It's the afternoon and the kids are all in school now.  I'm getting so much done in the afternoons.  And I get my B time in the morning, which is so much fun.   It's the perfect scenario; next year will be hard!  Here's a photo of the kids with some church friends after an activity: Ashlyn, Audrey, Ally, and Kylie.

Scentsy had an incentive trip in July in Anaheim, across from Disneyland.  They spent an evening in the park, and Eric and his buddies Kara and Josh spent some time together there.  I got a phone call from him one night asking if I would mind him going to Disneyland for the evening.  As if I would say no!  Haha.  Eric also got to see Danny and of course Annie while he was there.

 Roo at the animal shelter with her best friends from school, Carmen and Araleigh.  These girls sure love animals.

The kids and I went up to Lucky Peak a couple times over the summer.  It's pretty quiet up there during the week, and there's sun, water and sand to enjoy so it was a great place to be!

 I took the boys up there once with their friend Jack.

The kids and I had a read-a-thon one day to stay busy.  We grabbed a bunch of books from the library, each made a cozy fort and then read for an hour.  With snacks of course ;)

This boy knocks wall sits out of the park!  He can wall sit for 12 minutes straight.  Don't know how he does it!

 Roo with her buddy Ashlyn at the library to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday.

 Snuck this ;)

Mom came to visit at the end of July.  She was here a week and it just flew!  I was so sad when she left.  We did a lot of fun things; one day we just let the kids play and we cleaned out the pantry and some other things in the kitchen.  I turned up some 70's/80's music and we chatted and sang while we worked together.  I think it was my favorite day.

The kids and I took her up to the cabin in McCall so she could see it and we hopped over to the beach for a bit.

 Look at that gorgeous green water!  😝

 Love the random photos I find on my phone; the kids seem to capture all of B's greatest expressions.

 and Roo's

 ....at Scentsy for lunch

 Roo decided to get bangs

 I think she looks like a pixie.

Our Bogus ski passes give Eric and me a full day at Bogus over the summer with unlimited access to all their summer activities.  We took the kids up there and had such a great time jumping, climbing, roller coastering, chair lifting and tubing!

 Roo and her neighbor friend Bailey.

The never ending saga that is my hair!  I just want it to be over but it keeps on going.  I decided to get extensions to make up for all the hair I had lost over the last few months.  It was scary because I didn't know what I was getting in to.  The hair itself is so beautiful; the kind of hair I've always wanted!  But because my real hair is still a tint of blue, the two colors just don't match.  My stylist is trying to remove the blue but its a slow process.  Way more complicated than I had expected once you throw extensions into the mix!  So I am wearing a hat all the time, or pulling my hair back to try and hide the colors until I see her again in 2 weeks. 

We went to Washington in August; that was our big summer vacation.  The weather was gorgeous, and we did a lot of fun things.  Ian took us clamming, which the kids loved.  They got super muddy and loved finding all the clams.

 I think Roo took these

We (Dad, Lisa, Ian and Kaylene family) met up with Josh, Bethany, their kids and Gina and Nora to start our Cornelius reunion 2018!  The first night we hung out for a bit at Ian and Kaylene's.  The kids were so excited to go into the hot tub together!

The next day we went to a beach across from Rosario Beach (one of my favorite places).  We'd never been on that side before so it was fun to explore.

 Ian, Eric and Birch went out and kayaked together.

 Cute Foster

 eating lunch

 on a hike

 It was so great to see Bethany again.  Two reunions in two years!

 These girls loved being together

The next night we had dinner and Ian and Kaylene's; a crab boil!  It was great.  Fall was just in the air.  The girls ran a business that night; foot and hand massage.  They made enough to get excited about and my massage from Selah was fabulous.  Caleb, Chelsea and Matt joined us at that point and it was so great to see them!

I missed the show the boys put on (maybe the girls too?) but heard it was a good one.  Love this photo Bethany took; lots of these are hers (thanks Bethany).

 Huge daddy longlegs on Ian's house; the boys loved that!

Breakfast and playing at the beach on Saturday morning near the cousins' rental.  They fed us a fabulous breakfast!   Then we headed to Washington Park to play at the playground, walk the loop and tide pool it up.

So many tiny crabs!  The highlight of the tide pools.

 

It sprinkled a little while we were there on our walk, but besides that we were dry the whole weekend.  I love walking in Washington Park; we do it every time we're in Anacortes and it never gets old.

We had dinner at Dad and Lisa's that night.  The menu included some of Grandmother's recipes.  We also had a slide show Dad put together of his parents and family in the 40s, 50s and 60s.  It was wonderful; I was so grateful for all the work Dad and Lisa put into the evening.  Especially since Dad wasn't feeling his best.

I went through Grandmother's recipe box one morning while I was there.  I found some recipes in a letter that was written to Grandmother in 1955.  The letter was from Candy, one of Grandad's cousin's wives.  He and his cousin Floyde were around the same age and good friends.  From the letter I learned that he had married a girl named Candy (who was close to Grandmother), and that they had a son.  I didn't have any of that information so it was priceless to find this letter!  To make things even better, Dad brought out all of the old slides he had of Grandmother's and Granddad's, and there were several slides inside of Floyde, Candy and their baby.  I couldn't believe it!!  After that I jumped back to the recipe box to see if their were any more letters inside, but this was the only one.

 The kids had a great time running around in the basement (cute Nora).

 We had such a great time at the reunion with everybody!  It was sad to say our good-byes. 

We took the ferry down towards Olympic National Park, where we were going to stay for a few days.  While waiting for the ferry we explored the beach nearby and found more tiny crabs. 

We stayed at Soleduck the first night.  It had a cute lodge and hot spring, and we ate dinner there and took a dip afterwards.

 We hiked the following day; several different trails.

 we found huckleberries and some wildlife along the way ;)

My favorite hike was called the Hall of Mosses.  The trees were old growth and just beautiful!  And the moss was everywhere.  Like something from a storybook.

 

 This log is heavy!

 Roo got a little tuckered out ;)

We spent the second evening at Lake Crescent Lodge.  Eric and I spent part of our honeymoon here; our cabin this time was right next door to the one we had stayed in before.  Lake Crescent is just amazing, and our view at sunset from the dock was spectacular.

Our cabin was called a Roosevelt Cabin, named after FDR who came to the lodge in the late 30's; the cabin was built soon after.

 We had such a great trip.  We saw a few things before heading out that day.

Lucas came to visit soon after we got home; a week or so later.  Aspen and Kimmie went to UT and spent a few days with my mom.  It was a great arrangement; the boys had a great time doing their thing and Mom and the girls had just girl time, uninterrupted.

 We took the boys to the zoo

 and the pool

 The day after Roo came back school started.  Talk about a crazy end of summer!

 The kids' first day.

B started p.m. kindergarten and boy was he excited!  He could hardly wait; we were a bit early to school so we stopped off at a nearby park.

 Botanical Garden with the kids.  Roo is in a sticking-out-her-tongue phase.

 at Grammie and Papa's playing dress up

 playing at church

 picture O colored

At the Boise balloon festival.  We went with some friends and loved seeing all the pretty hot air balloons light up the night.

 They all lit up at once over and over again; it was an amazing sight!

A fairy house Roo and I made.  We needed some girl time one Saturday so we rode our bikes to a green space, read books, then made this.

 playing in the backyard

 Our pumpkins are doing great

 riding bikes on the greenbelt on Labor Day

B had a simple surgery on Tuesday.  We got there early in the morning and he went home that afternoon.  He had general anesthesia and was so excited to have and decorate his mask.  He actually likes to sleep with it on even now ;)

He did such a great job!  The surgery was a success, and he was really pampered; ice cream, a popsicle, and a wagon ride afterward!