Never A Dull Moment

Two weeks ago we took our annual summer trip over to Chelan with the whole family. As usual Chelan didn't disappoint when it came to fun activities. We found our first adventure on the trip over.

We were able to meet up with Aunt Renee and our second cousin Karen who was down visiting from Canada and had been over to visit Grandma and Grandpa C. Who would have thought you could have so much fun at a rest stop on a rainy day. We gathered at one of the picnic tables to stay out of the rain.  McKenzie had a bouncy ball from a birthday party with her so the kids took turns bouncing it between the table and the picnic shelter roof which often caused it to fly into the path of cars arriving at the rest stop. The kids had a great time watching all the adults run wildly after the ball as it bounced madly about.


We had no sooner arrived in Chelan when Grandma and Grandpa C had us off on our next adventure, which was a BBQ at some of their friends' house. We literally didn't even stop at their house just met them along side the road and followed them to the BBQ. It was a great night for a party and McKenzie met a new friend there. This girl is going to be a zoologist or something I think. She was so interested in this praying mantis and even held it in her hand so gently.



The next morning Grandpa C put his boat in the lake and we cruised up to the State Park for some swimming and lunch. Both Ben and McKenzie loved to drive the boat with Grandpa C. This was Ben's first time on the boat and he was loving it!



We had lunch at the State Park, which has an amazing little snack hut whose menu offers every imaginable kind of food. I ordered the nachos and was sharing them with Grandma C.  Ben was walking around on the picnic blanket and I said he's totally going to step in the nachos. No sooner had I looked away to take a bite of an onion ring that Matt handed me, when Ben did step right into the nachos. But it got much worse from there, the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was him slipping and going down in the nachos. It was far worse than I had imaged it would be. Poor little guy might never live this down.


No trip to Chelan is complete without the boys pilgrimage to Walmart. Each time they go they find some amazing merchandise that we can't live without. This trip they scored big with lovely dew rags for everyone. Better than the New Years trip when they came back with black full face ski masks also know as robber masks. Here are a couple of great dew rag shots - maybe I should submit these to http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/ . Nothing says class like a kid or a Grandma in a dew rag.



After all the fun in the sun Ben started to get really tired and found any opportunity he could to take a quick snooze so he could keep up.


He was even kind enough to take a pretty good nap at Slide Waters so the rest of us could keep having fun on the slides.


McKenzie enjoyed her trip to Slide Waters last year but this was the first year she could really do more on her own. She was able to go on the river ride and all of the big individual slides by herself. She loved it .  At the bottom of each ride she said, "Let's go again!" and headed back up. Matt's favorite ride is the gunny sack race slide. He, Uncle Eric and my cousins Don and Chad were having races down them not to see who could go the fastest but to see who could go the farthest. Matt has been able to hit the far end several times and there is usually some little kid there who thinks it is awesome. This years little kid did not disappoint. When Matt got to the end of the slide he yelled, "muy rápido, muy grande" over and over.



We did some celebrating for Grandma C's birthday which the kids always love. Here's Ben giving Grandma some loves. Or maybe Grandma is loving Ben and he's loving his Hippo. Either way they are cute.


We did try to get a good family photo but with so many squirmy bodies and the sun in our faces we did what we could. At least we're all in the picture.


On the ride home we discovered another fun stop for the kids, it was a trail head parking area that had just what we needed for our little potty trained girl who never needs to go until she really has to go. After we took care of business we got to explore this caboose which was a lot of fun for the kids. They are restoring it there so maybe someday it will be open for people to go inside. I'm sure we'll be stopping now and then to check it out.

Hot Fun In The Summertime

We have been taking full advantage of all the fun summer has to offer lately. Since it seems like we never stop moving unless we're sleeping updates have taken a backseat to fun lately.  So we'll be getting the Readers Digest version of the past couple of weeks to get caught up. Here's our list of the hot fun things we've been enjoying lately!


1) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Here we have more than a dynamic duo and less than the fab four so we must be left with the three musketeers or three stooges.  Larry aka Claire, Mo aka McKenzie and Curly aka Olivia. These three girls are going to have some fun growing up together. Ben opted not to be in the photo despite McKenzie's efforts to corral him.  There was way too much pink going on. McKenzie is three, Claire is two and Olivia is 22 months.


2) Zoo Carousel. The kids and I spent a great Saturday morning at the zoo. Despite all the animals we saw the favorite attraction of the day was the carousel. Ben was so proud of sitting on a horse by himself like a big boy.



3) Nature Lover. Leave it to my girl to love a crow. At least this one was just a statue. If there is one thing I do not love it is birds. Please don't let her want pet birds in my house someday.


4) Go Cougs! Technically I think that may be a snow leopard but to me it looks a lot like a Cougar. We have to find WSU pride on the West side wherever we can.



5) Daddy's Girl! These two love their weekend breakfasts together. McKenzie will eat egg after egg as long as she can put the pepper on. Definitely takes after Daddy on that one.



6) Twins! Thankfully for everyone the kids are not conjoined twins.  While it seemed like a great way to save energy by only pushing one swing no one involved was happy for long.


7) I can do it! This is one of McKenzie's favorite things to say lately as she is "doing" things. We explored a new park by our house and she loved climbing all the way to to the top on her own. Love this picture because it shows off all those shiny teeth.


8) Dunking Your Preschool Teacher. We went to one of McKenzie's friends birthday parties recently.  It was amazing, they had a bounce house, a hot dog machine, the ice cream man came but the best part of all was that their preschool teacher came and was in the dunk tank. Ms. Lauren rocks! Here's McKenzie getting her turn - she loved it.



9) Splash Park! There is a fantastic splash park for kids near our house and we spent a nice Sunday morning there with the kids. Here's Ben planning his strategy for what to play with next. Unfortunately for us it was the sand box.

Settling for a Moment

A few weeks ago I was wondering where those lazy days of summer went and we finally found at least a moment of lazy summer time poolside at Grandma and Grandpa Z's house.


Here's Benny stopping his constant motion for a brief cuddle with Daddy. Moments without movement are very rare for him at this stage so we'll take them anytime we can get them, even if it means cuddling a baby fresh out of the pool.


The kids are really loving the water again this summer. McKenzie can swim the whole length of the pool holding onto a water noodle.  It won't be long before she's swimming all over on her own. I can't wait to see McKenzie in that stage where kids love to dive down and pick things up from the bottom of the pool. That would come in handy since Ben's favorite pass time at Grandma and Grandpa Z's is throwing thing into the pool.



Looking forward to more water time and maybe even some lazy moments this weekend visiting Grandma and Grandpa C in Chelan.

There's A New Sheriff In Town

Two weeks ago Ben started at McKenzie's school with her for two days a week. McKenzie was so excited for Ben to come to school with her, she asked over and over again if she could hold his hand. Unfortunately, Ben's technique for not dropping his lunch box eliminated that option.


Whenever Ben wants to carry something on his shoulder this is how he walks so it won't drop. It's quite funny but I'll definitely be looking into a backpack if he doesn't figure it out soon.

Ben did great on his first day and was all smiles when I went to pick him up. I took him out onto the playground to get Kenzie and when she saw us she yelled to her class, "everybody look here's my brother Baby." Her teacher said she had been talking about him being a big boy and coming to her school. Hopefully she'll introduce him as Ben and not as Baby when he gets on the school bus for kindergarten someday.

How Four Became Six

In college we became the Fab Four, always up to something together and it was always fun. We (pictured above: me, Carrie, Gina, and Sarah) have had many adventures together over the years despite how different we all are as individuals. One of the most interesting things about us as a group is that on pretty much any attribute or opinion we end up in the same order:  Carrie, Colleen, Gina, Sarah. So it is no surprise to me that with kids we should end up in the same way. Carrie has three, I have two , Gina has one and Sarah is quite happy to have zero. Above is a picture of the four of us back in the day and then the six kids last weekend when we got them all together in Entiat.


We have Kaden (6), Atticus (2), McKenzie (3), Ben (1), Mikelle (4) and Halle (2) Quite the crew for a weekend of fun.

We were feeling a little bad that our kids don't really get to spend much time together so we decided a weekend away was in order. Gina graciously offered up her family vacation house in Entiat so we jumped at the chance. We were semi camping since they have a great kitchen, living room, bathroom but are lacking in room to sleep the numbers we had so our family and Carrie's set up our tents in the grass. Sleeping was a little rough for everyone since most of the kids are used to sleeping alone and in dark rooms but in the end everyone did sleep.

One of the best things about Gina's house is how close it is to the water, you just walk out the back door and down a grassy area to Lake Entiat. Here I am with Halle, Ben, McKenzie and Kaden playing in the water. The kids loved to be able to run right into the water.


Miss Halle deciding who to throw her water balloon at.


Being right on the water you get quite a view of the lake and the surrounding hills.  It was amazing to watch the sunrise in the morning. Lucky for me McKenzie got me up in time for that the first morning.


We also spend quite a bit of time in the community pool that is part of Gina's neighborhood. Such a great set up to enjoy the sunny weather with kids.  Here are Mikelle, Kaden, Carrie, Gina, Atticus and Matt in the pool. Of the six kids we had three who were able to swim around in the water on their own. Kaden is a fish swimming and jumping in all on his own, Mikelle and McKenzie can swim all over with floats and then Halle, Atticus and Ben are all like crazy monkeys clinging to whatever adult would take them in.


Atti is thinking about going in the water.


At the pool we had some chips on the table.  It was very clear the kids aren't allowed unlimited access to food let alone chips.  They were making stops at the chip table between all other activities. Here's McKenzie with the evidence of her Cheetos habit all over her hands and face.


Super serious Mikelle.  She is so tired she crashed on the couch with all the other kids running and screaming around her.


The favorite activity for the kids besides all the water was jumping on the airbeds in the tents.  That kept them entertained for quite a while. Here's Kaden resiting the temptation to jump on McKenzie and Halle. He was such a good sport with all the little ones around.


It was so fun to get to know all the kids better and to spend some time with the girls. I was glad Carrie and Gina got to see first hand how busy Ben is.  They called him the CIA baby because he was so silent and fast when he made his moves to escape. Here he is showing off for the crowd, just being his usual cute self.


We all had a great time and are planning already for next year when all the kids will be one year older.  Next year we'll have to talk Sarah into joining us, if only so she can appreciate her no kid status even more.

What Ever Happened To Those Lazy Days of Summer?

Our summer days have been anything but lazy. You may think that I have had nothing to post about, but in fact I've had way too much to post and have gotten very far behind. Just when I think there is a few moments to catch up something else fun comes along for us to do. Here's a run down of the "Ten Fun Things We've Done Lately" in no particular order with some pictures.

1) Riding A Ferry Boat. For cousin Claire's second birthday we took a great ferry boat ride around Puget Sound. McKenzie loves anything to do with birthdays and Ben loved the freedom of running free. He was a man intent of exploring every corner of the boat. Here's the birthday girl and her favorite Uncle Matt.


2) 4th of July. This might be McKenzie's new favorite holiday. Not only is it America's birthday but her Daddy "put fireworks up!" This is the first year that we let her stay up to watch the show. Previously she was always sound asleep long before the real fun started. Ben continued the tradition of sleeping through the show safe in his bed but McKenzie stayed up really really late. We had a great group of friends come over to celebrate with us.  McKenzie's final words of the day were "I want my people to come over again."  Here's McKenzie with her "people", Atticus and cousin Claire, watching the first firework of the night.

Photo courtesy of Aunt Jennifer

3) Saving Money To Visit Mickey Mouse House. I know the money jar has been featured in a previous post back when McKenzie was first interested in it. We're still collecting our coins for a trip to see Mickey someday and now we have our smallest family member contributing to the cause. Our friend Rachel came over on the 4th and was brave enough to let Ben dig through her purse. He was digging around for a bit and finally found what he was after. He actually took her wallet and removed all her change and put it in our money jar.  Better watch your wallets when you come over, this guy is bold. Thanks to Rachel for being a good sport.


4) ETrade Baby Strikes Again. My office is one area of the house that is off limits to the kiddos but whenever they can sneak in they head straight for the computer. Here's Ben doing a little stock trading during his recent break in. He has finally figured out round doorknobs so it was time to pull out the baby locks and tape them on the door knobs again.


5) Folding Laundry. Okay so he's not folding the laundry but what mother doesn't have the classic baby in the dryer shot? Perhaps he was looking for change in there.


6) Swimming Lessons. McKenzie started her first big girl in the pool by herself swimming lessons on a cold drizzly July day but the weather did not matter in the least to her. She is loving swimming lessons and being in the water daily. She started the class already willing and able to do some of the major things they are working like going underwater.  So she hopefully will stay focused to learn the things she doesn't know. Look at this serious girl learning to kick - gotta love the tongue hanging out has she concentrates.


7) Playing Outside. With the weather improving we are outside any chance we get. Here are the kids walking out the driveway and down the street to the mailbox, one of our favorite outdoor adventures. Love that McKenzie's pants are on backwards in this picture. I tried to tell her but she had put them on and was quite happy with them that way so that is how they stayed.


8) Sprinklers! Best of two worlds - outside and water. Not a lot more to say other than who doesn't love a good sprinkler on a hot day. Ben is a huge fan that's for sure.


9) Hanging with the cousins. Here are McKenzie, Nathan and Kayla last weekend out at the Mill Creek 5K which Aunt Kacey and Uncle Eric were running in. We were waiting for the race to start to so we could cheer. These three look like trouble if you ask me.


10) Looking for movie roles. If anyone hears that they are filming a new version of Charlie Brown let me know because I'll take Ben to audition for the role of Linus. Seriously he's a natural.




Hoping to post more often but at least I'm caught up for now.  Let the summer fun continue.

Who is That Guy?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Justin Bieber, the latest teeny bopper heart throb? Nope, it's just our little Ben in need of a haircut. It's so funny to me that Justin Bieber is so popular with his baby face, big brown eyes and over grown hair. Looks a lot like another guy I know as Ben.  Kenzie would say they are "match, match."





Here's another picture of our sweet Ben showing off his winning smile.  It's always so interesting to see kids teeth come in.  You never know what you're going to get.  He's enjoying a nice cool breeze from a fan which is his new favorite thing to play with.