Welcome Home!

It's great to be home in Seattle! We are very excited to have three weeks to spend with Grandma and Grandpa High and all our cousins out here!

(This is a welcome sign my mom made with all of our names on it- too bad the bright Seattle sun makes it hard to read!)

Little Terrorist

Apparently there are mothers in this world who carefully pack each and every child's bag when they go on vacation.

I am not one of those moms.

I give them a list of what to pack and then expect that they pack those items. And if they don't- too bad.

As for carry-ons, I just tell them to pack what will keep them entertained on the plane- again, trusting that they know what to do.

Unfortunately, this lassiez-faire parenting style got us in a little bit of trouble. Apparently, I am raising a budding terrorist:

This seemingly adorable and innocent child attempted to bring a snow globe (gasp!) on the airplane. They pulled her pink Olivia backpack to the side and proceeded to pull out stuffed animal after stuffed animal (I had no idea so many stuffed animals could fit into one backpack). It was quite hilarious.

Thankfully, the abhorrent snow globe was uncovered. The security agent dumped out the water from the globe, and the world was safe once again.

I gotta watch out for this one...

Be A Spy!

Last year we went to Be A Spy at the library, so when I saw it come up again I immediately signed the girls up! And, bonus- this year Camille got to go! Once again, the library knocked it out of the park and did a fabulous job. We have an amazing library. I love them.

The obstacle course was the favorite, but Audra is eating a paper clue which was also pretty awesome- edible paper and markers!

Nature Play

For today's hike, we didn't do a hike. Instead, we went to an area where the kids could play in a forest/stream. A lot of people came, but only a few stayed longer than an hour.

We ended up staying for 3, and truthfully the kids could have stayed for a lot longer. They worked together to build a "Wookie Village." Even though they seemed a little bored at first and weren't quite sure what to do, they eventually got super creative, made up some games, and built their little village.

I read an article that kids should be outside for 3 hours a day. So far this summer we have accomplished that almost every day. They haven't watched any TV during the day. We'll see if we can keep this up, but so far the mud, bugs, and scratches have been wonderful for these kids.

The kids caught an inch-worm, and somehow we ended up being the lucky ones to bring it home:

Father's Day Family Home Evening

Tonight for Family Home Evening we talked about fathers- our earthly father, and our Heavenly Father. We started with this video, then I had the girls write down things that they appreciate about their dad. Here is what they wrote:
Camille:

- He reads me stories
-He works for us and gives us money
-He wraps me up in my blanket when I go to bed
-He fixes computers at work
-He fixed the hole in my bicycle tire
-I'm glad that he loves me
-He buys us donuts
-He buys us pizza
-He guards me

Claire:

-He reads me books
-He plays soccer with me
-He gives me hugs
-He plays video games with me
-He helps me
-He set up the swing set for me

Audra:

-He lets me watch him play video games
-He gives me hugs
-He loves me
-He reads to me before bed time
-He fixes my bike
-He goes on rides with me at the North Pole
-He dances to music with me
-He gives me kisses
-He talks to me at dinner time

The Rock

I am organizing summer hikes again, which is a ton of fun. It gets me out of the house, which I need, and it gets the kids out in nature, which is one of my biggest goals for this summer. I really want the kids to just be outside exploring, getting dirty, and coming home with scrapes and bruises.

Today we did The Rock. It's a pretty short but steep hike that goes to the top of a mountain with great overlooks of Castle Rock (it reminds me of the Y for you BYU peeps). From the top, you can then take a rock climbing route to the top of a huge rock with a star and a flag on top.

To get to the very tip top, you have to do some pretty serious rock climbing. It is relatively dangerous, but of course all three of my kids started going up and refused to come down when I told them they couldn't go up. There was one mom up there helping the kids, and I quickly realized one mom couldn't handle all the dangers of the rock with the kids alone, so I started climbing up to help out. I didn't want to go all the way to the top. All the kids made it, but the last part was quite scary, and I didn't have anybody to help carry me over the danger. But, then Claire came over and said, "Mom, please come up! We want to show you the star!"

Well, how could I turn that down? I had no choice. So I went up.

It was a lot of fun- the girls loved it. We came home very tired! We should definitely all sleep well tonight.

Our Favorite Tradition

Today we went to one of our favorite places on the planet: The North Pole. This was at least our 7th year. The girls get so excited- last night they made a list of what order they wanted to do the rides. It was great.

Of course, we had to end the day with some ice-cream:

We thought we might have a short day. Storms came in, and it started to look pretty bad. But, we toughed it out and we were rewarded. A lot of people left around 1 when the rain was coming down pretty hard. But, after about 45 minutes the rain stopped, and even though it was cold it was OK. I grabbed some blankets and a jacket and long sleeved shirt that were in the van waiting to be donated, and we attempted to bundle up and kept on trekking. Around 3 the sun came out and things warmed up- but there were ZERO lines. This place is never busy, but the girls literally didn't even have to wait for 8 seconds for each ride.

Overall, another great day The North Pole. We LOVE this place!!! It's easily one of our favorite family traditions.