Summer is Flying By!

2007 July

Life is good in our household...besides the fact that I have a major cold anyway. The girls had a great time at day camp last week. They loved the pony rides and magician, the pool and the bounce house...and yes Jesus was there too! I helped in the snack area and had a great time. A small group of kids came in each day and helped us make the snack. Each snack related to the lesson they were learning for that day. Then each day the WHOLE camp came and ate it. I got to share the significance of the snack with them all. I feel bad for those poor souls that had to be there all day with the kids. I was only there for about 3 hours and I was exhausted.

On Saturday Mike ran another race. This one was at a local refinery. They sure know how to wow the public. They had a free 1/2 mile race for the kids and trophies for the top 3 runners in each age group, plus live music and free lunch! The girls all ran and they were SO proud of themselves. We were proud of them too. They had sore legs the next day. Mike got 3rd in his age category so he got a trophy! He is really into these runs now. We are going down to Seattle for one next weekend. He'll be running with thousands! We hope to catch the Seafair Parade that night too. It is a family adventure. Mike's hobbies sure are fun.

We are off on a camping excursion tomorrow. This time we are staying in a KOA cabin though, so it should be a lot of fun. There is a pool. We'll be in Leavenworth, the cute little bavarian tourist town. There should be lots to do.

Besides the cold in my head this week was a little slower for me. We had to drive down to Children's to amaze Kelby's doctor again last Monday. Her counts are great and she doing well. We might have her port taken out in October if all is going well. I did a lot of organizing this week. I love the feeling of getting things back in their places and throwing stuff out that we don't need. Actually I just made a big pile to have a garage sale. I need the girls to sell some of their stuffed animals. They have so many, I don't know what to do!

Hope everyone's July is going great, but not flying by too fast (unless you live in Arizona and want the heat and crazy storms to pass.)

July...and its flying by!

June Photos 2

We are back from our trip and there are tons of pictures to wade through! We are finally rested and readjusted to life at home again. Kelby and Tegan have day camp at Churhc all coming this week, so they'll get tired again! I'll be helping for awhile in the morning there. Then Anika and I will be off looking for things to do.

The trip was great. We relaxed and enjoyed our family. I got to see my sister's new house in Casa Grande one day. The girls had a great time with my parents at the resort waterpark. While they were gone that night my gramma and grampa took Andrea, Victor, Gabe, Mike and I out to dinner at the Pro Base Shop...a HUGE outdoor sports store with restaurant. We had fun and were impressed by the live fish on display and the cool outdoor decor. Plus we got to try Aligator for dinner! It wasn't too bad really. It had the same texture as shrimp.

Mike's Arizona Pics

 

My Arizona Pics

 

Kelby had a great birthday while we were there. How can you go wrong with a "pool party"? Tegan was envious and said, "Can I have MY birthday here next year!?"

The girls swam and swam while we were there...until they wore holes in their toes. Then they just swam with socks on! Mom and Dad took us to a neat restaurant called Rawhide that is in a little "Old West" town. They took the girls to a gun trick show. Tegan was impressed when he shot a balloon over his shoulder by looking in a mirror.

Mom's Arizona Pics

afternoon...back through California. The first night we stayed in Kettleman City. The next day we drove toward San Francisco. We stopped there at Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate bridge. After that we drove the 101 up the coast into Oregon. We saw the Redwood Forest. VERY Impressive! The girls enjoyed it. At 2:00 am we found the only hotel that hadn't closed their front desk in a town called Bandon in Oregon. When we woke up we found we were right on the beach. The timing was perfect because the tide was the farthest out for the whole month. We got to see hundreds of starfish and sea aneomes. After a good breakfast, we continued north stopping at the Oregon sand dunes for an hour and viewing some sea lions from some cliffs. Finally we reached the grand finale of the trip...the Tillamook cheese factory! That was Mike's favorite I think. We walked the tour and bought a bunch of "sqeaky cheese" (the cheese curd) and got the girls some ice cream.

Mike's US 101 Pics

At 11:30 Monday night we pulled into our house. It is always nice to get away, but that makes coming home nice too! We recooperated on Tuesday. Our gardens didn't die, but flourished while we were gone so after a mowing, the yard was beautiful.

Mike ran 5 miles on the morning of the Fourth of July in the Sedro-Woolley foot race. He had a tough time because it was pretty hot out and he hadn't run for the two weeks before. He's into doing the runs now though. He found another to do next week. It gives him the competive edge of running and motivation. It is impressive. I have eased back into running too...though not as far as Michael goes.

After the big parade Debbie and George came over for lunch. The rest of the Fourth was easy going. All we did was take the girls out on the roof for the local firework show. That was fun for them...especially Anika who says at least once a day, "Remember...when we went out on the roof!"

On Friday we had an impromtu cousin birthday party for Kelby. I had told her I would do a cousin campout, but there is just so much going on for them all this month that it wasn't going to work. Instead we went to the "Creek Park" and had a picnic. She was just as satisfied. I'll do the campout in August without a birthday...that will be more equal anyway.

I'm just sure that summer is going to fly by. I hope we can get as much as possible out of it. I'll be working again on the Ladies Ministries now. We'll have an event at the church on August 19th. Lots of ladies are helping me though, so I'm not worried!

To ya'll in Arizona, we had a blast. Thank you so much for taking such good care of us and the girls! They got a little spoiled, but they're no worse for it. We love you all.