Kids Practically Pictureless Summer

Our summer was pretty low-key.  Most days were generally spent at home.  With five kids though someone usually had something going on though I didn’t take many pictures.

In July, Abigail attended a volleyball camp sponsored through our local high school.  It was an exhausting week for her (eight intense hour days), but she had a great time and learned a lot… enough to make the varsity team this year at school! – impressive considering she’s never played on a team before.  That girl has so much natural talent it doesn’t seem fair.

Abigail also went to girl’s camp the last week of July.  It was her first year and she had a blast!  Here she is all packed up and ready to go.

There’s a whole website full of camp pictures that we need sort through and I think she also took some on one of our old cameras, but that’s a project for another day.  I feel so, so blessed that we moved into the ward we did.  Abigail has the most incredible group of girls to grow up with.

Abigail hungout with friends (though not nearly as much as she’d like, but in my defense most of them live SO far away!)  Fun outings with friends included playing at the lake, walking down to the local yogurt shop, hiking, and visiting Wild Waves.

Soccer practices started mid-August.  Once again I have three playing – AHHH!  Abigail’s first practice was in 96 degree temperatures!  They play rain or shine in the great NW!

Carly has lots of friends that live nearby so she spent lots of time playing with friends.  She tagged along on several lake excursions and attended a weeklong craft camp.  Here are a few of her creations:

Jason was feeling very left out of all the fun.  He doesn’t have very many friends (though someone his age just moved onto our street!)  A few days a week the bigger boys in the neighborhood would ask him to play baseball, soccer, or football with them – which he loved! But they weren’t really his friends – does that make sense? 

Abigail taught Jason how to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on the piano.  He plays them over and over and over and over again. 

Near the end of summer a few gals at church had the brilliant idea to host a boys camp.  It was just two hours for two days, but Jason felt so special to have his own ‘camp’ just for him.  They basically just ran around the park and had a treat, but my boy is easy to please.

Jason and Katie took a few more swim lessons.  Both passed a few levels and became stronger swimmers, which makes it worthwhile. 

Katie.  What did Katie do all summer?  It sounds like my middle children are a bit neglected.  Katie has zero friends.  Sure there’s a few kids she plays with at the park, but there was not a single play date all summer.  {Except a visit from the Andros family which was like Christmas for Jason and Katie.  Oh, and a friend who was visiting from out of town one afternoon}  Honestly, I don’t think she minds much.  She tags along with her older siblings and thankfully Jason and Katie play together really well – when they aren’t playing too rough.  So let me ask her… Me:  “Katie what did you do this summer?”  Katie:  “Go to da park. Easter. Play outside. Legos. Build a ship with big Legos.”  Um, ok, moving on…

Drew slept most of the summer.  Having both Abigail and Carly around made it easy to keep him on a regular schedule with two naps a day.  I keep thinking he’ll be ready to switch to one nap, but the boy still likes to sleep too much to mess around with that.  More on Drew next…

Seattle Tourists

Justin took Friday, August 8^th off and we decided we’d spend the day downtown visiting some typical tourist hotspots. 

On our way to the Locks I noticed we were driving right next to the Fremont Troll so we made a quick stop for a photo opp.

The Locks is one of the activities Justin remembers visiting as a kid when he traveled to Washington to visit his Grandma and Grandpa Fletcher during the summers.  We’ve taken our kids many times and it’s always a fun little excursion.  I’m pretty sure this is the biggest luxury yacht we’ve ever seen traveling through the Locks.

The pictures really don’t do it justice.   There were a few large boats on deck and even a car.  It was so beautiful and perfectly clean.  Oh, the life!

There wasn’t a ton of fish action going on, but even just one is apparently entertaining enough.

When we came out the yacht was long gone and instead a big fishing vessel was heading out to Alaska.  It was fun to watch the little tugboats guiding it along.

And a few snapshots before heading to Pikes Place…

Let’s just be honest here.  My primary reason for wanting to go downtown at all was about food.  I love food.  Rarely is an outing complete without good food.  I’ve heard rave reviews about a donut place at Pikes Place that serves deliciously hot donuts.  So my intent all along was to find and devour donuts (with the added bonus of enjoying time with my family, right?)

After taking a quick picture of the kids on a Pikes Place pig, our first order of business was to find the donut shop.

I was so, so, SO disappointed when we arrived just moments after they had closed.  CLOSED! 

There was really no way of making up for that.  I did get some fudge at the little shop along the pier and we ate dinner at Red Robin, but no donuts. 

The kids always jump at chance to get to chew gum.  I think some of them would have rather kept the gum instead of contributing to the gum wall.

For some reason Abigail associated a visit to Pikes Place with a candy store.  I supposed we’ve walked by the candy store many times over the years, but I don’t remember ever buying anything. 

We let the kids look over all the candy and choose something.  I love how special little things like that are for them.

We brought a bag of bread to feed the seagulls along the waterfront and then it was time for us to get some dinner ourselves.

It was fun to be tourists for a day – hopefully next time we’ll actually have some tourists with us.  Come visit – we’ll get some yummy donuts!

So how’s the weather?

Where did this little blog of ours leave off? And where do I begin again?  I’m pretty confident that SOMEDAY I’ll get back to creating actual family photo albums and I know that keeping our lives documented now will make that so much easier so I’m determined to try to stay on top of it.

But first, can nobody really figure out what was cleaver about the kids on the stairs?  Great guess Jami, but we’ve given up on trying to keep Drew off the stairs and Chrystie I expected you to nail it.  Justin? Come on it’s really quite simple.. especially for someone who deals with numbers {hint, hint}

The kids are back in school and that should hopefully give me a little more time to catch up on our summer photos.  Though the fall really is crazy busy so don’t anyone hold their breath.

While I gather pictures from various phones and cameras – I’ll attempt a little small talk and cover the weather.  This summer has been hot, hot, HOT – one of the hottest in history.  I say that cause that’s what I hear.  I pretty much stay in my nice air-conditioned house most days, especially if it’s over 80 degrees.  We even had several days in the 90’s this summer.  

 
Of course there were a few rainy days.  Jason and Katie bundled up one afternoon to walk to a friend’s house.

September typically shapes up to be pretty wonderful weather as well.  Sunday was in the mid-eighties so we had several families over that evening to cool off and enjoy some yummy dessert and fun company.  Seattle summers really can’t be beat!

Just for a fun throwback I had to look up Abigail and Carly wearing this same little raincoat way back when…

Abigail received the ladybug raincoat for Christmas 2005 – just shy of her 4th birthday

We added the matching umbrella and rainboots for Carly – January 2008 

Clever

Just a little something while I try to get some pictures organized…

Any idea why the kids wanted me to take a picture of them on the stairs?

Drew’s BIG week

It’s been quite the week for Drew.  Last Saturday he started taking steps and now the kid has all sorts of confidence in himself.  He falls often, but can walk across an entire room unassisted.  We’ll start putting shoes on him soon to get him used to lugging those around.

July 30th

This video was taken last week before he got brave enough to let go

July 19th

Drew experienced another first yesterday when he got his first haircut.  I was really dragging my feet on this.  I loved the little curls over his ears and wanted to hold onto that baby boy look for as long as I could, but his hair was getting a little out of control at times.

Justin has wanted to cut Drew’s hair for many months and he probably would have buzzed it all off soon if I didn’t relent.

I wanted Drew’s first haircut to be special.  You know – a children’s salon with adorable chairs to sit in, a baby hair keepsake, and a cute certificate.  This may be the only time in his life he has a paid haircut so I wanted it to be memorable (yes, more for me than for him).  There aren’t many salons nearby geared toward kids so we traveled 45 minutes for his 2pm appointment.  There were a few closer salons but this one was near Café Rio so we got to enjoy a delicious lunch beforehand.

The very moment I set him in the fun wooden car he collapsed over the side in tears.  It was dramatic and completely adorable because I knew he wasn’t really that upset.

A bonus of going to a play that specializes in kids is that a child in tears doesn’t really faze them.  

She put a little show on a tablet and as soon as he got a decent look at it he was perfectly content.

Every picture I took of him the rest of the time has a big old tear under his right eye :)

Time for clippers and cars

So it’s done.  Of course he looks older, but he’s still adorable.  No boy in our house has ever had their haircut and had it as long as Drew’s still is.  I’m sure he’ll need another cut before we know it, but I’m glad we didn’t totally chop it off.