Will Wonders Never Cease!

So I went to open my email, and who do you think I have an email from! My mother-in-law!!! And not only that, but there are pictures attached!!! Yippee!! With Leah all graduated and moving out, we've been trying to train Mom on the finer points of email, pictures, blogs, etc. This was her first successful email with pictures! Ok, so I called to congratulate her, and found out that Carolyn was home and walked her through it, but I have FULL confidence that she can and will do it again! Good job, Mom!!

This was one of the pictures that she sent that I thought I'd share with you. Don't worry, I'm taking Jason to Mexico to work on those white legs of his! :)

Where Have I Been??

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post, so I thought I would give you a quick update on what we've been doing!

Splashing in the pool!

Taking time to smell the roses!

Swinging in the park!

Riding the tractor at the farmer's market!

Attending Trese's baby shower!

Enjoying Father's Day with a great husband and daddy!

Lots of time on the boat and in the lake, and having BBQs at the park!

http://wherechildrenthrive.blogspot.com/2009/06/fabulous-physics-science-camp-was-hit.html

Check out this link to see where I spent a good portion of this week!

More time on the lake!

Trying to get Leah up on the wakeboard!

Feeding the ducks!

Enjoying pool time with Auntie Leah!

Riding the jet ski!

What fun! We leave in a week for Mexico, so there might be another lull in postings. We can't wait. The boys are staying at home, and Leah is going to come and stay with them for the week. This is our first vacation without the boys, and our first "tropical" trip since our honeymoon, so we are very excited. I will really, really miss these 2 little rugrats, though!

Gonna Be A Bear

Carolyn has this posted on the wall by her computer, and once in awhile I really enjoy reading it, so I thought that I'd share it with you. Linda reminded me of it when she took a quiz on fb that told her if she was a wild animal she'd be a bear. Linda, there is nothing wrong with being a bear, as you will see!

In this life I'm a woman. In my next life, I'd lke to come back as a bear. When you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself silly. I could deal with that, too.

When you're a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.

If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.

Yup, gonna be a bear!!!

Congratulations, Leah!!!

Leah graduated this weekend from Sequim High School! Friday we went down to the ocean.

Leah on her graduation day!

There is this really interesting bright orange fungus that grows on the grass.

The 5-year-old in the van got a little grumpy on the way home, so Jason stopped to pick him flowers to cheer him up.

Wade got a flower, too, and was very excited about it!

Just before Leah left for her graduation, we had to get a picture of Leah with the soon-to-be-empty-nesters. (Umm...yeah...Leah really did wear her yellow converse sneakers to her graduation...)

The cheering section.

There she is!

Leah and Louise

Wade and Tristan really enjoyed Grandpa's hot tub. Wade liked to just randomly jump into the water, so we had to keep a really close eye on him. Here, he was sitting really calmly in Eric's lap.

Sisters and soon-to-be roommates.

Saturday we went back down to the ocean. It was a cool day, but that didn't stop Tristan and Daddy from taking a 10 second dip.

Jason built the kids a driftwood fort.

An attempted kids picture.

Now that she's a graduate, she's all on her own.

Cody got to celebrate his 5th birthday!

On Sunday there was a graduation party for Leah and Brendan.

Cody got the party started by splitting his head open and receiving 3 stitches!!! Ouch!!

The Habners seem to enjoy taking care of the boys, and I know that my boys sure like them!!

The grajuits

Trying to organize a family picture.

Not too bad!

Ice Cream Cones!!!

Wade brings me his cowboy boots and sets them in front of his feet. He then grabs my leg to use as support as he wiggles his toes into them. He walks on his heels around the house enjoying the click that they make. :)

We were talking about using an ice cream cone as a treat in the potty training process, and I realized that my boys have never had an ice cream cone! 2 1/2 years without having an ice cream cone? What kind of mother am I? I had to show Tristan how to lick it and how he could take a bite out of the cone. Needless to say, he caught on pretty quick!

Our buddy Lael joined us.

Wade enjoyed his, too!

Jocefin Estelle

Congratulations to Ben, Clara, Jaela, and Ellie on the birth of their much awaited little girl, Jocefin Estelle. She was born this morning at 2:55 am. She weighs 6 lbs 12 oz and is 19.5 inches long. She has lots of brown, curly hair. Like a good little girl, she waited until convention was over to come into this world! What a beauty!

Chelan Convention 2009

We enjoyed a wonderful convention this past week! It comes and goes so fast, and you wish you could stay there forever! There were many wonderful thoughts shared, but one in particular I appreciated! One of the workers commented that it was amazing how little he remembers of the thoughts that were shared at a convention. But, convention is a cleansing process. It's like if you take a bath, when you come out there is not much water still on your body, but you are clean. I really appreciated this, because with the boys I didn't get as many notes taken as I would have liked, and have forgotten some of the things that I wanted to be sure to remember, but I do feel cleansed!

Tristan spent a lot of time getting drinks.

In the back is Jonathan, Emily, and Mango. The front is Kora and Tristan

There were lots of little kids there!! We attempted a picture of all of the kids under the age of 10. I estimate that we got about half of them. See if you can spot Tristan and Wade.
Convention was very hot Thursday and Friday...95 and 91 respectively. Saturday was hot at first, but a rain cloud rolled in and cooled us off. Sunday was borderline chilly with more rain later on. We stayed at home, as our house is less than a mile from the convention grounds. Mom and Dad stayed with us, and Julie, Lichen, and Teana stayed for 1 night as well.

Friends in the Park

On Wednesday some friends came to visit, and we went to storytime and had lunch in the park. We had a great time!! This is my friend Annie holding her little girl Brooke. Her sister Caitlin came as well.

Here is Pam and Dakota

Dakota and Brooke are only about a week and a half apart, so it was fun to watch them interact! Here was my attempt at a picture of all of the kids.

Check out Annie's blog for more pictures!