Our Last Summer Weekend Getaway

We had one last weekend before school started and decided we really needed to get away. We thought about going to Silverwood or the Oregon coast. But after our friend was in an ATV accident that put him in Harborview Hospital in Seattle we decided to head over there to visit him, see my sister and her family and have a little fun. We spent the first afternoon visiting Rebecca and having her babysit my girls. Then Collin, Cameron and I along with Brendan Bybee (Caden's younger brother) headed over to the hospital to visit Caden and his parents. Caden seriously broke his arm and lost muscle and had to have skin grafts due to his accident earlier in the week.. Collin and Brendan bought him toys at John Deere to play with at the hospital. Sadly I forgot all about taking pictures there (and we visited him twice).

That night Rebecca's family met us at the hotel and we swam in the fun (yet slightly gross) pool. Then the next morning they met us again at the Fun Center next door to the hotel for a few hours of expensive fun!

Little cars for the little girls

Slightly faster cars for the bigger kids

Some time was spent in the kidopolis play area

Chelsea helping out Taylor

Rebecca got to play too!

Collin tried to ride a Harley like his Dad. (We did make a pit stop at the Harley in Renton)

Morgan, Chelsea, Logan and I tried out the trampolines (Collin did too but no pictures). Can you see I'm doing a back flip in the back? I was sore the next day!

Morgan doing one of her many flips!

Next stop was lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

Then just our family headed over to the Museum of Flight.

Cameron,Chelsea, Collin andMorgan all took a turn in the flight simulator.

Next, we got to check out a former "Air Force One" and pretend that we were the first family!

After a late night dinner at Cheesecake Factory and another hotel. We swam and had a great buffet breakfast before heading back to downtown Seattle. We did the Argosy Harbor cruise and had a fun little tour around the harbor learning about all the points of interest.

It was a nice end to our mini vacation.

Back to School

Today was our first day back to school. The kids were able to get up and get back into the same routine that we haven't done since June. And luckily we had a few minutes to spare to take a few pictures in front of our gala orchard (it's supposed to be picked tomorrow - can you tell?) . The girls were excited that I bought them burgandy polos this year (school uniforms can get quite boring). Morgan loves that we bought her the same flats that I have. I love that the dog, Max, posed in all of the pictures too.

Chelsea - 1st grade- Ms. Phillips (the same teacher Cameron had in Kindergarten 30 yrs ago) - Elementary School

Morgan - 3rd grade - Ms. Christian - Intermediate School

Collin - 6th grade - many teachers - Middle School

Mia came home and decided she wanted to watch High School Musical 3 and I snuck the picture of her watching and acting it out with Barbies. So cute!! She once again gets to be my buddy at home while the kids are gone from about 8 am- 3 pm.

Top Chef

Chelsea and Mia have been playing with play doh today. I knew they were pretending to make food (mostly desserts). Later I heard them setting up to serve it at a party. Next thing I heard was that they were taste testing and critiquing what they had made. It sounded like they were judges on Top Chef (and were also the chefs who made the food). I think my girls have watched a lot of reality TV with me this summer since I'm noticing things like this reenactment more and more.

Pedicures . . .

Make Me Happy!!!

Morgan learned . . .

to drive a tractor today! Cameron was raking a field behind the house today and invited Morgan to come along. He taught her to drive and she came home an hour or so later pretty proud of herself. I don't think she's ready to spend as much time behind the wheel as Collin does (or anytime soon). But it will be fun for her to do it every once in a while when Cameron is around to supervise her.

What's Collin up to Today

Collin was out of bed and off to work by 3 am this morning to rake hay in Othello (along with Cameron and 3 other boys). When he was done with that he got to run this tractor to disc wheat out. Today he was teaching his cousin Regan to run this tractor with auto steer in it. I can't believe what a hard worker these boys are! And all they ask for most of the time is to be well feed (today he got Burger King for breakfast and Jack in the Box for lunch). He's still not home but I'm hoping he'll be home soon so he can get some rest. After a few crazy days like this he usually gets very burned out and cranky. He's an awesome kid and hard worker!

Found!

Over a year ago I was devastated to realize that the watch that a wore on a daily basis and given to be by my loving husband was missing!!! It's an awesome watch (purchased at Costco) that is solar powered so it never needs a battery as long as it gets light and was water resistant to 100 ft which meant I even wore it when I swam in the Caribbean Sea! I was lost without my watch. My kids kindly tried to replace it for Mother's day with a cheap watch from Target but it was just not the same. So finally my husband replaced it with an equivalent watch that he purchased when we were on a cruise in Alaska. Fast forward to Sunday morning and I was looking for a pair of earrings that I had stupidly left on the arm of the couch the night before. I was digging under the couch cushions (which I had done many times before including vacuuming more than once and moving) and instead of pulling up an earring pulled up my beloved watch! Oh happy day! Now I have 2 nice watches to wear!!!