Wednesday, August 19, 2009

End of Summer Top 5

Well, summer is officially almost over. There are yellow leaves on the trees already, we are busy thinking about back to school shopping, bussing schedules, and what to be for Halloween. My top 5 summer 2009 highlights are:

Seattle Sister Extravaganza: How fun to get together will all of the girls! We must do this at LEAST once every 2 years. Thank you for inspiring me to learn to run. My first goal is to do a 5K in summer of 2010. I have only gone out running a few times so far, as summer scheduling has been all over the place. But once we are into a good fall routine it will be much easier to keep up with it.

Colfax Cousin Camp: Letting the cousins play and get to know each other is priceless. It was so fun to hang out at Betina's beautiful home for a week. I hope that all of our kids - the unborn future ones included, will become good friends.

Disney Family Reunion: Of course Disneyland is the perfect place for a huge family reunion. They just know how to take care of families! Thank you Dad for the awesome holiday, everyone had so much fun. I finally got a chance to do the Indiana Jones ride, and scared myself silly on the Malibu Screamer.

Potty Training, Mina Style: Step one - put on panties. Step two - Throw away diapers. Mission complete. She rocks!

Tooth Fairy Visits: Abby lost 2 teeth this summer, one at Disneyland! She is growing up so much. I love this great girl!


PS: I discovered today that I have a lot of jam in my fridge.
  • ED Smith triple berry
  • Bonne Maman mixed fruit
  • Smuckers Strawberry
  • Smuckers seedless Raspberry
  • Plum Jam
  • Apricot Jam
That seems like a lot, but I keep trying new recipes, and they all need some specific jam.

On the topic of recipes... I am collecting the Christmas recipes this year. So please send me no less than 3 yummy recipes that you have been loving in 2009. Please have this to me by November 15th. Thank you, I will send out a e mail as well. And reminder e mails too.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

About Mina

Two things about Mina this week...

I wish I could say that she is always well behaved, and would never think of running away from her family in public. However, that is not my daughter. She loves to run away, and sometimes just gets distracted and goes her own way. So, I have made a harness for her, to use while in Disneyland. Yes, I admit that I am going to tie my child to a leash. Please do not judge me, I am not a bad parent! Besides, she really likes it, and pretends to be a puppy.

Also, she has foiled my potty training "plans". I was going to think about doing it once Abby was back in school, but yesterday, she made the choice to start. She has been very successful so far! I am worried about DLand though, and the airplane ride. I am going to have to bring so many more clothes now. Sheesh! But I will not complain about it, because she is not showing the same difficulties that Abby did.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Colfax Cousin Camp!

This one is from the Appaloosa Horse Museum. It was a big highlight of Abby's holiday. They have a contest where you can buy a ticket and the prize is a real live Appaloosa horse! I am so happy that Abby did not see the poster about that, or she would have choose a ticket for the draw as her souvenir instead of the stuffed horse we brought home.
Mom loves having her picture taken, especially in front of tourist landmarks, like the World's Biggest Truck. Abby, not so much.
Here we are at the WSU Creamery eating ice cream. We were too late for the cheese making demonstration, but did get to buy a can of really yummy cheese to take home for Keith. I love ice cream. I think next time we should go more often to the creamery, so that I can try more of the yummy flavours!
Here are 2 kissing cousins. Sortly after this, Mina gave Ivy a hug, and Ivy fell backwards and rolled down the little slope behind her. Very cute.
2 Cow-girl cousins. The horse is Danny, and the girls had a really fun time with him. They even got to use the reins and direct him where to go. Pretty cool!

My only regret about this trip is that I did not bring a camera on the boat with us, when Betina's friend took us tubing. But it was really hot out, and therefore I was feeling like poop. So I did not even think about bringing it. I wish I had pictures of Eden and Abby together on the tube, and especially of mom after she was dunked upside-down under the water. Mina even took a turn on the tube, and she cried when her turn was over. She is such an adventurous little two-two!

Thank you Betina for showing us such a good time. We all really enjoyed ourselves and had a great trip. The girls are already asking when we can come again!