All Good Summers Must End

End of summer photo dump and since it's been one of those weeks (months!), I'm just gonna throw them out there with minimal explanation and let future me scratch her head and wonder what they hey was going on. 

Super Saturday is coming up. I'm not prepared. Tried out homemade royal icing on store bought cookies. Yeaaaah. No. Let's try this again. (Psst...these are supposed to be candy corns)

Char spilled 4 times on the same shirt one day...so no more shirt.

Discovered a love of anything in a cup with a straw. Delicious pizza at Abby's.

Dana is training for a half marathon so we ventured to Rocky Top in West Valley to see what he's in for. As long as he isn't trekking a 30 pound baby on his back or totting a tired Clark like I was, he'll be just fine. Also, we learned our kids like throwing rocks in all situations, even just at sagebrush. We also learned eating thistles makes us throw up. Good lessons.

The Grows bequeathed us this little car. It's not a major fight item.

We went up to a cabin with the Reiersens in Cle Elum. Our kids made best friends for life and Clark probably convinced Truman to never want a little brother (take the hint kid!). We threw rocks at the lake. We torched all the twigs in the forest and chased down some bunnies. Half the Gailans had horrible night coughs and one snored so Mom Gailan got zero sleep. Still worth it!

Spent most of the last weeks at the park. Charlotte learned to go down independently...and up independently. Oy vey! My little dare devil is going to kill me!

We thought about ripping out our shower and doing tile instead like this pictured below. We got quotes and it was over 10k👀 So we thought again.

When not at the park, we like to cool off in the shade of the deck, toss rocks into our rock garden, and wear our hair super high like a samuri. Also no pants because...summer.

One weird morning after a RS meeting, my foot started itching and then turned a very unlovely shade of black. I called Nurse Dana who recommended making a line with a sharpie to see if it got bigger. It didn't thankfully but I walked around with this lovely line for a few days and we still aren't sure if I broke it or just bruised it really bad. On what? you may ask. Who knows, says every mother of a toddler ever.

Our curbing finally, FINALLY went in and it looks spectacular. Add some trees and bushy plants next summer and we will have the lawn to beat!

Oh Charlotte. She is so weird. She loves to climb into our bed and pretend to sleep. Then, in her own bed, she sleeps like this.

And Clark. Enough said. He wore this mask for a whole afternoon and kept running into walls.

Finally, proof that we had an awesome summer of fun art and library time. Ready for school? You bet we are!

Anniversary Trip (No Kids Edition!)

14 big ones, ladies and gents. We can hardly believe it but since it's here we decided to celebrate with an awesome no kids trip! (A special thank you to Matt and Kristen who hosted our little devils and especially Kristen who slept out on the couch all night because our 5 yr old just couldn't sleep)

In classic form, we started with golf. Me in the cart. Dana chipping in the birdies. Not the prettiest (or quietest - hello freeway!) course but a super nice day and still lots of fun. 

After a lunch of Indian food (mmmmm...) was driving to Walla Walla Washington to enjoy the nicest hotel ever: Cameo Heights. Dana's awesome boss gave us gift cards to make this magical experience happen. It's seriously this HUGE mansion out in the middle of nowhere. We got lost in the orchard, had the nicest dinner of our lives, enjoyed free sodas from the fridge...

...and I ate the world's largest marshmallow. Seriously, there is no reason for a marshmallow to ever be this big. I love America.

After a restful night (no crying babies!) we had massages and eventually returned to pick up our happy kiddos. Quick trip but just what we needed to confirm that yup, we still like each other:) 

Meanwhile...the kiddos had the best time. Char tried out all of Gigi's toys.

Clark threw a handful of bark at a wasp nest and ended up with 3 seriously gnarly stings on his cheek but he took it like a man in front of the ladies.

He ate a lot of food.

He was goofy at the splash pad. Ok - they were ALL goofy at the splash pad.

And he pretty much now loves Stella. These two crazy cousins.

Hot as Heaven

Summer just smacked us in the face. Hard! It's been 100+ this whole week so we've had to be a little creative making it through this final countdown to school (17 days to go!)

Our outdoor space has become a favorite. Most days the kiddos eat lunch outside (less mess for mom!) and sometimes Clark spends an hour playing with his cars on the carpet. Win win!

 I am not an adventurous person, per se and even less so when you throw kids into the mix. So it was quite a surprise to everyone (mostly myself) that I agreed to join a gaggle of ladies and trek 4 miles with a 26 pound Charlotte strapped to my back. I still can't believe I made it. Highlights were the beautiful view, the 4,000 mosquito bites I found on my left leg afterwards, good conversation, catching my son's poop in a baby wipe (yeaaaaaah) and just hanging with some of my besties. Not sure I could survive again but glad I gave it a try.

Clark got his new fangled noise canceling headphones and they have come in handy. At the zoo. At the hop fest. And during this random hail/thunderstorm that freaked him out.

We try to spend as much time outside as possible and if friends invite us over and have cool cozy coupe toys, all the better. This was Sam's birthday party and Charlotte refused to give up the driver's seat for anyone.

Clark agreed to participate in the water baloon toss but it was Dana and Britteny who were the stars of the show.

The hop fest brought so many fun toys (and one very expensive, ugly bronze hop art piece, but that's another rant) and provided a full evening of fun for our kiddos.

Again, it never fails to amaze me that our friends are insane and awesome in equal parts. As a way to make money for school clothes, two of our friends banded together to create a summer extravaganza day with bouncy house, water slide and delicious food. Charlotte mostly just sat on my lap but Clark was in heaven. There were some seriously awesome flips off this water slide from some of the kids!

But mostly the summer is wearing on us and some of us try to be naked as often as possible. School, we're ready when you are!