Summer's End

Lake Roosevelt marks our Summer's End

where...

...even the dogs have to "ruff" it by using rocks for pillows,

...each year something new and fun is engineered,

...mommy gets a little bit more brave,


...new rules get added to the game of golf,

...good books get read,
...sea monsters are up close and SCARY,

(you've get to enlarge the pictures to really see these faces!)


...bubbles fly,

...boys race,

...some mommys get bored with books and sunbathing,


...that same mommy knows how to create,...sand castles get more creative as the kids get older,

...dogs that don't like to swim find the nearest floaty toy,

...some floaty toys are just too big,

...fishing season begins,

...the sunsets are beautiful endings.

Time for some updates!

Destruction...I mean Construction has begun. The first step of the addition was to fall a huge cedar tree.

Notice the placement of the tree - not a branch touching the garden or the property line. Thanks, Dad, for an excellent job! It has been more than 50 years since my dad worked in the woods, but he hasn't lost his touch.
Kaylee Anne turned 4 years old. Tessa made a countdown birthday cake for her.

This is what awaited Kaylee on the morning of her birthday.

~Four~~Food~

~Flowers~

~Fun~

Ask a four year old what she wants for her birthday dinner and this is what you get..."egg rolls; cheese and crackers; cake" I should have known! A "Snacky Dinner" is her favorite so I tried to accommodate with a salmon thrown in for the adults.

I found out that I grew a garden for a four year old girl. That came in handy this year.

After all the presents were opened, she didn't know what to play with first, the bike or the stroller, so she did both!



~Convention Kids~

"The Next Generation"

~Orthodontics~

The big kids are now walking around with their birthday, christmas, everything else presents in their mouth for the next 18 months. Tessa has started a 2 phase treatment and Trevon a 3 phase treatment.

~Front yard picnic, just for fun!~

Desert Aire

Our weekend with the Y's in Desert Aire was so relaxing. They have a beautiful house on the water and there's nothing to do but enjoy each other and the peaceful surroundings. We joked about being such boring people!

Randy tried rock climbing for the first time. He didn't do too bad.

Then we made him turn around for a picture!

Austyn and Robbyn came for a visit at G'pa and G'ma's

The summer so far ~

This has been a summer of daily fun. Last Wednesday was the first day since school ended that we stayed home the entire day! I didn't get pictures of our couple of days spent at Leibrand's pool with Megan and Cheryl, but those were some VERY fun times. Eli came to visit a couple of times, we've had a BBQ, meeting potlucks, and I had a solo Costco/Walmart/Grocery shopping day thanks to Deanna. Here are some summer days in view...

Brenna and Bella came for a picnic

(Kaylee helping with Brenna's shoes. It will be a sad day for Kaylee when she figures out that Brenna is less than one year younger and doesn't want mothering anymore!)
Annual waterslide fun
Summer visitors - notice all three baby raccoons
This special treat from the kids greeted me one morning at the bottom of the stairs.

Lake Goodwin! A special thanks to Johnny and Phyllis for the open invite to their beautiful place.
A site we see every year at the lake and actually had the camera this time.
Tessa's favorite water toy
The Breeding girls and ALL their kids met me at the lake. (Some are missing from the picture, and some didn't come to the lake. My oh my, what a crowd!!) Raelynn was out from Indiana. It was great to get the chance to spend some days with her and their three adorable children.

The summer birthday kids in our house. Kaylee isn't four yet, but I had the chance to get her 4 year old picture and jumped on it.



8 years old

This week is no exception to the 2008 Summer rule! The week will start with gardening, softball potluck, and a sleepover. It plans to quickly progress into school supply shopping, packing, and housecleaning. And will end with another much-anticipated Lake Roosevelt boat camping trip. We've gone to Lake Roosevelt for the past 15 years and never get tired of it! The next weekend we've been invited to Youngren's house in E.WA for a few more days of total relaxation. We'll get back just in time to wash the swimming suits and beach towels. THEN, it is convention. Two weeks of unspeakable gifts.

Needless to say, we are enjoying our summer together!

Chelan

We are some of the lucky people in this world to have relatives that live in Chelan/Manson.

Rod and Carolyn were so hospitable and loads of fun. We spent some days and evenings with the Sanderson Bros Const. crew. Most of all we had a great time with family that we also call our friends.

The trip started off with a KFC picnic at the river in Gold Bar/Sultan area.

The picnic ended with a Daddy vs. Kids waterfight!

Next stop was the Wenatchee Red Lion. We checked in at 3:00pm and we were in the pool at 3:05pm. Summer was finally here for us and we weren't about to waste a minute of it. There was a Smith Family reunion in Wenatchee. We had a glorious 103 degree day for the reunion.

With the temperature so high we spent most of the day in the Columbia River. This is the only picture I took at the reunion. It was too hot to think about pictures!

Eventually we made it to Chelan...

What a life!

We had to limit Trevon to 8 hours a day on the fourwheeler because of gas prices!

One special highlight of the week was a double date with Shawn and DeAnne. In the fifteen years we've been a double couple we've never gone out together. We had a ball out to dinner, walk along the RiverWalk Trail, lattes and conversation by the water. Like I said, it is so awesome to have family that are also your good friends.

Rod and Carolyn invited their field for a 4th of July potluck. It was a beautiful day, yummy food, a million games of volleyball, and wonderful friends.

Playing catch. I must be out of mind to post the action shot of me, but it was such fun being a kid again.

The week ended with a big bang!