This weekend, Cammie, Angie, and I went on a girls weekend to Portland. The first night our hotel that I had booked turned out to be a total dive so we splurged a little and went for a nice hotel the second night. That hotel was amazing. We did a ton of shopping while we were there. I believe we hit at least 4 major shopping malls. It was even a bit much for ME!!! (and I really am the shopping queen!) But we had a great time and got some amazing deals! My favorite meal of the trip was at Romano's Macaroni Grill. This was my first time eating there and it is so YUMMY! Here we are at Cheesecake Factory eating yet another great meal...
Here's one last shot of us on a very anti-climactic end to our day. We shopped so much and drove around so long that by the time we could settle on a place to go "out" the only place open was Denny's! Oh well, it made it memorable!
We ended our summer with an 8 day road trip hitting up Spokane, Coeur d'Alene Idaho, and Leavenworth. While in Coeur d'Alene, we went to Silverwood Theme Park and the boys had a blast! The boys especially liked the ride where Mommy got splashed and we all got pretty wet! We also visited our friends the Walkers in Colville and Aaron got to do some archery hunting. We took a canoe ride on their little lake and saw some turtles! The boys enjoyed playing with their son Logan and the freedom of playing in the countryside. In Spokane, we went to Pig Out Spokane (kind of like Bite of Seattle only smaller) and ate WAY too much! Our hotel had an indoor pool (which the boys loved) and hot tub (which mommy and daddy loved). We then headed to Leavenworth where we shopped, hiked, played by the river, and went to a farm. When I asked the boys what their favorite part was, Levi said, "the pool," and Landon said, "the aMOOZment park." We really enjoyed spending time together, seeing old friends, and having some time to relax!
We have been running around like crazy preparing for our big trip to the Spokane Valley/Coeur d'Alene area. Amidst my errands between Target, Walmart, the pharmacy, Costco, the church, etc. I started to develop a lovely toothache. So with a little advice from my sister-in-law (dental assistant) I got an appointment to check it out. (A trip to the dentist! Just what I needed to add to my schedule!) Since this is a tooth that was recently worked on and had a filling, I feared the worst! After taking an x-ray they determined that it was just aggravated from my clenching associated with not wearing my nightguard for 2 nights and from stress/anxiety from getting ready for our trip. Now, I'm thinking to myself, how sad is it that I caused myself a toothache by being stressed and anxious about VACATION??!!! Yet another sign that we Americans are far too busy. So luckily, I will not be starting out our vacation with a root canal or any other type of dental work! YAY! what a relief!
So, we leave tomorrow. I plan to take lots of pics of our trip and post them when we get back. We will be coming home on Sept. 5th in time for Aaron to be in a wedding on Sept. 6th!
So the kids are away staying the night at grandma and grandpas so that I can get some work done. So what am I doing? The all so important updating of my blog! That should really top the priority list, right? Anyhow, I think I have finally decided on Levi's schooling for next year. Homeschooling it is. I have changed my mind MANY times, but in light of the number of uncertainties looming in our future, I'm thinking the flexibility that homeschooling offers will be better suited for our family. Now I just have to break the news to Levi. He's going to be dissapointed, but I'm hoping to divert his attention by enrolling him in soccer and some other activities. So, any of you teacher friends out there in blog land, I'm all about any ideas you can give me!
So once again, I have stolen an idea from my friend Lisa -and I'm so glad I did! Yay for a new easy lunch idea. The idea here is to put together a quick lunch while offering a variety of "finger" foods. The kids think it's super fun to eat from the muffin tin as well!
From top left, Row 1: Graham crackers, applesauce (to dip the graham crackers in), cashews, cheeseburger quarter for boy#1
Row 2: Salt & Vinegar potato chips, raisins, string cheese bites, cheeseburger quarter for boy#2
Row 3: Lunchmeat ham, gummy fruit snacks, chocolate chips, mandarin oranges
It was a hit! My kids ate a much more than normal!
Thanks Lisa!!
I created these one and three tier diaper cakes for centerpieces at a friend's shower. The one tiered cake is filled with all sorts of baby goodies. The three tiered cake is mostly diapers with 2 baby bottles used as the central support; one bottle filled with Hershey kisses, the other is the vase for the flowers.
We camped at Lake Chelan this Memorial Day weekend. I do believe it will be our LAST camping excursion on a Memorial Day weekend EVER. It absolutely poured on us. We did have some pretty good weather one day though which made it worth our while. We boated over to a little beach with tons of butterflies and the kids got to hold them and watch them for a long time. 
So, I was inspired by my friend Lisa to write about the books our family has been reading lately. Aaron has been reading The Count of Monte Cristo. He just finished Kite Runner and now I'm going to start it next. I just finished Water for Elephants, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and Love in the Time of Cholera. I'm currently reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle to Levi, while Landon still prefers any shorter selection from our home library.
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