Soaking It Up!

As our last few weeks of summer are nearing we have been living it up with....

Impromptu get togethers with friends....

Rock On!

What is better than a 4 man slip and slide?

This girl loves to slip n slide!

And going downtown to see parades.....

The bag pipes are my favorite.

The pet parade is a favorite at our house! This years theme was Villains vs. Superhero's!

And heading to Seattle for our first Storm game.....

LOVE Tay's face in this picture! Makes me LAUGH every time I look at it!

Not gonna lie- I loved going to the game, loved the people, the activities and these spirit sticks!

It was a beautiful night and when we walked out of the game the Space Needle was gorgeous!

This week we've been home quite a bit as Maddie girl has had the summer flu. Poor girl has been fighting a 103 temp for 5 days now and has been laid up in bed. She's been to the doctor and they've taken blood and checked her out- they think a few more days and she should be back as good as new. We are looking forward to it!

I head back to work next week for my LID day and open house and to get all those bulletin boards up and decorated! Reality is about to set in for me! Not sure if I'm ready to give up my Jammie's until 10 and drinking coffee all morning routine quite yet!

Dave has been at work all summer and is really enjoying his new job! He has finally been able to meet a lot of the students this week as they had registration and he gets to meet and interact with his new staff early next week as they begin their LID days as well.

Taylor is anxiously waiting to find out who her 2nd grade teacher is going to be (don't you remember those days??)! She watches for the mailman to come each day and runs as fast as she can to the mailbox. I'm hoping the letter arrives soon for her sake!

Crescent Bar!

The girls and I took a little 5 day trip over the mountains this past week to go to Crescent Bar with my mom, sister, Emilie and Trey. It's become a tradition and one that we all love doing! We decided that on the way over we would all meet in Leavenworth. I L.O.V.E. Leavenworth. The girls did too! They are at that age where they can make fun wherever they go....

Hence, the rock climbing.

The posing for picture with their cousins, Emilie and Trey.

And with Grandma Kathy.

They even liked going into the shops (The Christmas store being a favorite!). Maddie was always nice enough to come outside with Trey and I to wait- he wasn't as interested in shopping!

And the hats....who wouldn't have fun in the Hat Shop?

We ended the visit with ice cream....well, the adults did. The kids each wanted candy. You can't beat a bag full of gummy bears or a long stick of sugar!

After we arrived at Crescent Bar it was time for a swim! And if you ever needed to find me at any point during the trip, you could usually find me here :)

(I love Emilie's "silly" face. When I asked her to make one she looked at me like I was cRaZy!)

I'm quite certain I could pull this picture out of my 2010 summer photos as well. I'm not sure what we are going to do when 1. Her Ariel bathing suit no longer fits here and 2. When the Care Bear floating that I got from the $ store 3 years ago pops.

We had lots of down time. For me, this picture says it all- and why I treasure our families oh so much.

If I was lucky enough to leave the pool (don't feel too badly for me- I did get to read an entire book AND lay out in the sun while doing this- two of my favorite things!!) I would get to go down to the river where Maddie and I spent a lot of time on the jet ski! Thank you to Danny and Pam for all the rides :)

She was most happy in any kind of water this week!

Maddie fell in love with this old life jacket that used to be Jill's when she was a little girl. I'm thinking we have room for her to grow into it!

Sisters. We were still smiling after our trip together :) Love you Darci!

A First for Maddie!

Miss Maddie lost her first tooth this week! She has been waiting in the shadows of her big sister for this moment to happen for what seems like forever! And when it happened it was like Christmas morning for her! Here's what happened. I was in my craft room working on headbands and she comes in with a whole apple and says to me that she thinks that her tooth is bleeding because her apple is all bloody. I look at her tooth and sure enough, it's as loose as can be! She squealed with excitement and for the next two hours would come and find me every ten minutes to wiggle it and try to pull it out. Finally, while eating dinner we gave it one last try and out it came! She was one happy girl! I have to tell you though, I had some seriously mixed emotions...I was thrilled for her but at the same time, almost started crying. My BABY is loosing her teeth. Her first, but my last. SaD. But this new smile she's got going can't keep me down for long.....

Her sister was as sweet as could be, letting her borrow her special tooth box since Maddie doesn't have one of her own.

Her letter to the tooth fairy was direct and to the point. Not even a hello!

One last shot of this very excited girl! And I have to tell you that she woke up at 4:30 a.m. and carried her loot (which consisted of a Justin Bieber spiral notebook, a pencil and a new glittery t-shirt) into our room to show us and then couldn't go back to bed due to her

excitement!

Chores!

All summer long Taylor has been asking for money (weird!?!). So, Dave and I started talking to her about the possibility of doing a few chores around the house to earn a little bit of money each week. She processed this for a while and decided that she'd like to try it out. She has just finished up her first week of chores and earned her money! She couldn't be more proud, putting her money into her wallet and then asking if she could go to Fred Meyer with me to look at things she might be able to buy. She quickly realized that she's going to have to actually save up her allowance money to buy something! Here's a look at her chores......

1. Room has to be clean by Sunday at dinner.

2. Empty the silverware from the dishwasher 3x week.

3. Bring in garbage and recycle bins.

It took me a few days to notice that she's clearly taking her chores seriously.....

NEVER has my silverware been so well organized! Love this girl!

The Fair

Our niece, Abra, invited us to watch her and her horse, Starbuck perform this past week at the Thurston County Fair! Here they both are getting ready (and waiting patiently) to perform.

Some of the fans! L-R....Alex, Taylor, Abra, Maddie (in front of her), Malea and Kinley

I was most impressed with Abra's posture, smile and finesse on Starbuck. She looked beautiful in her horse outfit (sorry, I SO don't know anything about riding horses!!)

She and Starbuck ended up getting quite a few ribbons- in the category that we watched, they earned a blue ribbon! Yea!

It was nice to see the family all together!

While waiting for Abra and Starbuck to perform we did a bit of sight seeing....

These guys were our favorite!

And what would a fair be without a few rides?

I absolutely LOVE this picture of the girls! Look at those faces!

Cooling off in the shade with one of their favorite people! They love themselves some Alex time!

Abra, thanks for inviting us! We had a great time! We can't wait for your next big show! We are proud of you!

S-U-N!

The sun has returned to Olympia and we couldn't be happier! The Myers family has been busy slip-n-sliding, running through the sprinkler, playing track ball and of course, doing a bit of this.... The fountain!

Dave and I were reminiscing about how a few years ago the girls wouldn't even put a foot close to the fountain water! And now, we have these two confident little girls who we had to drag back to the car!

Let the S-U-N times continues!

Laughlin!

We recently returned from a 40th birthday celebration trip honoring our good friend Sean!

Dave and I created these T-shirts to wear on the airplane and on our first night in Laughlin. I think they turned out way better then my original idea of using puffy paints! If you ever want to have conversations with the most random people, I suggest you wear a shirt with someone else's face on it! We met lots of new friends our first day in Laughlin!

From L-R....Dave, me, Jen, Eddie, Sean (b-day boy) and Krista!

It was H-O-T in Laughlin- the kind of hot that takes your breath away. Dave and I loved the heat and spent our days outside next to (or in) the pool! This is one of my favorites of Dave!

Occassionally, our friends would make an appearance in the pool! The heat they claimed, was just too much for them...they found a fun bar to hang out in, instead!

I was a happy camper! I love the S-U-N!

On our way back to the airport in Vegas, we decided to detour and visit the Hoover Dam. I am so glad we did. Although, we only had about a half an hour to explore it, it was well worth our time!

I was glad I had lugged our big camera around all week just for these pictures. Now, if I only would have packed the big lens!