Summer!

This is Brooke's camera smile... when she's not that interested in having her picture taken.  It was her idea to have the thumbs up.

Sporting Oliver's helmet too... what a silly girl.

Kent made an AMAZING chicken tonight.

Raspberries are doing so well this year.  I picked a large bowl full and made banana raspberry muffins.  The most scrumptios thing EVER.

Caitlin is back from Seattle.  Time to get some good bike rides in!

Brooke is LOVING her new bike.  We go on a bike ride almost once a day.  She is pretty slow but she is getting better each time.  She now knows how to use her brakes and pays more attention to where she is going than looking down at her sparkly bike the whole time! 

I have been teaching these lovely girls horn lessons this year.  At the last minute we threw together a horn quartet for our recital. 

And here are a few photos of our doggies!

Good Morning!

Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

Trying Out a Camera

I took a class last weekend called MOMTOGRAPHY.  It was pretty much an overview of how to use the manual setting on a fancy camera.  Phew!  My brain hurts!  I'm going to need to read the info over and over and over again.  My creative juices do not get going when I'm thinking over all these numbers and buttons.  But, I am determined to figure it out.

I'm borrowing a camera from a friend.  I have to decide in a week or so if I'd like to buy it or not.  Hopefully some of my more camera experienced friends can help me out on this decision.

One of the kids' favorite activities is dog washing.  No, not Maisy or Cassy washing (darn!), but washing the spots off these plastic dogs that their Gma Carol gave Oliver for his birthday.  The sink has only overflowed twice and they only use about a quarter of the soap... pretty good deal for hours of entertainment!

Camping- Lake Chelan State Park

Camping is so much fun when you get to share it with good friends!  We picked a perfect weather weekend and headed up to Chelan for two nights.

Jacob made us dinner on Friday. He is headed to Seattle to start his huge cycling journey across the United States for the Just Hope tour.

Having fun at the playground!

Beautiful night.

It's not camping without smores!  The kids (obviously) loved them!

How come all my pictures with the kids end up like this?  Oh well!

What a good time!

Water Fun

Brooke and Oliver have been playing in the garden a lot this Spring.  I'm so happy they are getting the knowledge and love of planting and watching things grow at such a young age.

Bye Grandma and Grandpa!  See you (Gma Carol) in July!

Crunch Pak is a local company that is one of the leading producers of packaged sliced apples in the US.  They have been expanding their factory and it has been fascinating to watch the walls go up on this massive structure.  There will be room for 8 semi's to back up to their loading area instead of the two they have now.

I love Cashmere!

Beautiful isn't it!

We went on our annual hike up Sauer's Mountain.  I will never get tired of the views or the flowers (maybe the steep hike though...).

The kids were great hikers!  I hope they continue to improve, because they sure are getting heavy to have on your back!

A great activity for Mother's Day!

Oliver's 2nd Birthday

Both Grandmas got a chance to catch up.

Grandpa's too!

Oliver's "theme" was Bob the Builder.  He ended up with two cakes, lucky boy!

I always worry about the cakes not turned out good, but how can you not like carrot/pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting!?!

Pastor Dave stopped by!

The kids played in the pools and had a great time!

Oliver got a lot of help opening presents!  It was hard to open one and move on to the next one quickly.

He loved his new camping lantern!  We can't wait to try it out soon!  A big thanks to everyone for the nice gifts and especially Oliver's Grandparents for their amazing help and support.