June, Part 2

While Anna and Lydia were partying in Utah, I took Elizabeth and Caleb to Build-A-Bear.  We LOVE stuffed animals in our family, so naturally we love Build-A-Bear.  I'm so bad in this store.  We went with 2 coupons for $5 off a $10 animal.  A whole lot more money later, we were all really happy.  I won't disclose the amount because it's too embarrassing.  I have a BAB weakness.  I will say we all had FUN!

 Caleb went with the sole purpose of buying "Root".  A couple weeks back, he figured out that "root beer" sounds like "root bear" and found it so incredibly funny.  He told me he was going to get a brown bear the color of root beer and name him Root.  Here he is stuffing Root.

 I LOVE this picture!!

 They both got Jedi clothes for their bears.  Root the Jedi and Swirl the Jedi.  Then they took their new bears on a carousel ride.  Sadly Caleb isn't tall enough to ride alone so I had to go too.  It was sickening, but I lived.  They loved it.

 Of course their Jedi bears had to have a light saber fight when we got home.

 Michael won't be happy with me for sharing this, but he came too.  (Nathan stayed home and Katie was at school.  She doesn't like the mall - too much walking.  But I brought her an outfit home for her Backyardigans so she was happy.)  Anyway, so Michael came with us and made a bear.  He loves stuffed animals as much as I do.  He dressed his bear as a life guard in honor of his first job.  Oh, that reminds me I should post about the fact that Michael got a job!!  He passed his life guard class and is now a certified life guard.  We're so proud of him!!  He got a job a couple days before we made this bear.  He loves it and really takes it seriously.

This is a Facebook repeat, but I thought I'd share it anyway.  Date night.

We spend a lot of time at the pool.  I hate the pool, but the kids love it.  So I bribe them.  If they clean up the entire house, I'll take them to the pool.  They swim and wear themselves out, we come home, shower and I put them in bed and enjoy a clean, peaceful house.  Win-win.  I took the littles swimming while Anna and Lydia were in Utah and Katie was at school.

Lydia and Anna came home from Utah.  They were sick and so incredibly tired.

Lydia had a birthday.  Double digits... she's now 10!!  We haven't had her party yet.

Michael turned 16, yes SIXTEEN!  We had his party in May before all his friends went out of town.

Nathan, Michael and Katie went to Youth Conference.  I'm so impressed with all the teenagers in our church.  This is Katie at the youth dance.  She danced almost every dance.  This guy asked her to dance and was so cute about it!  Brought tears to my eyes.

And all the girls took good care of her during the dance and all the activities.  (Katie is that tiny, short kid right in the middle if you can't tell.)

We went to Worlds of Fun as part of Youth Conference.  I went as a chaperone and went with Katie and Michael.  (Why does blogger say that "chaperone" is spelled wrong?)  We had a blast!

Katie LOVED the roller coasters!!  Michael... not so much.  I loved them too, but couldn't go on too many in a row without getting sea sick.  Or do you call it "coaster sick"?  I don't know - same feeling though.  This one does 2 upside down loops, then turns around and does them backward.  The backward was pretty wild - I couldn't tell up from down.  Crazy!

Katie and I went on a roller coaster called the Mamba.  It's on the "Top 10 Scariest Roller Coasters" list.  The first hill is pretty terrifying - 200 feet up and then you pretty much drop those 200 feet.  It feels like a free-fall.  I found it worse going up than down.  You just keep going up and up and up.  Then you go up another hill that's 184 feet - equally as terrifying.  Besides the height, the other reason it makes the Scary List is because it reaches speeds of 75 mph.   Then there are 5 other hills and a bunch of turns.  Katie and I liked it - although the first 2 hills freaked us out!  I don't know if I'd go on it again.  But at least I can say I did it.

We all had fun!!

June, Part 1

We had an awesome visit from Grandma and Grandpa.  We did lots of fun things with them.

Played lots of cards.  (A favorite of all of us!)

 Went fishing:

 The geese (or ducks?  maybe they're ducks) came to visit us

 Such a good big brother.

 Pretty lake.

The geese/ducks went away when they learned we weren't going to feed them.

   

 I love these pics of Caleb helping Grandpa!

 Nathan cast right into a tree.  

  

 Love this picture of Grandpa and Lydia.

 Elizabeth got bored and played with a caterpillar.

 More pics of awesome big brother Michael helping the kids.

 Lydia caught a turtle!  I've never seen that before, but apparently that's not all that uncommon.  I thought it was pretty amazing.  Lydia is an awesome fisherman (er, fisher-woman).  She's so determined and patient.  She stood there all night and would NOT give up.

 Playing some more cards.

 We went to Independence to the church visitor's center.  And then we went to Clinton Soda Fountain.  The first time Gma and Gpa came to visit, we took them to the Soda Fountain and Grandma's drink had issues and spilled all over.  Two year old Lyddy thought that was the funniest thing ever and said, "Grandma's drink sploded all over."  The kids have fond memories of that so they wanted to go back.

 Elizabeth and Grandma went to lunch at Panera.  Anna and Lydia drove back to Utah with Grandma and Grandpa at the end of their visit.  So this is Elizabeth spending some one-on-one time with Grandma. 

 Elizabeth started gymnastics.  She has been begging me to take gymnastics for a year, so we finally agreed.  She's SO excited and is really quite good at it!

  I don't have many details of Anna and Lydia on their trip to Utah.  As I mentioned, they drove back with Grandma and Grandpa and then spent a week with Blake's family and a week with my family.  They had a blast (except for the fact that they both got strep and felt icky, which made them homesick.)  Thanks to both our families for making their trip so enjoyable.  I have a couple pics of them with their cousins.  I only have the pics that they texted to me.

 And last, the kids got out my old bouncy ball collection.  It all started with my friend Janelle, when we were in high school.  We went to Fred Meyer (yes, Fred Meyer) and bought a couple bouncy balls out of the little machine at the exit.  We decided that one of them looked like Earth and since we had multiple balls, we named them "Earths" and were so proud of our name.  I told my kids this story and they found it hilarious.  

So for my friend Janelle, this picture is for you.  Lots of Earths!  :)