Memorial Day Highlights

We love camping at the Cle Elum Property and we so appreciate having a fun place to go where we don't need reservations or have anyone camping right next to us! We weren't able to go at all last year due to moving, new job as youth pastor, having a 5-month old, and just overall craziness, so we were excited to get over there this last weekend. The weather was perfect and here are a few of my favorite pics....

The kids love this big swing in the trees - they can actually both swing on it together or on one of our laps. This was the first time Hailey could do it by herself - notice the joy!

They are giving an impression of what they are about to do... ride the quads! Up until this year, they have always ridden with one of us, but they both did it on their own this year (Hailey had Daddy running next to her the whole time).

This is Grandpa showing Symantha how to ride at the beginning of the weekend. After this, she was off on her own with her older cousins Brayden or Amanda all the time.

Hailey had NO FEAR and was cruising right away! It made us a little nervous - she would smile at us off to the side and not watch where she was going. Daddy stayed close by her:)

Addison kept pushing the back of her pants down, and this is how we found her playing in the sandbox! It didn't seem to bother her... it was pretty hot, maybe she just needed a little ventilation.

There was a whole lot of this relaxing going on all weekend.... however Addison would come and sit in the chair for about 3 seconds and then be off and going again. I had to be quick with the camera to catch this shot.

Lacey and Symantha had a blast in the sprinkler.... Hailey stood back and took a while to warm up to the idea. Then she ran through once and that was good enough.

A serious discussion with Hailey

When we started brushing the kids' teeth, we always told them to say "EEE" so we could brush their front teeth and "AAHHH" when we wanted them to open their mouths for us to brush their back teeth. It does not matter the order, it just helped us reach their teeth. This is important information to understand the conversation below!

Hailey: Mommy and Daddy, we need to have a serious discussion in the living room
Daddy: Ok, what do we need to talk about?
Hailey: There is a problem.
Mommy: What is the problem?
Hailey: When I brush my teeth with Mommy she tells me to do "EEE" first before I do "AAHHH". But when I brush my teeth with Daddy, he tells me to do "AAHHH" before I do "EEE". I don't know what I am supposed to do and who I should obey. (All this said with hands on her hips, until the end when she holds them up as if she is so confused)
Daddy: Well, I think you should definitely listen to Mommy because she is really smart about teeth.
Hailey: Ok, then Daddy we will always be doing "EEE" first, right

Daddy: Right.Hailey: Thank you! (with relief in her voice and a big smile) Good night! (and off she runs to bed)

These are the things that are really important to Hailey right now. Pleasing us, doing more than what is expected, surprising us, and constantly making us laugh. Oh, and talking.... A LOT! She told my friend Lisa that we went to China the other day, but I told her to keep it a secret. We just love the quirkiness of our Hailey-Bailey lately!

Addi's fashion statement

Addison has started wearing hats outside on sunny days, but she is still figuring out what is a hat and what is not. She brought her bloomers that go under her dress to me and was insistent that it goes on her head. I helped her put it on and then she went back to playing, until I started snapping pictures like crazy. I love these!

Did you miss me?

How did two weeks fly by without me doing a single post? Strange, since in my head, I have had about 15 possible posts thought out... if only there were just a few more hours in the day! At least most of this lack of time is due to having lots of fun lately! That and reading all of my real and pretend friends blogs (some of you know my pretend friends Becky and Elizabeth, we are super tight).

ANYWAYS, I'm going to be doing some catching up and hope to post a bunch over the next few days. We'll see how productive I actually am.

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to get some great girl time and inspiration in at our church women's retreat. It was a beautiful weekend in Gig Harbor, and although I have been having quite a few get-aways lately, this was special! I always come away from these spiritually strengthened and renewed, and I love spending time with my sisters in Christ. I seriously haven't laughed that hard in a long time... Andrea wanted me to do a whole post on all the ridiculous pictures she kept wanting me to take, but I will spare you ALL of them and show you her favorite....

Obviously not my favorite picture of myself, but I'll post it just for Andrea, who loves the screaming lady. Now that we got that out of the way, I also did something I haven't done in 3 years or so. Sara and Amy Jo spent about 30 minutes straightening my hair, which is not a simple feat! It was fun, but some people seriously did not recognize me at the party we went to that night.

It stayed straight all through the next day too, so that made it a little more worth while. But I will NOT be spending that much time doing it myself, so don't get used to this look.

We had lots of free time on Saturday, and the highlight was the adventure of pedal boating in the sunshine, as we carefully maneuvered the four of us so the boat did not sink. And I mean that - the boat was super low in the water and every movement was scary!

We managed to rotate around and sit in different spots and Amy Jo managed to take this picture of the four of us - it still makes me laugh to look at her up close like that.

Who thought pedal boating could be so much fun? I loved hanging out with these girls, and all the others I was able to meet and catch up with over the weekend.

Thankful to be a Mommy

I'm getting to this a little late, but after looking through the 132 pictures we took on our Mother's day hike (is that a lot for a few hours in the great outdoors???), I was once again so thankful to have these three little girls. If I am totally honest, they keep me way too busy, sometimes annoy me, constantly ask things of me, say my name more times in a day than any other word, dramatize everything..... yet there is not a day that goes by that I don't give them a squeeze and thank God for every bit of them. And I'm not just saying that... I love being a Mommy. I am so grateful that God allowed me to have a time where I thought we might not be able to have any children, because I know that experience made me appreciate each one just a little more. It's like so many other things in my life - God had things completely in control, and his plan and timing was way better than anything I could have figured out on my own. And even if His plan was not what I had envisioned or wanted, I know He would have still held me through it as I kept relying on Him. God is good.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Great Wolf Lodge

We headed to the Great Wolf lodge with the big girls for a little family time. Addison would have loved it too, but she definitely would have slowed us down, so she got to spend time with Grandma. We only stayed one night, but spent two days at the waterpark and exploring the Lodge - it was the perfect amount of time for us and we had so much fun!


The girls were so much braver than I thought they would be. Symantha went on everything, even the scary Howlin' Tornado slide (although she came off of that one crying, mostly due to partly going backwards!). I loved the inner tube slide that all four of us could ride at the same time. That was when I took the picture above (Really, about the only good one from my waterproof disposable camera).


This was Hailey and Daddy coming off of a double innertube slide. It actually went really fast, so I thought she would be a little scared, but she seriously giggled the entire time, along with some "Wheee!"s. Then we did it again and again...

Symantha started prefering to go solo. She is getting to be such a big kid.



I loved the cool theme room we got. It was a "Wolf Den Suite" which meant the kids had this separate bunkbed area to sleep in that was decorated and had it's own tv. It was nice that they could go to bed and we could still be up without disturbing them.

Hailey loved these little slides in the smaller area. Derek and I didn't even need to go in with them for these things. It gave us some nice lounging on the side time!


These lilypads Symantha was crossing moved around a lot and it was tricky to get across!





Daddy and Hailey holding their inner tube, ready to go slide!


This is the big clock tower in the lobby. All the animals come to life and it becomes a show at certain times. At night, they have a pajama story time, where a big bear and lady come read a story to all the kids. They also have a Starbucks right there.... SO nice for the parents!

I loved cuddling with the girls, drinking my coffee and relaxing at pajama story time after lots of playing in the water.

There was also lots of other things to do there... a kids room with crafts, stories, puppet theater, etc., an arcade with some fun little rides and activities, and lots of other things you could spend your money on! We found plenty to do without spending extra. It really was a great couple days of fun family time.

If you click on the flickr link on the side you can see a bunch more pictures... it was very hard to narrow it down to just a few on this post!

Three kinds of getaways

So, over the last week and a half I have experienced three different getaways - a scrapbook weekend with friends, an overnighter with only my husband, and a big kid trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. Somehow this often happens in our family... we really need to space out our fun a little more!

I'll break this up into two posts because I only have one million pictures to choose from... and you know I am not joking. But who knows when or if I will get to scrapbook any of this, so I want to make sure it's at least covered here.

Getaway #1 Scrapbook weekend

I was able to go with 13 other people and stay at the Keepsake cottage to scrapbook from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon - this may seem like a lot of time to scrapbook, but the weekend FLEW by. I actually got more accomplished than ever before, partly due to advance organization and partly due to the owner of this place doing all of our meals, cleanup, etc. We were completely spoiled by that.

I worked on the year of 2006, and get most of it done. Yes, I realize that is 3 years ago, unfortunately. But I felt so good to get the pictures off my computer and out to enjoy. And it was funny because I was scrapbooking pictures of Hailey when she was Addison's age - our girls look SO alike.

While I was away, Derek was doing the 30-hour famine with the youth group and the girls got to spend a special night with Ms. Dinah. They LOVE Ms. Dinah, so it was a great weekend for all.

Getaway #2 Bellingham

Bellingham may not sound like such a getaway, but for Derek and I it most definitely was! My Dad and Debby had given us a night at the Chrysalis Inn and Spa as a Christmas present, so we dropped the kids off on Friday afternoon...

and headed up to enjoy!
The inn was amazing and the sunshine only made it better.

Our room was so nice, and it had the greatest window seat, that was really like a bed. Derek still was fighting a cold, so it made a great little spot for an afternoon nap. I wasn't opposed to a kid-free nap, either.
My sister, Ryann, had made a little list of Bellingham places to see and things to do for us. Most of her suggestions were within 10 minutes or so of where we were staying.
We ended up having a fantastic Italian dinner, walking around downtown Bellingham, and then hanging out at a coffee shop that had live acoustic music on Friday nights. We played cards and relaxed - my kind of evening.


Saturday morning, we found yet another good coffee shop and then shopped around the Fairhaven district. I have to say, I am quite a fan of Bellingham. Then, we hit the outlet mall on our way down to get the girls and spent the rest of our day shopping.

We were home for Sunday and then left on Monday morning for Great Wolf Lodge.... stay tuned for the next post!!