Thanksgiving Camping Trip

While most of you are freezing, we decided to go camping by the beach for Thanksgiving weekend. Yes it is a little colder than usual, but it is still warm enough to be in a swimsuit and catch a wave or two. I think our favorite part was taking pictures of everyone jumping in the air (you had to be there). The kids were so excited to camp. We had lots of fun doing skits, making banana desserts (thanks to you Jen) and telling stories. I only wish we could have stayed longer. :)

Most people make snowmen out of snow. Here in Florida, we make them out of sand.

cute little cousins

Halloween

Pumpkin Patches in Florida are just a bunch of pumpkins in a church parking lot, not too exciting. Luckily, we have lived here for long enough that my kids don't know what a real pumpkin patch is supposed to look like. They were just excited they got to pick out their very own pumpkin.

This year for Halloween, we didn't do a theme. It actually made me sad, but Avery really really wanted to be Hannah Montana and I didn't think that Boston would be too excited to be Jackson or anyone else from the show, so I let them choose what they wanted to be and let go of choosing what I wanted them to be.

Boston wanted to be Buzz Light year, so I talked Kevin in to being the same... It took a while to convince him but because he always procrastinates until the last minute to get a costume he decided it would be fun to share the experience with Buddy #1.

Van (Buddy #2) was a skunk ( I bought the costume last year after Haloween for $5). He looked even cuter than I thought he would.

This was the first year I didn't dress up, unless you call a Halloween t-shirt and jeans dressing up. I wanted to, but I was so involved getting everyone put together I forgot I didn't have a costume. There's always next year, right?

This year we didn't do a theme. It actually made me sad but Avery really really wanted to be Hannah Montana and I didn't think that Boston would be excited to be Jackson so I let them pick what they wanted, not what I wanted. Boston wanted to be Buzz Light year so I talked Kevin in to being the same. It took a while to convince him but because he always procrastinates until the last minute to get a costume he decided it would be fun to share the experience with Buddy #1. Van (Buddy #2) was a skunk. He looked even cuter than I thought he would. This was the first year I didn't dress up. Unless you call a Halloween t-shirt and jeans dressing up. I wanted to, but I really was so involved getting everyone put together I forgot I didn't have a costume. There's always next year, right?

Bon Appetit!

Last week I volunteered at Boston's preschool. They needed extra help making pizzas. It was so cute to watch Boston with all of his little friends. They made cute little chef hats witha peice of cardstock and tissue paper. The pizza was half and english muffin, pizza sauce and cheese. They were really easy and the kids loved it. They all looked so darling. This is a picture of Boston with two of his best buds Kevin and Evan.

Three months, Two teeth, One handsome litttle guy

Can you believe it?! At three months Van's two bottom teeth popped up while we were in Seattle! No wonder I have such a drooler. Avery and Boston didn't get any of their teeth in until they were p months, so this was new to us. The poor little guy was miserable but now that they are all grown in he's a happy little camper. :)

Avery's first swim meet

Avery had her first swim meet this month and can I just tell you how dedicated you have to be to be on swim team- even if you are 6. She has swim team Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday every week and then every other week we have a swim meet on Saturday.

I received my first "mom rejection" at this swim meet. SO this is how it all went down. During the warm up laps they put everyone on 4 person teams. Avery was placed with 3 ten year old girls. I was nervous that the 3 ten year old girls were going to be upset that Avery was on there team because she might slow their team down so I wanted to stay close by just to make sure she was o.k.- I was really upset that she was placed with older girls but stayed calm. All the other 6 year old girls were together, so why was Avery with the older girls!? When they were all lined up ready to go Avery turned to me and said "Um, Mom can you go stand over there", as she pointed to all of the other parents. She clearly wanted to hang out with the other girls and didn't want her mom standing by her fidgeting over her. I think my jaw dropped but I handled it quite well. I quickly made sure her goggles were on right and smiled as I walked away. My heart was broken inside but I had to laugh a little because I knew it was going to happen sometime. I just didn't expect it so soon. I guess she is 6, but at the same time she's still just 6, right? I found out shortly after I left her sight that they put the girls together for a warm up relay and it wasn't a timed race, it was a practice race before they officially started the meet so I really was stressing over nothing. The coach had randomly selected four teammates to be together and Avery happened to be standing close to the ten year old girls. whew!

Anyways...

Avery did awesome! She placed second in her heat and fourth overall in her age group. We were so proud! Go Avery!

Seattle (part 2)

I could honestly go to Washington and just hang out at the Morris house. We had such a blast. With the lake in the backyard and no alligators to worry about, we spent lots of time in or near the water. Even the grass up there is amazingly lush and wonderful to run through, unlike grass in Florida. Thanks for having us Tim and Pat, we had an amazing time!

The Morris house is in the middle and these are the two views you get from their backyard. If you look to the left you see Mt Rainier and if you look to the right you see beautiful sunsets in the evening. I love it! These pictures just make me want to go back.




Avery and Boston's favorite part was going on the scooters and being on the lake.

Kevin's uncle has this old truck on his property. I really wanted Holly's talent so I could get some great pictures but I guess these will have to do.

Ryan and Tori made Van his cute Vans shirt and I was so glad it was a little chilly so he could where a long sleeved shirt. While we were there he was drooling a ton and sprouted two teeth (at three months old!). Our little guy is growing up!

One of the biggest reasons we went to Seattle was because Kev wanted to see BYU play against Washington. He has made it a tradition to see 1 away game every year. Go Cougars! (even though he graduated from the UofU he will always be a BYU sports fan)

Mt Rainier

We took two separate days to hike around Mt Rainier. Zoe and Genise joined us the first day while Kevin's parents watched Van. He was really upset with us when we got home so we decided to go another day with just our little family and take Van with us...haha. No Really we love to hike and around Mt Rainier it is absolutely beautiful. I just wish we had a whole week to go camping around this area.

Day 1

We decided to hike aorund a lake. The kids loved it and couldn't enough of trying to skip rocks in the lake. On our way out a bear ran across the road we were driving on. I wanted to take a picture but it happened so fast and when it was in the woods it was really hard to see so in order to get a good pcture of him I would have had to get out of the car and I didn't know if he was with another bear so I thought it would be better if I just stayed in the car.... call me a scardy cat but after living by alligators I've learnd to always play it safe.

Day 2
We decided to go up a little farther on Day 2. The 360' view was amazing. Kev was a trooper because he held both Boston and Van for quite some time. At first I thought the hike was going to be a disater because my kids were complaining during the beginning where it was up hill. Once it was alittle easier and itleveled off they were just peachy and it was great.

About half way we actually saw a interesting family that I wanted to take a picture of, but didn't in fear of them beating the crap out of me. We could see they brought a stroller with them which I was shocked even made it up the trail, but what was so crazy was they had their dog in the stroller where you usually have a baby strapped in and their darling baby girl was sitting in the bottom basket where you usually store your diaper bag. Dad had on pants that were 5 sizes to big and sported a wife beater tank top and mom had on huge sunglasses with short shorts and a mid drift... boy, was it a sight to see. A sight you usually don't see taking a beautiful hike in the mountains. But I will commend them for doing so. I know, I should have taken a picture. Next time right?

San Juan Islands

We were so happy that Genise and Zoe came to visit us while we were in Washington. We decided to take a trip to the San Juan Islands. The views are breathtaking. Some of the highlights were climing up Mt constitution and going to Aggott Beach.

Seattle (more to come)

We decided to take a little trip to Seattle to visit Kevin's parents. At the time we booked the trip I just wanted Van to be at least three months old and Kevin really wanted to go watch the BYU/Washington game so we thought it was perfect timing. I forgot that school started a week earlier and Avery and Boston would be missing almost two weeks of school (at least it wasn't the first week of school, right?)

We decided to fly from Tampa (we saved $800 by doing so). Van screamed most of the time. Avery and Boston couldn't fall asleep and by the time we got there it was 2 am in Orlando. I highly reccomend flying with your kids in the a.m., night flights never work for us. It was honestly pure hell and I considered driving back- no joke.

Mats Mats Bay
After a good nights rest we decided to go to MAts MAts Bay. Kevi's grandparents have a little place there and they have some donkeys named Rosie and Daisy. Avery and Boston had a blast with the donkeys. They brushed and fed them the whole time we were up there.
While we were there we took a boat trip to Port Townsend. Boston loved to drive the boat with Grandpa Tim. Luckily the weather was beautiful and we were able to sit on top of the boat on the way there.