Becca comes to town!!! - part two

OK, not too happy with the alignment of the previous post. That'll teach me to try to get tricky. So, Paul's back from Rainier and the girls are home from Youth Conference - now the adventure we've (Becca and I) have been looking forward to - our pilgrimage to Forks, WA - home of the fictional book - Twilight. Yes, I know - we're pretty pitiful, but indulge us. There's actually a lot to do and see over on the Olympic Peninsula. We had to take two cars. Becca and I, Brianna, Morgan and Justin and Case were in the van. Paul had Kenzie, Carly and Aaron in the car behind us. Becca had brought the audio CD of Twilight for us to listen to during our 3 days of travel. We began with a ferry ride from Edmonds to Kingston in beautiful sunny weather (albeit chilly in the wind):Now, I want to paint a picture for you - we're off the ferry, driving along the northern, very curvy roads of the Olympic Peninsula, listening to Twilight, having a lovely time, I might add. Baby Case is sleeping happily in the back seat and, 4 year old,Justin is complaining that his "throat hurts." Not much we can do about a sore throat at the moment - so we continue on. All of the sudden, the throwing up begins. Rebecca dives to the back seat and we're scrambling for a bag from somewhere to catch any further outbursts, but alas, its too late. It's everywhere. So, I swerve off the road to a gravel area. Here's what we get to clean up (now, I debated on putting this on here, Paul said "no", I say, "the moms can handle it" - and will appreciate what was going on - so here goes):It was a group effort getting Justin changed, cleaning the van, etc. We were quite the circus on the side of the road for about 30 minutes: Now we're ready to go again, with a bag ready "Just-in Case" he has a "sore throat" again!

I say the story had to be told! Anyway - here's the beautiful view of Lake Crescent as we were driving:Once we got to Forks, we checked into our rooms, went and ate pizza, then headed out to LaPush (a reservation on the beach) - about 15 minutes away. We spent the rest of the evening hanging at the beach and watching the sun set. Very beautiful! Cool formations out in the ocean:

Wait for it! - Woops!

Amazing Sunset - note the eagle flying right in the middle of the picture. They were flying everywhere. Quite a peacefully, surreal scene!

Day two found us heading out to Neah Bay (another reservation northwest of Forks) and then out to Cape Flattery, which is the northwestern most point in the continental U.S. The hike out to the point was 3/4 of a mile each way - easy hiking. And very beautiful - especially once you get there...

A couple amazing views before you arrive at the BIG view!

Below - Tatoosh Island out beyond the point. Used to be an operating lighthouse.

Just to the right of Tatoosh Island at the point of Cape Flattery

Here's our obligatory Twilight fans picture in front of Forks High School - this IS the reason we took this trip isn't it?

Day 3 - after we checked out, we headed to the HOH Rainforest. When my kids got out of the cars, they said, "It looks like our backyard!" I guess it does, but there was way more moss - and - it was a beautiful sunny day - go figure!

Above - Trying to climb up on a huge root ball for a photo op.

Right - Amazed at all the shades of green!

Left - Carly "hugging" a tree and Justin doing his standard "pointing for a picture" pose.

Right - Morgan and Brianna

About 20 minutes after we got home, that evening, my brother Jacob arrived at our house. He had flown in from Arizona that day and would be in town for a few days. We were able to spend that Tuesday and Wednesday nights with him after his meetings in Seattle. It was the first time he'd been up to visit since Carly was born - before we even moved in to our house! Let not let it take so long next time Jake! K?

On Thursday the 26th of June, Paul, Kenzie and I drove to Portland with Becca, Justin and Case. We would be dropping off Becca with her mother-in-law and Paul and I would be attending Tyler Hesselgesser's sealing to Kelly. Kenzie went down to help watch younger cousins at the hotel. Pictures in my next post.

Becca comes to town!!! - part one

Much anticipation and hype occurred as prelude to my sister Becca coming to visit. We had been planning our itinerary for months! We have a 6 page word document (that we were emailing back and forth) to prove it. It's quite humorous and makes me smile. Anyway she brought her two boys, Justin and Case (seriously that's their names), on June 13th for almost 2 whole weeks! The first thing we did, on the 14th, was take Brianna and two of her friends for a late birthday dinner to the Cheesecake Factory:But the best part of the evening was Becca and my sing along to a Debbie Gibson classic, on the way home:

Embarassing video coming soon

My dad and Morgan came on the 17th - Dad came to assist her on her first flight. He was only here for a day and a half, then he headed home - not nearly enough time if you ask me! Here's shot of us playing Blokus:

Brianna, Kenzie and Morgan went to Youth Conference first thing in the morning of the 2oth and returned home late on the 21st. I'm just gonna say that Morgan went away with a few new texting buddies of the opposite sex. She left a trail of heartbreak every where she went.

While our babysitters were away at Youth Conference, we took the younger ones (including two Gidewall kids) to the park. Here's a shot of Rebecca realizing she's too tall for the elementary school monkey bars - after she bangs her shins into the other side.

Above Aaron and Justin - actually getting along for a moment. Right - Brie Gidewall, Case and Carly on the tire swing.

While all this was going on, Paul was climbing Mt. Rainier once again. He went with a couple of new guys this time: Ronn Carlson and a brother of his. He took a different (supposedly easier) route this year, leaving from Paradise. Their first day was beautiful weather. They began their second day at 12:30 am and summitted at 5:45 am in crazy winds and very little visibility. They almost turned back, but soon ran in to the summit, got a few quick pics and immediately headed down:

Above - view of Mt. St. Helens from the trail. Below - that "quick" summit picture and then it was down they went. Paul's the red coat on the right. If you ask me, none of this looks too much fun. I was just praying the whole time that they made it down safe - just the week before, someone had died on the mountain. Paul assured me that with all the stuff he packs with him, he could survive for quite a while up there - still doesn't leave me all warm and fuzzy....

End of school craziness...

I'm finally back and am going to break all that's been going on into a few posts. After you see what all we've been up to, hopefully you'll forgive me for taking over a month to get to this.

With the beginning of June - all the end of school craziness set in with end of year programs for Carly - they put on a musical production of Treasure Island. Very cute and well done! Aaron's class put on a shadow puppet production about - brace yourself - Environment issues - which included global warming, anti-logging, save the whales, etc. Ask me sometime about my moment of moral dilemma with one of his assignments, then how I didn't go off, but stated my beliefs calmly and effectively. OK, basically, he came home with a digital voice recorder one night before the program, with two questions he was supposed to ask an adult before the next day. Here's what I had to answer:What is the biggest issue we're facing today, environmentally? And - What does your family do to save Mother Earth? And confession, my first response wasn't as nice as my actual, thought out response - Paul helped me with that over the phone... Everyone should be proud of me nonetheless. Aaron was operating the puppet next to the TV on the right.
Brianna also got an award from the English department at a special program one evening:

Carly had a piano recital a couple days after school ended - you probably can't see the song title she's playing - it's Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx. Bring back memories to any of you fans of 80's sappy love songs?
That's the end of all the end of school year activities. The real fun starts on my next post when my sister comes to town....

Memorial Day Weekend - Carly's Play - and Brianna's Birthday

I've finally got some pictures to post. It's kinda weird to just post with no pics. Memorial Day weekend was spent working our butts off. We had 15 yards of bark delivered and that was our goal for the weekend. We weeded and barked 6 flower beds. The girls helped all day on Saturday (Aaron was at a friend's house). Monday, Aaron joined and we all continued to work until all the flower beds were barked. We even created a new bed at the front of the driveway.

Our plan of attack was to all weed, edge and bark one bed, then move on to the next. The girls and I would weed, while Paul would edge and prepare for the bark. Then the girls and Paul would fill wheelbarrows with bark, while I spread it. The following are pics of the kids weeding on Monday. They worked so hard and didn't complain nearly as much as they could have...

They liked it when they got driven around behind the lawnmower occassionally. You can see a bit of the bark pile left in the distance below. The mound started much bigger.

The finished product - after the two LONG days of working, we had some beautiful beds around our house. The bed right in the front of the below picture was created this weekend. Put that cool maple tree in the middle and surrounded it with 5 rhododendrons. You can see some of the other beds in the distance if you look hard - to the right, to the left and beyond. And boy we were sore for days after all this hard work.

After we got cleaned up on Monday, we took the kids to see Prince Caspian. On Thursday, Carly had her end of the year program at school. The 3-6 graders did a Treasure Island musical. Carly was part of the chorus - in the middle of the below picture. Not too many good pics of the whole play though.

Then, on Saturday was Brianna's 17th birthday! Can you believe it - my baby's 17! We had a low key day running errands and at home then had cake and presents in the evening. She's going with a few friends to the Cheesecake Factory in a couple weeks to celebrate also.
Brianna has had an amazing school year. She did well in her classes, got a good ACT score and loved her Yearbook experience. She came home with her finished yearbook on Friday and was thrilled to show us all that they had accomplished. Graphic Design is something she really enjoys - we'll see what she does with this interest in the future... regardless, her future looks very bright!

Nothing Too Exciting

Hi just wanted to post quick and say that not much has been going on too exciting around here. At least nothing that we took pictures of. Mothers Day was nice. Paul had given me 2 dozen very pretty red roses. Carly and Aaron made me coupon books, Kenzie said she needed someone to take her shopping to get me something, and Brianna was still working on a collage on photoshop that she is going to get printed on a large piece of canvas. She has since finished it - it's really cool. Last week, Paul and Aaron went to the Father/Sons campout and got super dirty! The girls and I had gone to see a musical of Little Women at a theatre in Everett on the 15th. It was a lot of fun and a great chick bonding experience. And that's about it! We have a lot of bark spreading in the yard this weekend, so if anyone's bored - come on over and give us a hand! Later...

Friends

I found the pics from yesterday... We had a great day! We went to Clayton and Mel's new baby, IRIS', blessing at their ward in West Seattle. Then we all gathered at their house for yummy food and hanging out all afternoon. It was a lot of fun seeing their new home remodelling completed. They did a lot to an old house from the 50's. Julianna's parents, sister and family also came from S.L.C. It was great to see them again and it's wonderful how they continue to love and support Clayton. Here's the star of the day - baby IRIS:

That hair is for real too! Just curls straight up like that. When we got to the church and Aaron looked back at her, he said, "She needs some major gel!" We tried not to laugh too hard during church. Don't you just wanna chew on her though!?!?!?

Clayton and daughter #1 - Hadley. She's a big sister now! Oh and she loves marshmallows!

~ Matt being Matt ~

Big kids playing some card game - man they've grown up! We met these friends back when Brianna was 9 months and Peter was 2 months. I firmly believe that ward, in Seattle, and the friends we gained and kept all these years was a gift from the big man upstairs!

Howard, Matt, Paul, Brianna, Amy, Mel holding Iris, Mary, Victoria, Clayton and Blythe

Thanks for a great time Clayton and Mel - you were great hosts. The house looked amazing - loved all the color and the food was yummy! Thanks to everyone for your love and friendship over these many years - here's to many, many more! We love you!

Kenzie turns 14! and Snow in April!

OK, so the every week thing isn't working all that well. I'll make a couple posts to highlight the past few weeks. First, Kenzie turned 14 on April 19th. We had a family celebration on that day:

I should also include this picture, out our back door, from that day. The day was April 19th I should remind you:
Yes, that's snow coming down like gang busters. It had been doing this for a couple days - got a total of 4 inches this time. Didn't stick around too long, just irritated us, cause - For Crying Out Loud - it's April! The next weekend was Kenzie's birthday slumber party (btw - next year is going to be a slumber party free year - I declare it now!) She invited some really cute and fun girls:
As soon as I get the pics up from this past weekend, I'll make another post. They're on Brianna's camera. Later...