Aunt Lisa's Birthday!

Today was my sister Lisa's 31st birthday. So we had a birthday party for her! It was exciting to have so many family members join us: our Mom and our brother Scott; Uncle Alan and Aunt Jonna came from Auburn; Dyan and Jason (and Erik and Gretchen) were visiting from Utah; Sheila and Preston. Aunt Sheila made lasagna for dinner and yummy cupcakes and a very tasty ice cream cake for dessert. I hope everyone had as much fun as our family.

Happy birthday, Lisa!

for the love...

Malcolm's friend Ian was diagnosed with Lukemia the week before school got out. His chemo treatments are going well, but his hair has fallen out.

Aunt Colleen has also been successfully battling cancer, and her chemo did the same thing to her hair.



This afternoon I suggested that Malcolm shave his head to show Aunt Colleen and Ian how much he loves them. At first he objected...that boy loves his fauxhawks! But by the time we got back from dinner at the Campbell's, Malcolm agreed that Ian shouldn't be the only bald 3rd grader, and that Aunt Colleen would love his new hairless-do. Since Daddy was at work, Jason buzzed him down and Becca snaped some great pictures.

Malcolm can't wait to go visit Ian again on Tuesday to show him his bald head. We all wish we could visit Aunt Collen!!

Get well soon!!

Torchlight Parade

Two years ago we joined our cousins at the Torchlight Parade in Seattle and we had a great time. Last year we couldn't go because we were camping. So this year, even though Daddy was booked to work, we decided to join our cousins to greet the Seafair Pirates. Daddy ended up shooting the parade about 4 blocks north of us, but we didn't realize that until it was too late for us to run up and see him.

The kids were a bit antsy for the parade to start...but managed to keep it together.

Sig Hansen (Deadliest Catch) was the Grand Marshal, and we made a little extra noise when he drove by.

Captain Vanessa Engel, US Marine Corps, was waving from the back of her Corvette. But when she saw our girls sitting on the ground waving, she suddenly jumped up and ran right over to them and grabbed their hands. You would have thought she was a rockstar by how excited the girls got!

My cousins April (white t-shirt) and Rachel (far right with curly hair) ran a triathlon in the morning and still looked beautiful and energetic at the parade! And my cousin-in-law Dave (green sweatshirt) ran the Torchlight 8K that kicks off the parade. Very impressive!

Uncle Alan and Aunt Jonna are obviously still in love after all these years...

...setting a good example for their kids and grandkids!

One of the clowns proposed to cute Gretchen -- she said NO! And then he asked Laurel and Aubrey and Malcolm - -rejected by them all. But the clown seemed quite taken by Malcolm (or Malcolm by him) and they wouldn't let go of each other...you can tell by Malcolm's face that he thought this was hilarious!!

and finally, when we were oh-so-tired from such a fun day, the PIRATES arrived! Laurel was the lucky recipient of a coin...I think all the other kids managed to get at least one piece of candy. The Cannon BOOMed the block ahead of us, and the block after us. It was probably just as well -- that thing is L-O-U-D!!!

And then some of my favorite things showed up:

We're looking forward to making this a tradition.

Note to self for next year: leave home BEFORE 5:30...otherwise you will end up sitting in traffic, getting agitated, feeling frustrated with the kids (not their fault), and taking your rage out on the poor Vanagon you will gleefully cut off for no good reason.

Ensign Ranch

Our Ward Campout was from Friday to Saturday. Unfortunately, we didn't participate in the actual "camp" part of the outing ~ Doug was booked to work and I didn't have the courage or energy to take the kids by myself. But I decided to take the kids and Aunt Lisa bright and early on Saturday morning, and we arrived in time (barely) for a pancake breakfast and some running around. Then we donned our him-hoots and hit the big slip-n-slide. If you've not been to Ensign Ranch, it's a lot of fun. The highlight for us is the huge slip 'n slide...which is actually a huge mound of dirt covered with a heavy-duty plastic/rubber tarp with sprinklers shooting on it. The kids (and adults, too) sit on innertubes or other floaty-type things and splash down the slide. The time ticks away pretty quickly and we always have lots of fun! It was much nicer on "that side" of the pass and there was even a good stiff breeze so that we didn't feel the sun beating down on us.

Laurel went down a few times but then decided it was chilly, so she sat on the sidelines and played, talked and ate. But as soon as I said we should be headed home, she dropped her towel and hit the slide!

I don't think Malcolm stopped slippin' and slidin' until I made him stop so we could leave.

Aubrey loved it, but sat out for a bit like Laurel. When you're a skinny little gal, cold water and a breeze don't do much good for you.

Dana was so excited to get her him-hoot on. And she didn't even mind wearing the him-hoos (swim shoes) that were 4 sizes too big for her. And she was even very excited about grabbing her sliding device and walking to the top of the slide. But when it came time for her to actually go down, she said no way. I convinced a young woman from our Ward to take her down -- very much against Dana's will -- and boy was she angry. She spent the rest of the time sitting on the sidelines, playing and eating.

Aunt Lisa was a huge help ~ wrangling up the inner tubes from the wind, doling out cheese sticks and otter-pops, and generally keeping a good eye on us all. I was very glad that she was along for some family fun.

I wish we had more time this summer so we could go back again...but there's always next year...

skate park

All Summer Malcolm has been begging to go to a Skate Park...and a couple of weeks ago during Hannah Munk's softball game, he got his wish. I think he was a little surprised at how daunting a skatepark can feel to a young boy who can barely stand on his board on a flat street. But Malcolm didn't want to go to the Kids' Fair with us, and he jumped at the chance to ask Jason to take him and Ethan to the Skate Park in Black Diamond...he only had to ask once. ;) Boy-oh-boy did they have F-U-N ~ all you have to do is look at how sweaty that boy is!!

I haven't gotten a lot of details from him, but he says that he almost got his 2 front teeth knocked out, and that at one point Jason grabbed him by his leg and "saved" him while his bike crashed...??? I can only imagine the stunts they were trying to pull.
Here are some great pictures that Jason took. I'm very envious of their new camera ~ and their photo-editing skills, too!!

a fun Saturday

Today was fun. Malcolm went with Daddy to his softball game this morning while the girls and I stayed home...mostly we just puttered about, but we did get some much needed housework done.


This afternoon the girls and I (along with Audrey) joined the Campbells and Uncle Scott at the Kids Fair at Lake Wilderness Park. It was a lot of fun and the weather was much more cooperative than yesterday. There were bouncy-fun-things, a train ride, warm lake water, airplane building (only Uncle Scott participated in this), a bearded-dragon (that I think was actually someone's pet and not a feature of the kids' fair), and more than our share of tattoos. Laurel dunked the lifeguard at the shore of the lake! We were disappointed when the vendors were all closing up before 4:15 -- the event was supposed to last until 5!

But since we left earlier than anticipated, we decided to continue the fun at home. It was a bit sunny and hot in the backyard so the bouncy-beach was set up in the garage. Uncle Scott and I ran to Safeway for much needed cold cereal and milk, and then to th Aarco for gas (it was "only" $4.15/gallon today). When we got home Aunt Sheila had Papa Johns pizzas ($5.99 Customer Appreciation Day!), and rootbeer floats (some with Sprite & Cherry Lime sodas) for dinner!!

And then, since we weren't quite ready to end the day, we headed to the backyard where we started a fire (in the firepit) and roasted marshmallows. The Kidd kids, Blake, and our new neighbor friends joined us. The kids had more fun lighting the marshmallows on fire than actually eating them -- and everyone got a kick out of the way that Jason helped, um, make the fire LARGER. ahahahaha If you haven't tried them yet, you should give Strawberry Marshmallows a chance.

Of course, once the kids got done burning their marshmallows, they needed to burn off the sugar...and biked and scooted up and down the street.

I wish I'd been faster with my camera tonight...Dana planted a goodnight kiss on Davie that rivaled some mushy movies I've seen. He seemed a bit more horrified than pleased...maybe she won't try it again anytime soon. ;)

I'm so glad that we live near fun family, good friends, and have a fun community that actually seems to love their children.

What we did while Mommy was at her Reunion...

While Mommy was running around doing all her Reunion things, we got to hang out with Aunt Lisa, Grandpa and Grandma Sandii. And, aside from the fact that the "old ones" said there was a LOT of noise that weekend, we all had a great time.


On Friday night we got into the hot tub. Dana was especially excited to put her himhoot on so she could go himming.

Saturday morning the girls went with Mommy for hot chocolate at the Alumni Coffee (held at a cute little place called The Global Bean in Silverdale). We loved our fancy hot chocolates, and Laurel was very impressed that they were "green" and used REAL coffee mugs. Malcolm went to do an estimate with Grandpa. Sorry, no pictures available of either fun event.

Saturday afternoon Mommy had to run some errands for the Reunion, so we swapped cars and our full-to-capacity mini-van headed to Port Orchard to a neat park that has miniature trains that everyone can ride. It was a lot of fun...we'd like to go back and try it again some time...it's FREE!

After Mommy got dressed for the Reunion, Laurel sat her down to paint her nails...it's something she really enjoys doing, and we have to say, she does a great job!

Saturday night after dinner we set up the tent in the backyard. The plan was to watch a movie in the tent (on the laptop) and fall asleep there. Unfortunately, there are no pictures and we ended up having to come inside the house for the movie because the speakers couldn't get loud enough...and then we slept inside. But we had fun anyway.

Sunday morning (bright and early) we got up for Church and attended Sacrament Meeting with Grandpa and Grandma Sandii and Aunt Lisa. We were a few minutes late (sorry!) and their speakers were short-winded, so we were able to head out to the Family Picnic earlier than anticipated.

The Family Picnic was held at Salsbury Point County Park on the Hood Canal (just south of the bridge). The beach was FULL of beautiful white shells and we tried to bring every single one of them home! We had fun running around and meeting new "friends" while Mommy helped out with the picnic. Malcolm even managed to dunk himself completely (the nut) into the water. Luckily Mommy caught him before he jumped off the pier...he didn't realize how fast that current can be. In addition to this dead crab Laurel is holding, we found several actual LIVE crabs that we played with. We begged Mommy to let us take them home, but she said they'd be sad without their families. We want to go visit them again soon.

After the Picnic we headed back to Illahee (where Aunt Lisa, Grandpa and Grandma Sandii live) for dinner. We were excited that Uncle Scott, Aunt Sheila, Uncle Andy and Preston had come for dinner, too! After eating some yummy BBQ chicken, salad and Cowboy Caviar, we took a family picture...we actually had to take several pictures. And this is as good as it got. ;)

Once the car was packed with the last item we'd hauled over to the peninsula, we said goodbye to the Bremerton Mays and headed to the Ferry. It's been a long time since we rode one ~ as a matter of fact, this was Dana's FIRST FERRY RIDE! And it was a beautiful day to play on the water. Uncle Andy schooled Laurel the fine art of feeding the seagulls who follow the ferries.

We were all exhausted when we finally got home around 9:30. It was a fun, fun weekend!

Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Lisa, for taking such good care of us!!