Memory game

I got this from Mandy's blog:

Here is a fun little game...Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time, or a long time, anything you remember.

Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.... Even if you don't have a blog of your own, I would love to hear your memories too!

Camping and baseball

We have an amazing group of friends from church in our Life Group that we spend most of the year studying the Bible with. We take the summer off from study, but have still tried to find ways to hang out and have some fun. This past weekend, we made a road trip up to the Tacoma/Seattle area for some camping and to attend a Mariners game. We stayed at a fun campground about 45 minutes southwest of Tacoma called Penrose Point State Park. Only our second trip with our new tent trailer. We went up on Friday to set up and enjoyed the evening of spaghetti and s'mores with the Langley's, who also came and set up camp on Friday evening.

On Saturday afternoon, Jeff and Erin Boxell and Jared and Kelley Thompson joined us, just in time to play a game of Yahtzee while the kids napped. We all brought part of dinner (corn on the cob, potatoes, and rolls) and our own meat to grill and had a group dinner while enjoying a campfire. The guys also enjoyed a couple of games of Baggo, a beanbag yard game Rick and I got as a Christmas gift from Rick's mom. It's very fun and kind of addicting to play! Rick and I will be playing a lot more often when our backyard is all complete and level in a couple of weeks (more on that in a later post). We cooked more s'mores over the campfire Saturday night and then had a group breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast before the game on Sunday morning.

Here's the pop-up trailer we will be vacationing in for the next several summers- we love it! These pictures of the camper were taken from our first camping trip the previous weekend.

Jared and Kelley sitting by the campfire.

The Langley's- Hayden, Rachael, Kevin, and Kylee

Riley really gets into saying "cheese" for pictures these days!
Daddy and Tyson

Riley couldn't get enough of digging in the dirt and filling her bucket. She was filthy the entire weekend, especially under her fingernails- YUCK!


Tyson was using the tape measure as a camera and saying "cheese" while I was trying to take his picture with the real camera- so cute!

The game itself was an interesting experience. The M's lost 6-2, but I can't say Rick and I were able to actually watch much of the game. The kids were pretty wiggly, but they seemed to have fun! The first game we took them to last year was a night game and they slept a majority of the time. All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend with friends!!

Doesn't he look like a true Mariners fan- that hat lasted about 10 minutes on his head!

More "cheese" from Riley. She got her own pink Ichiro Mariners shirt!

Daddy and Tyson again! I thought this was a cute picture of the two of them.

Riley had fun playing peek-a-boo with Erin and Kelley sitting in front of us.

Brother and sister hugs- these make my heart happy!

Rick and I getting a little moment without the kids! Boy, I look really pregnant in this picture...

The family shot.

Tyson made a new pal over the weekend. He really took to Jared, "helping" him put up their tent, take it down, and wanted to be held by him most of the weekend. Jared and Kelley were great about occupying the kids while we packed up on Sunday morning- thanks guys!

Riley and her sunglasses... :)

Summer Fun

I have been the worst about keeping up with blogging lately, we have just been so busy and on the go since Rick got out of school. I think we figured out we've been gone as many days as we've been home in the last month! Even the days we have been home have been preparing/packing to leave or unpacking and doing laundry. We still have a few more things planned for the remainder of the summer, but it should settle down quite a bit. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the kids so far this summer from our random activities...

I just love his smile!

That pool is SO tiny, but they seemed to have fun splashing around in it- and the water was freezing! It looked a bit bigger last year when it was only Riley in it... :)

These next two were taken on our first camping trip of the summer a couple of weeks ago and the kids enjoyed riding their "bikes", taking walks in the wagon, riding with Daddy in the bike trailer, and generally getting dirty! They seem to LOVE camping!

Riley and cousin Cassidy having some fun by the pool and grandma and grandpa's house. Don't you love the goggles?!

Tyson plopped down and decided to take a little break from playing some golf and have some "juice"- trying to drink from an unopened can of Mountain Dew.

He also had fun helping grandma water all the pots around the patio.

Riley must have a thing for sunglasses... like the goggle picture above, she decided this headband made the perfect pair of "glasses". She looks like she belongs on Star Trek or something!

She decided Tyson needed a pair too... pink ones, of course!

Doesn't he look stylish!

Fun at the property

Rick's family has property outside of Woodland, Washington and we were up there a couple of weekends ago to help clear out some trees, mow, and burn in order to get it ready for camping this season. They had done most of the work the day before, so there wasn't too much more to do, but the kids found ways to "help"!

Tyson LOVED riding the tractor with Uncle Randy and did not want to get off when it was Riley's turn. I think his big smile and wave says it all!

Riley was another story... I think we could have skipped her turn all together. Randy took his hands off the wheel so Riley could drive and she reached up, grabbed his hands, and put them back on the wheel!

She was much more comfortable sitting on it with Tyson when it wasn't moving!
Tyson was trying so hard to turn on and use the power saw, just like Uncle Tim!

Helping Cousin David "mow" the field.

Our 4th of July

As I wrote in my last post (a million years ago!), Rick woke up sick on the 4th with the flu, so I packed up the kids and went to the Happy Valley Park 4th celebration to volunteer with our church. I worked with our friends Jeff and Erin putting temporary tattoos on little kids for 2 hours and Riley worked as my helper, throwing away all the pieces of garbage. We worked from noon to 2pm and the kids fell asleep on the way home, giving me a chance to rest a little with Rick too. He started to feel a little better by the evening, so we were able to go back to the park to enjoy the live music and fireworks with our friends the Langley's and their two kids, Kylee and Hayden. The music was great and the kids had a blast running around the park and playing with glo bracelets and necklaces. The fireworks lasted about 20 minutes, which was impressive for such a small community event.

Here are the kids sitting so well in the stroller, while mommy worked. Well, Tyson did. Riley lasted about 10 minutes and then wanted out to help! They were both my guinea pigs for the temporary tattoos, each getting one on their arms.

Tyson had a blast playing at the park with his glo-bracelet and dancing to the music. He also did his fair share of wandering off though!

Here's a cute picture of Rachael and Hayden, enjoying the evening with us!

Riley also enjoyed the glo-bracelet and playing with Kylee.

Home from Disney World!!

We are back from our big adventure to Disney World- and what an adventure it was! Rick put together a slide show of picture highlights and I will try and add more a little later as well. The trip definitely had its highs and lows, but overall we had a really fun time. I miss it already! I think Rick and I both agreed that the best part was watching Riley get SOOOOO excited to meet the characters and have them sign her autograph book. She just thought it was the coolest to get a chance to give hugs and kisses to Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pooh, Tigger, Cinderella, Belle, and all the others. The kids also enjoyed the kiddie pool at the hotel and the fireworks we got to see a few different nights while we were there. She also LOVED Cinderella's Castle and talked about seeing it over and over. We bought a Christmas ornament of Cinderella's castle so we can enjoy the memories every year when we hang it on the tree.

Some of the highlights of the lows of the trip included ear problems for Tyson the way there and a MAJOR fit (like 45 mins to an hour major) for Riley on one of the flights home. NOT FUN! What I thought was food poisoning for me, happened on the second day after we had a yummy buffet in the Animal Kingdom park. I started to feel funny that evening at Epcot and proceeded to get sick five times in the next 12 hours. So, we took it easy the next day and didn't even go to a park until 7pm that night. While waiting to watch Fantasmic! the next night, Riley ended up getting sick herself- our first clue it probably wasn't food poisoning for me! She got sick a few more times, but we left the park before watching Fantasmic! and she was luckily better by the next morning. It hit Tyson our last night there, in the middle of the night, but he was fine for our flights home. Had I posted this yesterday, I would've said Rick was lucky and in the clear from catching whatever we all had, but he also woke up sick this morning. I'm glad he was OK for our trip, but being sick for the 4th of July isn't fun either!

I'll work on getting more pictures posted and more fun stories from our trip in the next couple of days, but hopefully you enjoy these in the meantime! Happy 4th to all of you! We will be volunteering at the Happy Valley Park 4th of July celebration with our Life Group and then hopefully enjoying the fireworks there tonight. I just hope Rick starts to feel better soon!

To view larger pictures, click on the slideshow.