My Cup Overflows

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Summer on Fast Forward...

...and here it comes!

We did lacrosse again this year, and it was another epic season of fun! I love watching these boys grow, what a great bunch of kids! Can't wait to get them all on the same team, and let 'em loose!!!

Cute little spectator:

The great ladies of sales! Brownies and lemonade! They made a good purse out of the deal...

We spent a lot of wonderful summer evenings doing this!

...and days doing this!

...back for the awards ceremony! 2nd place, three years in a row!

...some chores in the rain!

.....dinners in the sun at mom's cabin!

....and just a lot of living it up with all my favorite people!

Wow...I'm really starting to miss summer!

Jammie ride to Jamms...

...with a bunch of cuties!

Jeep Ride! (July 13th, oops!)

Yep, I've even beat my own record of procrastination...

We headed for the hills...looking at Moscow Mountain it seems like a decent sized hill, but it isn't until you are up into it, that you realize just how mighty it is! My parents know their way around that mountain and we always stop here...best view on the Palouse!

Make your heart stop? Mine too.

As we were taking in the view, we started searching to see if we could see our house from way up there...and sure enough! There it was with the light shining right on it, see? Smack in the middle of the photo:

This is like zoom times a million.

The mountain means adventure! A little sitting-on-dad's-lap-to-drive, or standing-in-the-back-seat adventure! Super fun!

Learning to ride....

Haha, this is also July. Try not to judge.

We were pretty confident that Ben was gonna learn to ride his bike, no problem! One session! Turns out, since Ben was 2, he's been riding his bike in super-tight circles. We moved to our little apartment and he would practice on the patio. We moved to the new house, and it would be the basketball court. So, all he knows how to do is lean in and ride. First session was rough. Thinking I'm gonna have to take him to the trail for an hour straight before we give it another go.

Good thing about Ben? Nothing ever dampens this kid's enthusiasm.

Happy, happy, happy!

Date with Sara...

While the big kids were away, Joe and I had some time to just enjoy our little people! Sara and I squeezed in a date, and we got a jammie ride to watch an outdoor showing of Avengers...where Ben and Sara promptly snuggled in and went to sleep :)

Ahhh...this summer was epic!

Bible Camp!

Speaking of September, I have some major summer highlights that I have failed to post. Sadly, this one goes all the way back to JULY!

Ok, so when K and I were just kids, summer camp was a big.huge.deal. We spent our very early years attending the Nazarene Church and they even had a bible camp of their very own. I remember hearing about it when I was 8 and begging and begging my mom to let me go, and thinking in the very last minute she was gonna surprise me with a packed bag and a ticket straight to Fun! Now that I'm a mother, I can see why she did not. First of all, I was eight! As a kid, "eight" means you should stay up late and walk to Modern Way by yourself. As a parent, "eight" means you are barely out of diapers and I need to hold your hand the moment we head out in public. So I was nine when I finally got to go to bible camp and I have some pretty awesome memories from that time. Even certain summer smells will remind me of hiking to the top of the little ridge for bible time in the outdoor amphitheater. I even loved the first night tuna casserole they served to scare us into actually loving cafeteria food. I had millions of stories to tell my kids of those days....but I was just a little terrified to send them out on their own.

We went to Alacca Bible Camp in Grangeville. It's a cute little spot right on the river and the directors are devoted individuals. I did a little research and hesitantly signed Kayte up. She was psyched! She read every book that had the word "camp" in the title that she could get her hands on. Ava was gonna come, so she'd have a friend. Then our friends, the Sanford twins, said they were on board, so Will got pretty excited and I signed him up too! (This is a bit of a shocker from my Will. He is a timid individual and he doesn't intend to take any grand leaps into the unknown. This was a big.deal.)

Three days before we took them down, I was getting anxious. I'm a master at worse-case scenario and worry gripped me. Leaving my little people for three whole nights with no communication? So this was a great exercise for me too. When I was an adventurous kid, back in the day, I loved heights and speed and adrenaline and the unknown. And my parents let me always go. Even when they were worried, and even if all their friends were worried, they let me go. They prepped me as well as they could for danger and did due-diligence and then left my crazy self to God. So now it was my turn.

I've lost a lot of my crazy, sadly, and I totally blame becoming a parent on that one. But my cautious self did a lot of soul-searching and realized the things I'm most afraid of (i.e., all of it) God was absolutely in control of. So I followed some of my favorite advice, "Trust God, and keep the gunpowder dry." We prepped the kids the best we could and sent them on their way!

And my prayers were completely answered. They had a great time. They met a bunch of good wholesome kids and some enthusiastic church leaders, and they got to mix it up with some different Christian culture, which can be kind of a rarity! And I discovered that while dropping my kids off at summer camp is hard, potty training still nabs top-billing for "Most Difficult Parental Duties".

My buddy! I can't believe he is getting so brave and independent!

Kayte! She didn't even cringe when I took her pic :)

So proud of my kids!

A clean slate.

You know that feeling when you clean out a closet or your refrigerator and you just can't stop looking at it and admiring all your hard work? I had Ben home sick today, and so I got to totally clear my schedule and hunker down at home, so I decided to finally clear out my email inbox. It's been hanging over my head for over a year, and, can you believe it? I had 4000+ emails. Ick.

It took me several hours (yes, hours!) but I did it! I have only 7 left. And I just can't stop staring at it! People keep emailing me so I have to reply and delete and organize quickly or it will get all messy again!

Ahh....life was simpler in 1986. Which reminds me, you should check this out :)

Slow as molasses.

I have a lot of phrases that I throw at the kids on a regular basis. Such as, "hustle yer buns!" or "buckle your buns" or "get yer buns down here." That sort of thing....all in the way of buns, of course.

The other day, Will was trying to help me round up all the kiddies, and I hear him yelling up the stairs, "Move yer molasses!"

You can realize my shock when I missed the "mol".

Sunday, September 8, 2013

The first day of September....

Doing dishes in September.

September is our very very very favorite month of the year, me & Joe. We breathe it in and live it up! And it just always flies by way.too.fast.

Sprint Triathlon 2013

(Ok, I was gonna start this post by saying how amazing Google was and how it is so super-easy now to upload multiple photos at one time. But Google knew what I was thinking, smiled his patronizing smile, and handed me a migraine. You'd think this would've dampened my determination to upload millions of photos, but alas, it did not.)

The kids have been talking about this year's Palouse Sprint Triathlon since oh, about 30 seconds after they wrapped up last year's. This summer, Sara learned how to swim, so we let her compete too! She was beyond thrilled.