Summer 2013

Wow, has it been a cray busy summer! Hints the lack of blogging. There is lots we did this summer that I wish I would have spent {or had} the time to share about, but that didn't happen so I'm going to share some of the highlights in one big post. So here we go...

June was crazy busy! June 7th we celebrated Blake's 3rd Birthday. {something I did managed to blog about yay!}
The next weekend we moved...

We had lots of great help! 

Moving is so much work.

So thankful for the friends that helped us move!

Then the next weekend we left this:

mess of a just-moving-into house and headed up to Portland for my sister-in-laws wedding!

{it was a beautiful wedding that needs a post of it's own!}

The day after the wedding we headed to Medford for another wedding and to see my Aunt Peggy, Uncle Paul and cousins Kristen and Katie, they were here visiting from the Philadelphia area.

 We went to the train park

{it's pretty fun, they have little trains that you can ride on, and the best part is it's FREE!}

Cousins!

We did lots of blueberry picking

And played at the fountains.

It was probably one of the hottest, most sunny summers we've had in a really long time. See here in the Willamette Valley it's pretty much guaranteed to rain/be cloudy till at least the 4th of July.

For the 4th we went up to Portland for a BBQ with friends. At the BBQ were friends form high school and college, so it was a fun mix and great to see them all!

Oh and there was family there too! 

 Our family looking all patriotic

 This is a typical picture with these boys:

 There was nine kids under the age of four and only two girls!

 Brianna, Michelle and I 

{I have known Brianna for over 10 years}

Jamie and her daughter Quinn, Kendra, Me and Lily 

{Kendra and I have been friends since 6th grade and we met Jamie when we moved into Azalea House at OSU. And all of our husbands lived at Varsity House while at OSU}

Firework time!

Blake hates loud noises. {which, is somewhat ironic, since he can be a pretty loud little boy at times} We got him these head phones when he was a baby to wear at the football games and he loves them. He wears them when I vacuum.

They were a little hazardous when he was doing sparklers since he couldn't hear the people around him yelling for him to move or not hit them with the sparkler ha! {thankfully no one was hurt}

July 8th, we celebrated 7 years of marriage!

We've gotten to know our new neighbors!

We've spent nearly every night out front playing with all the neighbor kids, it's been great! We are loving our new neighborhood and neighbors!

We headed back down to Medford for the Children's Festival. The Children's Festival {or Festibal, like Blake would call it} is a festival for kids that has over 35 hands on activities and things for kids to do. This was the 46th annual one! I remember going to it as a kid and volunteering at it when I was a teenager. It was so fun to take my own kids to it!

 I was surprised at how much hasn't changed. Like this Humpty Dumpty, I'm pretty sure he was the same when I was 4!

 Making a Noodle Necklace

Sand Art 

 Tristan working on some Leather Stamping

 HUGE bubbles!

 Handprint

{Pam still had the ones Russ and Kacie made when they were kids!}

 Cousins with snakes on their faces

Dancing on the stage

 Candle making

This dragon eats your garbage. I remember feeding it my garbage when I was a kid! 

 Mining for treasures with Nana

 We went twice, so the snake face paint was on the first day and the tiger face paint was the second day. I don't think he has ever sat so still!

We can't wait to go back next year!

 Lily really started to love the bath and splashing.

I think it was maybe from watching her bother at swimming lessons:

Blake took swimming lessons for 4 days a week for 4 weeks!

He learned a lot! He can hold his breath underwater and float on his tummy and back. Its nice that we can go swimming now and I don't feel like I have to be on top of him watching his every move, I know if he goes under {as long as he can touch} he'll pop is head back up. I'm think we'll do more swimming this winter to keep up with it.

August slowed down a bit.

We've enjoyed having church outside this summer. Love having church in the amphitheater. There's just something about worshiping God while in His creation that's amazing. 

Don and Pam came up and helped us {or I should say Russ} add on to our patio:

Before and after

{I some how didn't take any pictures of the progress that weekend!}

The patio turned out great! I love having more space for the table and other things!

We had yet another garage sale {it amazes me what we collect}

Here is Blake durring the garage sale taking full advantage of mom being busy.

Lily played dress-up in a dress from when I was a baby

We had our annual summer trip to Black Butte!

{this will have it's own post one of these days}

Well, {if your still around} that pretty much sums up our summer! It was a busy one! {aren't they usually though?!}

Hoping, now that fall is approaching {although with the way the weather has been it still feels somewhat like summer} to get back into this blogging thing! 

Hope you all had a great summer!