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!

Trevon turned 8 years old!

We didn't do anything too fancy, but we sure had a fun day. He chooses to have an ice cream cake every year. This year he chose coffee ice cream with Twix candy bars crushed up in it - he definitely got my taste buds! It is also his thing to decorate his own cake. I love this picture of him with the pirate ship...I think he's one happy eight year old!

Glasses!

My little man was showing signs of needing glasses for reading, so off to the optometrist we went. Sure enough, the doctor prescribed a little help with the cutest little pair of glasses. Trevon picked out the perfect pair - blue with green arms.

This is: "I'm trying to be serious because this is grown-up stuff."

This is: "I'm SO excited to have glasses because I've just learned that reading is fun when the words don't swim around on the pages.

I was surprised to find out Kaylee apparently needed glasses too!

Father's Day and Belated Mother's Day

Randy's parents were out of town over Mother's Day so Linda only got a phone call. On Father's Day, however, they were staying with us so we tried to make it up and do something special for them together.

We planned a 5 course dinner, served by the kids in our sunroom. It was at sunset, the birds were chirping and feeding just beyond their table. A romantic setting with soft piano music playing...if you didn't notice the dollhouse, babies half dressed, remote control cars, and Barbie CD player in the corner of the room! For all of you who know Linda, you know how hard it is to get her out of the kitchen...especially around meal time. She is always cooking. I was trying to be patient, but I knew she'd have the whole dinner done if I didn't get "harsh" with her. I finally had to say, "After you're done with what you're doing there, I need you to go to your motorhome until further notice!" She says, "What?! Oh, I'll just be a few minutes, and then I'll set the table, and then I'll make the salad, and then I'll put dinner in the oven, and then I'll get out of your hair." It was about then when I started shoving!!