Cub Camp

Now that Jacob is in Cub Scouts he gets to go to day camp in the summer. He was so excited to go. It lasted five days and they were able to pass a lot of things off while he was up there. Having little ones at home still, I wasn't able to go up with him. So this post will be more of a photo dump than anything. I am so grateful for friends that took and shared pictures with me for this. 

Refinishing a Dining Set

My brother, Darin, and Christy got married this summer. As a wedding surprise we decided to refinish their dining set. I knew darin wanted to get it done, he had talked about it for a while. got ahold of the apartment keys so we were able to get in and grab their stuff while they were gone. We had just less than a week to get this project done. With Jeremiah working a lot of hours the sanding was left up to me during the day. 

Here is a shot of the chair during the sanding process. Much to our disappointment, we discovered that under the paint on the chairs was not solid wood, but rather pressed wood. We then had to switch gears and prep for paint rather than stain. 

The table went much better. The sanding was difficult because of the detail in the leg. I had to use many different "implements" to get the varnish out of all those little spaces. It had to be done though, otherwise the darker stain wouldn't have set correctly.

We chose to do a dark walnut stain. Jeremiah even took pictures of the other wood furniture they had to match. Darin had made a really nice chess table, so we were really trying to match that. 

I think it turned out pretty nice. We decided on black for the chairs. My first thought was brown, but then we changed it to a semi flat black. A much better choice if I do say so myself. 

When Darin and Christy got back from their honeymoon, we took the set back over. It was so fun to see their faces with the finished product. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with the completely finished product. It was a fun thing to do. And I'm glad I turned out well. We love you, Darin, Christy, and Makeala!

The Day of Our Independence

We were lucky to have Jeremiah home from work the week of the Fourth of July this year. It was fun to spend time together as a family at home. 

We found an awesome kit at Lowe's for a fire pit. Jeremiah and Jacob worked on installing it together. Jacob pretty much moved all the block from the pickup to he back yard himself. Such a hard worker. Here is how it turned out. 

It is really fun to go out and roast marshmallows just about anytime we like. It was all set up in time for the celebrations as well. 

We started out the morning of the Fourth by going to the ward flag raising ceremony. It was neat to see Jacob all decked out in his Cub Scout uniform. I forgot to take a pic of that though. :( 

Later we took the kids to the theater to see Monsters University. It was so fun with the whole family there. The theater we went to has parlor rooms. It's like a big living room with recliners and couches. There are even pillow pits down at the bottom. The day we went there were only a couple other people there which was awesome. Again no pics, sorry, I'll do better next time. ;)

After that, we went home and started setting up for our night of backyard camping. To pass off some Wolf requirements, Jacob planned and prepared our outdoor meal of hot dogs and corn on the cob. 

Dinner was fun, and after clean up we all headed over to our friends, the Harpers. They put on a great show every year, and this year was no exception. A few years ago Jeremiah even made the mortar launching tubes they still use now. 

Here we all are, waiting for things to really get going!

Here are some shots of the show. 

When we got home we set to roasting mallows and fixing s'mores by our campfire. The neat thing about living here is that pretty much everything is legal firework wise. So while we were around the campfire we could watch fireworks going off all around us. We even left the fly off the tent so that we could see them while going to sleep. It was such a wonderful day. One the kids will remember for a long time. I love my family so much, and spending time with them is my most favorite thing. 

 

Kinder Graduation

Emma's first year of school is over. My little pumpkin is growing up so fast!  The last day of school I walked over with the boys to attend. It was so fun to see her singing all the songs they had learned through the year. She did great. I loved watching how her face just lit up during the program. 

She was especially excited that she got to wear her fancy dress to school that day. 

The little boys were just so excited for Emma. I think Will was just glad that she was out for the summer, so he could spend all day with her. He loves her so much. 

Emma and Mrs. Barnum. Emma misses her teacher but is also excited for first grade. She already asks when school will start again. Emma had decided that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. Will and Wes already play school with her frequently. 

My Baby Brother Got Hitched!

Well, it's happened. My baby brother has found his eternal companion. On July 6th Darin married Christy. She's so awesome. I'm glad he found her, she's so perfect for him. They were married for time and all eternity in he Portland, Oregon temple. After the wedding everyone visited while waiting outside for the bride and groom. Here are some pictures I took. 

Here is my new little niece, Makeala.  She is such a doll. This was a very big day for her too!

                    The new family!

After the wedding, we had a luncheon to celebrate at the Oswego Grill. Food was great and so was the company!

Congrats Darin, Christy, and Makeala!!!

Jobs Revamped

So I tried the online job chart. And really it is a good system. If I had a tablet or something like that to run it on; it would have been much more effective than my password protected laptop.  So I have been putting a lot of thought into it and kept browsing for different ideas. I came across something on Pinterest. Really it was an organization center for the mom of the house, but a small section of it was designated to the children's responsibilities.  I adapted it slightly to fit my needs and came up with this.

Each day is a different color. The set up is pretty basic. I started out with regular daily personal jobs and then threw in a couple of household responsibilities to round it out. 

I laminated each card so that they can be reused each week. As the jobs are completed hey can be checked off with a Vis-a-Vie pen. 

Finally I used a couple of command hooks to hang them on the wall and voila!  It is complete. 

Now the online chart that I used had a point system linked to various rewards. This time around though, I am just going to make it about getting it done and then having free time. As long as the jobs are done they can participate in the fun activities. I think this way they will have more fun with it anyway. It took so long to build up points just to watch a little show, that "big" rewards like a trip to the park or a date with mommy or daddy was nearly impossible to achieve. Let's see how we do this time around. 

Spring Break 2013

Jacob and Emma had a week off from school the beginning of April.  Normally, this is a VERY busy week at work for Jeremiah, so when I suggested he request the time off for a family vacation I didn't think it would actually happen.  However, to my surprise, he got the time off.  We were all very excited about it and decided that we needed to see as many people as we could!

We started the week off Saturday evening by driving over to my mom and dad's house.  That weekend just happened to be Easter, so it was a nice time for gathering together.  Unfortunately, my little Will didn't fare so well.  After his Sunday morning bath he came down with a really bad case of the chills.  I got him dressed and took him down for a temperature reading.  All my mom had was an old mercury thermometer, so we did it old school.  My boy was up to 103 degrees!  Needless to say, he wasn't fit for church.  Jeremiah stayed with him at the house while the rest of us all went to church with my parents and grandparents.  That evening everyone started showing up (yes we let them know about Will first).  Lori and Elizabeth came down from Yakima and Jaime and Lisa's family came up from Pasco.  It was so fun to see everyone, and the night came to an end too quickly.

Monday we had a bit of time to just play and relax.  We all went out to the playground in the side yard and had a great time.

We also had snack time out on the deck with Grandpa Noble.  They had so much fun out there.  Wescott just kept crackin up over everything Grandpa would say.  Grandpa had him rollin.

Wes looking through the window
 at Grandma Marcia washing dishes.

It was so much fun, but we had more stops to make on our trip, so on the road we went.  Our next stop was Yakima.  We decided to treat the kids to burgers at Miners.  It is a place that was always special to me growing up and I wanted to share that with my kids.  Many things have changed, including the size and price of the burgers, but we had a fun time together as a family.

Just before leaving town we stopped by the Harley shop to look at some bikes.  Wes found what he wanted. ;)

Then we headed on up over Blewett pass, up to Peteros to see our good friends.  The weather was so awesome.  The sun shone bright and the air was dry.  We were able to enjoy visiting outside while dinner was on the grill.  This was a much over due visit, and we were so glad we were able to make it happen.

The next day we headed back over the mountains and were greeted by grey skies and rain.  The sun was gone and over, but the fun was not!  We got to Redmond about lunch time and met up with Aaron and Becky and their kids at Subway.  When lunch was over the kids were just hitting it off, so decided on a quick trip to the park.  It did not take long for everyone to be completely involved with playing at the park after so many hours in the car.

Playtime was over and we headed over to Kent to see my Uncle Dick and Corrine.  They cooked us up a nice dinner, and we had fun visiting.  Corrine has a gift at finding great deals and has a pretty good collection of toys for the kids to play with.  It kept them all very entertained.  I think their favorite was the two little wiener dogs, well that was until Wes got a little nip.

Next we were on to Silverdale, where my cousin Andrew's family has just recently moved.  Here we had another exciting new place to play with kids and lots of toys!  After dinner, Andrew and Katrina took us out to a place that you can see the great Olympics in front of the water.  Oh it was so beautiful, and we were there at sunset, which just added to the beauty.  Everyone had a blast throwing rocks into the water and playing on the jungle gym.

After sunset we let the kids play for a bit at the park here.  Jacob was so proud of himself for being able to go across the monkey bars.  He said now he is going to do it all the time at school.

We had been so busy that is didn't take Wes very long to conk out in the living room right where we were all visiting.  So peaceful when they are asleep, aren't they?

After all of that, we still weren't done.  Silverdale is right by Bremerton, so we decided to hang out there and check out the Navy museum.  It was pretty neat learning the history of the shipyards there and their importance during WWII.  They had a really neat area set up for kids there, where they could pretend.

Making lunch in the galley.

We all live in a yellow submarine...

 

My little chef

Next stop Ocean Park just north of Long Beach.  Our neighbors moved there a few years ago and we occasionally get to go over to see them at the coast.  It was good to visit and see all the neat improvements they had made to their property.  After our visit we went to stay in Astoria.  We've been there before and have liked it, and this time I wanted to be able to take the kids to the aquarium in Seaside.  This was the only place we didn't stay with friends or family.  We booked a hotel room and had some good old fashioned down time that night.

The kids love staying at hotels.  Unfortunately, I forgot to pack our swim suits. :(

The next morning we got up and got ready to head out again, but much to our displeasure we had a flat tire.  Jeremiah aired it up a Safeway and we headed to Seaside to Les Schwab for a flat repair.  The wait was an hour, but they got us out faster than that.  I suspect they didn't want a showroom full of kids. ;)

When that was finally done, we headed over to the aquarium.  There were some neat things there, and the kids had fun, but seriously way over priced for what it is.

I love that you can see
his reflection in the glass.

This was such a busy and fun filled week!  I didn't realize just how much we had done till I started putting this together!  Many memories created and relationships strengthened.  A successful family vacation in my book.