Continue of Alaska Trip

We wanted to go on a hike that Michael could go on with us. My sister Laurie suggested this one called Lazy Mountain. By the name of it I thought it sounded PERFECT! Ha, I guess you can't judge a mountain by it's name! It was 2 1/2 miles up with an elevation increase of 3,000 ft. Lets just say that it was like being on a stair stepper for 2 and a half hours straight and then you still have to go down the mountain. It was a lot of fun but also a HUGE eye opener of how out of shape I really am! Of course Laurie was skipping and singing the whole way up.




Alan and I had to turn around to go down the mountain about 100 yards before we reached the top of the mountain because of Little Michael. It was getting way too cold for him and he wasn't doing to good. Needless to say he caught a cold because of the trip. Eventually Michael feel asleep as we were coming down the mountain which helped a lot.

I had to include this picture because Michael's hair just looks so funny. With the way the light is hitting his hair it looks like he has a mo hawk!

This is a picture of everyone who went on the hike. The far left is Laurie and her husband Brett, Katie's husband Troy is in the middle and our little family is on the far right.

Alan also got the chance to go golfing late one night and use my Dad's chain saw to cut down a bunch of trees in my parent's yard (his idea). We played lots of games and just enjoyed everyone's company. I am so glad that we were able to go visit my family this summer. I wish I would of taken more pictures of everyone else but at least I have the fun memories! I sure love my family and I can't wait until we get to see them again. Thanks you guys for putting up with us. We sure did enjoy seeing all of you!

The Birthday Boys!

We have a lot of Birthdays in the month of June for our little family. Alan's was the 16th and Michael's was two days later. Since we were flying out to Alaska on Michael's Birthday we decided to celebrate it a day early. With everyone being sick and the big trip coming up we didn't get to do too much for their Birthdays but it was still fun.

Alan requested the usual (strawberry rhubarb pie). I couldn't find rhubarb in the stores anywhere so I ended up having to buy one. It was really.... good, especially since I didn't have to make it! =)

I actually let Michael make a huge mess with his cup cake and he loved it. I think most of it ended up on the counter or the floor instead of his mouth but it wasn't too bad to clean up.

We bought Michael a hiking back pack, a quiet book and some clothes for his Birthday. He kind of got spoiled but most of the gifts were for us so what can I say. We can now take Michael on hikes with us which is a lot of fun! The quiet book was a purchase in hopes to help keep little ones quiet and still during church. We tried it for the first time last Sunday. It worked for a while but I guess I can't expect too much. Church is a long time for little guys. Michael really is a pretty good boy and we sure do love him!

What was I thinking!

So I decided to go crazy and cut my hair. I have had my hair the same way for so long that I was getting really sick and tired of it. To some this hair cut might not be too extreme, but to me it is! I really don't mind the length of it now, but the layers didn't quite turn out like I was hoping. You can't see the shortest layers in this picture but take my word on it that they don't look good. Lets just say that I won't be wearing my hair completely down for a while.

(I used the timer on my camera to take this picture. You just can't beat the run and strike a pose real fast experiences. Not to bad for the first try hu!)

Camping Trip

Alan's brother's and their families came here for Memorial Day weekend. It is always so much fun to have family around! Friday night we went camping around Walla Walla. Here are some pictures of Michael in and around the tent. We took him camping several times last year so I thought it would be no big deal this time. Ha, can I just say that the crawling/learning how to walk stage is really hard out in the woods! The spot that we found had lots of thorn plants all over. Michael couldn't crawl around freely like he wanted to and he was putting everything in his mouth. One night was plenty for the two of us.



As you can see in the background we still have little old "Mighty Max"! I am sure that we will have to buy another vehicle in the near future, but while he is still running we will continue to run him. It is a good thing we have a truck because I don't think all of our camping gear would of fit in our car.

Here is Michael and Eli helping pick up our camp site. They are such great little helpers!

House Hunting Again!

For those of you who did not know, we put an offer on a house about two weeks ago. They accepted our offer and we were all set on buying it, that is until we had the inspection done on it. We knew that it had "problems" but not as bad of problems as it does. Lets just say the house had foundation issues, roofing issues, and a lot of mold! The inspection was well worth the $300 that it cost. I am just so..... glad that we were able to get out of the deal. Phew!

So now it's time to pick up our scattered dreams and start searching again. I am sure that one of these days we will find something that is perfect for us. Until then we will continue saving, searching, and swimming in the apartment complexes swimming pool for free. Yes!

That had to hurt!

As you can see Michael has a black eye. Last night he feel down hitting his face on my elbow. Ouch! There was an instant bruise off to the right of his eye. Michael takes after me and bruises quiet easy. We wondered if he would get a black eye from it. Sure enough, this morning it was there! He is such a good sport though. He hasn't complained about it one bit. As you can see in the pictures he is still happy and up to the usual mischief. Hopefully it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks. Now if only I could learn to not complain so much!

Play time!

Michael loves having friends over to play. This is one of our next door neighbor's kids. I was baby sitting her so that her parents could go on a date that night.

All they did the whole night was eat toys and then eye each other's toys for the next round of eating.

Sharing is a hard concept to grasp right now, but Michael would rather share his toys any day then have to play by himself. You just got to love him!