Classic Natalie

This picture Jen captured of Natalie is so CLASSIC.

I get this face a lot, and am so happy I now have blackmail for when this girl is a teenager!

The Beach Is Magical

I picked up Jen and her kids from the airport yesterday, and we arrived at the beach to meet my kids late last night.  A big thank you to Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bill for taking care of them for a few days!

The kids could not wait to get to the beach this morning.  We awoke to blue skies and lots of sunshine!  Tide was low, and the girls could not resist the tide pools.  Natalie was soaked in minutes, as usual. The boys disappeared in the beach grass for some exploring and "hunting".

We took a break for a grocery store run and some lunch, then headed back down to the beach for the afternoon.  What a life!  The kids had the best time.  It is so much fun to watch them all together.  The beach is truly a magical place!

The only bad part of the day was that I realized I forgot the SIM card for my camera so it was unusable all weekend.  Such a bummer!  A big thanks to Jen for taking so many great pictures, and letting me use her camera when I needed a fix.

These nudey girls are so adorable!

Fabric Art

After the baseball tournament on Sunday, Grandpa Bill took the kids home with him.  Woo hoo!

They were so excited to spend time at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and David and I were just as excited for a chaos-free house!

Grandma Karen had lots of fun things planned for them, like this fabric art.  What a cool idea!  It will be so much fun to see how it turned out.

One Final Tournament

Just when we thought we were done with baseball, one final tournament popped up.

Ryan practiced Tuesday and Thursday with his IBC team this week, then played in a tournament in Everett on Saturday and Sunday.  They played in the 9U age group this time around, so faced tougher competition than they had all season.

They did great on Saturday, winning both games.  The girls and I made it up for the second game, and I loved watching my boy play again.  He made some great plays at first base, and had a couple great hits.

These two are so much fun to watch, too!

The team played again early Sunday morning. We decided waking the girls up super early to drag them to baseball was not a good idea and while I was sad not to be there, I loved getting updates from David.  They ended up losing both games, but David said Ryan played the best he's ever seen him play.  Yay Ryan!  Apparently he was a hitting fool!  

It was a great season with a great team!  Ryan was so lucky to have such great coaches and great teammates.  

Natalie's Sea Otter

The kids worked on birthday cards for Grandma Karen today.  When Natalie was done she said, "look at my sea otter mom".

I have to say I was quite impressed.  Nice work, Natalie!

Adventure Wednesday

My friend Ana and I took the kids blueberry picking today, then we ended up at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center and Rattlesnake Lake.  What a day of fun!  We left the house at 9 and didn't get home until 6pm kind of fun!

The weather and the scenery were fantastic all day.

We hadn't planned on swimming, but the kids jumped in the lake with their clothes on anyway.  They loved exploring the lake and the large stumps made it extra fun.  It was a little discerning to see how low the lake was.

We're looking forward to our next adventure!

They can make a bat and ball out of anything!

We will definitely be back to visit the dripping drums. They are so soothing.