Check it out!

Reagan has had a blog for about a year and a half. Until recently, I didn't really understand the whole blogging thing. With so much stuff happening this summer, I decided to start a blog for Kelsey too, and keep them both updated on everything going on in their lives. This way I can go into more detail and in tell it in their perspective, until they are old enough to write in it themselves. I always ask them about the event before I blog it, and they tell me if I need to add anything or make any changes. And since I don't have a baby book for Gwyn, and since she's young enough, her blog will start with the day she was born. So, be sure to stop by Reagan's and Kelsey's blogs, their links are to the left, and see what they've been doing this summer. 

Our Garden - a work in progress

We have 3 garden plots in our back yard, and this summer I finally got one of them ready to plant a garden. This is our first garden ever so we are keeping it simple. In June I planted carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, tomatoes, and strawberries. You can see the tomato and strawberry plants that I bought. The rest I just planted the seeds. We won't get any strawberries this year because the squirrels or birds eat them before they are even ripe. So, next year I will cover them up a wire fence or something. Hopefully we will have lots of zucchini and pumpkin to make bread, cake, muffins, pies, etc. I will be happy if the tomato plants produce any tomatoes because one less tomato I have to buy at the store, the better.  The watermelon will be a bonus for the kids. As most of you know, I don't like watermelons. Next year I plan to plant in two of the garden plots. The other one still needs some work. 

Here is our garden now! Once we got into the hot weather of upper eighties and nineties, the plans just took off. There are tomatoes growing already. The carrots look flimsy and sparse, so we'll see what happens with them. Feel free to leave any gardening advice. This is all a learning experience for me. 

  

Mom's Retreat Part 2

Incase you were wondering what the rest of the family did while Mom left them for a weekend, let me reassure you that they were ok. Reagan and Kelsey  rode back to Tacoma a couple of days earlier with their Grandma and Grandpa Shumate. They did a lot of this -

Grandma Shumate took them swimming a couple of times and to the park and they got to play with their cousins and Aunt Jaqui and Uncle Travis. They also got to go to Grandma Marini's house and went to Shari's for dinner, saw Kung Fu Panda, and went swimming in the lake twice with their other cousins. They also went sail boating with Uncle Cory and Aunt Danielle. 

Their week was full of non-stop fun, and it ended with a plane ride home. This was their first time on a plane. You can see their excitement as the plane starts to take off. 

And poor Matt, was home all by himself. He managed to find something to keep him company. Meet Cinnamon, the newest member of our family. Reagan said she looked like a cinnamon roll when she curls up, so we named her Cinnamon Roll, or Cin (Sin) for short. Although I really want nothing to do with this snake, I'll have to admit, she's a very pretty snake. The girls love her and can't wait for Dad to get home so they can hold it.

Matt earned his snake. When I got home the house was spotless! He even did some yard work while I was gone. He also hooked up the girls' room by putting up shelves and getting them new reading lamps and each a new pen. What a nice surprise. 

Mom's Scrapbook Retreat

Before moving to Spokane, when I lived in University Place, there was a bunch of us friends that used to get together to scrapbook on a regular basis. Then I moved to Spokane, and shortly after, almost everyone else moved too. Some still live in or near U.P. while others moved on to other states.  Since then we've been able to get together on little scrapbooking retreats. Last year we found a rental house in Issaquah that was perfect for our retreats. We decided to come back again this summer. Our retreat, this year, started on Thursday, the 10th, at Red Robin to celebrate Kelly's birthday. Then off to the house to set up. The first day was me, Dacia, Adrianne, Kelly, and Andrea. Then Tiffany, Sherida, Jen, and Julie joined us on Friday. Saturday morning we got in a couple more hours of scrapbooking before we had to leave. By then I was missing the kids and needed to get caught up on my sleep. I managed to complete 15 pages, which is a record for me! Whoo who!

Here's just one of the funny things we did. On friday, Andrea, Tiffany, and Adrianne left the house for a little while. Dacia, Kelly and I decided to finish the page Adrianne was working on. We added eyeballs, teeth, and a word balloon thing. As you can see by their reaction, it was hilarious! 

Here's all of us on Saturday morning

Fourth of July

We didn't really have any plans for the Fourth of July. Matt's dad started looking for the instructions for our play set thing we bought last year. I gladly gave it to him as well as the drill and anything else he needed. Matt and I had spent many hours on it, and it was only half way done. So Matt came out to help and everyone else just hung out in the back yard, eating otter pops and enjoying the weather. Even our cat hung out with us. Did you notice that we were dressed for the occasion? (We are all wearing red shirts.) I found this was the perfect opportunity to do some weeding in our backyard. After a few hours, the project was completed! My summer just got a whole lot better! I'm so thankful that Matt's dad help us build it. And the girls are thankful too! 

Silverwood - July 3rd

Grandma and Grandpa Shumate wanted to go to Silverwood with us this year. We all had so much fun! We started out with some rides at Silverwood, saw an illusion show and had some ice cream. Then we headed over to Boulder Beach because it was soooooo hot. I don't know what the temperature was but it's safe to say it was in the 90's. It was so fun to play in the water and go down a few slides. Then we watched an ice skating show, rode the train, then one last ride on the carousel before we left. We were all starving by then so Grandpa treated us all to a late dinner at Chili's. Overall, it was a great day. 

When will they be here?

We love living in Spokane Valley and we were excited to move here. The only bad part was leaving behind our family. Someone told me that one thing that is exciting about living away from family is the kids getting excited about going to see Grandma and Grandpa. I'm not saying that kids who live by their grandparents don't get excited to see them, because Reagan and Kelsey have always loved going to Grandma's house. But it's different when you don't get to see them all the time. The excitement is magnified! So, on July 2nd, Grandma and Grandpa Shumate were coming for a visit. After dinner and a few hundred "when will they be heres", we decided to go wait for them outside. 

Finally here! We never know how long it will take Gwyn to remember who they are, but this time she knew immediately! As Grandpa walked towards us, Gwyn walked toward him with her arms up. It was so cute! 

Splash Down!

To get to our house, you will pass Splash Down on the freeway. You can't help but to notice it. 

This is our 3rd summer in Spokane and we finally made it to the water park. I took the girls today because my brother and his family are here from Tacoma and they were going. It was a lot of fun. These pictures were taken at the little kid area because taking pictures on the big slides would have been too difficult. 

Kelsey loved going down the slides. You never know how she's going to react to things that might be a little scary. She couldn't wait to do more until she got water up her nose one time and now she doesn't want anything to do with them. Hopefully she'll get over it before we go to Silverwood in a few days.

This picture came out blurry, but it's the only one I had. Reagan was so psyched to go on the slides. She could hardly stand it and of course, she loved every minute of it. 
Gwyn loves slides, so slides with water was even better. She loved going down the big slides with me and didn't even cry when I accidentally dunked her at the bottom. What a champ! My sister-in-law, Ember, took Gwyn for a little while so I could go down the rides fast. I had to go slow when I went with Gwyn. I also went down the "toilet bowl" ride with Reagan. I don't know what the real name if the ride is, but it's a lot like getting flushed down a toilet, but with clean water, of course. To all my Spokane friends, you know what I'm talking about.

        About 7 pm, it started raining and they closed the park because of lightning. I decided to go to Dairy Queen on the way home. While we were in the drive thru line, a bolt of lightning landed somewhere close to us. It was the loudest crackling sound I ever heard and I felt it "BOOM."  My fingertips on one hand became kind of tingly and sore and my hand felt cold for a good half hour or so afterwards. Weird. Also, it set off the alarms inside the Dairy Queen and knocked out their intercom system. I got everyone a treat and even gave Gwyn a dilly bar. I didn't think it would get too messy because we were about 5 minutes from home. Well, take it from me, dilly bars are not a good idea for babies to eat in a car, especially when the baby doesn't like the outside and only eats the ice cream on the inside. I know... that's a no brainer, but I like to be optimistic.