Banana Phone

Darby talking on her banana phone. I'm glad she role plays talking on her phone and not texting. 

Visit from a friend

One of my really good friends from college came to Seattle for a wedding. She stayed at our house for two nights with her little 5 month old baby. Even though we kicked the big boys out of their room we all had fun having someone here in our home. 

We met up with another friend from college.  

 

I was also able to escape for an evening with Lisa, Shannon and Karen.  It was such a nice evening.  

Lisa left early in the morning but I wanted to get a picture of the two of us.  She looks ready for the day and I just finished a run.   But at least we got a picture.  

It will likely be a very long time before we see each other again because she and her family will be doing mission work in another country....for life.

Monkey Bars

Darby has been trying really hard to master the Monkey Bars and she finally got it.  She could go all day but I had to teach her about blisters and show her why her hands were starting to hurt.   

She is so excited about her new skill and tells everyone.  

Test Run

This was the first test run of our new slip n slide.

 It was great entertainment for our HOT spring days. 

 The biggest problem is Brody jumps half way down the slide before he starts.  

Bo sings

Bo has been learning some songs and singing. We finally got some of it on video. I just love his sweet little voice and I don't ever want it to change. 

The most impressive thing about all of this is that he is the 5th child and I haven't done much to work with him on these songs.  He just learns it from his siblings.   He can also sing "Ice, Ice Baby" so there you go. Unfortunately I don't have that one on video. 

Enjoy all this sweetness....and look at this smile! 

 

Fun in the sun!

My friend watched Darby & Bo and got these great pictures of the kids playing in the sprinkler and at the water table.  We are loving these summer temperatures although I am a tad bit nervous about what that means for our summer.  

Our favorite tradition

We lucked out this year with our 1st date anniversary and had a nice, warm, sunny evening.   Duke's at Green Lake.  We love this tradition and are so glad we have kept it going.   We always tell our server/waiter and they always hook us up with something.  This time drink were on the house.   (notice Brad's two beers). Actually the true story is that he didn't like one of them even after our server recommended it so he brought Brad another one.  They do such a great job here. 

Slip N Slide Fun

Our Slip N Slide gave us hours of entertainment in this hot weather, 

especially when we have friends over. 

Face Paint

The kids found face paint. Then they wanted to be pirates...then they convinced Bo to be a pirate too. But this was all I got.

Pretty darn cute! 

Beach & Cabin

After our trek to Mt. Constitution we made our way back to the beach. It actually rained on us so it was a good thing we found this fort and added some modifications. 

First we made a stop by this totem pole and took a picture.  

Fort modification using a big piece of wood they found down the beach. 

This is the "cabin" we stayed in.  We are so thankful we had the opportunity to stay here.  

A video of Brad trying to start a fire.  He actually had a few injuries in this process.  Go figure.  Crazy Guy!

Mt. Constitution

Our 2nd full day on Orcas ended up being a lot more driving than we wanted but we still had a great day. We tried out a few new beaches but the kids wanted to go back to the one we were at the day before. But before we went back there we drove to the top of Mt. Constitution. 

It was VERY cold and very windy but we were still able to have some spectacular views.