Our Idaho Trip!

This vacation was inspired by our kids' reading program. When they read a certain number of hours they can earn a ticket to Silverwood, the theme park in Idaho. This year we decided to stay for longer than one night, like we've done the past two years and make a trip out of it. Peter found a beautiful horse ranch VRBO that would rent to our large family and it was actually in Eastern Washington.

Sept. 7th - After driving the whole day before we decided to just take a day and do stuff around the ranch. There was plenty to do. We had a pool table, and a large bonus room the kids could play in. Every morning they would go over there around 6am and play games on the Switch and play pool. We went to a little local mercantile where they made us pizza for lunch. We swam in the hot tub every day and ate fun treat foods and of course we visited the horses and learned all their names. In the evenings we would do devotions and watch the Answers In Genesis DVD that we borrowed from our church library.

Sept. 8th - The amazing couple who lived in the house took all the kids on a trail ride. (The house we were in was above a separate garage. They learned how to brush the horses, put the saddles on, and ride a horse. Eben and Kivi rode by themselves while the littles all had Miss Bonnie or Dada or I hold the lead rope.

Sept. 9th - We took the day to explore the Gardner Caves, home of the largest cave column in the Pacific Northwest. Then we took a short hike into Canada and straddled the border. On the way home we also hike a short way to some waterfalls.

Back at the ranch the kids spent time with the horses. The girls found apples and leaves to feed them and Tuffy couldn't get enough time with his favorite horse, Big Red. Coal worked on his walking with Dada and ended up just crawling around in the dirt watching the horses.

Sept. 10th - Silverwood day!  We had a relaxing day playing and riding rides at the "just the right size" theme park. After we did the log ride together, the big kids went off by themselves to ride the big rides and Dada and I stayed with the little five at the little land. Then Opal, Pella and Berg got adventurous and decided to ride the big roller coasters. So after an awesome all you can eat lunch for Dada and I at the Chuckwagon Johns, they went to the big rides and Tuff, Coal and I rode the half hour train ride around the park and they both slept through the whole thing. We met back up with the rest of the family for the amazing Magic Show and pizza dinner.

Sept. 11th - We decided to try and find these crazy long natural water slides. We drove around for a long time because there are no actually signs to get there. We thought we found them and ended up boulder jumping, because there was no trail. Then drove around again and almost found them. We ended up finding some natural water slides and we played in them for a long while, all the kids and Dada slid down the cold water, but we realized later that these were not the ones we were actually looking for, we needed to hike for another mile past where we were. But we had a fun time anyway and we'll have to find the real ones next time!

Sept. 12th - The first night we bought 4 gallons of ice cream and 2 boxes of waffle cones, so every night the kids got to pick a different flavor of ice cream and have a cone. On our last day we all had to have a morning ice cream cone and use up the rest of the ice cream. They didn't complain. And I took the opportunity to take their cute picture in front of the horse fence that our little house looked out upon. Then we headed home.

The Rest of Aug. 2017

August 21st - Our viewing of the eclipse. Eben and Jasper invented some glasses for us so we could stare at the sun and we all went down to the lake and set up theater style seating to watch the minute long show.  We also invented an eclipse dance, similar to the hokey pokey.

Aug. 23 & 26th parties at our house. We have hosted many parties this summer, although we have had no kitchen and are ourselves eating every meal outdoors. But it's been the warmest summer and we've had no rain so it's worked out. These parties are middle school and home school ones.

Aug. 26th - While we were out eating dinner with some friends the kids called to say there was a bat in the house. We told them to leave the back door open and close the door to all the bedrooms. When we got home it was gone, but the kids did a great job not freaking out like I know some adults in this situation have done! They even got some pictures of their new friend. This guy was big!

Aug 29th - Dada tiles the dining room and kitchen floors! Actually, this took almost a month to finish. Every night he'd come home from work mix a 50 lb. bag of mortar and lay two rows.

Sept. 2nd - Nonnie would take the kids, mainly Pella and Berg, to the condo pool and have swimming lessons all through the summer. So they gave us a swimming show.

The Schocks and our big kids, Nonnie, Poppie and Grandpa Schock all went on an excursion floating down the creek from Lake Steilacoom to Chambers Bay. They stopped along the way at Kobiyashi Park where the little kids and I were all waiting with lunch. At the end of the journey most all of the tubes were popped, it was not a well beaten path, but quite the adventure!

Kivi's 12th Camping Birthday!

Kivi, again, wanted to go camping for her birthday this year. We had to wait until August to make that happen, but she didn't mind.

She invited four of her close, adventurous friends to join her.

We found a beautiful camp spot at La Wis Wis campground and even though it had no running water, the creek that the girls constantly played in was gorgeous. They found rocks to climb, jump off, slide on and named them all.

We brought meals that could all be roasted over the fire; hot dogs wrapped with crescent rolls for dinner and eggs cooked in the shell for breakfast and of course lots of s'mores. They even tried roasting strawberries. 

Sharpie beards and mustaches while roasting s'mores are a tradition now.

The girls were busy! They played games, played in the creek, went on a long hike with Peter along waterfalls (I slept in the tent.) and even jumped off a huge cliff!

On the way home we stopped by Grove of the Patriarchs, a short hike to some really old pine trees, and painted the scenery. 

Kivi, you are so loved! You have some amazing friends and are a great friend to others. You shine wherever you go. You have an adventurous spirit and are encouraging to others. You try new things, hate to miss out on new opportunities and make everything a competition. You like to win. You like to plan and are a natural leader. You also love to help others and are so wonderful with all your siblings, especially your babies. You are neat, clean and careful but can also be spontaneous and crazy. You have great things planned for serving God's kingdom and I know He will use your talents and love for others for His glory! We love you, Sweet Pea! Happy 12th Birthday!

First 1/2 of August 2017

Aug. 4th - The big kids and Dada all ran the Luma Fun Glow Run 4US  5K while Tuff, Coal and I waited and cheered them on.

Aug 7th - The day after Coal got his 6 shots he broke out with this all over his body!

Kivi and Grace ran a day camp for a week to earn money for their trip to Bolivia in 2018!

All 8 kiddos on the tubes! The babies love it! After we pull all of them we take off Tuff and Coal and let the bigs have a crazy ride.

Aug. 8th - My big, blue-eyed Berg.

Aug. 11th-13th - LC3's Family Reunion at Black Lake Bible Camp! This year Peter and I teamed up with other couples to do skits instead of the traditional programming. 

The Saturday games were tons of fun - especially the foam!

Pella decided that she wanted to be baptized this year and was so super cute and nervous when giving her little testimony.

Aug. 16th - A surprise 4D ultrasound of our Baby Hula due on Nov. 2nd!

The kids all wanted to sleep outside under the stars. We roasted marshmallows first and then tucked them all in. Only Eben and Kivi lasted the whole night.

Aug. 17th - I gave the girls this fairy house and told them to have fun with it outside and they made a whole village. It kept them busy the whole summer.

July 2017

July 7-9th - B-Dog's 40th Birthday Bash

July 13th - Contractors install the cabinets and kids color the backs so we have time capsule drawings on the back of them.

July 16th - The Tague Aunts and Uncles come over to play and tube and Nonnie and Poppie make us all dinner. They have been living with us for weeks now, while they fix up their old rental house on Lake Louise so they can move in. Mimi comes to visit for two weeks.

July 17th-22nd (Actually most of the summer) Eben and Kivi spend a lot of time working on their wake surfing and wake boarding skills. The new dry suit boosts confidence.

July 22nd - We take a day trip to the Puget Sound Navy Museum and played in the water at these cool erupting ponds with Mimi.

July 24th - We float down the Green River with Poppie and Nonnie. Mama and the babies in the big tube.

July 29th-31st - Dada is an amazing concrete counter top engineer!

Mama tries her hand at smoothing the concrete. It's hard. They turn out beautiful!!! This is before the sanding and additional stain.

July 31st - Mimi's last day with us up here - for now!