First Boating Day of the Year!

We found out that the Driskills were headed to Dworshak and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to meet up with them, and talk my sister into teaching my kids to ski!  Who knew that it would be Kelly who would take on that title??

My kids were more than reluctant to learn, which makes it a pretty tough job.  No success this time around, but the summer ain't over yet!

After we wore ourselves out with that exercise, we moved onto swimming and speeding around on the rocket.  The day was HOT and the water was perfectly cool...

Sara was actually with us that day, but she spent most of the time on Ed and Kelly's super-fancy boat with Jemma Jane, instead of our old dingy one :)  And managed to stay out of the camera's limelight....

I cannot wait to go back!!

Jammie Ride!

Kicked off our 3 day weekend with a jammie ride in our new truck to the theater to watch How to Train Your Dragon 2.  One of us whooped and hollered through the fight scenes and cried when tragedy struck.  

So.fun.

Makin' jam.

Will was pretty excited about making jam....he'd picked a whole bunch of strawberries at his Grandpa Dave's house and we found a no-fail recipe on line.  Turns out, newbies can pretty much fail at anything.  All the reviews on the recipe said that you had to make sure you cooked it long enough or it could be too runny...up to two whole hours!  So we doubled the cook time from 10 minutes to 20 and cooled it off overnight.  In the morning, we made a batch of biscuits and pulled out the jam.

Hard as a rock.  Harder, if at all possible.

So we honeyed our biscuits, tossed the jam, and readied ourselves for raspberry season...

Ooo, we did manage to make a good seal, though.  I thought that was a huge success!  :)

Just hangin' around...

We are enjoying these hot summer nights!



The Fourth of July

Our fourth was pretty relaxing this year...we slept in, hit the pool, and then headed out to my mom's house for a big.huge. party!  So fun!

Coordinated.  Check.  Looking at camera.  Check.  Smiling.  Check check!

Such cuties!!

Festive, aren't we??  :)

This kid kills me.

Lots of food.  Lots of people!

 

As you can see, the fireworks have started, and some of us are none too pleased.  I'm with Henry.  This is certain death...someday.

J. Crew?  In the flesh.

Firework spectators.

Boys will be boys...

Ten minutes after the fireworks stop popping, this kid is still holding his ears....

...still holding....

.....there is debris left to start on fire.

We headed out early for the fireworks in Pullman, and the kids danced and danced and danced....and the show was really amazing...it was a perfect night!

Lacrosse.

If there is one thing we are excited about this summer, it is lacrosse!!  It is Ben's first foray into the battlefield, and I have to say, I was just happy he wasn't out there picking dandelions.  He mostly stayed in the game, sticking close to his opponent and looking around for what on earth he was supposed to be doing :)

And he sure makes that uniform looks super-cute:

Joe was hoping to catch Ben for his first year, but got convinced to rally for the U12 team.  I have to say, seeing my 10 year-old in pads makes me super-proud.

So far so good!

The New Addition

On July 1, 2014, we got the call that Kayte's baby was ready for pickup!  She has been saving her pennies for about 6 months and we pored over the website to choose the perfect face.  Kaylee and Jeanne Vis create these dolls and Kayte has been enamored with them for ages.  We got to choose the height and weight of the doll (6 lbs, 18 inches).  And we sent in pictures of Kayte as a newborn so they could model the hair and coloring after her. 

It was love at first sight!

Kayte named her Eliane Bridget.  Eliane means "Jehovah is God" which is why she loved it.  She calls her Ellie.  It is super-cute.

Summer knocks.us.out.