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.

A Quick Catch Up

 We've been having lots of fun and now I am in a panic to get some pictures up before I get too far behind to get our memories recorded. 

A favorite shot that my dad took of B at the ChelanMan

We took advantage of the week that Grandma and Papa from Tenino were here and Josh and I had a double date with Justin and Pam to the big city.

A guy from my home town is living in Nashville and singing/songwriting. Adam was playing at the Knitting Factory in Spokane so we went to see the show.

Holly and Bryan met up with us for dinner

It was nice to get a chance to visit for a bit with the star

We got home late grabbed a few hours of sleep and took off for more partying. 

We celebrated sweet Dakota's birthday

That weekend my cousin got married

My beautiful cousin and her handsome groom

 Branson was pretty sure it was the best wedding ever. Swimming in pond for older kids and Tonka trucks for the sand for him

We had to say good bye to Grandma and Grandpa

 Quinn loves to help in the kitchen 

And both the kids are great helpers at the store

The weather finally let up, so that we could get our family pictures in. But as you can tell, not for long as this was the sky on our way out. Kudos again to Pamela Grillo Photography for making the photo shoot so fun and remaining calm when my husband tried to kill us getting out of the muddy/hilly wheat field on our way home.

The kids and I went to my parents for a couple days the week of my birthday. It was nice to have Josh's mom come along.

Branson wanted more candles for my cake, much to his delight the only ones my mom could find were trick candles.

The main reason for my trip over the mountains was to see this sweet friend. Amanda and I went to high school and college together. She now lives in South Carolina, so any chance to see her we do.

Do you wonder why my kids love it here. They can play in dirt for hours.

These are the rocks that I grew up playing on

On the way home we stopped at the children's museum in Olympia. It was a hit, we will be going back for sure. 

It is birthday month in our family. Last week was Josh's birthday. We celebrated by going to Bella's birthday party. 

Remember the comment about the kids loving dirt?! This is where I always look when I can't find them. 

 

Branson spent a day at the water slides with Uncle Joel. I think Quinnie missed him because she spent a lot of time here that day

And when he got home she snuggled in bed next to him. 

And this is what I get when I tell them if they give me one good smile I will stop taking pictures.

Harvest continues, which means spending time out out in the fields if we want to see daddy.

I am not sure why my daughter can make faces like a 12 year old girl, but it is pretty funny for now... 

More play dates at the beach

 Our first tomato was ready...Quinn wasn't impressed.

Daddy has been working lots. I saw my husband for a total of 2 hours from Monday -Thursday last week. The kids (and probably me more) were glad to have daddy put them to bed when he got home on Thursday.

To make up for his time away Josh scheduled a family weekend on top of our already scheduled family weekend. We got home late last night from an epic weekend of family, friend, music, mud, sun and sand. Stay tuned for a post on that soon.