The HEDGE

We love this hedge for its privacy until it needs trimmed back.  It is a pain to trim and clean up.  My dad did this job last year while we were hiking with young women so I know he can attest to this.  Today we had our boys working on the clean up part and they were moving slow cause it was so hot but we had to get it done.  We happened to have a couple of extra boys here because their mom took her 11 year old daughter to girls camp for a few hours.   The oldest boy says to Josiah "don't you think your mom is kind of hard on you?"  (meaning he couldn't believe I would have my boys do such hard work)  Josiah laughs and says "I am used to it."  

Doesn't our grass look so inviting?  GRRR its too expensive to water this side of the house so its pretty much dead.  

Jam

We have been out of jam so I finally got with the program and made 44 pints of it today.  6 blackberry, 8 strawberry (1 gallon) and 31 raspberry (5 gallons).  We should be set for a while.  

random things

Josiah's first time with his troop. They welcomed in two more 11 year old's to scouts.  They have a huge group right now, thanks to the other ward.  It is awesome.  The leaders of their troop are amazing and have spent countless hours with these boys this summer.  

Elijah created a long neck out of magnets.  I thought it was cute.  

Jarom had to join him for another photo.

Jarom is a snuggler.  I love it. 

Jarom also reads as much as he can.  We have been so busy with so many other things that we haven't even made it to the library yet.  This is the first year we haven't participated in the summer reading program.  I am glad my kids will reread books.  

Girls camp

I took these three awesome girls down to stake girls camp this morning.  They are super excited to be there.  We have the best Stake Young Women leaders.  For the last three years they haven't needed any ward leaders up there because they made some great changes.  Camp is focused on missionary work and the girls are assigned districts and zones for the week.  Youth leaders mainly run the camp.   There isn't any certification but its all based on learning to be leaders.  We take care of camping and certification on the ward level.  

Chefs in training

It is nice to have kids that are old enough to run the grill.  It was a huge help to have Josiah make hamburgers for us tonight.  

Old Machines

I haven't mentioned these beasts on the blog yet.  In May Nathan was so excited that my dad had acquired these old machines.  Nathan loves old tools.  He jumped on the chance to purchase them from my dad for a great deal.  You can all be jealous now.  Ha ha!

A great date

The simplest date with your spouse is the best.  Nathan planned this one out and I loved it.  The stakes were already in our freezer so he purchased corn for .66 cents.  You can't beat this and the company was even better.  

She won

Sadie says she never wins anything.  This week she won a $50 gift card to Target at the orthodontist patient appreciation party on Thursday.  Then we had our wards pioneer day celebration picnic on Friday night.  Sadie won a $15 gift card to Cold Stone Creamery for winning the river jump contest.  She can't say she never wins anything anymore.  

Pioneer Day picnic

The high priest group has been in charge of our Pioneer day celebration for awhile.   Nathan has been the planner and organizer of the activity for a few years.  Our Relief Society president likes to plan the games so this leaves Nathan in charge of the food.  It is always a big hit even with those who don't attend church regularly.  It was mentioned that 163 people attended which is twice what we have been getting for church services on Sunday.  I didn't get many pictures but the river jump was one of the big hits. 

The other big hit was stilts.  We brought 5 pair.  Two of which our brother-in-law Shawn made.  They are nice ones that you can adjust.  I did get Jarom walking up the stairs with a pair.  

Look what I won from making an apple pie.  I requested more to be made cause I am in need of new pot holders but our Relief Society president gave me a frown.  Bummer! I love this pot holder and I am afraid to use it cause its so nice.   

Wlid Waves

Sadie, Josiah, and Jarom's orthodontist has a patient appreciation day every other summer.  They host it at Wild Waves.  They also provide a catered lunch.  We couldn't pass this up since we were given four free tickets.  It was a long line waiting for the food but worth it in the end.  It was a great day of entertainment.  

Elijah was determined to get cotton candy even if it meant standing in line for 20 minutes.  

Sadie and Alejandra went on some of the rides and Sadie decided that the rides made her a little sick.  

More chickens

Tonight we were doing some pre girls camp stuff at a members home in the other ward.  Elijah had to tag along and loved playing with their chickens.  We can't get enough of chickens.  

Quick Oregon trip

The Sunday after day camp we headed back to Oregon to get Sadie.  She made a $170 picking raspberries.  We stayed till Tuesday morning.  Our kids love to come here.  They especially loved their cousin's chickens.  Our boys want chickens so bad.   There was a lot of time spent chasing and holding chickens.  

Another favorite is to get to ride on the 4-wheeler.  There are many kids that they pile on it.  

Tuesday morning Elijah enjoyed helping Emmy with the cow.  He loved scooping up the feed for it and throwing it the bucket.  I am thankful our city kids can enjoy some farm life once in a while. 

Day Camp 2016

The day before day camp I went to Zillah to pick up the boys and send Sadie to Oregon.  They had so much fun in Oregon and Jarom wasn't excited at this point he was signed up to attend camp.  However, after the first day he was hooked.  I am so impressed with the staff members who make these camps possible.  They run their stations four days in row and teach it 8 times throughout each day (2 weeks total).  Wow!  I only ended up going one day this year since there were a couple of other boys who attended.  The theme was Cub scout science.  Nathan and I picked out their den name: cryptozoologists.  This is the study of mythical creatures to prove their existence.  He had a fun group of kids and parents with him.  

Their den was in charge of putting flags up on Thursday morning and they did a great job.  

Friday night is the end of camp skits and awards for families to attend.  Jarom's seat ripped completely.  I have never seen such great entertainment as a ripped seat.  All of his scout buddies would come by and laughed at the seat but also had to try it out.  

He didn't have fun all.  HA Ha!  Pictured with his bug house and painted puff balls,

Jarom received the 3rd best score in camp with archery.  

The beloved seat that ripped.  It is now in the garbage.  

Down by the water

I took a couple of extra boys one day so that their moms could be at day camp with their siblings.  We spent some time down by the water catching crabs.  I still haven't tired of seeing what we can find near any salt water around here.  

Josiah and Kenny met at day camp last summer and become good friends.  These two were also good sports about having two 5 year old's play with them.  

Caleb and Elijah.  We did good at not getting our feet wet but then I gave in.  Do you see the crab below Elijah.  You can't take kids down by water and expect dry shoes.  We spent the rest of the day washing and drying shoes at our house.  

They filled a clam shell full of baby crabs. 

The corn huskers

Our boys spent some time at their grandparents house while we were hiking/camping with the young women.  They had so much fun that they didn't want to come back.  This morning I met my SIL, Tia, in Zillah so I could get the boys from her.  She took Camille and Sadie from me and transported them to my Dad's.  Sadie is going to Nathan's parents to pick raspberries for the week.  While in Zillah I got 150 ears of corn.  I put us to work on them as soon as we got home.  They boys did a great job.  Jarom even said that he plans to cut the corn off the cobs again the next time we do this.  He loved doing it.   It was a long day of driving and bagging corn.  

Day trip

I took Sadie and Camille to Seattle once all of the young women were back at their own houses this morning.  We looked through all of the fun shops on the water front.  While walking around we saw these poor dogs.  They could hardly move with all of that clothing on.  I suspect they were hot and tired.  They were on show to make money for their owner.  

Captain America was ready to give anyone a ride on his carriage bicycle.  Camille and Sadie didn't want to ride with him for some reason. Ha!

A stop to eat a Ivar's is always a must.  You can feed loads of seagulls too.  

Camille with her cupcake purchase that she was craving.  She held on to that cupcake till we got back on the ferry.  

We tried to get up on the space needle but they didn't have any spaces available till later in the evening.  We were ready to get home so we didn't wait.  

We noticed that going up stairs and going up this huge ramp was difficult.  Our thighs were killing us.

On the ferry heading back home.  These two were addicted to playing nines.   I enjoyed hanging out with these two.