Holy Smokes!

The yearly Youth Boating activity has been planned all Season.  OF COURSE it's going to happen that we all wake up to severe smoke blown in from Canadian fires!

If there is a chance for Tyson to get up on a tube and surf, he's going to do it, no matter that he hasn't been boating since we sold our boat.  Love that kid!

You should be able to see the Angel Moroni and an entire mountain in the distance!

Color & Spell

I got two texts on the same day, one from Ashlee and one from Russ.

Ashlee: Everly just asked me if I would help her print off a coloring page that says, "Aunt loves child and child loves Aunt."

A few hours later, Russ sent me a text with this picture...

"Dad, how do you spell 'always?'"  

On the back of the one you can already see is colored, Everly wrote, "Aunt loves child and child loves Aunt," and on the one you can see she is writing, it says, "You will always be the best Aunt."

 Being an Aunt is one of the best positions in the world! 

I'm the luckiest girl in the world

Chicken Salad

 Conversation with Sister Missionaries:

Me: We are hosting you for dinner tomorrow.  1) What time works best for you? and 2) What sounds good?  I love doing requests!!  If you want dessert as well, let me know what sounds good.  If not, I will not have one.  We are excited to have you in our home.  Would you possibly come with stories of temple experiences that made an impact on your lives?

Sisters: Sweet! Thanks so much for having us! 1) 5:00 pm and 2) Chipotle Chicken Salad.  We would love to share stories of the temple experiences we've had!

Me: You are going to laugh, but we need clarification.  When I told my family the request for tomorrow, no joke, we all interpreted it differently.

1) The actual restaurant, Chipotle-- Chicken Salad, 2) Chicken Salad that you put on Croissants that is flavored with Chipotle seasoning, 3) Sald with Chipotle ranch-style dressing, 4) Chicken that is marinated in a Chipotle sauce that is served over salad.

Sisters: #3.  Sorry for the confusion!!

Me: No worries!!  This is one of those instances where we're shown in a simple way that we don't all think the same, but no one is wrong.  Just fun.

For the record: Randy is the one that interpreted their meal choice correctly.  He was right.  I was less-right.

The Stand

Since last year, the kids have been excited for the Wilstermans to come and do an Italian Soda Stand with them.  Today was that day!

Austen made cookies, Tyson and Brennon set up the Stand, all other girls made signs, and they were in business!

It was another $100+ day for this stand!  The girls were adorable with their dancing moves, which made it that much more fun for everyone, including those that stopped.

There are times that I loathe living on a street that people use so often, but today was not one of those days.  I am so glad it was such a success after and entire YEAR of waiting for it to finally happen.  Cousin time is the BEST time!
 

Surpr-ice cream

 Ashlee's family left for home today.  When I went to grab something from our deep freeze, I noticed this...

Austen had left an individual ice cream cup gift behind for "Uncle Randy."  Love it!!

Moses Lake Temple Open House

Moses Lake Temple Open House

Announced: April 7, 2019

Ground Breaking: October 10, 2020

Dedication: September 17, 2023, by Quentin L. Cook

 Keilie and Dallin met us in Moses Lake after a week spent with Justin & Megan in Priest Lake, ID.  It was amazing to look around the Celestial Room at all of my kids, hoping with my whole soul that Caden was able to join us for those few minutes of peace.  It was a wonderful day!

Pool Party

As Brennon's gotten bigger, his inverted sternum has become more pronounced.  We thought it would be fun to see if it holds water.  Look at that, a swimming pool for ants at our swimming pool!  Fun!

Ashlee made mention that all of her girls have learned to swim in this pool.  Such good memories have been made in this pool!  There are times we think about selling the membership because we are getting more and more busy as the kids get older.  But when we have people visit and have such a good time in a pool that is never too crowded, I'm always reminded that this pool, with its yearly payments, is bigger than a backyard pool we'd install, and costs less than a backyard pool would cost.  So, we'll keep it for another year.  Probably.
 

Bro-date

Randy met Russ in Seattle for a pre-season Seahawks game.  I'm so glad they are close enough to do such fun things together!

Ashlee and the girls came down early, leaving Russ home to work.  Randy drove up on Thursday afternoon, meeting Russ and a few co-workers in Northgate.  After the game, Randy drove Russ down to Richland, arriving home at 2:00 am.  SEAHAWKS WON!!! We're already looking for tickets to double, they had such a good time!

Bronco Babes

Austen and I, surprise twinning!

 

Kayak

 We may have sold our boat to have more time to travel the nation in an RV, but that doesn't mean we don't want to play on the three rivers we live so close to.  So, we spent the Season buying discount kayaks this year.  We now have two small kayaks for grandkids, and enough large kayaks for our growing kids to have their own.  We get out as often as we can.  It's our favorite thing to do each night after work is done.

I was struck at this moment by my beautiful life.  They'd just made a slow-motion video of Tyson dropping a ball into the river and the verticle splash that it created.  As they looked at the video, I just watched them.  I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

Brennon had dunked his head into the water and sat up quickly sort of a reverse-Ariel move.  He asked what his hair looked like, so I took a picture to show him.  Again, I was struck by my beautiful life.  He is getting tall, becoming so mature, looking so much like a handsome man.  

He reminds me so much of Caden, especially at this age.  Caden will be stuck at this age, this height, this vitality forever in my mind.  I see Brennon, but I see Caden, too.

The kids thought we got them new kayaks because they are getting bigger.  Nope, this is the real reason...

Puppy-sit

 While Keilie is camping with the Pratts this week, we got to puppy-sit Bailey.  She is the sweetest puppy!  It's going to be fun watching her grow up with our Mira and Max, and then someday grow up with her very own human baby.

Face-to-face

 FamilySearch has an activity that does facial recognition of ancestors, both close familial and celebrity.

Pocahontas-- she was a stunner (sarcasm)

I Love Lucy-- which I don't mind one bit

However, although I expected to look like my Grandparents, I was a touch sad that I most resembled Men from my family line.  Love them, but every woman wants feminine qualities in appearance...

Beethoven-- I want his musical talent, not jawline and furrowed brow

47% Grandpa Kimber (Mom's Dad)

56% great-great-great Grandpa Freeman (Grandma Fuller's great-grandpa)

I also think it is really neat that the Song of the Year the year I was born is my parent's wedding song.

I have really, really, really enjoyed the work I've done on FamilySearch this past year.  September 15th will be exactly one year since I started going to the temple almost every day of the week.  I've already surpassed 3,000 ordinances completed with our family!