childhood friends reunite

Growing up in Washington a sweet girl named Stacie lived across the street from me. She was two years younger than me but since we both had brothers (who were friends) we became quick friends. Now Stacie lives in Colorado with her husband and 4 kids. She was in town last week to visit the Grandparents and I invited her over. Our kids got along splendidly and it was fun talking about old times and getting updates on each others' families. I made chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese for lunch which is always a kid favorite. We had to pull up all 8 chairs plus the high chair to have room for all the kids to eat.

Stacie has 3 daughters and 1 son. It is interesting how both Stacie and I had so many daughters after being surrounded by only brothers growing up. Emily enjoyed playing game after game with him.

She has 5 year old twins that Megan and Melissa loved playing with.

Here are the younger kids on the swingset. There is still room for one more!

Finally a photo of Stacie and I. Thanks for stopping by with your kids!

Today I am thankful that:

*my Beehive lesson at church on the cultural arts went well

*Megan and I are celebrating our birthdays this week

Living close to family has its perks

Last Sunday we attended Church with my brother Barrett. He had his fifth child in May and on Sunday he gave her a name and blessing in church as is Mormon tradition. All of my family that lives in Washington was there to participate as well. After sacrament meeting we went outside for a group photo shoot. It was quite cool outside at 10:15am as you can tell from the folded arms below.
Here is the group shot. Of course we took like 10 of these and were all ready to be done smiling by the end of it. My parents are in the middle of the shot surrounded by their 4 sons and families and my family of course (my other two brothers live out of state). With this new baby my parents have 14 grandchildren 7 girls and 7 boys. Two of the boys are hard to see as one is behind my Dad's head and the other in the brown blanket in the back row at the far right. Oops, I guess it's hard to get everybody.

Here is the happy mother with her new baby girl. Adorable blessing dress!

My brother Andrew had a baby 3 months ago and here is his son (on the right) with Barrett's daughter on the left. They are 7 weeks apart in age. I am so glad we got to be there for the special occassion.

Today I'm thankful that

*Scott is working from home today

*the big girls get to go to my parents cabin with their cousins

*The garage sales today were bad so I saved some money

Grasslawn Park

Sometimes you find a new park that is so fun you want to tell everyone about it. This is one of those parks. This park is located in Redmond Washington and has it all. It features a new ropes playground with this awesome rope tower and slide.

The park also has the coolest park carosel I've seen. The kids can actually push it themselves and it holds lots of people at all different levels.

Even Nathan was getting a kick out of riding it. I just wish I could get him to lose the binky--we are at a park!

When you want a break from the playground you can head into the small wooded area and make yourself a fort. Notice all the branches in a row, those mark the entrance into the fort. My 3 big kids and 3 of the Smith family kids built and played in this fort for an hour. Meanwhile the moms and the little kids played in a fun sand area (sorry no pictures).


Then when you are ready to cool off head over to the water feature. Of course it was only 70 degrees for us so we weren't too hot. But that didn't stop a few of the kids from getting soaked.

The giant boulders are fun to climb as well. Now where do they come up with these things?

Finally no park would be complete without some animal stautes to climb on. Here is Melissa with the frog.

And Megan with the racoons. Have I mentioned that our backyard neighbors have a deck that a family of racoons lives under? It is so wierd to see the racoons come out in the evening and help each other onto the fence and then head out on their nightly journey. Who knows where they go but I don't think I'll be sleeping out under the stars in my backyard.

Today I'm thankful that:

My kids are enjoying their new job chart on a white board

Holly watches truck shows with Nathan (he won't watch them alone)

We have good friends to hang out with during the summer

Roommates Reunite

This week I drove down to Vancouver, Washington with my kids to visit my roommate and her family. We were roommates for 2 years in college and since then have only connected a handful of times. On this visit I met her husband and four of her 5 kids for the first time. It was also my first visit to her house. Here are our 10 kids! That's alot of kids.
That makes for alot of feet too.

Nathan loved playing with my roommate's baby. He would put his face right in her face and smile. He thought holding her was great too.

The kids had fun playing in the boys' bedroom with their car table. Isn't the painting on the walls cool?

Finally a photo of my roommate and I.

We took our kids to the park together and to the Omsi science museum in Portland. We got to spend one night at their house and even participate in their family scripture study. It was great fun and our kids got along so well. Definately a trip worth making!

Today I'm thankful that

*Scott went swimming with me and the kids

*Holly had fun at the lake with her friend

*Melissa likes to eat candy (she told me to write this)

Girls Camp

Last week Holly attended girls camp with our Stake. It was her first year and as a Young Women leader I had the opportunity to go up for one evening. I took these pictures while I was there. Here is Holly with some of her camp friends. Holly said everyday an older girl volunteered to braid her hair.

This is the inside of the long house Holly slept in. She slept upstairs in the loft. Unfortunately the long house only had a roof and walls on 2 sides so it was very cold at night and squirrels and mice were able to get in and run across you in your sleep. Yikes!

This is the oustide of the longhouse all decked out in French fashion. The girls camp was in an olympic theme and the country our ward represented was France.

Here the is the ampatheater that the girls came to for meals and programs. The YCLs (fifth year camp leaders) where doing a funny skit making fun of each year of girls.

Here is our ward having a fireside together with the Bishop. It was very cold, I wore long pants and two coats. Holly had a great time and so did I.