Nancy books, the movie Frozen, playing with friends and her siblings, playing barbies or princess dolls and she's excited to start preschool again. 

Chelsea poked a hole in her cake. Of course she would! Good thing I got a picture before.

The Princesses!

L-R: Sophia, Chelsea, Ellie, Lindsey, Ashlynn, Kate (twin to Sophia, yes they look so different!) and Rylee.

My Mom made Lindsey an Elsa and Anna dress up dresses!!! She is amazing! Lindsey loves them and plays with them all the time. 

Seattle City Pass with Hebdon's

Jeni and Kevin came over with their kids for a few days to do the Seattle City Pass at the end of July/beginning of August. Jeni had suggested doing it this summer and we have been wanting to take the kids to the Space Needle so we figured it would be fun. It was a blast!!! We were so busy and saw so much. It was fun having family here for a while and it was fun being the tour guides. The kids did pretty well until the last day and then all of us were tired and wanted to be away from crowds and cities. 

Day 1:

They came over on Carter's birthday and so we went out to Red Robin for dinner and then to the American Girl Store, Lego Store and Build a Bear. 

Oh and Pinkabella Cupcakes! Aubree has been wanting to go there forever so it was fun to try them out. They were okay...I'm not a huge cupcake fan.

Day 2:

We started off our full day at the Woodland Park Zoo. We used to have passes here so I know my way around and was able to speed things up so we saw most everything.  The Siamangs made lots of noise, the gorillas were hilarious and the kids had fun playing at the different playgrounds.

We grabbed some pizza and headed to the Beach that night. It was such a nice weekend. The kids had fun playing in the water and in the sand...well except Lindsey and Chelsea. They were too scared to get in the water. 

Day 3: We found the troll under the bridge in Fremont and Carter picked it's nose. Ewww! :)

Watching the boats come in and out of the locks in Ballard. 

Going up the Space Needle for our first time (with the Seattle City pass you get to go up twice within 24 hrs! Awesome!).

Pacific Science Center and watching an Imax on Lemurs in Madagascar

Someone was missing their daily naps...she took short one's in her stroller and had some meltdowns in the afternoon. It's hard being drug around all day. She did better than I expected.

Butterfly Land at the Science Center

Hailey and Lindsey in a dinosaur footprint

Funny mirror! 

After the Science Center, we walked to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner which was near the waterfront. The walk back up to the Space Needle area was a very steep hill. Burned off some calories, but man oh man Seattle has some steep hills!

We were waiting for the sun to go down before going back up the Space Needle for our 2nd time so we let the kids run around the International Fountain. We told them to try and touch the ball without getting wet. Some of them did it, but then ended up getting a little wet for fun. We didn't want them to get too wet since we were going back inside the space needle. The kids begged to get wet and/or to come back the next day, but it wasn't in our plans. :)

Beautiful sunset over the Olympics

Day 4: Seattle Aquarium

Argosy Harbour Tour which was really cool to be on a boat looking at the Seattle from a different way and learning new stuff. The clouds rolled in while we were on the boat so it got cold. Good thing we could go inside and look out. 

Look at all those containers?! Amazing! I thought of my Dad because his hay will sometimes get compressed then shipped to Japan in containers. We were lucky too because while we were finishing the tour it started to downpour rain, like really really hard. Once we got back to the dock and got off the boat it had stopped raining and was sunny again. Phew! Because we didn't have any rain coats or umbrellas. Huge blessing for us. 

Walking to Pike's Place through Post Alley to see the gum wall. Jeni gave all the kids bubble gum to chew on our way there so they could add their gum to the wall. Of course, the kids thought it was gross. Cool, but gross. 

Good one Kevin! haha!

On the famous pig...see how tired the kids are?! It was time to go! We had to find the penny press for Pike's Place and then it was home! The kids got a penny holder so we started squishing the pennies wherever we went as their souvenirs. It was fun and the kids liked looking for the penny presses. The one we missed was the Zoo and the Locks. We didn't start until after we already went there. 

 A busy Saturday at the Market. We went home and got Jamba Juice and went to a park. It was nice to be away from crowds. On Sunday, they came to Sacrament meeting with us then headed down to see Kevin's sister in Auburn before they headed home to Pasco. It was such a fun staycation for all of us. Good memories from this for sure!