Flight with Grandpa

On August 13th we finally gave Grandpa his Christmas present of flight. Peter's friend, Austin took up Grandpa and Eben and Jasper and then Grandpa split up his hour flight into two half hours so that he could go back up again with Kivi and Opal! They flew over Lake Louise, Lake Steilacoom and the Puget Sound. The kids said they didn't realize how surrounded by water we were until they were up there and saw it from the sky.

Eben and Kivi got to help with the plane check list.

 Eben and Jasper, ready to fly!

Opal and Kivi's turn. 

A view of our little Lake Louise from the air.

LC3 Family Camp

We go to an amazing church with a lot of fun people! August 7th - 9th we got to hang out with so many of them at our church's family camp at Black Lake Bible Camp. The theme this year was Extreme Makeover. 

The kids always have such a fun time because they are cut free to do whatever they want with their friends. They had a great time playing mini golf, playing on the playground and in the canyon, playing carpetball and bingo, swimming in the lake and pool. Even Pella and Berg roamed around with friends the whole time. The 4 big kids even got to lead worship and Eben and Kivi stayed up late every night and went to youth group! Tuff stole his first bite of marshmallow and graham cracker at s'more time.

Peter and I were asked to do the programming piece again this year so we decided to go as "confused about the theme us". The first time we thought the theme was Makeover Home Edition, the next time Fashion Makeover and the last time Body Makeover Workout Edition. 

We also led the large group game time and put together some fun team games the favorite to watch anyway was the Strong Man game, where all the men held on as tight as they could to each other and the women and children had to try and pry them apart. Peter's idea (John Schock's creation) of mega foam kick ball turned out amazing! Well not the kick ball part so much, but the free play in the foam was wonderful It was amazing that there were no dramatic injuries with everyone slipping and sliding into each other and kids getting knocked down everywhere.

The Saturday Night Live skits were another fun part and Eben and Kivi were both in different skits!

Eben and Kivi Go To Camp!

We had a busy July after getting back from CA, 2 weeks of VBS, Dada's Birthday, Kivi's Birthday, Maker Camp for Eben, Girl's Bible study for Kivi, and I got to go to Wicked with my wonderful friend, Niki! The last week of July we sent Eben and Kivi to a week long Jr. Camp this year at Black Lake Bible Camp, July 26th - August 2 thanks to Shari's bargain hunting. This was the first week long camp that either of them had been to and Peter and I were probably more anxious than they were. We dropped them off and walked them and their belongings all the way to their sleeping quarters. Kivi met her counselor in her cabin and picked out a top bunk.

Eben met his counselors in his wagon and also chose a top bunk. They were both the first ones to claim a bed. Later we found out that a boy in Eben's wagon puked all over their wagon and they had to move into a cabin. Everyone else in the camp slept in a wagon or teepee.

Then we hugged and kissed them both goodbye for the week.

Jasper and Opal really stepped up their sibling game while Eben and Kivi were gone and both Peter and I realized how much more we can depend on them for many things around the house. They are excellent helpers.  After we picked Eben and Kivi up the next Sunday, we stopped for lunch at Tumwater Falls Park, threw some frisbee, learned about salmon runs and heard all about their week. It sounded like they had an amazing time and we were all happy to have our two bigs back.

Tuff and Luna

Tuff is the smiliest baby. He was finally sitting well on his own, at least for a while. I just had to take him outside where the flowers were blooming and get his cutie picture before we moved at I forgot that he even lived at our cute little Lake Louise house.

On the 25th we decided to take some pictures of Kivi and Luna. A play on the Alice in Wonderland croquet pic seemed like a good idea since we had been playing earlier. She loved it outside and even found a dead worm to eat. Her favorite part was burrowing herself in the Viking stick house that the kids had built on the slope.  (We had a family stay with us for a couple of days who was trying to get to Japan but was stuck at the airport and they are the ones jumping on the trampoline.)

Kivi's 10th Birthday!

On Kivi's actual birthday we had our "pretend cousins", the Schocks, come over for swimming and Kivi's favorite dessert raspberry bars.

On the day of her party, just three days later, her real cousin, Emma, surprised her with her pet hedgehog, Luna. Kivi's the only one who can hold her without getting prickled. She was super excited to have this cute little pet.

That morning we had her friends come over and make trail mix and pack their bags for the big hike. Kivi opened presents and then we were on our way. Auntie Tonya and Uncle Chris stayed with the three littles. Dada chose Spray Park Falls to hike to and it was beautiful! It was quite a hike! There were lots of little bridges to go across, steep ravines, scrambling up rocks and gorgeous views!

There was no real pathway up to the falls so we just tried not to fall as we made our way up the slimy rocks and got soaked by the falls as we sang "Happy Birthday" to Kivi although we could barely hear each other yell as the water was so loud.

We hiked up a bit farther from the falls and stopped at a serene meadow to eat our lunch or MRE's Dada had collected as many as he could from friends and each girl got to pick one for her lunch. Some were OK and some were...gross. But they all loved how much stuff was in each one, especially the condiment pack with the cute bottles of tabasco sauce. You'd of thought they all won a prize. We stuck a candle in one of the desserts and sang again as Kivi blew it out. 

We hiked back down the mountain and then cooled off by swimming in Lake Mowich. It was a long fun day of celebrating our adventurous girl!

 Kivi, you are ten! How'd that happen? It seemed like just the other day you were a little purple newborn on the kitchen floor! Now you are tall, smart and beautiful inside and out! You are growing up so fast. You are a part of so many ministries. You bake for our Cookie Ministry, serve on two different Serve Teams one for Promiseland and one for Awana, you are doing T&T, help with babies and toddlers at church and are are crucial here for the running of our home, too! I don't know what we'd do without you! You are loving, caring, kind, helpful, brilliant, friendly and you love Jesus. You are an amazing daughter. We love you, Kivi! Happy Birthday.

Peter's 37th Birthday

We attempted to surprise Dada this year for his 37th birthday. He's very hard to trick. The kids did a great job of celebrating him on his actual birthday with signs and banners and a big string maze to follow to presents that we all bought him. I think that threw him off. Then two days later we threw him a surprise party with family friends. My plan was for people to just show up randomly and make some excuse as to why they were there like wanting to swim or borrow a tool, and see how long it took him to realize what was happening. By the time the third family came, he looked in their van window and saw a salad on the wife's lap and said, "Okay, I see what's going on here." Once he figured it out I started setting up the party food. It was actually the easiest party ever because I did nothing before hand so that he wouldn't be suspicious and everyone helped me prepare food and barbecue! The kids all swam. The guys played the new game of Beersbee and then the women tried it. Peter won his match, but I am horrible at throwing a frisbee. Then we all ate key lime pie, Dada's favorite.

After everyone left, the Schocks took our kids and I took Peter on an overnight fun trip (thanks to my parents family friends!) to Seattle! We went to some fun restaurants, walked around Pike and the waterfront and even played ping-pong on the pier. Two surprises! Whoo hoo we did it!

Our Quiet Fourth

The third of July we tried out going to Anderson Island. Lots of people from our church go for the actual Independence Day, but we didn't feel like crowds so we ferried over with the Millers and hung out with a couple more church families on the beach playing frisbee and eating crabs at the Van Houte Family beach house. It was low key and quiet. 

On the actual 4th of July day we did...nothing.  Our lake didn't put on a fireworks show. No decorations (they were all packed already). No party.  We only had five kids! It was crazy - quiet. We had planned on going to the Steilacoom parade but we were so lazy that didn't even happen. Actually it felt good to have no plans. It was hot. We swam. I even swam, that's how hot it was. Eben had fun playing around with fire crackers, we didn't even buy any fireworks.

Later that evening we headed over to our soon to be neighbors on Lake Steilacoom, the Evarts. There we watched their next door neighbors amazing personal fireworks show with glow sticks. After the show I gave the kids a gallon of ice cream and a handful of spoons to devour on a blanket. They loved it. Happy Quiet Independence Day.