we camped

We finally made it out for our first camping trip since having kids - it was fantastic! We went to Chelan (25 Mile Creek) with a group of friends and couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

I was pretty sure the boys would love camping since they both love being outside - the one thing I was worried about was bedtime. No need to be worried - they slept like champs!

Our tent became a bit of a bouncy house because we had 3 air mattresses and not a lot of rules about not jumping... We had three because we weren't sure what would happen at bedtime. Andrew has his own but has never wanted to sleep in it and we weren't sure what Mason would do, so we planned for all options. Andrew loved his bed so we basically all had our own mattress. We plan to get a sleeping bag for Mason for our next camping trip - we're pretty sure he'd sleep just fine in one.

We lucked out with a great campground - our camp sites were nice and they had a great swim area.

This creek was across from our campsites. It was separated by a little driveway/road that made a very obvious boundary for the kids but was close enough for us to step in anytime we wanted. On top of it just being really cool looking, we're pretty sure the sound of it is what helped the kids sleep so well.

At one point we had 7 kids between us. Jeannette thought it'd be fun to line them up by age, so of course I took advantage of the lineup. It turns out it's not real easy to get a picture of 7 kids.

Even though we've seen Charlie and Annie a few times over the years, this was the first time that Andrew and Charlie really had time to get to know each other and hang out. They spent a lot of time together and are slowly becoming bff's for sure.

Since we camped over my birthday weekend, Jeannette brought a s'mores buffet to celebrate! Andrew chose the classic, with a few m&m's on the side.

And I must say, it was one of my best birthdays ever!

They guys... I couldn't resist including my favorite picture of Krust. : )

Mason picked up this new trick today. It's a great way to end the trip - thumbs up. : )

give it time

It took a while, but we ended up with a pretty nice day today!

my advice: never leave home without your camera : )

three of 'em

Rysen stayed with us again today. It took a couple hours for Mason to warm up to the idea, but once he did we ended up having a fun day together.

The boys dancing to The Wiggles.

This ball popper toy has been the best toy ever. The boys played with this for quite a while.

The boys decided on rain boots for today.

Rysen having fun with our huge styrofoam plane.

There is something about this picture that I love. There's a chance it could just be that I think he's cute.

welcome, summer!

We got to go to the beach tonight!! And it was even warm enough for Andrew and Matt to go swimming. I think summer may have actually found it's way to our area!

ugly Christmas sweater, summer edition

Brooke had us over for another ladies night on Saturday. This time, instead of an ugly Christmas sweater, she suggested we dress for summer. But she didn't really mean it, she meant "be a huge summertime dork".

Ryean-Marie was pleased with her Northwest look - the wool socks were a treat on the first real day of summer weather. : )

It was so fun to sit around the fire! It got me excited for our camping trip this weekend!

Two classy ladies right here.

Thanks again for a delicious dinner and fun night out. And for the surprise birthday celebration. *wink*

our last garage sale

Sweetest picture ever.

The crew, minus Owen. Such a cute group of kiddos if you ask me!

We had a garage sale on Saturday. Today Matt sold our freezer on craigslist. We made twice as much in a craigslist sale as we did at our garage sale. We're done with garage sales. : )

shower curtain

I had to put these up for my friend Amy and also just because you can't go wrong with a good tub picture! Amy posted a while ago about closing the shower curtain to let her girls splash around, and she needs to know I think it's genius. I let my boys splash with it open because it's just too much work to try to stop it, but it's been fun for us for other reasons. And now a new reason - it makes for cute pictures. : )

bounce

We took advantage of the Jump Planet deal I got on one of those daily deal sites today. I knew it would be crowded since it's raining here, but we went for it anyway. It was packed, but still worth it. It was a much better choice than having me pout about the rain all day.

It took Mason a while to warm up to them this time, but eventually he got the hang of it. He was loving this thing. He'd bounce until he'd fall off and then ask to get back up.

I just had to show sweaty-head Andrew, having a blast like usual.

fun times...

Our friends (the McPherson's) moved to Wisconsin last year. Luckily for us they're on a Washington tour and they were able to make it over to our place for dinner last night! They picked a great night to come over thanks to the sun that finally decided to show up around 3.

It was fun watching Sora play. I've seen her a good few times in real life, but mostly I know her virtually through their family blog. She literally has about a 10-second attention span. It was so funny to watch all the effort it took her to climb up on the swing, all to swing once (or maybe a half of a swing) and immediately start to get off and move on to something else. The swing example is my favorite because Mason is the exact opposite. He doesn't have a long attention span in general, but if you put him in his swing he'll hang out there forever.

Thanks for making it by our place! Next time we're in Wisconsin, we're totally stopping by. : )

a friend for the day

Rysen spent the day with us today. I'm pretty sure we did 147 things today to keep everyone happy and entertained. Rysen is a calm, full-sentence-speaking little guy; Mason is not that. : ) In order to keep some peace in Mason's world, I chose to keep him entertained.

Rysen's favorite activity was definitely jumping on the bed.

Andrew was here too. He actually had fun playing with Mason and Rysen, but also did his own thing a lot of the time (mainly because his attention span is longer than the little guys). These pictures just make me laugh. He's really using his imagination and is quite a goofball.

The first picture is him showing me his trick of tossing the sword from one hand to the other. Be amazed. : )