Gangsta party

At the end of September my sister Sarah asked me to sing with her at church for their Primary program. We did a pretty good job, and had a really fun weekend - minus Colten getting sick. That weekend also happened to fall on her friends birthday and each year she has a themed party. She has in the past done a pirate party and a 50's/Grease party. This year she picked "gangsta" as her theme so we went to the local thrift store and purchased pants that were at least 5 sizes too big. We also bought bandannas and HUGE hoop earrings to complete the look and had a friends teenage daughter do our make-up. All-in-all I'd say we look pretty good! We only scared a few people when we had to run to the gas station for ice! Me & Sarah

Sarah and her hubby - Dan

For my 2 readers . . .

I've been seriously neglecting our blog for the past few months, and this week I'm determined to get it back up to par . . or at least as close as I can get it to par ;) There will be lots of pictures and silly antics by the kids. I know, I know, you are just waiting on the egde of your seats - ha ha ha! Look back often . . .

PS I will be dating the posts as they actually took place, so scroll down to see my new posts!

Labor Day Weekend Camp-Out post 1

For Labor Day weekend this year we went camping with my (Stacy's) family to the beautiful Orcas Island. It was a looong journey - 5 1/2 hours in the car (not including stops), a 2 hour wait at the docks, a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride, then another 30 minutes to the campsite! The views though were amazing, the company friendly ( Ü ) and the weather mostly cooperated.

This is the view from the highest point on Orcas. We are looking North and slighty East - the thin dark sliver of land in the middle right is Canada. Me and my sister Sarah/Cati at the top of the island. She takes good pictures - I do not.

This is Andrew waving at us from the tower at the aforementioned highest point on Orcas.

Natalie, Colten, Me and Andrew - did I mention that these pictures are all taken on the highest point of Orcas?

Natalie and Aunt Sarah/Cati - always being silly!

Monte and Kaylee did not go on our trip this year - Monte was working and Kaylee chose to stay home to try out for the volleyball team at school.

Labor Day Weekend Camp-Out - Misc. post

I had just a few random pictures of our trip that didn't need their own posts, so I put them all into this one.

On our way to the ferry terminal, we stopped at a rest area that is near Smokey Point - north of Marysville. We only stopped to get pictures with this GIANT arborvitae. The tree is dead - it had a fire in the trunk some time ago but it is still standing! Someone stabilized it with beams so that tourists, like ourselves, could have our pictures taken with it. Here we are at the San Juan/Victoria Ferry Terminal in Anacortes, WA. We just sat around and waited for the ferry. This is Brady, Natalie, Andrew, my bro-in-law Jonathan and my sister Cheri.
When we finally got to our campsite it was around 4 in the afternoon. We quickly organized the campsite, set up tents, and the cooking/eating area shelters. Colten went right to work in our tent making everyone's beds and organizing it. He was quite the little housekeeper in our tent - he made our beds every day and made sure everyone's clothes were put away!

Ahhh Andrew loved the woods.




On our last full day there, we drove to this place that usually has tons of deer that are tame. We only got to see 2 because it was drizzling, and one wouldn't even come near us. But the other one ate carrots right out of our mouths! Only Natalie, Koby and I were brave enough to try it, but I only got a picture of Nat doing it. Isn't that crazy?!?!?!

Labor day Weekend Camp-Out fishing post

We did some fishing while we were on our camp-out. Here is a picture of one of the lakes we went to. It was so serene and peaceful here. Brady-man caught the first fish - it was HUGE! Not! My boys' hands are covering it all up.
And poor Ethan - he fell completely into the lake. This kid had all the bad luck on this trip - he fell into this lake, fell into another one, got a fish hook caught in his neck and fell down the hill behind our campsite. He was fine after all his injuries, but was ready to go home.


My sister cut up that fish that Brady caught and had a little fun with it - enjoy!