August highlights!

Our two big August events....a trip to Boise for a wedding and a camping trip with my family!

Steve's sister, Cheryl, married Glenn on Aug. 8th, and they asked Travis to be the ring bearer. Can I just say - he was pretty much the cutest ring bearer I've ever seen :) He wasn't a huge fan of the shoes he had to wear all day, but other than that, enjoyed feeling important. The not-so-fun part of the trip was the drive back (we did most of the drive there at night, so the kids slept)...the trip back took I think 14 hours? After our trip to Klamath and then Portland and then this Boise trip, I am so sick of long car trips with little kids that I swear I'll never do one again :) Anyway, other than that, we had a fun weekend with family, and the kids loved playing with cousins. My mom and Bonnie and Becky were able to come, as well, so that was fun to have them at the wedding.

Mid-August brought the long-awaited Schwartz family annual camping trip!! This year, we went to Ike Kinswa State Park on....I'm spacing on the name of the lake. The weather couldn't have been more perfect! And my dad brought his boat up, so we were able to add boat rides to our usual activities of eating, playing with kids, swimming, and hanging around the campfire. Travis and Jayna slept in the bed of Steve's truck, which they thought was pretty cool, and Evan did really well in the tent with us. I will say that Evan made camping this summer a rather exhausting experience...the kid doesn't sit still, and anytime he wasn't being held, he'd make a beeline for either the road or the water. He is the reason I apparently didn't very many pictures of that weekend. But still a very memorable and too-short weekend!

Portland Zoo and camping at East Lake

Toward the end of July, I took the kids down to Portland for a trip to the zoo with one of my mothers-in-law, her daughters, and their kids. We had so much fun together! It turned out to be a super hot day, which, with 7 young kids and a very large zoo, meant that we didn't see the whole zoo. But that just means we'll have to do it again!

That was a Saturday...that night, I left the kids in Portland with the grandparents so that I could get home and get us packed for camping trip #2 of the summer. We headed down to central Oregon - specifically, East Lake - for some camping with Steve's mom, sister and her almost-husband, aunt, and cousins. Some family friends were so generous to lend us their trailer, which was so great! I love sleeping in a tent, but a trailer (with toilet and running water) really does make things a lot easier when you have young kids. Especially since....it rained. A lot. But not the entire time, and as some of the pictures will show, the rain didn't slow the kids down too much!

4 of the 7 - I wish we'd thought to get a picture of all of them.

It took a lot of fussing for him to fall asleep, but he finally did.

I just love elephants!

This dinosaur was motorized and made some small movements. Travis was a little freaked at first, then thought it was pretty cool.

I wasn't a big fan of the first part of the zoo. The walkways were really narrow (which doesn't work on a crowded summer day), and the animals were spread pretty far apart. So we had kind of a slow start, and as you can see, Jayna was not impressed :) But it got lots better.

This, I think, was the kids' favorite part of the day - or at least the part they talked about the most afterward. I can't even tell you what kind of an animal that is, but it was right at their eye level and was putting on quite a show for them!

One of Evan's favorites - spaghetti!

Both Travis and Jayna caught their first real fish on this camping trip. Well, kind of. Travis caught a fish at u-fish once, but that doesn't count. And really, these were "junk" fish the kids caught...but they don't know the difference! Travis actually caught 8, I think, and for the first 7, he didn't want anywhere near them. But by the end, he was willing to hold one wrapped in a washcloth, and even throw it back out to the seagulls for them to eat. Fun times!

On the last full day, it poured. To the point where the tent people were digging trenches around their tents to keep the water from flooding their tents. Evan - he didn't mind one bit! In fact, it was his mission to pace back and forth and tromp through these two giant mud puddles as many times as possible. Nothing could deter him - he didn't even look up when we said his name. Sometimes I wonder how he and Travis could possibly be brothers!

Summer catch-up part 1

I really want to start doing a better job of maintaining this blog! My problem is that I just can't bring myself to do things out of order. So I get further and further behind, and then it seems like such a daunting task to catch up. And I decide to do something else with my beloved evening free time :) But in the meantime, I often think of little things to blog about, but since I can't do things out of order....you get the point. So this week, I'm going to get caught up! To start, our summer....(which will require a few posts)

First, a few pictures from before our our trip to Klamath (well look at that, I'm going out of order!)

In late June, my mom made her annual trip to Bellingham and stopped for a few days to stay with us - and brought my sissy Becky with her! I don't remember what all we did, but a highlight was going strawberry picking! We picked A LOT of berries!!! I made a ton of jam (between that and the raspberry jam I made, we're set for the year!), and froze a bunch of berries, too.

Travis and Jayna's birthdays fall just 11 days apart, so this year, we had a small little immediate-family party for each of them, but then a joint one for extended family. I am so very thankful for the people in our lives who love our kids! And I love these pics of the two of them.

In mid-July (note: AFTER Klamath:), we want a spontaneous and short camping trip with most of Steve's squad. I admit, I was a bit nervous about it, as I had only met a few of these guys. But we had a fun time! The weather was great, and the only other family there happened to have two young boys who had a great time playing with our kids.

And this was just some random afternoon, hanging out in the kiddie pool!

A week in Klamath

I suppose if I wanted to, I could come up with much to blog about from the last month...but I dont' want to. :) We've been on adventure after adventure this summer, and so far, it hasn't been too much. Instead of taking hours to play catch-up on everything we've been up to, I just wanted to post about our most recent adventure - a week at my parents' in Klamath Falls, OR!

It was a wonderful week! Klamath is so different from Tacoma, and in most ways we don't think we could ever move back. But not necessarily because it's a bad place - just because we've become so used to Tacoma/Seattle and all this area has to offer.

Originally, Steve was supposed to spend the whole week with us, but it turned out that he had to work (it was July 4th weekend, which is when pretty much EVERY officer in Tacoma is required to work). This meant that the drive down was not so much fun. Evan fussed almost the whole time, which is enough to drive anyone insane. Then Steve rode the train down a few days later and still spent 4 days there with us.

I have to pause here, because I know there are some who don't know this....my parents still live in the house we grew up in (for me, from mid-elementary on), which is also directly next door to the house where Steve lived from the day he was born until the day he graduated. His mom no longer lives there and the new neighbors have made many changes to the place, but it was still fun to be able to tell Travis that this house was where mommy grew up and that house was where daddy grew up. Travis and Steve even rode bikes together - Travis learning on the same street where Steve learned to ride a bike.

Anyway, once we made it, we had a great time. We arrived July 3rd, and the next morning we got to go to church, at the church I grew up attending. I love that place so much. It's funny because the church we attend now (RVCC) and the church we grew up in (BBC) are so different, yet they're both places I love very much. I guess they're alike in a lot of ways, too. This is the church (BBC) where my faith (and Steve's) was really solidified, where we were baptized, where we got married, where I had the BEST youth group experience one could ask for, and where I was known and loved by so many really great people. I always time my visits to KF around a Sunday so that I get to see these people! Later, my parents had some friends over and we had a really nice 4th of July with good food and fireworks around the firepit.

The rest of the week was lazy and great! My parents have a huge yard, so we had toys and the pool and the slip-n-slide out and went through a whole lot of sunscreen! It was nice and hot, but my parents have AC, which was nice to escape to. The kids loved playing with grandma and grandpa! And the best part was that my brother and his family were able to join us for the last few days! (they are currently spending time here in the NW between just leaving AZ and moving to VA next month...so we don't see them often. Jayna is STILL asking when "cousin Ada" is coming over.

And toward the end of the week, Steve and I had fun driving around town, visiting a few favorite places and reminiscing. Thanks, mom and dad, for your hospitality and help! We all loved our visit!

Fun with sparklers! One time when I was young, I accidentally put a sparkler up to my neck and burnt off several layers of skin. I still remember my dad and uncles holding me over my grandparents' sink, doing what they could to treat the area. So, I'm not a big sparkler fan, and it makes me VERY nervous to see my kids holding them. But Travis did a great job holding it FAR from his body :) At the park/lake...throwing rocks, of course.

LOVE this picture!!
Fun on the slip-n-slide! I just want pinch Jayna's little tushie when she's in a swimsuit! Travis and Daddy riding bikes. Travis is still pretty timid on his bike - which is perfectly fine with me!
Jayna and Ada - the only girl cousins. So far, anyway. WHERE is that turtle?!

There it is! Evan loved the turtle (it's hard to tell how big this thing is...but it's huge!) By "loved", I mean that Evan put his head on it, stood on it, poked her legs...the turtle was quite tolerant :)

The kids, jumping from couch to air mattress, air mattress to couch... you should have heard the giggles!

Travis' thoughts on Daddy

For Father's Day this year, I came up with the idea of interviewing the kids regarding their thoughts on "Daddy". Jayna wasn't quite up to the task, but I had a lot of fun asking Travis the questions and hearing his answers! He got quite a kick out of it, too. This may just be a new Father's Day tradition...

Everything here is exactly as Travis said it :)

Why did God make daddies?
T: To help us. To take care of us. And when you (as in me) are making food, someone has to watch us.

What are some of your names for Daddy?
T: Daddy, Daddy-o (giggle)

What does daddy look like?
T: Tall, has a huge nose, hair is like “this”(fingers a half-inch apart) short, has big feet, has big legs.

How old is daddy?
T: 31 (which is correct!)

My favorite thing to do with daddy…
T: Play baseball, all the time. Kick balls back and forth.

I don’t like when daddy…
T: Pushes me down, throws pillows at me. (he's referring to when they "wrestle" - and he actually loves it when Steve does these things :)

What does daddy do at work?
T: Makes sure everybody’s nice. Drives a police car. Eats. (lol!)

Why does daddy work?
T: So we can live in our house. To make sure no one wrecks. To make sure people go on the green light and not the red light. (shaking his finger and emphasizing "not the red light")

Something funny that daddy does…
T: Makes jokes.

What are some things daddy loves to do in his spare time?
T: Read the newspaper. Eat. Eat.

Daddy taught me…
T: How to throw a baseball the right way. How to play Taboo (?????). To look two times before I cross the street. To be nice to Jayna.

Mommy loves daddy because…
Because he loves you (me). He makes sure we don’t say bad things when you make food.


Pretty observant kid, I'd say!

Our summer...

Summer - aka my favorite time of year - is here!! Yahoo!! And this summer is going to be a great one, as we have lots of fun trips/activities planned. Though I admit that we may have overbooked ourselves a tad. I'm praying now that I won't get stressed out over the preparations for any of it, and that we'll be able to really enjoy our time together and make lots of good memories. Here's our summer at a glance:

This week: Jayna's birthday on Thursday!, bridal shower in Portland on Saturday, and Father's Day on Sunday.

My mom (and sister, right Becky?) coming for a visit next week.

Joint Travis/Jayna birthday party with extended family.

Travis' and nephew's birthday.

Trip to visit the family in Klamath Falls (Steve gets to go, too!). This is in early July.

Trip to Portland zoo with some of Steve's family.

Camping trip in central OR with others of Steve's family.

Trip to Boise, ID for Steve's sister's wedding - Travis is the ring bearer!

Camping trip with my family at Ike Kinswa State Park - can't wait!

Our anniversary. (though we probably won't do much, since we're saving a bigger trip for our tenth next year)

Church camping trip.

And on top of all of that, I'll be leading a weekly Bible study for moms at church (there are 28 signed up!, more on that later...); I'll also be training for a 1/2 marathon (more on that later, too)!! Which I'll run on Sept. 26th.

Phew! I'm a little bit exhausted just reading that list! And as much as I'm looking forward to all of those things, I'm also really excited for the days we'll just be home, going to parks, farmers markets, playing in the backyard, etc.

What does your summer look like?!