A weekend with The Deines Family!

Our friends Matt and Blythe invited us to join them for their

 16th Annual Neighborhood BBQ!

It was so much fun!  And, as always, great to see their family!

My camera does NOT do this sunflower justice!

Them being, them!

 

Slumber Party!

Avary found one of the bubbles they were blowing on this leaf!

 

Even Craig played at the park!

Just Dancin'!

This one is funny!  I LOVE how they plug their noses.  :)

 

Didja Know???

National Root Beer Float Day was August 6th!

Did you celebrate?  We sure did.  Not many food 'holidays' get past us!

Yum!



Sweet Suite Dave Greenly

Our 'Oh So Fun' friends scored a suite at a recent River Cats game.  Craig and the kids joined everyone for an end of summer day at the ballpark followed by pool time and BBQ!  I was at home nursing some 'food poisoning' from the night before.

 Jackson, Jordan, Zack and Jason!

 Snack time, sno-cone and cotton candy!

Caitlin and Avary cheering on the Cats!

Griffen, "Um Mom,

You're going to need to put some money in our account at school.  We charged a bowl of cereal this morning."

Me, "What do you mean you charged it?"

Avary, "We walked up to the counter and ordered our food.  The man said I need money.  We said we don't have any money.  He said what is your name and then gave us our food."

Griffen, "It was so good.  I'm going to charge more tomorrow."

It has come......

the first day of school!

We now have three school age kids.  Jackson started 5th Grade (I can hardly believe it) and is loving it and Griffen and Avary started Kindergarten and also 'lub' it.  Our schedule is pretty crazy, but without crazy, I've decided we would be bored.  G & A are still getting used to going to school EVERYDAY!  The best part of all is it is EVERYDAY, ALL DAY!  

Everyone asks what I do with all my time now.  Um.  The same as I used to do, just by myself.  I do have to remind myself to slow down.  I've never had 6 hours a day alone.  It's pretty nice though and we are all adjusting quite well.

They were all smiles when we picked them up!

 Even Jackson missed them a little.

 

Karate meets RiverCats!

All the kids in the lower age group were invited to do a performance at a recent RiverCats game.  The only problem was it was 100 degrees and they had to be in full uniform.  They were troopers though and made it through with one of their best little buddies, Paolo!

 Nothing says 'Good Job' like cotton candy :)

Green and Gold Belt Achievements

The DoJo is our home away from home lately.  All three kids are doing so great with working towards their next belts.  This time it was Griffen and Avary earning theirs.  Griffen, green, Avary, gold.  It is always so neat to see how excited they get when they  see what they have accomplished.

 All the belts waiting to be presented!

 So excited for eachother!

 'Looking for the good.'

Just one of the lessons they learn in karate.

 From Orange to Green!

 From White to Gold!



What were we thinking?

It doesn't take much to get Craig and I excited about things.  Usually just the words, Adults Only, will do the trick. 

This year it was an Adults Only River Rafting Trip down the Cache Creek.  Two nights, yummy food, rafting and camping with some of our closest friends.  It doesn't get much better.  Except the kids were at home.  Now it can only get better ;)

I personally am not a fan of water sports/activities.  But, I chose to overlook my fear and go anyway.

  Big mistake. 

Getting a little anxiety just thinking about it. 

It went a little something like this.......

Uh huh!  That's us underwater.  In our boat. 

Luckily we made it back up, but without an oar.  Fun times!  I should have known to stay and watch over the campsite when during the "training" they said, "Make sure and do this when you get to the Mother".  Or, "Hold on tight when you get to the Widow Maker!" 

The names say it all. 

The name I'll be looking for in the future when it comes to rafting is Lazy River.

Double Digits in Da House!

Jackson is now the BIG 1-0!

He opted to get a gift instead of have a party, which was a welcome choice considering we just had two other parties in the family.  His gift was an XBox 360.  As you can see, he was a little excited!

Let the gaming begin.