Hula Hoops!

I got the girls a hula hoop for the last day of school present! I thought on the last day of school that I'd get them something to keep them busy this summer. Morgan was already a hula hoop expert - she got 3rd place in the 2nd grade hula hooping contest that week. But Chelsea could not keep one up. But by the next day she seemed to be an expert also!

Chelsea's Kindergarten Graduation

Chelsea graduated from Kindergarten at Mattawa Elementary on June 10. She thought it was so silly that they graduated by they still had to go to school the next day. (I thought the same thing)Luckily I sat next to Ashley Yorgesen and she took some better pictures than I could get with her fancy camera of Chelsea. We had a few late nights this week and I think Chelsea was yawning through a lot of the "ceremony."
Here she is with her great teacher, Miss Zirker, who also happens to be the primary president in our ward.
Here she is with a few of her friends (all from the ward) - the diva at the side is Katie, Emma, Chelsea and Carmen.

Chelsea and Luke (Ashley's son) I thought they were the same height at the beginning of the year but it looks like Chelsea grew lots this year.

Chelsea was a bit sad that Cameron didn't make it to graduation. But she was also sad that I didn't get her a balloon bouquet like so many of the other parents gave there kids. The next day I bought her a hula hoop and said that was her gift. She was happy with that. Her graduating class had about 200 kids in it. I think less than 10% of them are caucasian and all of them were in Chelsea's class. All of the classes are all day for kindergarten. It was pretty amazing the large crowd that was there (the High School gym). She said it was a really special day to be graduating from Kindergarten. Next year we're pretty sure she'll have Roxy Phillips for 1st grade who taught Cameron in kindergarten 30 years ago!

Morgan's 8th birthday celebrations!

For Morgan's 8th Birthday we decided to have a party at the Moses Lake water park. She got to invite 4 friends plus her sisters to go with us. Sadly, the day ended up being rainy. I checked the weather forecast and it said only about 10% chance of rain during the day and 78. So I figured we'd be ok. But as we neared the park (about an hour away) it started to rain and never quit for longer than a few minutes the whole time we were there. We made the most of it though . . . it was nice that there were probably only half the amount of people there from when we went last year. We all went on the lazy river and Morgan and her friends went down the slides over and over and there was almost no line other than maybe a few people. But after 2 1/2 hours Mia and Chelsea were done being cold and so we decided to pack everyone up and go back to my house to play. Right after we all changed back into out clothes lightening started to strike and the park closed anyways. Good thing we'd already changed and didn't have to fight for space in the crowded locker room.
Devannee, Paige (she lives next door) and Morgan. Below is Isabella and Ashley.
This is Chelsea trying to keep warm after she deemed herself done with the rain (notice all the empty chairs - you could have your pick of those but there were no available tables with umbellas- luckily we got one)
Mia eating her HOHO.
Ashley and Morgan
Morgan posing for me.
Paige went home with her Grandma that was also at the park and the other girls came home with us and they played Barbie's for a few hours before I took them home.
On Sunday we had Morgan's birthday ice cream cake that I made. It was peanut butter/ chocolate ice cream. With our busy day on her actual birthday (Monday) I knew we'd have to have it early.
Afterwards, we went for a short walk and the kids showed us how tall the timothy hay in the field behind us was getting.

I brought Indoor Smores into Morgan's classs for her birthday treat.
This is her with Mrs. Longmire. She is an awesome 2nd grade teacher.
After school we took Morgan to Monkey Dooz to get her hair cut and to Claire's to get her ears pierced. Jane came along with us and Cameron and Collin showed up just in time for this. Morgan choose rhinestone flowers. She did really well especially since they didn't have 2 people working to pierce them both at the same time. She just "oh oh that really hurt" in her dramatic voice!

After this we went to Azteca for a quick dinner before going to see the Disney 3D move "Up" for family night.

Morgan gets baptized on June 27th.

Mud

How do your kids keep cool in the summer time?

My kids made a mud lazy river! I'm sure Collin was the mastermind behind the idea. They started the mid 90s afternoon running through the sprinklers and ended up like this. Mason was over to join in on the fun.

Needless to say - everyone ended the night with a bath/shower. Oh to be a kid again!

More Harley Rides

Early in May we went with our friends on a ride to Lake Chelan. We took some back roads there and went by some beautiful places and farms that I'd never seen before.
We found this Farmers cemetary in the middle of no where. I liked walking around it and realizing how blessed we are to live in a time where are children have a much better chance of survival than kids did 100 or so years ago. Lake Chelan is in the distance. I never really got a good picture of the lake. The day ended up being colder than we expected so we didn't really stop for photo ops.
I think this was when we were riding near Wenatchee.
Another Saturday we went on the Jack 5 Memorial Ride in honor of Jacksen Ashton who was killed in car accident last year. As far as I know this group photo is the only picture I am in. I am near the front wearing the black and pink bandana thing.
This is my good friend Debbie's husband, Scott and their son, Eric. Debbie won't ride with Scott. Now that I ride I wish she would. Scott said she'd have a hard time kicking Eric off now. He loves it.
This shows part of the long line of bikes riding up to Mount Rainer together.
Eric and Jalyn (in-laws) posing in front of Mount Rainer.
You can see Cameron and Bob Ashton (Jacksen's grandpa) checking out the bike we used.
Our favorite couple to hang out with- Sam and Meredith Harker.
Courtney (Cameron's brother) joined the Harley gang too!
It was such a hot day and riding by these waterfalls right at the side of the road was so refreshing.
It really felt like the temperature instantly dropped to freezing for a second whizzing by this ice cold water.
Another view of Moutn Rainer as we sped by. The road up to it was closed so we didn't end up getting to go up to the base and visitors center. I hope we get a chance to take our kids up here this summer. It was beautiful.
Cameron took Collin on a 2 day ride down to Oregon with 5 other guys and 3 other boys his age. I don't have any pictures of that yet but hope that someone has some to give me. Collin is now addicted too and hopes I don't want to go anymore with Dad so that he can!

Yeah . . . It's the Last Day of SCHOOL!!!

I know I have a lot of other things to blog about but I figured I'd post this picture I took this morning before we rushed off to the last day of school!

Memorial Day

I think this is the first year that Memorial Day has actually had some meaning for me. All the Calaway's that were around got together for a barbecue at Jane's and then headed over to the cemetary in Othello so see the headstone that was recently placed for Val. It was a perfect day and I love that he is laying in the shade. My girls ran around the cemetary with some of the other cousins standing up any vases that had fallen over. It was pretty cute. They loved all the flowers that were covering all the graves.

I am trying to play catchup on all the things we've been up to. For some reason I just haven't been into blogging this past month.