Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken around Thanksgiving at the same park we have them taken at every year. This year it actually went pretty smoothly :-)

We started off pretty casual, letting the kids just be themselves. (Cameron is on the left, Carter's in the middle)

 Everyone is all smiles!

 I love this one of the boys. (Cameron's on the left, Carter's on the right)

 Our girl Sidney, she loves climbing trees, so I though she'd love to pose for this one. She's our feisty tomboy/princess.

Our sweet boy Cameron, he's my little lover. He's up for playing with anyone and is really into Super Mario and Angry Birds.

Carter has really gotten into electronics and loves to play Mario Kart on the Wii. or watch other kids playing it on youtube.

The whole family.

Off On An Adventure!

Awhile ago we went with some friends on a Steamboat Tour up at Canyon Lake. Since it was so hard for the kids to come back to AZ and leave Daddy still in WA I needed some activities to keep them occupied, so we had purchased a few great deals through several of the coupon sites.

The kids were all like "Let's go already!!"

I did have a couple of drinks & snacks for the kids & we got some popcorn for them all to share.

It was quite peaceful there.....not much activity on the water & the boat had some music playing & narration telling about the lake.

Can't forget the sunscreen for the kiddos. :-)

The kids couldn't get close enough to the water.


They had set up this table for us since we were a larger group & there weren't any other tables, as most of them had only two people at them. We were trying to stay out of the sun too much, as it was still quite hot out.

We did manage to get them all together for at least a moment.

It was so nice & relaxing......when we weren't worried about the kids that is.



It's propelled by this giant wheel, the kids were fascinated by it.

Afterwards we stopped for lunch at this little restaurant.......I don't think they were supposed to, but we let the kids sit at the bar for a few minutes on the saddle stools.

Of course, the boys had to get their turn in too.

A Very Fun Weekend

A couple of weeks ago it was my 20 year High School reunion. I can't believe it's been 20 years! People kept asking me if I felt old, but I just keep saying 38 is YOUNG! Ask me when I'm like 60 : ) It was a nice, quick get away. I have to say a HUGE thank you to my Mom and Sister for watching my kids so that I could fly back up to WA for this. Roman drove over from Chelan to meet up with me for the weekend too. Both nights were casual.....which everyone seemed to enjoy.

The first night we met at a pizza place in downtown Bellingham. Here with one of my besties (in the black & white stripes) & the blonde actually lives in AZ too, but we've never met up......I gave her a hard time about us coming all the way back to WA to see each other. The other gal and I have talked a lot on Facebook too and we are in similar situations with our husbands gone a lot.

Another friend/classmate I talked to a lot when I first joined Facebook. We told someone to remember us as "Romeo and Juliette".......get it? Roman & Julie = Romeo and Juliette. He kept calling him Mr. Julie too : ) A lot of people actually called him that......even though he refused to put "spouse of Julie J" on his name tag on night two.

The Rock" is quite a popular thing in these parts.......it gets painted for nearly every major event......and some not so major too. We were supposed to go help paint it Friday night after the bar.....we went out by there with some people, but couldn't get a hold of the guy that had the paint. We were waiting for him & then some of the people were heading home, so they took us home. Come to find out he was already there (we were just hadn't gone far enough) and the others that stayed helped to paint it. I think it was even there the next day too. A rarity.

Ahhh.....and after staying out until around 2am we got to have a VERY leisurely day the next day. We slept SO late & went down town for a late lunch.......AND it was sunny!!!!!! : ) You gotta love that! It can be kind of hit and miss.....even in the summer. They have been having a not-so-sunny summer this year.

Before the main event on Saturday we went out to my friend's house and had a glass of wine and looked at the old HS annual one last time.

I said, "Ok, I will pose for a picture with you here, but once we get to the reunion don't stand too close to me you sexy Mama! I distinctly remember the dress code on the reunion site: Jeans, cute top, cute shoes"........she looked GORGEOUS!!!!!

Not the greatest shot, but I finally got to meet in-person the wife of one of my classmates that also had twins. I talked to them quite a bit through e-mail when she was pregnant, as she had some difficulties during pregnancy also.

It was so nice to get to have a relaxed environment and to get to talk to so many different people. It really was a lot less clique-ish than the 10 yr. I grew up on the same street as the guy on the right side of the picture, so it was really nice to see him. I hadn't seen him since we graduated I think.

Some time together. I was surprised at how much I was on my own. I always hate it when we go somewhere and I don't know anyone and he takes off........he did know a few people there though & some people remembered him from the 10 year too. Plus, he's great at chattin' it up with anyone : )

I saw this cake kind of cut up & was wondering what it was. I didn't get a piece, but it was a cool idea I thought. (Not that I needed any more calories, mind you : )

Here I am again standing next to Londa......I kept telling her, "Don't stand so close to me, you're making me look bad!" Ha, ha.........I just had to give her a hard time : )

Ok, see what I'm sayin'.......Jeans & a cute top........it's all good!

They had all of us pose up on the stairs down to our party area.

We had a good turnout......This is all classmates I think, no spouses.......I think we had almost 200 out of about 250 classmates.


It was funny, it was like we were all teenagers again........no one wanted to go home, we just kept going from place to place........out again until past 2am. It's a good thing my flight on Sunday wasn't too early : ) They had a family picnic on Sunday too at a beautiful park. I would have liked to have gone to that, as one of my friends was only able to make it to that, but I had to get back to my kiddos : )

I'm so glad I was able to go. I really did have a great time!

The 4th of July

We had such a great, relaxing, fun, family filled day on the 4th! I wish I could have had some video of the kids playing together so well and just being entertained all day, but our video camera is not holding a charge. I bought a new battery, but it still doesn't want to work unless it's plugged in, (and I somehow misplaced the cord), so I didn't bring it : ( But I took A LOT of pictures : )

My sister is up in WA now too & they had been camping just and hour and a half away, so we met up with them. Sidney was SO excited to get to play with her cousins again. She hadn't seen them for 5+ weeks.

As soon as we got there the girls were in the water.....Sidney couldn't get her bathing suit on fast enough!

Pretty soon it was the kids turn to get to go out in the boat.

There were only 3 life vests, so they had to take turns. I was amazed that Sidney went in by herself......

...while the boys opted to stay IN the boat.

The guys managed to squeeze in some time for poker too.....Carter & Cameron REALLY wanted to play with them.

There were some other games to play there too : )

Cameron and Kendall were having fun peeking out the little doors in the tent.

The guys were taking a turn at getting the ropes with the balls on the end onto the stand.

Madeline and Sidney got some good bonding in.

Now the girls take a turn at this game.

Cameron gets some squeezes in with Daddy while Uncle Jason shakes up the ice cream.

Carter was so cute drumming on this ice chest.

The girls were at his game for quite awhile.

Making this homemade ice cream turned out to be quite the task.......everybody was taking turns shaking it up.

Now it was the girls turn.

more fun in the water again.

they all played so great together.

I wanted to get a picture of both of our families all together, but the kids were always off in different directions having fun, and there was a group picture taken when we first got there of EVERYONE that my sister was camping with, mostly my bro-in-laws family...but at least I got one of the two of us.

They were all playing something over in this field...I'm not sure what it was, but I loved the glasses on the boys & Carter's necklace.

They have this whole big production all planned out....it was nice to see them just having fun and being entertained all day.

Then they came over to Chelan this afternoon on their way back up to Bellingham for dinner. The kids didn't want to say goodbye, but we'll see them this weekend briefly when we go up to Bellingham to visit my Dad again for a few days : )

And now, can you believe it???? I am actually caught up for our trip! Ok, now I need to get back to working on that mending pile that's been sitting there for over a year I think. I've made a good dent in it, but boy would it feel good to get it finished!