More Summer Fun!

Again, we have been having too much fun to be blogging.

Thankfully we are all on Instagram so we can keep up on our lives that way too!! :-)

Saturday, July 7th - A SUNNY day!

The sights while playing on the beach at Lake Tapps.

The week of July 9th & 16th - Swim lessons

Sunday, July 15th

See Jane Run Half Marathon

It had been a year since I ran a half marathon. Since See Jane Run last year. I was apprehensive. I ran again with my friends Keri & Amber. Keri is our fast one. I was able to stay with her until around mile 7/8. I didn't have any pressure on myself. Just go and do it. Always around mile 10/11 I'm asking myself why I continue to torture myself this way. :-) BUT then I cross that finish line and I'm SO elated that I persevered! God has given me the attitude and strength to do it again. It always confirms that I'm stronger then I believe.

My family came down to see me finish. Elissa even got there in time to run the kids race. She got a really cool medal and t-shirt.

At the start of our run.

I finished 3 minutes faster than last year! That is a miracle!!

Tuesday, July 17th - Out for a bike ride to the outer island.

Lots of bunnies of all colors.

Wednesday, July 15th - Kids Night Out @ Church
My group

Thursday, July 19th - Hanging out

Who was that masked boy?!

Saturday, July 21st
Getting ready for a camping trip.

Dirty, dirty kids and scrapes after a BBQ at the Edward's. It shows the tons of fun they had!

Now off for a camping trip outside Leavenworth!

Too Much Fun

To Be Blogging......So here are some highlights from the beginning of our Summer.

Sunday, 6/17

 A baby robin has hatched!

Thursday, 6/21

I made it to the Nike+ Blue level, which means I have ran 622+ miles since I started running in March of 2010. I'm preparing for my 5th Half Marathon on July 15th.

That same day Elissa had her field day (the day before school got out).

Friday, 6/22

The last day of school!!

 I have to confess that I didn't go to the assembly. I chose my weight lifting class instead. But when she got home we went out to Red Robin for lunch - YUM! Then we met Dad at Kent Station and saw "Brave". It was a very good movie. And then we spent the rest of the evening just hanging out at home. We are SO excited that Summer has officially began!

Saturday, 6/23

That afternoon was Chase's 6th birthday party at Tiffany's Skate Inn. The kids loved it!

Elissa won the speed skating contest for her age group by a land slide!

After the party, Chase asked Zach to stay the night with him. So we asked Cole to come stay the night with Elissa and Caden got to go to Grandma & Papa's house. Cole and Elissa had a great time. Elissa was so excited that she kept Cole up until 11pm when I told them they had to go to bed. I guess Cole took a little cat nap at 9pm and Elissa woke him up. Then she got him up at 5:40am Sunday morning. :-) Needless to say, they were exhausted that evening.

Wednesday, 6/27

I didn't get any pictures, but Renee gave me the best birthday present. We went downtown in the afternoon to do some shopping and had lunch at the Icon Grill. It was really yummy. Then that evening she took me to a cook class at The Pantry. She knew that I had been looking to take a cooking class to try and improve and get inspiration and she found this class, "Cooking by the seat of your pants". It was an awesome class! It was very interactive and educating and you get to eat really good food. I highly recommend getting on their email list so you can sign up when they open another class. All their classes are currently sold out. Thank you Renee!!

Friday - Tuesday, 6/29-7/3

Kirstin and I planned a trip to Suncadia with the kids. Our husbands came up for the weekend. We wanted some fun get-away time after school ended and hopefully sun. :-) SUNcadia did not disappoint. We all had a great time hanging out and enjoying each other while soaking in the much needed vitamin D. I'm really, really going to try to just put in a couple of photos.

Baby Braxton

We spotted a deer!

S'mores!

Canoeing!

The girls that it was really cool to order their own food and charge it to the room (w/permission, of course). :-)

The 2nd night of s'mores, we ran out of marshmallows fast. The kids spent the next hour playing in this creek. Elissa lost a flip flop. All the kids were soaking wet. Lots of water skippers were caught. They literally passed out when they finally got to their beds.

Wednesday, 4th of July

Our neighborhood has a parade down Island Parkway every year. Here we are in all our 4th of July glory! :-)

The kids riding in the parade.

Elissa - so cute!

Grandma, Papa and Nana came to watch the parade too.

Later the Boyd's and Frink's came to hang out too.

Holly made these DELICIOUS and very pretty desserts.

The Boyd's brought their boat and tube, so the guys took the kids out. It was definitely the highlight for the kids! All the kids went on the tube except Zachary. He was content just riding in the boat. :-)

Here is Grandpa with Cole, Elissa and Chase.

That is Cole with his arms sailing in the wind. I guess he really wanted to be thrown off. Crazy guy!

Grandpa and Zach

Look at that beauty (the boat)! Chad and Grandpa put a lot of work into it.

The little boys decided to get off the boat and the big kids wanted more!

It was a really fun family day!

Everyone went home around 7pm to do their own fireworks. Darin finally let the kids light theirs around 9:30pm. They were excited! And so were the neighbor kids. :-)

 Then we went to watch our neighborhood fireworks display.

We sat on an area of the golf course where you could see neighborhoods surrounding Lake Tapps. It was really cool to see all the different fireworks displays around the lake.
Ours didn't start until well after 10pm.

The kids saw the first few minutes and then they were out.

What a wonderful day celebrating our FREEDOM!

Grandma & Elissa came up with this for Zach.