Summer Finale

My Mom made the girls matching summer dresses. I love them. I'm grateful for a Mom who can sew! I call her my Vera Wang.

My Parent's were coming over to Gig Harbor to see my cousin who got home from his mission on Thursday night. We had friends going through the temple for the first time on Friday night and getting sealed as a family on Saturday so my Mom offered to take our kids so we could go to both. I was so excited! This was our 2nd time being without our kids overnight. I met them in North Bend on Friday morning and they took my car with my kids and I took their car. It was weird being kidless and free. I didn't know what to do first! It was exciting! My front room was so clean for so long. I actually had to go visiting teaching, buy Kate ballet stuff and make Relief Society handouts. So nothing too exciting. Then, I met up with Kyle down by his work. We went out to dinner to Cheesecake Factory then to the Temple. Kayla and Ethan Giles were going to the Temple. We were glad we got to go with them. After the Temple we came home and changed before heading out to an Improv Show in Seattle. It started at 10:30pm so it was a late night for us. Kyle was hesitant to go. He said we were too old for this stuff. I wanted to live it up! We went and had fun until one of the actresses fell during a skit and broke her ankle. She played along at first, but then they realized she was hurt really bad. She couldn't even stand up with help. They called 911 and sent us home. We got free passes for another show so maybe we'll live it up again sometime soon. The next day we did random things around the house and chilled. Then, we went out to lunch for Thai and went back to the Temple for the Giles' sealing. It was beautiful. Their kids were so well behaved. It was neat to be there. They had good family and friend support. We headed to Mattawa after that.

In the meantime...my Parents were brave and took our kids to the Ellensburg Parade and Fair on Saturday morning. They had fun and it was hilarious to hear their stories with the kids. Preston poured water on a stranger's foot, Kate cried when they couldn't ride the rides, Chelsea was squealing over something and I'm sure Lindsey did something too. haha! It was so nice of them to take our kids! They had a fun time seeing animals and doing different activities in the Frontier Village.

On Sunday, we went into Tri-Cities to go to Church with Dee Ann. It was kind of nice going to a ward with lots of youth and families. She made us a ham dinner with a fresh peach pie, yum. She gave the kids some new coats for school, which was so nice. We let Chelsea take a nap and visited with her. Then we went to visit Arlene. We strapped Chelsea in a stroller so she couldn't roam around and break everything. ha! We headed back to Mattawa and my Mom made spudnuts and caramel apples. Jeni & Kevin and Sara & Derek were there. 

We had our last summer hoorah on Labor Day at my parent's house. The kids swam and tested out the new twisty slide my Dad put up. My Dad, Kyle, Kevin and Derek went motorcycle riding on Monday up above Ellensburg. The rest of us hung out at home and Sara cut almost everyone's hair. She was nice to do that. We keep her busy with all the girls in our family. It was good timing for my kids because school starts this week for them. Sara ended up giving A-line bobs to me (I always have one), Kate, Lindsey and Paige. We were joking that the guys were going to get one too!

Camping Adventures

We went camping to Ensign Ranch with Jeni & Kevin and their kids and Marci. It would be an understatement to say we had fun. The kids were looking forward to this all summer. We had planned it back in March. My parents and Sara & Derek came out on Friday for the day. It was fun to have them and maybe next year they'll actually camp with us. :) We did lots. We rode bikes everywhere and called ourselves the Buttercream Gang (like the old school movie), we canoed, did the slip n' slide, rode horses, did the rope swing, did impromptu skits, swam in the river, played Mexican Train, ate lots of yummy food and got dirty.

Picture overload here!!! Thanks to Sara the photographer I had lots of pictures to choose from. It was hard to leave some out!

On Friday morning, we had the slip n' slide to ourselves. It was chilly, but we got used to the water. We went down the slide a lot and made trains galore. Kevin, Marci and I were the brave ones to go down the slide.

Lindsey and Hailey would sit in their little chairs and have cute conversations. My Mom brought back to school kits for the kids and so they had fun coloring in their little books.

We found a rope swing and the kids loved it. They went on it a million times.

Zane's face was killin' me in this picture. So serious!

We were loaded to the hilt! We had 4 bikes and a bike trailer on the hitch. Then the car was packed with kids squeezed in. Camping is a lot of work! So we make sure to go for 2 nights to make it worth it.

When Zane and Chelsea first saw each other Zane was giggling and it was so cute. Chelsea would stick her finger in his mouth and they had this baby conversation/interaction going on. It was pretty cute to watch.

Our Camp Home. Jeni and Kevin's tent is on the right, ours is straight ahead and Marci's tent is way in the back in the grove of trees that the kids found for her.

I was concerned I didn't bring enough clothes for Chelsea. The first 2 minutes we were there I changed her out of the romper she was wearing because of mosquitoes, then she ate watermelon and got sticky then fell on the ground. Thankfully, we made it through the weekend with enough clothes for her. :) We were laughing about it. She was all over the place though. She would climb on top of the tables and get into stuff. It was interesting! Thank goodness for the older kids that would entertain her or watch her so I could do stuff.

The kids were having fun in Jeni and Kevin's ginormous tent. I had tent envy. I wanted their big tent. haha!

Our tent, that I thought was big until I saw Jeni and Kevin's (ha), all neat and ready for sleepers. It didn't stay clean for long. The kids slept great at night. The first night I slept good and Kyle didn't. The second night I could not sleep and Kyle slept great. Gotta love camping!

Chelsea kept yelling for Kate and Kyle. She was trying hard to get to them.

I was trying to get a picture of our bicycle gang. It was fun to ride bikes everywhere and go exploring. We haven't brought our bikes before when we've come camping with Kyle's family (we just brought the kids' bikes) and I'm glad we did.

This picture of Preston cracks me up because first, he is wearing Kate's old pink water shoes, I didn't want to buy new ones. He didn't care. Secondly, he was stuck in the tube like this and couldn't get out. It was hilarious. He finally got the hang of how to go down and get out on his own. He is Mr. Independent.

Kate found a little frog in the slip n' slide water.

I love the picture of my Mom painting her nails while camping. I actually painted mine right before her. haha! Jeni and Kevin are in the background getting the grill ready for dinner. We had yummy food like BBQ bacon burgers, tri-tip and chicken shish kabobs, french toast, pancakes, grilled chicken BBQ wraps and croissant sandwiches. 

Jetty Island

We went to Jetty Island for playgroup and the weather was great. It got a little windy before we left. The kids had fun. You ride this little taxi boat to the island. It's fun to do, but I only can handle it once a summer because you have to reserve tickets to go over and come back on the boat, it's free though, and haul everything with you. Thankfully, Kate helps me carry stuff. It was a lot of fun to go there with a bunch of friends from Church.  Kate found a dead crab, ewww. I'm not a fish person. They are slimy and gross and stink.

The water was far out when we went. They mainly played in the sand and puddles of water near us. Some of the older kids went out to the water. Here is Chelsea, Wilson (a friend), Lindsey and Preston.

Elevated Sportz

Thanks to Groupon, Living Social and Amazon Deals we have been to some fun places around here this summer. I love finding good deals so it's a win win for me. Kyle is probably wishing I didn't get their emails. haha! We tried out Elevated Sportz a few weeks ago. We waited until Lindsey turned 3 yrs old so she could do everything. We had some friends go here before us and they liked it so I knew it was something we wanted to try out. It's just super expensive so the coupon is the way to go. 

We did the combo Jump and Play deal. They could jump on the trampolines and play in the play structure. They went back and forth between the two. You have to wear socks in the play area and no socks on the trampolines, kind of annoying having to put on socks then take them off then put them on...you get the idea. Oh well. They LOVED the foam pit. They spent most of the time there trying to do tricks.

They had this huge play area with climbing toys, spinning toys, balls, slides, air guns and mazes. It was pretty cool. The tree thing with balls hanging from it spins around and the kids sit on the balls. Then the ball looking cage thing spins around as they sit inside it. 

Chelsea didn't know how to handle this ball pit. It was pretty funny watching her. She didn't know how to walk through them to get to the stairs to go down the slide. She started throwing the balls out so that ended that. 

She did find a rocking toy and loved it.

Shooting balls at one another with the air guns. The kids had fun and want to go back. Hopefully, another deal comes along so we can. :)