Nana's and Papa's Texas Style

Over the 4th of July weekend while Sam was climbing MT. Rainier I whisked the kids away for some good ol' Texas fun at my parents house. My parents now live in Texas as some of you might know and they have a little ranch were they are raising cattle oh and one donkey who is about to have a baby. We flew into Austin on a Wednesday and were supposed to meet my sister and her family but they got delayed until the next day. Walking into the airport to meet them might be a normal task for the normal person but my mom likes to shake things up a bit and decided to face plant herself off the curb and breaks her foot. So begins the Craziness of the week, well maybe the craziness started when Melissa was delayed in the Durango airport for 10 hours unable to leave!! The next morning we all left for San Antonio to brave the summer heat and mass amounts of people at SEAWORLD!! The day was Hot, but full of fun. The kids enjoyed them selves but were ready to leave before we even saw Shamu that's how hot and tired they all were. The hotel swimming pool sounded much more exciting to them. After a 3 hour drive to Bryan were my parents live we finally were able to relax and go see the Ranch. My parents have completely fixed up and gutted the ranch of all the unwanted trees weeds and put up a beautiful fence and a HUGE barn. Not to mention the new toy my Dad got, his tractor!! Oh and my mom's new toy a red 4 wheeler to match my dad's tractor. Early in the morning we would go out and feed the cattle and of course give the kids 4 wheeler rides. Brooke really impressed me normally she is the princess not wanting to get dirty but around the ranch she got the buckets filled them up went to the feeding area and called the cows and fed them even with her hands, she was in her element. One evening it was me in the middle of Brooke who was in the front and my niece aspen in the back on the 4 wheeler. As I was explaining the gears and brakes Brooke grabbed the gas button and we all flipped backwards. Thankfully it did not land on us , but little aspen was under all of us and got draged a good 2 feet. I thought I killed her! Seeing her laying there-horrible- That kid had a baseball size knot behind her ear and she told me that night that she cannot forgive me:( I'm just happy she was OK.
That was the end of the Craziness thank goodness.

Medieval Fun

Port Gamble is the cutest (I would go as far as saying its the perfect)little town. If anyone is a fan of Gilmore Girls you'll know what I mean when I say it looks like Stars Hallow only smaller. A waist high white picked fence runs through the entire town with a beautiful church and grass filled yards that are always manicured. An old country store that sells the best homemade pistachio ice cream sits on the edge of the bay with a small road lined with antique stores in the front. On the weekends the town host events of all kinds and one weekend some friends invited us to go to the medieval fair. We parked in a dirt lot about 1/2 mile from town and walked along a tree lined path to the fair.

Port Defiance Zoo

There is a nice little zoo about 45 minutes from our house that everyone talked about so one day I packed up the kids and off we went. They had a wonderful Kids Zone with jungle gyms for the kids to play on the same designs that the real monkeys use. All the animals were friendly and came right up to the glass or fence it was great the kids could see everything close up. It's not big it's the perfect size where we can go and spend a couple of hours and still come home for Jacks nap and have a normal day.

The In -Laws

In the beginning of August Sam's parents flew up for a week and we had alot of fun. I am so glad they were able to come and see where we live and we were able to show them some of the scenery around here. We went to the Crab Pot on the water in downtown Seattle ( my favorite).
We took a trip to Hurricane Ridge it's a 3 hour drive into the Olympic mountains on top of the world. It was so beautiful and the deer in the parking lot were so used to people one walked right up to Brooke. We took them to Point no Point and sat on the beach and watched the sail boats sail by and the tug boats hauling loads of who knows what slowly make there way across the water. We saw a spider crab and Brooke dug a whole up to her waist while Sam, Jack and Emily played soccer. Sam's dad helped he put up his shed which is a major task. They worked hard one day clearing out trees, brush, bushes, and winding roots covering the ground just so they could place the frame that the shed would sit on. Albert is 73 and works like a horse!! Sam said seeing his dad work made him feel like a softy and he had to keep up with his dad. Ladawn, Jack and I stayed home one night and watched girly movies while Sam took the girls and his dad to a Mariners game, they had a great time. The girls ranted and raved, not about the game, but about the big snow cones. We truly enjoyed having them here and cannot wait until they can come back.

Zions Park

A couple weeks ago we gathered all of our camping things and headed out on a "before school starts" camping trip with some friends. Living here in Washington is quite different when it comes to camping - compared to living in New Mexico. We only drove 20 minutes to the camp and it was still in the same town, weird. We decided to go to the church campground and we had a ton of FUN. As we drove into the camp the kids saw Messiah's Meadow and that was the end of that. It is a huge field of big swings and when I say big I mean big Sam and I can both fit on one. Tire swings, three story tree house, ropes course back in the woods, Bucket swings, net to climb on, etc. Sam was in his element on the ropes course, there was a tire suspended 4 feet in the air and the goal was to lift everyone on your team through the tire. The kids loved being sent through and when it came to Sam he told us he was going to run,dive, and tuck and roll!! What?? We didn't believe him, he couldn't he would break his neck. The ground is hard and rocky to be rolling on that's even if he makes it though the tire. Well to all of our surprise he did it and it was amazing. Brooke's face was priceless, it was of complete horror and boy was she relived to see her dad had survived. Our camp was only down the road so we spent the first whole day and well into the early night there. After a night of sleeping or lack of sleeping on my rocky bed we ate a yummy campfire breakfast and headed down to the lake. With fishing gear, life vest, oars and three kids in tow we loaded into the canoe, such a sight, Sam in the front three kids in the middle screaming at every push of the canoe in to the water and more screaming when I stepped into the canoe. Little did they realize if we tipped there they would only be in a couple inches of water. With every turn of Emily's head from left to right the boat would tip and the girls would scream. Soon after we were on our way we decided that a canoe is not a 5 family member friendly vessel, we will stick to a row boat next time. Here are some pictures of Messiah's meadow, I forgot my camera when we went to the lake, but I probably would have tipped us if I tried to take pictures.

Diapers? We don't need no stinkin Diapers!!!

It is official JACK our amazing 2 year old is potty trained and I mean fully!! No diapers all day and no diapers at night. One day last week he just decided and we haven't looked back since!! All I can say is that I am soooo proud of him and amazed at how easy it was I mean really I did nothing it was all him!!! YEAH!!

Good Times

I had the oppertunity to go with Brooke and her class to the Seattle Aquarium for a end of school feild trip and we had alot of fun we rode the ferry over and spent the day looking at all the fish and seals.

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