Camping



We took a couple camping trips this month. The first one was a quick overnight trip to Champoeg State Park. We took the tent trailer and it was a great time! It's not the most private kind of camping, but there are great loops that the boys really enjoyed riding their bikes around. All the boys also played some very intense rounds of Uno.



A couple weekends later, we went to the church camp out at Beaverly Beach State Park. There were tons of friends to play with, and Andy and Gracie played many games of Uno (Uno is very big in our house this summer!)



There there was also the bonus of being right next to the beach so we enjoyed some sand and surf and surprisingly mild weather.



Camping just continues to be more fun as the boys get older; they've been asking to go again already! We may be able to squeeze one more trip out before the summer ends...

Hello

Well, I have lots to catch up on! I will be posting camping trips, more beach pics, and other fun summer activities that we've been doing, but first I want to share the pictures from our family photo session. We went with a different look this year; what do you think?

Blue Lily Photography
go to the client section, password is "anna grass"

4th of July

I am out of order here, but I realized that I never posted about the 4th of July! And I want to make sure you see the great pictures! :)

We had a fun BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's - all the aunts and uncles were there! Afterwards, we did some sparklers as a warm-up for the big show that would take place at our cul-de-sac later that evening.





When it got a little darker, Paul started lighting our Costco-size batch of fireworks. The boys were enthralled!




Some of them were a little loud for Jakey.



It was a great time for everyone!

Race Day



Under Paul's coaching, Mindy has been training to run in a race and today was the big day. We all went to Mt. Tabor Park to support her as she ran the Mt. Tabor Doggie Challenge. So we don't have a dog - who cares? Mindy did an awesome job; she ran the whole way and finished with a great time! There was also a 1/2 mile kid's fun run, so we had signed the boys up to try it out. All of them. It was an interesting experience.





Caleb and Andy took off (Caleb with Paul, Andy with Mindy) and they ran the whole way, a lot faster than we had anticipated! Jakey was not into it.



He only ran the first bit because I started to run and he was chasing me to carry him. Oh, well. Maybe next year!

Jakey's star wars

Here is Jakey's version of the star wars theme song.

Fishing



I've come to realize that we're not the type of people that can laze around the house. In theory, it sounds amazing, but in reality we just can't do it. Paul took a week off of work, and during that week, we went to a parade, spent 3 days at the beach, went berry picking, fishing, spent a mommy/daddy evening at Edgefield and did a triathlon. Oh, and Paul taught Caleb and Andy how to ride their bikes without training wheels. But, I digress. Right now I want to talk about fishing. Caleb and a brief introduction to fishing on his school field trip, and had been asking about it on and off since then, so on a bright, sunny morning we headed to Horning's Hideout. It was a great place for us!



We had gotten the older boys fishing poles a couple years ago, but hadn't really used them, and Caleb and Andy are just the right size for them now! Mommy was freaking out about Jakey being in the near vicinity of flying fish hooks, but we all survived and managed to have a wonderful time.



Andy seemed to get easily discouraged when he didn't catch fish right away, but in the end he caught a small one and a bigger one.



Caleb was the lucky fisherman of the day; he caught three fish! And of course, Mommy caught the big fish of the day. Poor Paul was stuck putting the worms on the hook, casting, and taking care of the fish when we caught them so he came up with nothing. And Jakey? Well, he basically ran around and almost gave Mommy a heart attack as he almost fell into the pond numerous times, and don't even get me started on the fish hooks!

Great Aunt and Uncles



Clarke, Lorne and Christine were just here for a visit. It's been three years, which is more than Jakey's lifetime, so they hadn't met him yet. Our boys were a little shy at first, but quickly warmed up to them. Clarke and Lorne are probably the nicest people they've ever met! They played board games and, I think Caleb's favorite, hide and seek. Caleb was so sad to see them go. He cried himself to sleep and has been carrying a little photo album with their pictures.