Summer just flew by!! With a 2 week trip to Montana, 2 birthday parties, camping, outside play and catching up with friends, as well as just tasks/projects I needed to get done in the summer due to homeschooling during the school year...we were jam packed and it flew by as usual. Such a bummer since summer is my favorite! I love the long, hot days, camping, camp fires, boating, etc. In the summer I just don't want to be an adult and just want to relax and be outside as much as I can, but since I have to be an adult I do my best to get outside as much as I can. When we got home from Montana, I got to work unpacking and then planning Olivia's birthday party. The last two weeks of July flew by and here are a few pictures I captured.
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| I just want to remember what it felt like to cuddle my babies...so precious! |
The first weekend in August we decided to go camping at Belfair (one of our favorite spots) because we found a hook up spot. I am so glad we did because even though we had two other camping trips planned our church one which will be next turned out to be a bit of bummer and we ended up canceling our other Belfair one because I wanted to go to a wedding and had too much school planning I needed to do. I was so bummed to cancel but turns out that it was a good decision because it was a huge storm the Saturday we were suppose to camp with crazy wind and tons of rain and lots of power outages. Would not have been good camping and we were planning to have Chadwicks with us and they would have been tent camping with their new baby! It would have been crazy! So glad we ended up canceling and that we had a really fun time this weekend.
We went on a Sunday and Monday night. And Sunday afternoon/evening the Kopp family came out to play in the water and relax with us. The girls loved it and wanted them to spend the night of course but we were glad they made the trek out to play with us that day.
Playing in the warm Belfair water is the best!
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| Baby Kael |
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| See my mud mom? |
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| Carter was having a blast! |
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| So was Raelyn! |
It was still a burn ban and they wouldn't even allow our propane fire put so we had ice cream instead (yay for a freezer in the camper!) and put either s'more toppings on or blackberries we picked from the bushes behind us, or both in some peoples case ;-)!
The next day we played games, rode bikes, swam, flew kites, cooked meals and ate. A busy, fun, relaxing day.
That evening we took advantage of the windy weather and flew kites! See how high the water gets at high tide? Crazy! Also met a nice couple that had Bozeman plates said they have a vacation home down at Hebgen Lake. Small world!!
We took our time getting ready to leave the next day.
Now if I could just get one picture where they were all looking and smiling at the same time...Ha! Impossible with 4 it seems!
This one is close ;-)
Back home and time for LLL!! My sweet girl loves this shirt!
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| Twins! |
My little creatures!! Always imagining up something!
Saturday was crazy with a birthday party for Anna! She was so cute and had such a fun butterfly party! Followed by a party down in Port Orchard with Hans' work crew (Beerfest) with lots of home brews and amazing food. And then Sunday we did Olivia's sleep over party! Talk about a busy week! Get home from camping to laundry and unpacking then a party weekend followed by....Yep, more camping!
The next Thursday we headed back out for more camping this time with our church. We got our packing/loading done early and got to camp about noon. When you are only camping 2 nights the key is to get up there early! Thursday was a beautiful day and we decided to head to the river to play. It was cold but the brave kids got in and had lots of fun!
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| Claire and Hudson |
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| Holden |
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| They had fun piling rocks and holding the boards down. |
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| Little buddies! |
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| Love this one! |
I was pretty excited for Aubrey this trip as she really had fun getting to know Audina another little girl that doesn't attend our church usually but came with their family that does. Usually Aubrey feels pretty left out as she has no little girls her age at our church. So it was super fun for her to have Audina to play with.
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| Playing Fibber |
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| Blurry, but cute! |
These two had a blast racing around on their balance bikes following each other all around and just giggling!
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| Best buddies! |
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| Claire, Audina, Aubrey |
The next day was nice in the morning. Cool and overcast which was a change because up till this point it had been a really hot summer!
Playing around....taking pictures!
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| Such cuties! |
And then about lunch time the craziness began!! The rain came down, heavy, for 5 or 6 hours. No wind fortunately but it was pouring and thundering! So glad we had our little camper and we set up a space in between our camper and the Mills camper which was slightly dry (but mostly wet) and we did get to run our propane pit this time at least. So the kids played in the camper, or at Audina's camper, or out under the cover by the pit.
Sitting around the fire!
Finally just before dinner it tapered off and we were able to have our church potluck/BBQ. We then proceeded to do all the outdoor stuff we had been wanting to do, like ride bikes, play badminton, and just be out!
Saturday morning was pack up and leave time. We usually do a group picture but due to rain some people left the night before and people were anxious to get out the next morning. So we did a kid picture with most of the kids. Always fun to see how much they have changed. We started with just 2 kids in our family and the oldest being 3. Now our youngest is 3 and we have 4 kids! Crazy!
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| Can we do just a girl picture? Of course!! |
Back at home to more unpacking and even more laundry and work due to all the wet stuff plus we set up a tent that Olivia and some of the other girls slept in. Oh boy! Quite the job!
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| Claire fairy house she created. |
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| Aubrey's creation |
The blackberries started early this year due to the hot weather. So we were busy and didn't get as many picked as I would have liked.
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| Fun with neighbors |
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| This isn't an actual video but Aubrey worked on riding her bike...she was close but didn't have the confidence yet. |
We couldn't miss the fair! We went on our own this year, but it was still fun. The girls liked the rabbits.
And Raelyn like the pigs!
But the favorite was the rides!! They all had ride bands this year and did really well. It started off rough with Raelyn but she got the hang of it and loved it! Raelyn was a bit scared and I was worried she was only going to ride the carousel but she finally got brave and wanted to keep riding although there were not very many little kid rides. She even went on a roller coaster. That one she came off crying, but she did keep riding. Once Hans got there we also split up which worked good this year. He took Olivia and Claire over to the big kid rides and I stayed with the littles on their rides. They all had a fun day and it was the best fair we have had as far as behavior too.
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| More neighborhood fun! |
We also attended a wedding of a sweet girl from our church (remember we were suppose to be camping, but were glad we weren't because it was pouring and super windy!!). The wedding was really nice and super unique and the girls had a blast. I just love little girls at weddings. It is one of my favorite memories from my wedding is all the little girls just in awe of the bride. They were so cute! Anyways, this wedding was extra emotional because we recently learned that Jocelyn's dad has ALS and does not have a long time left on this earth. So Jocelyn threw together a wedding so her daddy could be there. I think it was definitely worth it!!
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| Instead of lighting a candle they planted a tree together. Kind of cool! |
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| First dance |
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| Cutting the cake |
This was the hard part. They played a slide show of Jocelyn growing up and pics with her dad especially. Jeff only had the strength to dance the last half of the dance. Definitely a bit emotional!!
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| daddy daughter dance |
And then it was party time! The girls had a blast dancing around with their friends and the bride.
And to finish off the month...some pics of our favorite game of the month, Fibber!!
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| Ah...waking up is tough! |
