Priest Lake Camping

We went to Priest Lake to have our annual camping trip with Mike's family. We usually go in July, but since Brooklyn was so young still, everyone decided to wait a month and go later! Aren't they so nice! Here's a HUGE photo section from our fun week!

The water was pretty cold! But I discovered after you do 60 breast strokes, your body numbed up to it!

We were surrounded by beautiful CLEAR water, and yet the girls spent most their time in the woods making forts! They LOVE playing with their cousins!

I was SO glad that Beth (Mike's sister) brought a floaty toy for her daughter, because it worked perfect for a little bouncer/bed for Brooklyn! :)

The picture on the right is the view right outside our tent! It's nice having beach front access - a perk to camping on a small island!

You can tell how much Brooklyn loved the wind storm that we had one day! She didn't like being confined to our tent for most of it.

1... 2... 3... JUMP! Well... they were ALMOST in sync with one another.

Of course we had lots of cocoa and smores, since the weather barely broke the 70's for 2 days.

The left picture is proof of how beautiful and clear the water is at Priest Lake! a rare sight for us Moscowans... Moscowians... Moscowites... (us people from Moscow..)

There were lots of baby bouncers available whenever Brookie cried.

This is Emmalee, our niece. She is the funniest kid I've ever met. She is constantly making us laugh!

You can see why I braided the girls hair into snake braids. It was always in Syd's eyes the first day! After the braids though, not a problem! It worked out well.

You gotta LOVE the sunglasses that Brooklyn was sporting!

One big happy family of 5!!!!

Pirates Treasure Hunt:

Every year, pirates bury their treasure on the island for the kids! They leave very authentic and elaborate clues for the kids to follow all over the island. The kids had fun finding the loot this year! The "pirates" were especially fruitful with their treasure!

Brooklyn's Blessing

My dad has been in Kentucky all summer, so he talked me into waiting to have Brooklyn blessed after he got back. She was already 2 months old, but at least we were able to have him stand in on her blessing. It's good to have him and my mom home again. Mike's family was able to come down for the blessing as well. Mike didn't waist time putting his parents to work in our back yard! They actually got a lot done too. We had a great weekend together and the weather was nice. Here's some pics of the blessing day.

I LOVE this picture! :)

Lentil Festival

We went to the Lentil Festival in Pullman today. I ran my first race in the morning. It was a 5K, so 3.1 miles through the WSU campus. I finished in 38 minutes. Not the best time, but I am not used to running outside yet, and the hills killed my time. But it was fun. Mike and the girls came to cheer me on! I am going to do anther one with Mike in September.

You can tell I am not as fit as I used to be and how hot I was. My face was bright red! :)

After the race, they had a parade. The girls got a tiny bit of candy and lots of high fives. Yeah..... NOT! :-)

Back to School Party

The girls talked me into having a back to school party with their friends, which sounded like a good idea. But somehow the party wound up a little bigger than I anticipated! It was actually 2 parties at the same time since Sydney had her friends and Livia had hers. There were 12 kids all together, plus little Brooky! On top of that, Livia convinced me that she needed to have 5 hours for all the fun she had planned! But it ended up being a pretty fun party. The last hour they got a little restless, but we all walked to a close by field and played red-rover and tag, so it was all good!

They played games, including Rock Band.

Decorated and ate cupcakes (of course!)

And watched "The Spy Next Door" with Jackie Chan.

After the party was over, there was food and garbage EVERYWHERE along with popcorn all over the carpet; which almost gave Mike a heart-attack ;) so I told the girls that they get to clean up the whole house by themselves! They thought I was joking at first. They were so not happy about that! But they did a really good job and had the place spic-and-span again in about an hour!

Backyard Work

We have a TON of work to do in our back"forest", and of course, Mike loves using his new yard tools, so we've been putting the girls to work! Along with Mike's parents when they visited! :) They were able to get the big fence out along with some bushes and other shrubbery. It's a work in progress, but it already looks better than before.

Silverwood

We met my sister, Tara & Tamara at Silverwood 2 weeks ago. We ended up going on a Saturday so Mike could come with us.... BIG MISTAKE! Not the Mike part, but the Saturday part! ;) It was soooo soooo crowded! We managed to still make a fun day out of it, but next year I think we'll try a Wednesday! Here's some pics of our fun, hot, & crowded day!

Elephant ears! Yum!

I tried to entertain Sydney while the "big" kids went on the big rides, but she wasn't too thrilled! :)

This ride was much better!Of course we had to play games and win the girls stuffed animals to add to there collection of unplayed with toys! :)

Water Park

Last weekend we went to a water park in Clarkston with our friends. It was a fun change from the Moscow park because they have more pools, including a wave pool. The girls had a ton of fun, and slept super good that night! Sydney was especially stoked that she was tall enough for the slides, because she isn't able to ride the Moscow ones yet! Brooklyn even went for her first swim. She didn't like it at first, but she calmed down for a few minutes of it. Then she passed out in her stroller for the next several hours! It was a good day.

The girls loved riding the waves!