"We May Not Have It All Together But Together We Have It All"

This weekend we went berry picking with friends, well we couldn't seem to eat them fast enough so I made smoothies (we did freeze some too). This was the result. Yikes! Ryan was wishing one of the boys would spill on the carpet so that I would get going on ordering up our new flooring. The blackberry/blueberry smoothies were sure good!

OK, so I am a little behind in my posts.....

It seems we have made it a tradition to go camping on coldest weekends of the summer, Memorial Day and Labor Day. We took the three day weekend, went camping with our good friends Kerri and Enoch and froze our behinds off. This time we took the tent trailer (it was a lot of work to clean up for just one time use, we wished we had done it earlier in the season and it wasn't totally level so getting up in the middle of the night to get Lucas and check on the boys wasn't too fun). We did have a great time though exploring the Thousand Trails Paradise camp grounds and Mt. St Helens (as you can see we couldn't actually see Mt. St Helens due to the cloudy and freezing weather- when we were driving away we looked back and saw the Mountain dusted with snow!). While at Mt. St Helens we went to the observatory and watched a movie on the eruption, I looked over at the boys to see how they were doing since it was a loud and dramatic movie. Evan was fascinated and Miles was gripping both armrests. When it ended Miles said (starting in a quiet voice and getting louder) mom, Mom, MOM, I got scared! He got over it pretty quick.

The kids attempted to swim but it didn't last long, it was too cold out. Evan tried to keep warm by keeping all but his head under water. Miles kept warm by running around splashing, he didn't seem to care that it was cold. The boys tried killing themselves by riding down a little hill (between our trailers) sitting in the back of they toy Tonka trucks. Evan has a good bruise on his shin from ramming our trailer step and Miles almost decapitated himself going under our trailer, that was the end of that fun (although they kept trying to get away with going it again and again). We played putt putt, watched people fishing, played on the play ground and even attempted shuffle board.

All in all it was a fun camping trip (except for when the trailers brand new tire blew, at least we were two miles from home)with good food, yummy hot chocolate and great friends! Next year we will remember our coats!

For about the last three or four weeks Lucas has been climbing stairs, well tonight he got up all of them and then he apparently wanted some toys out of the toy closet. He is not quite 9 months old and I don't think he should be able to figure out how to get toys out of the closet (at least I don't want him to it yet!). I love him to death but he is wearing me out these days while he is advancing to the next stages in babyhood.

He’s getting big. Tuesday I took Evan to his school orientation. He got to see his new classroom, meet his new teacher, see the play ground and check out the bus that he will be riding on. I can’t believe this day has come! At the end of the orientation I asked Evan if he was ready to go home, he said, "but I haven’t made any new friends". I let him know that he doesn’t have to make new friends all in one day and that there are lots of kids he will meet in the next few weeks. Walking to the car after orientation Evan showed how big he was getting......

Evan:“Mom I don’t want to hold your hand anymore when we walk, I am big now. "

Mom:"you don’t want to hold my hand?"

Evan:"no"

Mom:"what if I want to hold your hand because I love you?"

Evan:"you can still love me and not hold my hand."

What’s next no hugs or kisses?

First day of School pics.

Evan was so ready to start this new chapter in his life.

Where has the time gone.....???