Nine of my favorite people!

I'm still a little bit afraid of our new camera - I love "new" and I hate it at the same time!

And I do know that this picture isn't as "centered" as it could be...I wanted to get Gracie's cute fingers in it!

Cell Phone Pictures

Sorry, there are a lot - but I when I took these pictures I thought they were important...now most of them are just silly, but at least I know they made it to the blog!

The cookies I baked for my sister to thank her for picking up something in town for me...then forgot to send them with Brandon to give her so I took this picture and sent it to her phone...I was informed it wasn't the same - go figure.



The Other Mother's roof after the 9 or so feet of snow last winter.



Visiting Sharon at SHMC - Joseph found a little couch in the ICU waiting room that was just his size.



What kid wouldn't love going to the dentist when they load you up with granola bars and juice boxes! :)



Madilyn's volleyball team (she's middle standing row furthest to your right). She didn't buy a team photo so I stopped at the trophy case in her school and took this picture for her! :)



Jared's art on the school bulletin board...if you have time to click on it and squint to read it it's pretty cute.



One of many reasons our family loves Ben and Aaren so much!



Malorie standing in front of the moose antler bulletin board at school. (And I'm officially letting her hair grow out again!)



Silly hats at Michael's.



Mom and Meredi playing around with the phone.



Joseph's first official dentist appointment/cleaning!



Crayons that Meredi bit the tops off from at Red Robin.



Joseph getting a piggy-back-ride from Chaylee!



Jared receiving his Wolf rank.



Meredi - not sure where she is or why her eyes are so big, but she's darn cute!



Yep, our van really has that many miles on it - and yep, I stopped in the middle of the road and took this picture!!



Dad and Meredi at Chataqua - we have officially vowed to never do the Teriyaki noodles and kabobs ever again...just not what they used to be! :(

Vacation

So just for kicks, as a souvenir I brought home a case of pneumonia that I have been fighting for a week now - really takes the wind out of my sails when it comes to blogging I guess! We took 3 cameras on vacation - not exactly sure what we were thinking! :) Here are some from one of the cameras - I don't even really promise that you'll ever see any from the others! lol I also just realized that we had a trip to Silverwood BEFORE our trip to Seattle that isn't on the blog yet - I'm thinking it may not make it at all. We'll see.

Anyway - here is our very fun (minus pneumonia) trip to Seattle last week!

Woodland Park Zoo


Joseph listening to whales at the Aquarium


Mom and Jaynie reaching in the touch-tank at the Aquarium


The family posing with Sylvester and Sylvia at Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe


Of course we stopped to pose with a 8' Bear on the sidewalk!


Gracie was thrilled to get to the hotel


3-D movie at the Science Center


Space Needle


Back to the Science Center


We were lucky enough to catch a wonderful Jim Henson exhibit! You would have to know what huge Muppet fans we are to really appreciate how much we enjoyed the chance to BE the muppets!


I don't think we were to North Bend before everyone was sacked out!

Happy Birthday JASON!

It's one thing to have a baby turn 3 and think over how fast the years went by...but FIFTEEN? We can't even wrap our heads around 15 YEARS!!

Jason woke up to donuts for breakfast...



Then Maddie (and her friend Makay) decorated a cake for him...



We didn't have 15 candles but luckily our math genius son, Jacob, figured out we could add our number candles and get 15...



Happy Birthday Jason! Before you know it, you'll be driving, then graduating, then on a mission, then college...you're mother isn't old enough for you to be doing all these things!!

More fun in the pool -

The gang requested pictures of their "tidal wave" yesterday...Jared actually asked, "Are these pictures going in the blog, mom?" - Answer: Duh! Of course they are, son!



Nothing too scientific about the tidal wave...



...stand in the middle of the pool...



...then jump up and down until everyone is being tossed like rag dolls! Fun times!

Camera Clean-Up

I realized there were quite a few pictures on our camera's memory card that I needed to blog about...so here they are all at once and then I can be all caught up!!

Finally! We got to set the pool up!

Pretty sure those are Megan's legs sticking out of the water.

Jared's belly-flop. I didn't have the heart to tell him I clicked a second too late - he told me before he jumped that he was only going to do it once, anyway! lol

Jason's front flip.

Megan helping Joseph so he'd stop clinging to the side.

Malorie! I just realized that I never took any pictures of her with chickenpox! Yes, she started summer vacation with chickenpox - and surprisingly enough, the three younger than her who haven't had them, didn't get them...yet anyway!

And now the "Surprise Mom" pictures I found on the camera!

I can't even imagine why my baby is standing in the laundry hamper.

This picture cracked me up. Jason was working on a merit badge where he needed to put together a slide show of prominent landmarks and icons around the community - the punk took a picture of "Walter"! His name isn't really Walter, that's just what we call him. This little old man hitches between Spokane and DP multiple times a day. I can only think of a few times that I've driven on the highway and not seen him.

I don't know who took this picture - but isn't she just a love bug!

The LAST day of school!! We met dad at Red Robin for lunch (Maddie and Megan were with friends.)

4th of July

We sure had a whirlwind 4th of July this year...but it was great!!
We started the day with breakfast at Uncle Courtney's house.

Uncle Rick, Aunt Lisa, Uncle James, Uncle Courtney & Emma

Aunt Ellen with the kids...of course!

Shiloh, Sylvia, Shauna & Maddie

Ryan & Levi...maybe?

Meredi & Mom

Ready for breakfast! Cinnamon rolls, sausage, fruit and juice! Yum!

All of the girls with their princess ribbon crowns!

After breakfast we rushed home to have a BBQ with old friends that we hadn't seen in a couple of years. The Mauzy's came and spent the entire afternoon with us - eating, swimming, playing and catching up. Way too short of a visit - and too few pictures b/c we were too busy playing!

After the BBQ we drove up to grandma and grandpa's house for fireworks!

Joe - working it!

And it paid off!

Jared & Jason, waiting for fireworks!

Uncle Dick broke out the soft serve ice-cream maker and Meredith loved it! (However, Joseph is the one who ate us all under the table - I seriously lost count of how many cones he had!)

After his 15 or so cones, Joseph scored cotton-candy bigger than his head from Uncle Dave!

Fireworks, ice-cream, cotton-candy, popcorn, family, friends...it was a WONDERFUL day!