Climbing

It is up! I wanted to include a picture of the assembly part because I captured Travis' classic look of concentration. Sticking his tongue out helps with any tough task! I think it's great!



Thanks for the new climbing dome, G & G Davis, we are having so much fun CLIMBING! It is so great to send them outside so they can climb to their hearts' delight! Justin is a regular monkey and perches on the top while Tyler is getting pretty brave scaling those bars!



It also makes a good look-out perch to wave to friends walking down the street. (Hi Sharleen!) We absolutely love our new playground!

12 Course Lunch

I think this is the best summer lunch idea! What kid could resist a muffin tin full of finger foods? I'm going to try this one for sure!

I found this brilliant tip on a great blog called Tip Junkie. Check it out. There are so many good ideas on this site.

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July! We went to the Hillsboro Fourth of July Parade and had such a fun time! We found an open spot near a newly remodeled park. The boys had a fantastic time playing on this really cool playground as we were waiting for the parade to begin.







We saw a few of our friends in the parade so that was fun. During the boring stretches of the parade, Tyler kept trying to slip away to run back to the playground. I had to let him stand on my lap so he could see over all the tall people in front of us.



Tyler loved all the horses and the marching bands. Justin loved all the candy they threw into the crowd.



This was our favorite float!

After the parade was over, we went back to play at the playground for a while until the rain sent us back to our car. I think we found our new Fourth of July tradition.

We came home and the boys enjoyed an afternoon playing in the backyard and doing firework poppers while I weeded.



I planted a bunch of wild flowers in our backyard this year and as they are coming up they look a lot like weeds. Well, everyone keeps trying to pick them to help me out with my weed problem. But, they aren't weeds...they just haven't bloomed yet! So, I was the designated weeder since I knew what to pick and what to leave alone. Anyway, so much for the wild flowers.

Later, we had a barbecue with a family in our neighborhood, the Grewals. They have a son who is the same age as Justin and a daughter just younger than Tyler. We had such a fun time talking and the kids had fun playing in the backyard. After dinner, we planned to meet out front for fireworks. We ended up with quite the fireworks show on our street with five families joining in on the fun. We bought a bunch of fireworks this year and we let the boys pick out their favorites including monster trucks that drive down the street, tanks, moving turtles and artillery trucks. Justin has had it all planned since last Fourth of July and has been so excited to blow up the tanks and trucks after we lit them off.



He was so happy when they went up in flames after he had staked them on top of some fountain fireworks. Tyler kept walking down the sidewalk to our house holding an American flag. I would find him on the front porch saying, "I'm just taking a little break." Then once I had talked him into coming back to watch the fireworks for the 10th time, he would say, "O.K., but you be the marching drums and trumpet!" Then we would be our own little marching band making our way back to the party.



We had such a fun time. The kids had glow sticks and had fun playing night games after the fireworks were over. It was a great day for us and finally we felt like made some good "Oregon Fourth of July" memories. If we can't have family and Provo's Freedom Festival, we can still enjoy the holiday on our own...what a relief.

Want to add your signature?

I just added my almost signature to my blog posts. It is actually pretty close to the real thing!

If you want to do the same on your blog, check out Allison's blog and she'll walk you through it. It is very easy to do and now my signature will go down in history. Ta Da!

Through My Eyes...

A Day at the Beach

This morning I packed up Justin and Tyler and met up with my friends, Kaylynn, Bethany and Kelly, and their kids to caravan to Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast. The beach is about an hour and fifteen minutes away from our house. I love that it is close enough for us to make a day trip. What's better than a sunny afternoon at the beach?




The kids had a fabulous time playing in the sand all afternoon and trying their luck with some dollar store kites! Justin was so happy to play with his good friend, Aidan, and Tyler was just happy to play with Aidan's trucks.



I was wondering why we don't do this more often. It was so refreshing to get away and to enjoy the SUN! And to end the fun day with a trip to a candy story to buy salt water taffy, who could ask for more?

Summer begins with S

Strawberries - I ordered 30 pounds of fresh Oregon Strawberries last month and they were finally ready to harvest last week. I picked up my bucket on Thursday and it took me two days to freeze and vacuum pack the bunch. Mmmmm...there is nothing better than the smell of fresh strawberries. I'm in love.



Smelling the campfire - One of my responsibilities as second counselor in the Primary presidency is to oversee the Cub Scouts and also the 11-year-old Scouting program. Friday night I got to go join our 11-year-old scout campers at their campfire program. They camped at Camp Ireland and I enjoyed walking around the camp and smelling the campfires.


I love that smell! I'm looking forward to the time our boys get to participate in the Scouting program. It sure looks like a lot of fun!

Selling Juice Boxes - Our neighborhood's HOA hosted a big garage sale this weekend. On Friday morning, when I set out with the boys on their bikes to check out all the garage sales in the neighborhood, I gave each boy $2.00 to spend however they liked. It was funny to see how frugal Justin was in deciding how to spend his money and how clueless Tyler was to what was going on. Justin ended up "helping" Tyler spend his money.

Well, after coming home and enjoying their "goods", Justin started making big plans for Saturday at the garage sales. When we woke up Saturday morning, he had already written out a sign for selling Costco Kirkland juice boxes for 25 cents. He moved the wooden kid table over to the door and was ready to go start his business. What could I say? Off we went to open his "store" on our driveway.



I thought he might sell only a few juices, but he sold out in less than an hour. He had big motivation for making some money so he could go buy more treasures at the garage sale. I was secretly hoping we wouldn't come home with junk. Off we went with our little wagon and they boys both found a cute little lion flashlight that opens its mouth when it turns on.

Staining the fence - Travis hired two teenagers from our ward to help him stain the fence in our yard. They were trying to earn money for Scout Camp and Travis was so glad to have their help. They worked hard all day on Saturday and Travis even hired Justin to help for a while so he could earn money to pay Mom back for the $3 he borrowed earlier that day to buy a tiny pool table at the big neighborhood garage sale.



Sharing time - It was my turn to teach sharing time on Sunday. I'm really beginning to enjoy it. The part I like the best is how excited Justin gets to help me with my lesson. I keep it all a secret from him and sometimes the anticipation just about does him in. But he always pays attention and since this time we ran out of time to finish all I had prepared, he begged me to finish it for our Family Home Evening lesson tonight. So, tonight we are going to learn about how we can prepare to go to the temple by being reverent, dressing modestly and speaking kindly.

Sleeping - Sunday afternoons are just the best. We try to trade off naps and it is really funny how much I look forward to it. Now if I could get Justin and Tyler on the bandwagon, too. That would be fantastic!

You can run, but you can't hide...

...from JURY DUTY!

I've never been selected before for this joy of all joys. Until now. It freaks me out. You know, it is just one of those things where I'm glad someone else is doing it, but I don't want to have to do it myself. I feel like it is such a life-changing thing to read that verdict and I don't want to be one of the jury who decides someones fate. Travis showed me the envelope with a big teasing smile on his face and my heart started to race. Luckily (I think), we'll be in Montana on that day and so I deferred...until October.

Travis was picked for jury duty last month and I actually LAUGHED at him! He called in the night before and didn't even have to go at all and that counted for his duty. I should have knocked on wood when I laughed at him. Well, now the tables have turned and this time he is the one laughing out loud! Serves me right. Please say someone you know has had a positive experience with jury duty. Hopefully I'll follow this up with a nice post afterwards to tell you I've had a change of heart about the whole thing.

Happy Father's Day!

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Bribes

Travis was on a business trip to California on Wednesday and Thursday. Since I wasn't any fun on Wednesday and we just cleaned the house all day, I promised the boys we could go to the library on Thursday. So yesterday, we went and signed them up for their summer reading program for the kids (and me, too!). The boys got a special packet with a few different charts they will fill out by reading books to earn the following: 2 free kids meals (The Old Spaghetti Factory and Noodles & Co.), a McD's yogurt parfait, a game of miniature golf, an ice cream cone, a discount to Oaks Park, fast food coupons, and a free paperback to keep! Oh, and a pencil, too. Could that list be any longer? They also can enter a drawing each week as we visit the library.

I'm all for reading and I agree it's fun to join a "summer reading program" because you get to fill out a fun little chart, but do these kids really need all that extra stuff? My boys love the library and are so happy to just pick out 5 books each and a video before we head out to see the ducks and geese and to hear our echos in the tunnel. They'd be happy just to have the reading chart to fill out. It was a beautiful day and we had the best time running around the duck pond. I actually remembered to bring some bread and so we had fun feeding the quackers, too!



The little "teenager" geese were so cute...and hungry! The mom wouldn't let them go on the sidewalk and would hiss at us if we got too close to the grass.



I like the idea of encouraging them to get excited about reading...but, you know. Last year, I think half of those silly coupons just magically disappeared...or they might still be lost in my wallet. Don't get me wrong, we did have a fantastic time at the library and running around the pond. But, I just don't want my kids to start expecting a reward every time they read anything. Although, you could argue that I knew what to expect when we went to the library in the first place so I must like all the bribery on some level. O.K., I'll admit it, they gave me a bag of skittles for signing up for the adult summer reading program. And I kept it for myself. So, there you go.

Yesterday night I hired a babysitter and I went to our Relief Society's Enrichment Night to do a silent service auction and to make little baby binky pillows to donate to the hospital. I always look forward to going because I don't see all my friends on Sundays since I'm in Primary early to set up and late to finish up. It was a fun night for me!

When I drove up to our house, Travis was in the driveway putting away the garbage cans. I didn't expect to see him until a little later that night, so it was a good surprise! Then he gave the boys little airplane gliders. They love these things and we took them over to the school today to throw around.



Travis, they'll want you to go on a business trip every week if you keep bringing back such cool presents! Um...don't do that, though...the traveling every week part...I'd have to bribe them all the time and besides that I'd miss you too much! "Keep cleaning and I'll take you to the library, read all your books and you get a prize, be good while dad's gone and he'll bring you back a surprise." O.K., I'm guilty. But I bet no other mom would blame me.