Another awesome day on the boat!

This was our best day yet at the lake.  We invited the Willard's to come along and the sun and the good hot weather invited itself.  We couldn't have asked for a better day.  No one wanted to head home.  Josie did awesome on the knee board today, she even tried a few times to get up on the skiis, no luck....maybe next time.  We did a lot, a lot of tubing, a lot of wake boarding, surfing, some skiing and a lot of swimming.  We even saw a beautiful bald eagle.  Ahhh....summer days, with friends, a boat, the sun so hot you just gotta get in the water and more blessings than I can count...is my kind of happy place.

Fire Station Open house

On the way home from picking Conor up at diabetes camp we stopped to get slushies at Maverick since Josie's b-day stop was a bust and I owed the kids for working really hard one afternoon hauling wood. We were leaving and saw a sign advertising the firehouse open house. We had some time to kill since Daddy was out of town so we headed over for the free hot dogs and fun. It turned out to be a really cool event. We were able to watch a reenactment of a car accident and the firefighters using the jaws of life. Josie stood in line for about an hour to get a beautiful butterfly painted on her face. All the kids got a chance to spray the fire hose and climb in all the trucks and ambulances. Lastly we got to see life flight land and then climb in the helicopter and see how it works. The crazy wind and dust that is kicked up when the helicopter landed was unexpected, but a fun bonus. Hats off to those who keep us safe in Spokane.

Josie's is 7!

Josie celebrated all day! She woke up to a decorated room, we headed off to swimming lessons, we went to the movies with Lyndsey and then Lyndsey stayed to play all day. We had Josie's favorite broccoli and cheese soup for dinner then we had cake and ice cream and presents with the Willard's. What a fun day! She also got to invite a few special friends rollerskating a few days later. The rollerskating rink was a little toasty and the slushie machine was broken but we rolled with it and came home to play in the water on the trampoline, paint our nails and laugh and play with her besties. 7 years has sure flown by. I hope the next 7 slow down.

-Josie is 7 today!  We decorated her door with streamers

-Chocolate cake and candles for Josie

-Making a wish and blowing...

-PRESENTS!

-I think this was her favorite present - hair chalk

-Beautiful Josie with Riley, Delaney and Lauren

-Rollerskating

-Opening presents with the girls

-Trying to cool off

Some mid July summer miscellaneous

Conor went to Camp Stix again this year.  I am so grateful for this camp and I cannot express how much I appreciate all the wonderful staff who make it possible for these diabetic kids to go to camp and live a week of normalcy. We miss Conor while he is gone, but we are glad he gets the opportunity. We got to go swimming at the Wilson's pool and enjoy some yummy snow cones.  While Conor was gone we went down to riverfront park to play in the fountain and enjoy the park.  Lastly we had a crazy storm blow through here.  It lasted about 10 minutes but it packed a serious punch.  There were 60 mph winds and the damage was extensive.  Many many beautiful, giant pine trees blew over and caused severe damage.  Anything that wasn't bolted down flew.  You should have seen the pictures of trampolines demolished like tooth picks, cars, sheds, houses crushed.  This picture is of our neighbors house.  The damage all around was amazing.  We were without power for about 15 hours.  We were the lucky ones.  Some of the neighboring subdivisions didn't get power for about 44 hours.  What a mess. 

-No tears today.  So excited for a week of fun

Conor and his buddy Landon in the middle.  Landon moved to South Dakota but still came back this year 

-Snow cones with the Wilson's

-Cooling off in the pool

-J and L running through the fountain downtown

-Tormenting the geese

-gotta take a picture of the Spokane blocks in our swimsuits

-Our neighbors house with a tree resting on it

-Family photo op sitting on the front porch waiting for the power to come on

Swim Lessons, Tennis and Golf

Summer always includes some swimming lessons and tennis at our house. This year Nora joined us for tennis which was nice for carpooling. Both Conor and Josie are doing great and really getting better each time they pick up a racquet. We love Whitworth for putting together such a great program.
Josie did swimming lessons this year and she is looking amazing! She is getting some strokes down, her dive is great and she really loves the water. Lincoln did a 30 minute lesson just to see how he would do. He is a little cautious, but not freak out cry if I get water on my face cautious. He loves the water with his life jacket and will be all ready for lessons in a few years. Funny thing happened on one of our swim lesson days. Lincoln would always play with his trucks while Josie swam and was happy waiting, it was time to leave so I told him to go put away the trucks and so he heads off. I look up just in time to watch him bounce into the shallow end of the pool. He was pushing his truck and just cut the corner a little close and toppled in. Clothes and all. We fished him out and he wasn't traumatized at all. He was more annoyed that his shoes and clothes were wet. It is a good reminder though to always keep your eye on those little ones around the water. We were lucky I was watching. It makes me giggle now looking back.
This summer we also were able to do a golf camp.  Conor learned a lot and met some good friends.  We were sad it was only a week.  The last day was a scramble where they played 9 holes and kept score.  I got to tag along and help with the scoring. 

-Levi and Lincoln

-Riley and Josie

-Levi, Josie and Riley

-Josie's feet

-Josie getting ready for a dive

-Conor and Josie inside the tennis bubble

-Nora, Josie and Conor

Conor and his friends, Kaiden and Preston

After his scramble.

Boating with the Wilson's

We spent a beautiful Saturday up at the Pend Orielle river with the Wilson's. We packed our lunches and played all day. This was the trip that I soaked all the little ones who were dry and happy in the bow. I was trying to be nice because there were giant waves and I slowed down and submerged the front. Ooops...I won't do that again.  I guess I can claim they looked hot and I was trying to cool them off.  We are sure loving spending our Saturdays on the boat.  We especially love it when friends come along. 

-Sydney, Conor, Josie, Zack and Ginger

-Dave, Zack, Conor and Kevin

-Ginger and Dave

-Josie, Sydney, Lynds, Conor and Zack

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen

Look who showed up at our house! Grandma and Grandpa came up to see us since they were itching to get on the road and they headed our direction. We love having them come spend time with us. We hung out at our house and Spokane for a few days then we took the motor home up to Loon Lake so the kids could play at the beach and "camp." Since Josie's b-day was the day after they left we started the celebration early. She wanted to go to Tomato Street so we went there and then we had an ice-cream sandwich candle blow out and presents with them. Oh, and we can't forget the train! The campground is right next to some train tracks so the kids put pennies on the track and were crossing their fingers that a train would come. One did!  Kevin had to go home so he left and noticed that a train was coming and called us so we could watch for it.  The picture of the kids in the dark is them watching the train go past in the dark. They were so excited. The pennies turned out amazingly flat-the kids couldn't even find them when they went to look for them because they were unrecognizable. I finally had to join the search and we found them all.  They looked like leaves. We sure love our Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen. Miss you guys!

-After church photo snap

-Enjoying the front porch with Grandma

-Full tummies after eating at Tomato Street

-Look at these happy co-pilots

-picnic for dinner

-Happy early birthday Josie

-Josie with G & G 

A TRAIN...A TRAIN!!!

"camping" in the motohome

-Conor caught a fish with a net

-Playing on the beach for hours.  What a relaxing few days.