Almost over???

Yes, my 20's are almost over. I was wide awake this morning at 4:00AM listening to the birds sing outside. We moved Joshua out of our room a few weeks ago (it broke our hearts as he is our last baby and no more babies will be in our room with us) but now that he is gone we sleep with the windows wide open and can hear the beautiful sounds of nature at YES, 4am. Eric is not quite as in love with the bird sounds at 4am as I am. He gets mad and calls then names. Anyway, so I was awake this morning and it was like I was dying (in a sort) because the last decade of my life was flying past me in my memories. I saw all of the highs and lows and good and bad and busy busy busy that my life has been as a 20 year old woman. WOW, I have had a lot of achievements and great successes, many great happinesses and some great sadness as well. I have had a lot of fun, many great vacations, 4 beautiful children, a great job, great experiences and a lot of peace. :) It has been VERY busy!!!! I started to actually feel a bit sad this morning that this decade of my life is going to be gone forever and I will NEVER be in my 20's again..... boo hoo. 30 doesn't sound so nice, it really doesn't. At least most everyone I am friends with are OLDER than ME so that is good! :) Hee hee But 30 just doesn't sound a good. It sounds old. I remember thinking in high school that 30 seemed so far away and so old! Crazy. Now I am here. I am certain that when I get past the idea of actually "being 30" that it will be a good thing. My 20's were filled with too many roller coasters, too many extreme highs and too many lows. I am looking forward to my 30's being more of a ride on a ferry boat. A little slower, a lot more even tempered, easier to relax and enjoy the ride, and still a very beautiful experience. All of my children currently sleep through the night, two are pretty self-sufficient all the way around, we are hoping in a month or so to only have one in diapers (Marky's potty training when we get back from Mexico), and Joshua is almost a year old and already his interest in his bottles is fading. No more babies for us. I do have to finish a couple of classes this summer and fall at WSU for my Professional Certification and then schooling will be DONE! That is, until I have to help Eric with his! :) Hopefully we won't have too many roller coaster rides this decade, except each year at the Skamania Co. Fair and when we go to Las Vegas... oh yeah, bring on the roller coasters then! :) I love my family, I love my huband more than anything in the world, he is amazing and sweet and loving and caring and fun and hilarious, and the best husband and father anyone could ask for. I love my children, each one of them is so unique and special and sweet and loving and fun, I adore them! I love my parents and all of our friends and family. :) They are the best. I love my church family and all of my wonderful blessings. A 30 year old girl couldn't ask for more than what I have right now. :) 2 days to go..... bring it on!

Frogs & Friends

Daddy found and caught a GIANT frog! He bought it up for Marky to see. What a crazy huge frog! Then they let it go in the pond. We have yet to see him again. We were hoping he would stick around for Kellie and Ryan to see. Luckily, I took lots of pictures of our frog friend!

Hungry for Frog Legs Anyone?

Playing with Juliet! They are getting so big!

Little Hawiian Baby. Ryan wore this outfit, then Marky, and now Baby Joshy. :) So cute!

Summer Soccer!

Summer soccer started and Marky gets to be in soccer this time too! He and Eric are in the "parent & I" class. He LOVES it! :)

Kellie really loves it and is really getting good! :) Way to go babe!

Ryan is having a blast and loves to run and beat everyone! He is so fast! What a good kicker, too! :)

Memorial Day Camping

Camping on Memorial Day weekend at Paradise Lake. It is so fun. We have gone to the same campground for the past three years and it just keeps getting better! This camping trip was awesome! So fun and no unexpected problems like last time. Last camping trip we discovered a pipe in our camping trailer had frozen during the winter and broken which meant a trailer floor full of water, it was POURING down rain and cold, the truck tire was leaking air, and it was just not meant to be. So... a few hundred dollars later of repairs and a sunshine dance later and Ta Da, it was a very easy camping trip! :) We decided that Spring Break is not a good time for camping..... ever. Memorial Day weekend ended up being a great weekend and we all had so much fun! :) We have to say this was one of our favorite camping trips so far! The Plummer's came with us for the first night and it was so fun to have them. Then they were off to Seattle for a baseball game and Christell came and stayed the day with us. Then the last two days were just us and it was all a great time.

Durango the camp guard dog. :) She loves camping!

Nice Catch Kellie-babe! :) She is hoping that if she kisses the fish he will turn in to a prince! Ha! :) Our little fisher-woman. :)

Cute boys! :)

The Eagle Scout is teaching the baby birds how to build a campfire!

Flame On!

Okay, so I just wanted a sweet photo with my campers, but I got a girl giving me bunny ears and a big boy with a very goofy face. :) Typical. :)

Marky.... I think he got his tongue from his Uncle Mark. :)

Ryan sitting around the campfire roasting his marshmallow. :)

The Fisherman!

At the lake. Joshua was a warm little Eskimo watching the fishing derby. :) What a cute big sister, too!

Watching the fish flop around on the ground. It slipped out of someones hand and became a source of squeals of delight! It wasn't big enough to be a keeper, but it was fun to watch.

"Hi everybody!"

Durango and Bailey! :) Bailey was still clean at this point, when he left he had TONS of fun little sticks and moss stuck all over in his tail! :) He was a camping dog today!

Auntie Christell brought donuts! Mmmmm....

WOW, nice catch buddy bear! :) You are a good fisherman!

They have nice WARM outdoor pools at this campground. It was 80 degrees in the water!

Swimmy girl!

uummm..... how is it t hat I keep getting photos like this of this boy?
Marky is nutty!

Sitting in the big kids camping chair! :) Such a big boy!

Little Camper Baby and his Daddy! :)

Auntie Christell came for a visit all day Saturday with Bailey. It was fun to hang out and relax. Hey Lady, we still have to have our championship dice game.... we are still tied! :)

If you look hard enough, you can see Joshua's little teeth in this photo! He has 2! :)

Grins and Giggles! Good morning gang!

Okay, so a weekend in the woods can't be ALL smiles, at this point Marky and Joshua were both bawling, but Joshua stopped when he saw me with the camera. He usually automatically smiles when the camera is out, but at this moment, the best he could muster up was to "stop" crying. :) Daddy looks thrilled with his sad bears!

Joshua eating his bread in the camper. :) Yummy! :) Snack time for me!

It would not be a camping trip in our family without there being a giant pile of dirt on the picnic table at some point. Now is as good as time as any I suppose! :)

Yay for Ice Cream!

"I am going to be very sticky when I am done, Mom."

YUM!

What a great day!~ Ice cream cones and pretend adventures around camp. Our kids have the world's best imaginations! :)

Marky on the tractor. :)

How did you get up there, Ryan? :) Oh, it must be his spiderman web hands that helped him!

Crazy stump climbers!

It wouldn't be a camping trip without some seriously sticky marshmallow hands, would it?

Joshua! Woo hoo.... watching it all happen from his toy! :)

We went and played shuffleboard. The kids had fun playing around and Eric and I had a "friendly" competition.

Well, I got my fanny kicked at shuffleboard, but it was sure a lot of fun! :) Eric is the shuffleboard master!

WOW, nice catch Ryan! Daddy and Ryan were out on a mans-fishing trip for a couple of hours and came back with a nice haul! :)

Marky didn't catch his own fish this time, so he had to borrow Ryan's for a fishy-photo. :)

It wouldn't be normal if I didn't look over and Kellie and Ryan had made a whole new group of friends! Our little social bugs! :)

Joshua at the pool. He was the life guard. :)





Getting one last swim in before we had to leave!

What a super fun camping weekend! Eric and I decided that this was one of the best camping trips we've had. Everything went smoothy and the weather was perfect, the kids were well behaved and everyone was grins and giggles! :) Yay~ A Camping Success!