Birthdays

Our little guy turned four and we celebrated big.

He chose a firetruck cake and "Grandma from Tenino" obliged. 

Birthday hugs from his best friend.

Taking a break from bouncey house fun.

B was thoroughly spoiled in attention and gifts.

His one request for his birthday was a crane truck and his sister came through. 

He loved it so much that she even got a hug.

Papa topped off the celebration with a visit from firemen in a firetruck. See...spoiled!

A close up of the cake

The weekend of Branson's birthday is also the fair.

Quinn followed in Uncle Jason's footsteps and ate a pronto pup for every meal.

B enjoyed the rides

And as always the kids were spoiled with attention.

 

With big brother turning 4 that means our baby girl turned 2

Of course she helped make her cupcakes. We won't tell her daddy that the recipe we used was called pink princess cake.

Loving Summer

I know summer has ended, but I am still catching up. Our epic weekend started off in Omak. This is the second year that my uncle has organized a team to run the the Warrior Race there. 

The kids and I headed up early to visit friends. It was the kids first time bowling and I am certain we will be doing it again.

Attached to the bowling alley is an arcade where we wasted some money

This is the first year that the Warrior Run has had an Elite Run on Friday night and Josh's band was invited to play at the festivities.

My parents took the kids to stay at my Grandma's house and I got to stay and listen to the music, which is a rare treat. Josh and I stayed the night at Jeremy and Nicole's beautiful new home.

We conned Joel and Sarah into joining our team.

 

Last year the mud pit at the end was basically dirty water. Quite the opposite this year...

Some of the Thornton Clan

After the run we headed to Mike and Leslie's for a BBQ and some swimming

Then on to more fun...Jason and Sue were camping at Lake Roosevelt and invited us to join them.

Imagine Branson's delight when he discovered that we were going to take a "ferry boat" to meet Jason and Sue.

The next day there was lots of boating, playing in the sand and relaxing

 

I just can't resist this pout. She was not impressed when she noticed I was taking pictures of her

Super tired little girl eating lunch.

 
So much fun is exhausting!

Before we went camping I was thinking about how our kids have never actually been. B has slept in a tent a number of times, but never camping. My husbands job is not conducive to summer fun and I am not brave enough to take the kids by myself yet.

Our morning at the lake I took this picture of our kids sleeping in the tent and I decided that maybe we don't camp because Mommy and Daddy don't get to sleep.

Last week was been pretty low key. Highlights included:

Time with Dakota and Blake.
 Quinnie is quite the helper and put Blake's shoes on for him

Construction at the grocery store

  

and "walking bridges"

I've was thankful for a low key week. After two action packed weekends it was just what we needed to prepare for another. Last weekend the kids got to stay the long weekend with Papa and Mimi while Josh and I made a quick trip to Nashville to catch up with the ever expanding Miller family. I only got a few pictures from that weekend, but it was super fun to get a chance to just be Auntie and Uncle for two days. Stay tuned for a Nashville update, but first our boy turned FOUR and the fair was in town.