little moments

This summer has held a lot of outings to the park and the beach for our little family! We have also done a lot of sprinklers, some hikes, and other family adventures.  I swear it's the little moments that add up to being the best memories.  Here are a collection of random pictures representing our summer so far...beginning with a pic of Gabe's water popsicles that he was so excited about!  I had to agree with him that it was a genius idea (won't get any complaints from mom... cheap, easy, and no mess)!! ;)

at Lowe's project class for kids!

Surprise birthday luncheon for me... I have the best group of friends!

Utah time

My sisters Melanie and Erin were both making the very long trek to Utah for the 4th of July (coming from Tennessee and Michigan) and since I hadn't seen their families for 18 months I decided to be very brave and drive myself and the kids to Utah too!  It was a looooong 16 hours but we finally made it all in one piece - which is all that really matters.  My good friend Whitney and I caravanned and it turned out surprisingly not as dreadful as I anticipated.  It helped that I had checked out more than 30 videos from the library and my dear friend Aubrey loaded us down with snacks and prizes for the kids! All in all it was a success.  If I just forget about the time I almost ran out of gas (who knew there was a million miles between stations in the middle of Idaho?) and the 30 minutes that all the kids were literally screaming bloody murder.  It took me that long to figure out my stress was contagious and it had been too long of a day and the van was entirely too hot (couldn't use the ac when we were driving on fumes!) for me to succumb to my own anxieties.  Once I calmed down (thanks for the pep talk, Mom), everyone else calmed down too.  We found a gas station and were on our merry way. Whew! :)  Lesson learned the hard way: it's entirely true that if Mom isn't happy, no one is happy!!


Doing yoga during the long drive!

We spent the week at Matt and Amy's - a real treat for us all! Gabe and Nyah were utterly thrilled to be with Wesley and Logan all the time and there were so many exciting things to do and explore.  Matt has done so much work in their yard and so the kids had a fort and swing set, slides and trampoline... not to mention all the toys... and best of all the "desert" and their wilderness fort. Matt's house borders on a golf course and BLM land so the kids have a blast looking for golf balls and running around the 4wheeler trails out there.  Gabe and Wesley spent days refurbishing what looked like to me a hut that a homeless person put together out in the BLM land... not the safest place to play but they were so thrilled about it, I couldn't interfere!  I got it all on video but didn't get any pics. I'm sure you can use your imagination of how cool it was! ;)
I had a wonderful time with all of my siblings... it's so rare that we all get together.  It was so fun seeing all our kids playing together too. Mel's boys were absolutely addicted to riding the 4wheelers and spent part of every day out there racing around. They kindly would give the little kids rides too and Gabe just loved it!  We also went to the pool and the splashpad, did sprinklers, had birthday parties for Ben and Coleman, did our own firework show, went to Jump On It (an ultimate trampoline place), had tons of game nights, barbecues, Café Rio and In-N-Out Burgers, and feeding endless treats to the horses (I'm sure Dad was thrilled).  The only thing we didn't do was go horseback riding - at least I didn't, I'm sure others did.  Anyway, it was a great time and I'm so happy I went! 


Coleman with Ian and Gage

Coleman and Gabe

Bridger and Ian

Mom, Mindy, Gage



Coleman holding Gage and Ian in a pit of sponge squares at Jump On It!



TJ!! :)

So funny watching Ian, Gage and Charlotte all manhandle each other, haha!

Charlotte and Nyah

Ben's birthday party!

Fireworks at Matt's!



Eliza and Gabe... and all the boys climbing all over that car!



Game night! Amy, Erin, Jed, Dad, Matt, Connor, Mel

Mel, Mom, Me

reverse charades - hilarious!! Mel, Mindy, me, Amy



Connor, Jed, Matt, Mom

graduation day

I think it is very funny and cute that they have graduation ceremonies for kindergarten!  It's actually very sweet because the first year of school IS a big stepping stone, especially emotionally and socially.  Gabe's class did a darling presentation of songs that they presented to the parents.  I loved it!  Gabe was in the front row and kept on his super serious face the entire time, even when they were singing the song "my aunt came back..." with all the accompanying hand/body motions that were so hilarious! :) He is my little stoic man.  When it came his turn to come up and accept his diploma and receive a handshake/hug/high-five (their choice), I watched his face harden by degrees until he looked carved from stone. He came forward stiffly and I saw his mouth crack enough to request a handshake (of course).  His teacher Mrs. Wolcott told me later that his hand was just soaking wet! Poor little guy is just so nervous in situations like that.  Luckily I got him singing all the songs to me at home on the video camera and he was smiling and laughing and so animated! Oh I love that boy.  Congrats big man!

Rolcanos and Dinosaurs

No that is not a typo... that is what Gabe calls volcanoes and I think it's adorable. :) One day he had his friend Sook over to play and they used play doh to make a fabulous recreation of the earth just before the dinosaurs were wiped out!! We even made the volcano erupt (with a little help from baking soda and vinegar)... super cool and exciting!!!  Aren't they creative? 

 

 Ok I decided to share a funny tidbit about this "play date".  Where to start though...?  Gabe is super reserved at school.  I mean it's actually painful for me to watch him struggle so much to open up around others.  For the most part I try not to worry - it's just him and I have to let him be himself and not try to force him to be someone he's not.  But I was more than I little frustrated when encouraging him to talk, smile, look people in the eye and return a hello - even practicing with him - wasn't doing any good.  I would work in his classroom and watch as a whole day would go by without him cracking a smile and barely saying two words to the kids around him.  Argh!  I want him to be happy. I want people to see his bright, vivacious personality.  I could see, plain as day, that he was observing instead of participating and that was just tormenting me.  As I said already though, I had to come full circle in the end and accept that he will do things the way HE wants to do things and I just need to love him the way he is.  But I did decide that at least I could start coordinating play times with school friends at our house so that he could break the ice a little, one on one. Gabe and Sook actually get along great together and play at recess together. Sook is almost exactly like Gabe... so quiet and straight faced that I have only seen him smile a couple times all year!!  So anyway, back to the story... When Sook arrived at our house I suggested Gabe go show him all his toys upstairs.  After a while I went up to surreptitiously see how things were going... and found them both sitting in his room not talking, just kinda looking around!!!  I laugh just remembering it! I was slightly horrified at first and immediately gave them some ideas for a fun time, one of which was making a play-doh landscape.  The dinosaurs and volcano were their idea.  I should have known that those two would need a little help, haha!!!

day trip to the Northern Cascades

 

 

Jill and Buzz for a visit

My dear friend from high school came to stay with us for 4 days before heading out on an Alaskan cruise.  It was so fun to catch up and reconnect after so long.  Jill is one of those heart friends that will always feel like a sister, even when you haven't seen each other for years.  I love her. It was so fun to meet her younger kids (and have her meet mine!) and spend so much one on one time together. We seriously had a blast!

Buzz was happy to have Eric show him a good time biking in the mountains! Of course they came back filthy!! It gave Jill and I lots of girl time to chat! ;)

what a party!

Since we live far from family, I have really enjoyed throwing a big friend party for Gabe's birthday every year. Every year he has picked the theme... and this year he wanted a Bird Party!  So the week leading up to his birthday, we created 3-D birds to hang from the ceiling, cut out and colored jungle trees to tape on the walls,  and discussed bird crafts we could make.  The night before we were blowing up balloons, frosting the cake, hanging up green streamers so it would look like a forest, and cutting up supplies to make feathery bird masks. And Gabe helped with almost all of it.  It was almost as fun preparing as it was enjoying the party!  Gabe had 8 of his buddies from school and church come so we had a full house... I was thankful that Cheryl and Don were here. Having a few extra adults helped keep the chaos to a minimum!  The kids had fun making their masks as well as peanut butter and bird seed feeders but I think the most fun was to be had when Eric took them all outside and had them run races! They did the crab crawl, the bear crawl, the buddy run (arm around each other), the leap frog, the wheelbarrow race, as well as a good ole sprint.  It was so cute!  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day.

Gabe's quail mask! I love it!!

Ian posing at the entrance of the bird forest!

So many creative bird masks!

probably my favorite pic of the races. Look at all those excited faces!

 

Bear crawl

The crab crawl... Nyah doesn't quite grasp what to do but that doesn't stop her from jumping in and having fun! :)

Leap-frog... now this was funny to watch!!

Opening presents - they started in the middle of the room but all those excited boys crowding closer and closer slowly pushed Gabe right into the entertainment center!

Funfetti cake with a big 6 on top! 

Woohoo for turning 6!!!! We love you bigger than the sky, Gabe!