YUM!

One thing I love about going to Washington is the fresh berries that are everywhere. We decided to go berry picking while we were in Seattle. We had lots of fun picking them at a U-pick farm.  The only problem was we had to search hard because there weren't too many berries left at the farm. We had great fun but wished we had time to pick more. On our way home from berry picking we stopped by the house my husband grew up in. As we slowly drove up the gravel road to his house we noticed there were fresh wild raspberries everywhere on the side of the road. We scurried out of the car and started picking. We picked the same amount of berries that took us an hour to pick at the berry farm in 15 minutes on the side of the road. I couldn't believe how many berries there were with no one to pick them!! Genise and I made 22 tubs of raspberry jam, a raspberry cobbler and we had more berries for just plain eating then we could have hoped for! Yum!

Mr Pottyman

So Van is finally potty trained. This picture marks the first day he was free from diapers and in big boy underpants. Doesn't he look so proud? He is such a funny little dude.
He actually had a hard time deciding if he wanted to wear big boy underpants. I think he really wanted to hold on to the fact that he was and still is our baby. Many times when Boston or Avery would start whining and I would say "You're being a baby", Van would jump in the conversation and say "NO! I'm the baby". I could see the wheels turning in his little brain when I let him know that just because he was going to wear big boy underwear didn't mean that he wouldn't be our baby. He will always be our baby. He really and truly loves being the baby. I think it's sweet. One more reason that he is my last. I love you my little Vanner!

Memorial Weekend

This memorial day we decided to stay up at my parents condo in Merritt Island. Unfortunately for us when we got to the beach, there were jellyfish EVERYWHERE, and not just a few hundred- thousands and thousands. I didn't dare get in the water. I have never seen the beach looked like that, EVER! It was disappointing and really cool all at the same time.

So instead of the beach we decided to go to the local aquatic center and had a great time. They have a diving board and a really fun slide that the kids loved. They also had a huge splash park. Lucky for us, Ryan and Tori have an awesome underwater camera so for hours we had fun just taking pictures.

Owen and Van had fun swimming together.

I'm so glad they live so close to us! They a great little buddies!

Boston Jack Attack

love the clouds above Ty in this pic

Avery and Kaelie weren't into tanning (thankfully) instead they decided to stay under their towels and play with their electronic gadgets and not get burnt. Miles is my youngest nephew. He is such a little sweetie and so happy all the time!

my two favorite pictures of van. I love his hair in the underwater one and I love that his swim suit was barely holding on. He was obsessed with shooting his water gun.

Avery and Kaelie. Gotta love Avery's face.

Aves and I

Kevin is always making faces and is probably about ready to kill me for posting this

Love this of Boston jumping off the diving board

Ry Ry

So at the end of the day I think I preferred the aquatic center over the beach anyways. It was a great memorial day weekend and lots of fun spending time with family.

Happy Father's Day

So lately every time Boston gets in trouble he says "You are the MEANEST Dad/Mom in the WORLD!!!" Kevin thought it would be so funny to get a shirt that said that on it, and what perfect day to give it to him? Father's day! We made him a shirt and this is what it looked like. I put the saying on the front and the kids faces on the back. Kevin is quite the joker so yes this wasn't something he felt bad about (he actually thought of it). He loved it and we love him. Happy Fathers Day to one of the most incredible guys I know! You amaze me! Love ya Kev!

They also made this with no help at all. I think it turned out perfect!

Hey "Mr Goodbar"
This is from us "Junior Mints"
You are one "Hot tamale"
You are "extra" funny
You are very "Special" to us
Happy "watchamacallit" day
Love your "3 musketeers"

A fresh approach

This spring I decided I wanted to be apart of a local garden CSA. What is a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. This concept, along with “slow food” was started to put the people and their food in close proximity…. not 2,000-6,000 miles from each other. The way it works is that the shareholders (what I was) and the farmer get together before the season begins and decide on what will be grown in the garden. Then we went to work! I along with 10 others, received a basket of produce every week once the harvesting began. It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of. So in February-May, every Saturday from 7-10am I was at the garden planting, weeding and harvesting our fruits and veggies for the week. They also had fresh eggs from their chickens I could purchase along with fresh baked bread. What a treat it was every week to get such fresh items for my family to munch on. I loved learning about Organic gardening and now feel I have the knowledge to try and start a few things on my own in my own yard. What a blessing it was to have fresh veggies in the home that I grew. I was amazed every week to see what had grown from the week before. Plants are truly amazing! I learned about so many varieties of lettuce and vegetables I had never tried. It was wonderful! Here are a few pictures of the vegetables we grew.

Afer we had harvested the plants, they were washed and thrown into these buckets.
Aren't the beautiful!?

After washing and putting into buckets we made each shareholders basket so we could all have the same amount of veggies and fruits.
I truly felt like it was a work of art putting the baskets together.

T-ball....I mean Baseball

This season I had a problem. Every time we would head to the baseball field I would say "okay, lets go to t-ball". Boston would get so frustrated because this year (and even last year) he has been playing baseball (coach pitch), not t-ball. Anyways, we had such a great season this year. We met so many awesome families that were on our team and had some great coaches (Thanks coaches Phyllis, Charlie, Laz and Sherwin)!
Boston is one determined little guy and always works really hard when he is on the field. He always wants to be the best. He always wants to be the kid that hit the ball the hardest. the boy who ran the fastest. Everything is a competition for our little guy. He is so funny that way. Way to go Boston! You are awesome!

Soccer

This spring Avery wanted to play soccer. She took a year off and then decided she wanted to do it again. It was fun to watch her this season. She was so much more aggressive and had a passion for the sport. Her coach, Coach Bev was amazing and I think she made all the difference.
Way to go Avery!