One month ago...

Oy. I just realized (like just this moment while I was trying to think up a title for this post) that it's been a month since our trip to Washington state. Sorry. In my defense, in the three weeks since we returned home, the boys have had soccer camp, swim lessons, karate, a few playdates and normal homeschool stuff (which included adding cursive to our routine). (Remember, we're homeschooling year-round here...three weeks on, one week off, roughly.)

Plus, we've painted a few walls, changed out a couple large light fixtures, cleaned out gutters, continued the never-ending task of weeding the borders of our yard where things keep sneaking through from our four neighbors who share a fence with us, lol, sorted the house for yet another yard sale, got Nathan's car serviced, celebrated Micah turning five, saw "Despicable Me" in the theater, and a bunch of other stuff. Whew. 

And. I managed to finally finish sorting and editing the 2000+ photos we took on the trip. Woohoo! Thanks for your patience. :) So. Without further ado, let me walk you through our July trip...

JULY 9-10: We drove. We loaded up and headed out around 5 pm on Friday and made it to Yakima, WA about noon the next day, having stopped only for bathroom stops and meals. Fortunately, the boys are awesome travelers now. :) Once we arrived at Nathan's parents', we turned over boy duties and Nathan and I took a nap. ;)

JULY 11: We went to church then over to a friend's for a little barbecue/World Cup Soccer finals party. The kiddos present had a grand time with the little inflatable pool:

(That's my Asher leading the charge, lol.) After water play, the end of the soccer game and some good eats...we all headed back over to the church for the baptism of TJ & Kim's new little girl...such a sweetie!

Following that, Nathan, the boys and I drove to Prosser (about 45 minutes from Yakima) to visit with my mom and grandma for a bit. We enjoyed a yummy dinner in town then headed back to Yakima for the night.  

JULY 12: Nathan, his parents and the boys packed up and headed off to camp at Ohanapecosh (near Mt. Rainier). After they'd headed out, I drove down to Prosser to spend the rest of the day running wedding errands with my mom and baby sister. 

JULY 13: I took a break from the wedding prep to drive up to Seattle with a childhood/college friend (who lives in Prosser) to meet up with a fellow college friend (who was in town from Houston, TX) and just hang out for the afternoon. Here's us on the Seattle wharf:

It was awesome to catch up and just wander together! 

Meanwhile, the boys were having a blast camping. That same day, Noah tells me, they hiked around the Grove of the Patriarchs:

 
See the little specs in the bottom left corner? ;) Those are my guys.

JULY 14-15: While I spent the next couple days continuing to help with wedding stuff, the boys did plenty more hiking and some fishing with their grandpa. I don't know all the stories behind these pictures, but here are a handful of my favorites:  

JULY 16: Pictures first:

TJ and his boys had joined up with my gang by this time and the guys all went on a little hike before packing it up and heading back to Yakima, where I promptly threw boys in the tub and got everyone ready to head to the wedding rehearsal at the church in Prosser. Micah did an excellent job with his ring bearer role. ;) 

John & Nancy (Nathan's parents) picked the boys up from the rehearsal and took them back to Yakima for the night whilst Nathan and I drove to the Tri-Cities (about 40 minutes in the opposite direction) for the rehearsal dinner (which was lovely!) before crashing for the night. :)

The next day brought the wedding...stay tuned for the next post... ;)

Good Grief...

New challenge post today...

Five years ago today...

...I was at the hospital gazing at this beautiful little boy...

(Photo taken yesterday afternoon.)

Well. He was smaller then. ;) And definitely less obsessed with Star Wars. He may, though, have had more hair, LOL! I haven't gotten around to doing a layout yet, but here's a quick journey through Micah's life thus far:

A picture each year, from birth (see! he really did have lots of hair!) to last year on his birthday. He informed me last night that when he woke up, he'd be five and would probably be a little bit less cute because of it. Silly boy. :)

Sigh. I can't imagine our lives without this third little blessing. Happy birthday to my sweet Micah!

To know Noah...

...you must know that the boy is a carnivore. I'm not sure I've documented that anywhere so figured I would mention it now. He's really rather obsessed with his meat and takes eating very seriously. We're frankly a little bit scared at the fact that he'll be a full fledged teenage boy in just over three years. He already can out-eat me and/or Nathan on a given day. Kid meals are no longer sufficient. It's almost as if he's trying to make up for how little meat his brothers eat by eating enough for three. Scary. (I have no idea where the boy puts all that he eats, by the way. He's a stick of a 9.75 year old who only just passed 60 pounds, lol.)

In any case, he's an admitted carnivore. Always has been. One of his first favorite solid foods was meatballs. 

Now. If you really know Noah, you also know that he's a little bit obsessed, too, with going green and finding energy solutions. He's already got big plans for his own car company, with the cars being electric or hybrid or some new solution that I don't understand. 

Recently he was watching a television show about energy and how we're using more than we should. He was nodding along in adamant agreement as they talked about vehicles and lightbulbs and everything else. And then they started talking about how much energy it takes to produce and process red meat and suggested that we all cut back. At that point, Nathan distinctly overheard Noah say, "yeah, like that will happen." 

Um, yeah. The boy has his priorities apparently. ;)

The Fifth...

...while you're waiting for me to finish sorting all those photos and catch up on things...here are a few of my favorite photos from our lovely *Fifth* of July. (If you'll remember, the fireworks show we generally attend was rained out on the Fourth and rescheduled for the Fifth.) First of all, let me just say that glow sticks make all the difference in entertaining boys while you wait for the fireworks to begin. This is something we've made into a tradition. Here's a layout I finished about a year and a half ago (I *think* pics are from July 2008?...sorry, too lazy to go dig out the actual layout and look (I'm sure it's noted on the back)):

And here are a couple (tweaked) photos from this year:

(Love how the low light meant I captured the motion as Noah twirled and dropped his glowsticks.) And here are Asher and Micah's collections by the time we made it back to the van:

 
Yes, I altered these photos in Photoshop to give them this "older" feel...one gets tired of such bright glowing pictures every year, LOL!

And, here are a couple (again tweaked) shots from the show, itself. By the way, all of these pictures were taken with my little purse camera...yet another reason for altering the photos to make up for the poorer quality. I hadn't intended to take any photos actually, so didn't lug in my good camera or the tripod this year. :)

So. That was our Fifth of July. :)

I continue to slog through the couple thousand pictures from our trip. This week, though, Noah and Asher also have soccer camp in the mornings, Asher and Micah have karate, and all three have swim lessons. Oh, and a certain youngest son has a birthday coming up on Friday. And we started our school work back up after a few weeks off. So, please hang tight...I'll get to it eventually. ;)