Jupiter Juice

One of Kelsey's friends gave her some "Jupiter Juice" for her birthday. It is the neatest stuff, and the kids have been having lots of fun playing with it (pretending to have purple stuff come out of their noses, dumping the container of it on each other, etc.). Five girls yesterday sat around our kitchen table for almost an hour playing with it! I heard it only costs $1.00 - might be the cheapest form of entertainment around!

Pure Happiness

Last night was a very exciting night for Kelsey. She had four of her very best friends over to help her celebrate her birthday. We went bowling, came back to our house for pizza, went swimming, and then came home for cake and present opening. After six hours of non-stop fun, they all settled down to watch a movie and went to bed around midnight. This morning when I was doing my quiet time, I was thinking about the message we heard at church on Saturday night. The message was from Ephesians 5:15-17 "Be very careful, then, how you live,...making the most of every opportunity...understand what the Lord's will is..." I learned a lot just from watching a group of 5, 10-11 year old girls who obviously love life and find so much happiness in the little things. They all sang together in the car, laughed at each other's stories, screamed at the pool, and all got along so well. Several times Kelsey came over to me and hugged and kissed me because she was just SO happy. It is wonderful to see such pure joy on our kids' faces and makes me appreciate how these times in life are so special. On Saturday night we were encouraged to look for and appreciate these incredibly special moments that God gives us every day of our lives. I'm looking forward to seeing what is in store for today :)

Happy 10th Birthday, Kelsey!!

Kelsey had a great 10th birthday today. Her cousin Sara spent the night with her last night. We celebrated at Red Robin and watched a movie while eating her favorite movie snacks (Kit Kats, Popcorn, and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups). We made her a "10" pancake this morning, and then the girls did their nails and played some more. We ended the night with a steak, french fry, and grape dinner (Kelsey's request). We had chocolate cake for dessert and then played at PCC with Drew and Mags, where she got to ride her new 21-speed bike. Kelsey was very excited to get her first $100 bill, which is a tradition for 10th birthdays.

Almost Double Digits

Kelsey was thrilled to get her first birthday present in the mail yesterday from Uncle Joe and Aunt Kim. She received three of her favorite things, so she was extra happy. She got some of her favorite bracelets, a Packers bracelet, and money. Thanks, Uncle Joe and Aunt Kim!! It's hard to believe that we will no longer have a child in the single digits in two more days!

This week Conner is attending "Grammar Camp" at his new high school. I've heard of all kinds of summer camps but had never heard of a "grammar camp." I was looking through the information that he learned today and realize that I might need to sign up for a grammar camp :) I don't know half of what is in his book - sometimes I wonder why we spend so much time learning things that most people never need to use during their lifetime. I guess if someone is a contestant on Jeopardy it might be helpful to know what interrogative and demonstrative pronouns are. (Uh oh, is it okay to end a sentence with are?) It's a good thing that I work with preschoolers! Conner has a great attitude about the class. When I picked him up today he was happy and talkative. He met some new people and said that the teacher was really nice. So maybe "Grammar Camp" isn't so bad after all, even if he never needs to use what he learns in the real world!

Family Camp 2010!

This weekend our church went to Family Camp, an annual tradition at Nehalem Bay State Park. There were 35 of us from our Bible study group sharing one big site for meals and campfires, and then we each had our own sites for our tents. Friday was the hottest day that we have ever spent at the beach - it was in the 80's! We spent hours on the beach skim boarding, building sandcastles, burying each other, playing with the dogs, watching everyone's feet sink deep into the sand as the waves went out, etc.! We did lots of bike riding, playing games, running down the dunes, and watching the airplanes land right above our heads. It almost seemed like you could reach out and touch the planes as they landed. It was fun riding into Manzanita and exploring the neighborhoods. We saw deer, and Conner saw elk while on a bike ride with his friends. Friday night we went onto the beach and the moon was brightly shining onto the ocean, and there were millions of stars - we have never seen anything like it at the coast. It is so wonderful to be away from computers and our cell phones during vacation - the kids have been having a blast just playing all together. It was quite a shock to go to bed not needing to be inside our sleeping bags and then to wake up Saturday morning to weather 30 degrees cooler than the day before! The clouds never burned off, but we still had a great day, just much cooler than we expected. We decided to pack it up and head out after campfire Saturday night so that we didn't have to wake up to a cold morning. It's never fun packing up damp camping gear. We got home at 12:30 a.m., jumped into our comfortable beds, and slept in until 8:00 :)

Hagg Lake Adventure

Conner and I went kayaking and canoeing with some of our friends and had a great time. We took a quick trip out to Hagg Lake and rented boats for an hour. That was plenty of time to give our arms a good workout and to take in the pretty scenery. We brought our little camera, so the pictures weren't that great - oh well! A blue heron was on the shore which was pretty cool to see. We had a picnic afterwards and were back home within four hours of leaving. We definitely want to go there again - it's great living so close to so many beautiful places!

Eagle Crest Pictures - Part 3

Here are the remainder of the pictures from our wonderful vacation!

Eagle Crest Pictures - Part 2

There were so many fun times last weekend! The kids loved being able to ride their bikes around the neighborhood. The houses were pretty empty in our neighborhood, so the kids pretty much could ride all over the place without worrying about cars. We also had fun celebrating Mom's birthday. We played pickle ball several times, including a family tournament with 15 of us playing. Conner and Drew were nicknamed "The Skins," and McKenzie was nicknamed "Snick" because she ate a Snickers bar while playing (I think she had 4-5 Frozen Snickers bars over the weekend - Aunt Amy even bought her one after I had told her no more! :) During our Pickle Ball tournament, Dad dove for a ball, fell, and got pretty banged up (and later found out that he cracked his rib!), but he was quite the trooper the rest of the vacation and didn't complain one bit! Mom organized lots of "Minute to Win It" games, including balancing apples, catching marshmallows in cups, blowing bubbles through hoops, and moving cotton balls from plate to plate with vaseline-covered noses. Jim almost got whiplash trying to get his cotton balls off his nose. We had lots of great laughs.