happy birthday...

...dear Grandad/GG-pa. We love you!

Tough hit by Alan

Here is Wade's first blog post! One of Alan's coaches made this video. Both Alan and the quarterback are OK!

fall fun

My view (from the top bleacher, where Neil makes me sit) of Alan and the rest of the Redmond Mustangs. They just recieved a sound whuppin' from the Bothell Cougars.

I work 3 days a week in the kitchen at The Overlake School, and they made us have our pictures taken for the yearbook. A few weeks later they presented us with packets of school portraits, which cracked me up... Yay, wallet-sized pictures of me! I'll be sure to write my name and the date on the back so I can forever cherish the precious memories of being 37.

Kevin and Alan, doing what 11-year-old boys do ~ jamming on the guitar and playing video games.

Neil playing Uno with his friend Carter.

cub scout mom & me camp

Neil and I went to Mom & Me Camp last weekend!

We had great weather to go with the beautiful scenery.

The cabin we shared with the 10 other mom & son pairs from our Pack.

Learning about trees on the nature hike.

Rehearsing for the campfire skit - Neil & Thomas are airplane pilots, in case you can't tell. :)

Making leather wallets at Arts & Crafts.

This is one of the hills they use for sledding at Winter Camp ~ it's good for running up and down when there's no snow!

Shooting guns ~ a skill no 7-year-old should be without.

At the archery range.

Neil's arrows...he did really well!

Moms getting through the obstacle course. Frances (on the left) is either laughing or screaming in pain, I can't remember which.

Mixing up ingredients for corn bread...

....which the Boy Scout leaders cooked in a dutch oven.

The Boy Scouts know how to make a FIRE

We were up in the clouds...

Our pack of boys

Ready to go home! Me sporting a fashionable unwashed ponytail, Neil with the glazed look of someone who just tried to sleep in a cabin with 20 people. Some of those moms snore like buzzsaws!

first day of school!

Larry, 7th grade

Alan, 6th grade

Neil, 2nd grade

bye-bye, summer...

Alan's football season started with a Labor Day jamboree ~ check out the new uniforms this year!

Usually you can puree some veggies and sneak them into spaghetti sauce without the kids noticing, but the other day I got too bold and added one bell pepper too many. It practically started a riot at the dinner table! I didn't get a picture of Wade, but he was none too happy either...

Poor tortured child.

Now here's a proud moment for a parent. Neil didn't mind because he eats his noodles without sauce...or a fork.

Speaking of Neil, here is a very rare photo of his bedroom - it's actually clean! Trust me, this doesn't happen often.

kicking it

Larry with his soccer coach after the team's 3-day tournament. They won all 4 games & came in 1st place!

ocean shores

This weekend we packed up the car, sardine can-style, and went to Ocean Shores. We stayed here, at the "Clam Castle." Nice place...definitely more on the clammy side than the castle-y side, but that's OK.

Alan brought his friend Nathan ~ here they are playing air hockey.

They all enjoyed the hot tub on the deck.

Pizza at Dugan's. I don't know what Alan is doing with his head...

The weather wasn't great on the second day, so we didn't spend much time on the beach ~ just long enough to fly a kite, feed some seagulls, and get the car stuck in the sand.

See? It was good & stuck. The boys are all in back getting ready to push. Wade is putting something under the tires to get traction. I pretty much just took this picture.

Mine! Mine! Mine! (this will only make sense if you've seen Finding Nemo)... We got all the way back to the cabin before realizing that we'd forgotten the dog at the beach! Ooops.

She was standing around waiting for us, so we brought her home and made it up to her with a little steak for dinner.

Larry brought his friend Jacob ~ here they are after racing Go-Karts

Neil ponders his next shot at the miniature golf course...

Nathan & Alan

Neil up in the bedroom loft

This deer was around quite a bit the first day, but must've gotten sick of Ruby because we didn't see it after that.

Jacob & Larry

16 days till school starts, not that i'm counting

Larry trying to teach the dog to use the remote.

she thinks she's people.

We went to a back-to-school party at the home of our friends, The Q's. True to Washington weather in August, it mostly rained. Here's Neil with his friend Taylor.

Ginormous water slide

Mr. Q at the barbe-Q (heh)