++Hiking, take 2++

We tried out hiking for a second time this weekend.  This time we went to where we thought we were going last time.  Much longer hike, much tougher terrain, and much more beautiful scenery.  Mark wins the trooper award as he carried Claire for the 2+ hour hike.  She did her best but is so pokey.  On our list to buy: a hiking backpack.  Funny.  I thought we were done with all that gear acquisition.

 Here we are at the bottom.  Wyatt was there too.  He was just about ten steps ahead of us the whole time it was hard to take his picture. 

We're doing our best to play pacific northwesterners.  Now if we could just figure out how to embrace the rain...

++On her way++

Watch out world.  Here she comes.  Not sure where she is headed, but I'm fairly certain she hasn't left anything behind. 

++It's here again++

The most important day of the year has once again arrived, right on schedule. My little elves were hard at work baking me a cake.    I think I had something set funny on my camera...they didn't come down with a bad case of jaundice...so don't be alarmed. 

I was greeted with cake for breakfast. 

 I'm not sure if Claire sampled the icing or not, what do you think?

 I guess when you are 34 and have two kids, you no longer get to blow out your own candles.  Now that birthdays have somewhat lost their luster for me. It's fun to see the little ones get all excited about them. 



So do they get the wishes, or do I?

++The world needs more of this++

It was our turn to host boy's book club this month.  A while back, I stumbled on information about this park and knew we had to try it.  It's a dream come true for little boys.  Tools, scrap wood, a forest and their imaginations.  Each boy was given a toolbox with hammer, nails, twine, etc. and access to this huge pile of scrap wood. My favorite part is that nobody got so caught up in safety and covering their bums that the fun was taken away.  

The tool boxes included safety goggles but I think the kids liked them as fashion accessories best.

 Demo was just as fun as building.  If not more fun. 

 Every construction site needs a foreman. 

 And every construction site needs one man to "supervise" while the other works. 

 Our crew with their, um, creation?

 Have I mentioned before that I love having a boy?

++A Walk In The Woods++

Now that we have lived here for two years (crazy, I know) that kind of makes us official Pacific Northwesterners, not just visitors.  And if you are a Pacific Northwesterner, you hike.  That's just the way it is.  We started small.  We weren't quite sure how the littlest one would handle it. 

Wyatt checked out our course before we took off.

 Now that is one big tree.

 The highlight by far was "skipping" rocks.  Don't you just love the soft haze coming off the water?  Makes everything seem dreamy. 

 I had to include this shot.  Kind of looks like I was about to get clocked in the head with a rock.  I don't remember it ending that way but it sure didn't look good for me.  We need to work on teaching her to throw OUT.

 My goodness, if I didn't know better I would almost say we look authentic.

No one needs to know that we took the wrong exit off the highway and ended up at the wrong park and on a totally different trail than we expected.  No wonder we were the only ones there.  It still was beautiful!

++Life These Days++

We got a new table for our deck so most of the meals these days are consumed outside.  It didn't take too long to figure out that the two of them side-by-side on the bench wasn't going to work out so well. Clearly the kids are fans of the whole thing.

++VBS++

We just finished up a week at vacation bible school at our church.  As a two-year-old Claire could attend but I had to be with her the whole time (a bit of overkill if you ask me, but I don't make the rules).  It was fun.  This is really the first "school" experience for the little one.  She was super cooperative but SO QUIET.  I'm not used to that side of her!

++Fireworks!++

After still working on getting back into a grove from our two weeks in the heartland, we decided to lay low for the Fourth.  Whomever thought it was a good idea to plan a holiday that involved pyrotechnics at nightfall clearly didn't have young kids.  Yes, I've turned into that lady who views everything through the five-and-under lens.  I'm lame, I know.  It's a good thing our neighbors aren't!  Enter our own private 7pm pyrotechnic extravaganza: 

 Do you see the amazement in those eyes? 

We did not need to leave our home to have noise too loud for our baby's ears.

There were even some fireworks of another kind going on.  (Seriously, we need to hang onto this so we can bribe them as adults.)

For the record...James is super cute, she could do so much worse!

Clearly, these monkeys enjoyed the show...and we were home before bedtime!

++Sprinkler Fun++

Words not really required on this one.  I love how Wyatt "dives" into the water and how Claire watches with her little hands on her hips. 

And that is how we spent the one and only warm day we have had so far this summer. 

++Family photos++

I got a fun little remote shutter control for my camera which allowed us to take a family photo while we were in Stevens Point.  I don't have a tripod so a ladder had to do.  Guess who got the shutter control job?  Here's a hint: he's cooperating much better than usual.  No, it's not Mark!

 Here is the original family.  Untouched by the two crazy ladies that now run the show :)  Ok, who am I kidding...the show is really run by the two shortest members. 

 And, here is a little lesson in photo posing for you.  And a face save for me.  As "nice" as it is to have that first shot of the whole family, I hate it of me.  Isn't it amazing how just a little move of the arm gave me a waist and shaved a good 50 pounds off me?  I get the right to prove I'm not *quite* as portly as I appear in the first photo, it is my blog after all.