Oregon Coast

We took a four day trip to the Oregon Coast and had a great time kicking off the summer fun. 

We stopped in Astoria to take a picture at the Goonies house, one of the best movies of all time!  It was a Tuesday afternoon and we saw a few other groups of people there at the same time, my dad of course shouted "Hey you guys!". 

Seaside:

Despite the 3 bedroom condo, the kids all wanted to sleep with mommy on the first night.  I didn't get much sleep but I will seize these moments and sleepless nights while I am blessed to have them.

Litte Ben in a great big world.

Cannon Beach:

Gramps and the kids with the Goonies rock.

Resting...

Racing...

Doing family yoga!?!

 While we were on this trip, my dad's brother, my Uncle Hank, passed away after battling Leukemia.  The night my dad got the call, we went for a walk by the ocean and I thanked God and Hank for letting us be with my dad that night when his brother moved on to heaven.  We love you Hank, and you will always be with us and your amazing wife, kids and their families in Texas. God bless.

Nate says goodbye to kindergarten!

Our boy is done with Kindergarten.  Wow.  It seems like just the other day we were driving home from the hospital with our newborn and I was sitting in the backseat next to him crying because someday he was going to go off to school and someone might be mean to him.  I couldn't stand the thought (and yes I know my thinking was muddled from all the hormones!).  What I wasn't realizing at the time was how proud I would be to see my son venture out into a world of his own on his first day of kindergarten.  Yes, there were some hard days this year, but most were great and it is beyond amazing to watch him blossom into his own person.  Change is becoming less and less hard as I am so thrilled to be along for this wild ride of being a mama.  Every day is a blessing and as the kids get older, I'm less stressed about steering the ship and more aware of how powerful and beautiful it is when they are allowed to take the wheel.  Is that too similar to a Carrie Underwood song?!  Whatever, I'm a sap. ;)

Nate on his last day of Kindergarten, holding a picture of himself from the first day of Kindergarten! My how the time has flown!

Last Friday, the Kindergarten classes celebrated the end of the school year with a field day.  So much fun!

Father's Day Camping Trip

The kids have been begging to go camping...even Ben was persistent with his sweet high-pitched "I go camping in a tent mama.  I roast mellows mama."  Who can resist that? Not this lady.  So for Father's Day I planned a night of camping in Leavenworth, WA.  This allowed us to "hike" to a river, sleep in a tent and make s'mores (all on the kids must do list), but also venture into the quaint Bavarian tourist town for dinner.  But don't think for a moment we were "glamping"...we were sleeping on rocks y'all and it did not make for a good night's sleep.  

Road trip! Lunch at a side of the road burger joint.

Gotta love our pop up tent!

Ready for a swim at the very cold pool.

Happy Father's Day Mesh and Dad! We love you!

Our boys

Ready for bed...or not!

My view made it easy to count my blessings! :) 

Highlights from the trip:

-Coming home from dinner and Gramps saying "Um, where's the roof of my tent?" We did find it!

-Ben too busy having fun to sleep.  Ri and Nate knocked out around 9:00pm and come 10:15, Ben was still chatting away and roaming around the tent.  I had drifted in and out and without opening my eyes I told Mesh that if he would just ignore Ben, the little guy would probably fall asleep pretty soon.  Then I opened my eyes and saw that Ben had a flashlight about 2 inches from Mesh's eyeball and was turning it on and off...LOL!!  I guess that would be pretty hard to ignore.  :)

It was fun, but I'm glad it was only for one night!  I'm thinking it will be easier once Ben is a little older but our first camping trip (not counting the backyard) will always be a cherished memory. 

Ballet Recital

Riley took the stage for her end of the year ballet recital.  She loved every minute of it and we are so proud of our strong and confident ballerina!

Getting ready to go...Benny stayed home with Gramps (show was 2 hours).

back stage

Here is the performance (Ri is 4th from the left):

Riley's last day of school

Our nanny Amandalee had this wonderful idea to take a picture of the kids on their last day of school holding a picture of themselves from the first day of school.  Here is Riley...twice.  She decided on a last minute outfit change before school. 

Riley's last day of school for this year!  Next year she will be in the preK class at the same school. 

Here we are at the carnival at Riley's school.  She had a ballet rehearsal just before this and that explains the hair!  The ballet recital is tomorrow...a post will follow!

Riley and Ms. Louise 

Benny Ben!

Benny Ben had his moving up graduation at Little Gym this week. 

And his favorite thing to do of late is to play "Where's the monster?":