Baseball Game/Sports Plex

We had hoped to take Michael to see a Mariners game while we were in WA, but they were out of town while we were there, so we settled for the local baseball team, the Bellingham Bells. The kids enjoyed it, but it was pretty cold and it stays light until about 10pm and the kids were getting pretty restless, so we decided to leave early. Before we went home, we went across the street to the Sports Plex which has an ice skating rink and 2 indoor soccer fields. The kids had a blast playing on the field and got upset when they couldn't ice skate. Michael even told me that he "NEVER gets to go ice skating!" Whatever Michael! :o)

Grandma & Grandpa Smeesh

Glenda & Dan

Emma & Glenda

Michael & Ron with the mascot.

I think Emma took this picture...

GOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!

Emma found these pennies and wanted to put one on.

We Love Great Grandma & Grandpa Smeesh!

When grandma & grandpa arrived, we went to their hotel so we could go swimming. Before we went down, grandma put make up on Emma.

Don't her eyebrows look beautiful?!

Givin' grandpa some love!

Girls Night Out!

My mother in law Debra, sister in law Mary, brother in law's girlfriend Alyssa and I all went out for a girls night to make some father's day gifts. I pretty much bypassed father's day (except cards) because I was too worried about the trip, so I just made something for me while everyone else made something for their dads. We went to a pottery place that also does glass fusion. It was fun, and very interesting! This place was pretty cool and had lots of things to do and also had a tea party area complete with dress up clothes for parties.

Here we are hard at work.

You start with a piece of glass, then take colored pieces of glass and cut them to the design you want and place them on your larger pieces of glass with a little glue. When you're finished, the workers take it and put it in the fire to fuse the pieces together.

Here is mine (before):

Alyssa's (before):

Debra's (before):

Mary's (before):

And the after's. Debra made a coaster, I made a bowl, and the other 2 girls made trivets/decorative tiles.

I don't think our pottery place here in town does this, but I would love to look into the closest place and do it again! Although, cutting was harder than it looks, but It would be fun to practice!

Painting Birdhouses

We went to Michael's one day and thought we'd get the kids a project to do while we were up in Washington, so we got them each a birdhouse and their favorite colors to paint them. (Michael green, Emma pink!) They started painting them, but got bored, so I finished it for them. A couple days later, Grandma K found some stickers for them to decorate with. (Which they did themselves.)

The semi-finished project. (I didn't take a picture of them with stickers.)

Scooter Kitty

This is Ron's childhood kitty, Scooter. This cat is over 20 years old! I think she's had more than her share of 9 lives! Since I've known Ron, whenever we have gone up to visit, he can call this cat and she comes runnin'! It doesn't matter how long he'd been gone, she still knows him and knew the sound of his car. Scooter is an outside kitty. She's been in the rain, snow, etc. She's fought off many an animal. She protects the home from racoons (which come around often!). She just recently she was brought into the house since it's been harder for her to get around. We don't know how much longer she'll be with us, but she's been a good cat! Emma especially loved going in there to help feed her and brush her and love on her.

The Lake

Ron's parents live just up the street from a gorgeous lake and a few years ago they purchased some property on the lake. It's really nice and has a little bit of grass, a shed to keep various things in, and a fire pit for roasting marshmallows! (Okay, so a firepit has other uses, but marshmallows are most important, right?!) They don't have a dock on their property, but their neighbors are kind enough to share theirs when they want to put the boat in the water. It rained several days while we were up there, so we didn't get out on the boat, but that gives us something to look forward to on our next trip up! :o)

The kids doing what they love most....throwing rocks in water!

I love this picture!

This is the view from their "beach", but this is just a close up view of what they see from the deck at their house! Isn't it beautiful?!

And We're Off!

A couple weeks ago, we drove up to Washington to visit Ron's family and attend his brother's graduation from the University of Washington. We left on a Sunday evening when Ron got off work (at about 11:30pm) and drove straight through. His brother had come down a couple weeks prior and was able to drive up with us, which meant that we had an extra driver and since he came down on business we were able to get help with gas money since they didn't have to buy him a plane ticket home! Whoop, whoop! We arrived in Bellingham around dinner time Monday and had a wonderful time and did lots of fun stuff! I took over 250 pictures, but I don't plan on posting ALL of them, and will probably spread my posts out so as not to bore you all!

Here's my little girl all tuckered from the drive!

Potty break! (I wasn't going to post this, but it was just too funny!)

We stopped at this Subway somewhere along the way for lunch and they had this play area for kids with a kitchenette w/food & dishes, books, and a giant chalkboard. It was a nice break for the kids to get out of the card!

Happy 7th Birthday, Jordan!!

Last Saturday was Jordan's 7th birthday and he had a birthday party themed after his favorite Disneyland ride...Splash Mountain! There was a wading pool, a sprinker you hook up to the hose, a couple of slip n slides, and water games. The week before the party, the weather had been cloudy and a little chilly, but luckily it warmed up that day! He had a pretty good turnout even though it was Memorial Day weekend! My kids had a blast in the wading pool!

They even had squirt guns that they gave to the kids with their favors.

My kids aren't quite old enough for the slip n slide and just ran down the slide a couple of times and came back to the pool!

The birthday boy with his "super soaker."

For this game, you have a partner on one side who has a bucket of water and a cup. That person fills the cup with water, throws the water to his partner on the other side who catches the water in their cup, and pours the water out into a cup behind them and whoever fills their cup up first, wins!

I love how Emma is holding her hands in this picture! She's ready to catch that water balloon!

Okay, she didn't catch it, but Michael's partner did, and then he caught it after that! I couldn't belive he made it through to that round! However, his partner dropped the balloon!

After the water balloon toss, a massive water balloon fight broke out and left a couple of empty ice chests with a little bit of water in them. Emma took that as an opportunity to have her own mini pool party!

Me and my girl!

Opening presents!

I guess he really liked the gift we got him!

The awesome Splash Mountain cake Amanda made! She's so talented!

I LOVE baby swimsuit murphs!

Havin' some cake & ice cream!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN!!!