Summer Fun

Ahhh... summer days! Here are some more pics of our fun at work and play! The fence is coming along, and the help is so appreciated! Thanks, y'all! Hopefully it will be done before the snow hits! :)

Blanket surfing! :)

Annual Girls Weekend!

This weekend was our annual "girls weekend!" It was a fun get-away with my closest friends from college! (The girls I got to live with in the dorm that I posted being torn down last month!) We took the train from Seattle to Portland and enjoyed two days of gorgeous weather! As always, it was a FUN weekend filled with giggles, shopping, getting dolled up, eating, drinking, walking, sight-seeing, sleeping in, and catching up with each other! We visited the Saturday market, Powells books (WOW!), the waterfront, the Deschutes Brewery, and many other neat spots along the way! Here are some pictures of our fun! Good friends are such a blessing!!! Love you, girls!

My first train ride... can you believe it? :)

A "Crabby" Weekend!

I love the Puget Sound... the whole Pacific Northwest for that matter! It has to be one of the most beautiful places that our God created! :) We had a wonderful weekend on the water with my parents! We visited them on their vacation, and joined them on the boat for a day of salt water fun! Then, we visited our friend's property and fished, rode a quad, caught crawdads, and lots more "messy" fun! The kids had the time of their lives and didn't stop for a minute for two full days! Needless to say, they slept a lot when we got home! We also saw my grandma... who we love very much!



Here are the highlights!

*God's beautiful creation... the smell of the salt water and the clean, fresh air!

*Watching Leah haul the crab pots up and handle those crabs like a pro!

*Seeing Leif fish with Brian for the first time... and help catch a fish!

*Seeing my grandma, and giving her hugs!

*Spending time with my folks and seeing how much Leah and Leif love their Nana and Papa!

*Eating lots of yummy, fresh, dungeoness crab!

*Seeing Leah's enthusiasm for living things as she spent hours looking for crawdads, tadpoles, dragonflies, fish, frogs, etc...!

*The squeals of delight and HUGE smile as Leif rode a quad for the first time! (both Leif and Daddy's squeals and smiles!)

*Time away to enjoy my family!

Leah with one of 18 crab!

Leif LOVES tractors... or any other big machine that makes lots of noise!

Here's Leah pulling up the crawdad pots!

I think this moment was the best part of the weekend for Leif!

Leah created an "ocean in a bucket" to take to school! :)

I love that smile!

"FISH ON!"

We caught rainbow trout... but then released them!

Papa shared wild blackberries with the kids! YUMMY!

Look at my boys... ALL smiles!

Can you see the dragonfly?

Leah even helped cook and clean the crabs!

Way to go, little man! :)

ZZZZZZ....

They had to be just right! Leah became the expert!

Dinner! :)

What a beautiful day!

I sometimes forget the many little treasures right here in town...
Today (family day) we went walking along the river, threw some rocks, looked for (and found some!) snakes, and laughed a lot! I just love what being around the water does for the soul! :) Check out my kiddos... I'm so glad they love the great outdoors! Leah couldn't wait to find something creepy and crawly, and Leif... well, he managed to eat dirt with a smile on his face! :)

Demo Day!

I took the kids down to Central to watch something... sniffle... a bit sad. We watched as my freshman dorm was demolished. (apparently, it wasn't structurally sound. Something about the entire building being held up by a few big cables... Yikes - something I'd like to have known before living on the 9th floor for a year! :))

The kids were so patient as mommy shared stories that started with, "that was the... window, elevator, sidewalk, bathroom, etc." :) As leah watched the huge crane rip cement and metal and glass away from the building like twigs, she just kept exclaiming, "Mommy, did you see THAT? ... I just can't believe it!" Leif just watched wide-eyed, making his machine noises and squealing with delight! All in all it was a great outing! I even ran into a few old friends who were there saying their goodbyes!

I'm hooked!

OH man! I'm hooked... and it's too late to keep working on this tonight! I'm tired and only beginning to create this page. I am so excited to play with design and to have a place to post pics and day to day stories and memories about the kids and our summer fun! Now that I'm on summer vacation, I may have a bit of time to get a blog up and running!

I'm looking for cute templates.. any ideas? I'm BRAND new at this blog thing... :)



Happy summer!