Catchin' Up

 Here's the last few months in a nutshell:


 ::Me and My Guy Sports Night::

Carson wasn't able to attend this fun school activity this year, so Jared took Kaiya. It's one of the school activities Jared actually enjoys. Last year he and Carson played kickball and soccer and had a blast. This year wasn't quite the same. Instead of playing sports he got to watch Kaiya play on the jungle gym toys and pick flowers...

::Our Anniversary::

Yes, Jared and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary over Memorial Day weekend. TWELVE YEARS. Crazy! This is the only pic we managed to take this weekend. Jared made me drive to Seattle, which I hated because of my strong aversion towards driving. I believe one of his sisters said that at least it wasn't their Grandma driving, to which Jared replied, "Oh, Grandma is driving...." Hmph.

 ::Pretty Pretty Princesses::

I had to put this in here because quite often during my babysitting days, the girls love to play dress up...and so does Austin! I love it. Talk about your typical younger brother of sisters. Now I've got this in here so I can embarrass him someday when he's all old and macho..

 ::Crazy Hair Day/Pajama Day::

They had Crazy Hair Day/Pajama Day at school. Carson never likes to participate in the spirit week activities, but I managed to convince Kaiya. Here she is with her PJ's on and crazy ponies. Well, as crazy as she would let me make them. Oh, and a picture of her latest drawing on her art easel. She wanted to take a picture next to it, since she was so proud of her drawing.

 

::Last Day of School Party::

After school got out, we were fortunate to be invited to a little after school get-together, put on by the fabulous Dandee. Check it out HERE.

The pictures above were taken by her, of course! It was so much fun. We ate a yummy lunch, the kids played around on the toys, had a water balloon fight, blew bubbles and relaxed!

Here's my girls blowing bubbles:

 

 

It was super fun and a fantastic way to end the school year!

::Cub Scout Day Camp::

It was Carson's last year of Day Camp. Hooray!!!! Oops...did I say that out loud?! I have to say though, that Day Camp is always amazing. The women that put this on do a fantastic job. It is the culmination of months of preparation and it certainly shows. Carson loves going to Day Camp every year. 

Amy was my partner-in-crime this year. We chaperoned together. Here she is smiling after schooling a bunch of 8-10 year olds--

 

Carson panning for gold--

Walking on cans/stilts--

 Archery---Carson's favorite activity--

All tuckered out--

::Lunch Date With Miss Molly:: 

Miss Molly, Kaiya's preschool teacher, took her out on a lunch date. How sweet is she?! Even though Kaiya's been out of preschool for a full year now, Molly still takes time to see her. Molly is one of the few adults that Kaiya speaks to, so I'm so grateful that she does this for her.

Upon getting ready to leave for her "date", Jared gave Kaiya some money and said, "Ok, I'm going to need the change back." Kaiya gave a little frowny face and was like "Ugh..."  After she left, Jared was like, "Ten bucks that I'm not gonna see a dime back."

Sure enough, we get a phone call awhile later from Molly saying that they went to Walmart and Kaiya was wanting to know if she could buy a purse!

So here Kaiya is with her brand new purse...

 ::4th of July::

For the 4th, we stayed in town this year. We don't normally do that, but I guess we are starting up some new traditions!

In the morning, we went to our Ward's 4th of July breakfast and parade. The kids got to decorate their bikes and scooters and ride around in a big circle. They thought it was awesome.

I actually took a picture of my 3 kiddos together but it didn't turn out. Boo.

Later in the day we went over to the Johnsons' house for BBQ and swimming. It was awesome!

Later, we met up with the Olsons at the park to watch fireworks by the river. Here's the kids with their glow sticks:

Some sparkler action:

 Cuddling up for the fireworks show:

Chloe didn't quite make it to the fireworks!

It was such a fun day!


 ::Portland::

Carson had a soccer tournament in Portland and we decided to make a fun weekend out of it! Jared's cousin, Mike, got married and we were able to stop by the reception.

I wish I would have taken a picture of Carson during his games. Hmm. I need to be a better picture taker. It's ok though. I'll take a picture of him at the next one. The games were definitely a learning experience for his team. They were accidentally put in a really competitive bracket so they were pretty much slaughtered during their games. The kids had fun though, and that's what matters most!

The kids loved staying at this hotel room we got off priceline. It had a kitchen so for some reason, that just made the room a thousand times cooler in their eyes. Here they are in the hotel room:

We also went to the famous Voodoo Doughnuts. We got the Voodoo doll one, the one that had chocolate, peanut butter and oreos on top, the maple bar with bacon on it, along with a couple of others. They were so yummy!

We also went to the Portland Zoo. Here are my 3 little birdies:

The petting zoo. Blech! You know how Jared and I feel about those.

We had to take a picture of our Chloe monkey next to the zoo's Chloe monkey.

Best quotes from the zoo:

"Oh good-- Asian elephants mom, you can communicate with them" - Carson

"Those aren't Asian elephants because they don't look Asian" - Kaiya

::Picking Blueberries::

There is a local spot to pick blueberries so we went out and pick several pounds worth. The kids had a blast. Apparently since we are like the farthest things from farmers, they think it's the coolest novelty. We picked until our huge stainless steel ikea bowl was completely full. Believe it or not, those blueberries were gone in less than a week.

::Crafting::

This has been the summer of crafting for Miss Kaiya. She sure has been keeping her hands busy! She made a soft blanket to sleep with. Now she is making friendship bracelets non-stop. If you come by, she may have one for you--though I am not sure if she'll give you one for free or charge you. She gave Carson and Jared one because they were "friends", yet when I picked one from her store, she charged me! I was like, "Umm, I was the one who taught you how to make them so don't you think you could just give me one?"

::Tending Our Garden::

We tried our hand at a garden again and have been "living off our land."  Ha! Anyhoo, we have been getting strawberries, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and basil. Yummy! My freezer is currently stocked with strawberry jam, zucchini bread, and pesto.

::Chloe::

Yes, she gets her own little subsection, because she's Chloe!

She clearly is not the hardest worker. I asked her to clean up her room and this is what I found:

Total Cleaning Fail.

In fact, quite often when I ask her to clean her room, I can hear her say, "My room is a dump! Carson, I need help!" And the little stinker will quite often get help from him, even though I tell him to not help her. Dang those cute chipmunk cheeks and cheesy smile! Even Carson isn't immune from those.

Here's a picture of my little pioneer girl at the Primary activity:

Here she is being a total goof:

Oh, Chloe! What would we do without you?! You are literally walking sunshine!

::Silverwood:: 

The kids earned free tickets to Silverwood this year so we decided to actually go. It was our first time going and it didn't disappoint.

Here they are eating snacks in the car:

First we went to Roaring Springs. Take a good look at Chloe because this was one of the few times she was actually wet from the water. She normally is a little fish in the water, but the weather was only like 75 degrees and windy so she decided that she didn't want to get in because it was too cold. So guess who had to stay with her and play house for a couple of hours? Yeah, that would be me.

Jared took Carson and Kaiya to all the waterslides and they had a blast. I was just impressed that Kaiya got on them.

Jared and the kids--

After we were finished with the water activities, we made our way to the rides. The Butterflyer turned out to be Chloe's archnemesis because she started bawling when she was on the ride.

Here she is on the frog ride, scared to death and holding on for dear life:

She started to warm up on this little kiddie ferris wheel:

The carousel was far and away Chloe's favorite ride. We went on it several times.

 

The rides were super fun, though Jared and I were most likely a little dehydrated because we were getting sicker on the rides than we normally do. Jared took the kids on the Timber Terror roller coaster. Kaiya even did it! After Jared got off that one, he literally looked green. Carson was like, "We're still going on Aftershock, right?!" Jared was like, "S-s-ssure?" Good dad that he is, he got on it despite not feeling good.

Doesn't that ride look like fun for someone who already feels nauseous?!

After he and Carson got off, Carson looked great. He thought it was awesome! Jared on the other hand, looked torn up. He was like, "I'm tapping. Lets go home." It was fine because it was the end of the day anyway.

In fact, he looked so sick, that I was like, "Do you want me to drive home?" He was like, "I don't need anymore roller coasters today. I'll drive." Hmph.


::Webelos::

Carson just earned his Webelos badge! I was a good mom and actually got that little ribbon necklace finally so he could pin his pins on it. I felt like Loser mom when he got his Wolf and Bear and had no ribbon necklace to speak of. Also, it's hard to keep track of those little pins!

Isn't Carson getting so old? Crazy.

::Other Summer Stuff::

We've pretty much done swim lessons all summer, so it's totally lame that I don't have a single swimming lesson picture. I know. Total picture fail.

The girls did awesome with their lessons. Chloe was in level 1 and all the instructors loved her. Whenever they'd see her they'd be like, "Chloe!!! Hi!! How are you?" She was like Norm on Cheers.

Kaiya started lessons in Level 2 and then passed and did Level 3 and then passed those! We aren't doing another session, so she didn't get to move on further, but next year she'll be in 4A. She's becoming quite the swimmer!

Carson's had a few swim meets under his belt. Again, no picture. I know, LAME. He's done pretty well. Tomorrow's the final swim meet so swim team will be over for the summer.

Well, I guess that's it. School is fast approaching, but I don't even want to think about that yet! :)