Lifegroup Camping

We returned tonight from an awesome weekend of camping with our church Lifegroup. We went over to Pacific City at the beach and stayed at an awesome campground that was great for kids! We spent our time eating some great food, having some great fellowship, sitting around the fire, shopping, playing on the beach, swimming, and of course at the cheese factory! Oh, and who could forget a few rousing late night games of Mafia around the fire and beer margaritas?

Love those buns...all his jeans have gotten too short, funny how that happens. So we got new ones out but they were a little big still.
Jakey looks so cute here!

Two of the four couples hanging out at the beach

Jakey wasn't allowed out of the stroller this trip to the beach:)

Andrew throwing the football trying to wear the dogs out.

My messy boy actually sittingdown for about 10 seconds...that boy does not sit still!

Our beach...so pretty!

What Jakey does best: run, get dirty, smile, and make lots of noise.

Supper Club Picnic

We journeyed out to champoege park (I have no idea on that spelling)today for our Supper Club picnic. This is such a special group of people to get together with every-so-often because they've been together for over 25 years, so my whole life! They are like our family and every month the parents all get together and have supper...hence supper club. I know, I know. Then every summer since forever we have gone camping together and created so many special memories. Since the last few years all the kids are older and busy and don't really come, the parents stopped camping and now go to a resort...but hey, really who can blame them?
I don't really like that picture of me...but though I should still include it for my presence. :)
Jakey and Nana...love those quicksilver shorts...this was the first time he wore them:) Some of the people who came today...such special people! Noah playing volleyball.

Something to Blog About...

I just finished with camp last night...what an awesome week with such fun people! I'm so excited about this season. We had a special, but emotional night last night with one of our players passing away, and of course got me thinking again about what really matters. I have been home so much this summer with my kids and loved it, though when I think about all the time I actually spent with them...it's not very much. How many opportunities have I missed by letting them play alone while I pick up the house, check my e-mail...whatever. So in attempt to cherish and make the most of my time together with my family, I am only going to open my macbook up 3 times a day. I am done with camp now, so don't really have any urgent e-mails I'll need to get to, so I'll do it morning, noon, and night! (Well, not exactly at noon, but sometime mid-day. lol) I am looking forward to getting into a nice routine with my whole family this next week. I will also leave all the housework for my husband to do...oh wait. that won't work. But how about just spending an hour in the morning if needed picking up, then just "cleaning as I go." (I know, I know Mom, how many times have I heard that from you...I guess you were right.) That way I can really spend some good time with my hubby and my boys and make sure I'm making the most of every moment. I'll keep you updated!

Timberline

Yesterday we headed out with some friends for a hike up to Timberline. It was fun to see the boys really interacting as friends. Their kids are both within 3 days of ours, so that's fun...totally not planned by the way! The climb was steep starting out, but afterward we had a great picnic lunch and enjoyed spending time with some great friends! We are looking forward to our date night soon!
The boys standing on a rock together...they are getting so big!

The Dad's...we made them do all the hard work:)
Jessica, Cooper, Issac, and Mackenzie!

This was on the not-so-steep part of our hike.
The boys playing...dirt, mud, rocks, and water, what more could a boy ask for?
They were trying to give a high-five:)
Oh how I wish Jakey would sit so nice! It must be nice having a girl:)

Camp Out

We had some wonderful, very generous people give us so many goodies tonight. They do home school, so had lots of great educational things, as well as just some cool, creative kid things...one mans junk is another's treasure! It's all in great condition, some things still in packaging! We love hand-me-downs, so thanks Cheri!

One of the cool things they gave us was a new Coleman tent and sleeping bags for the boys! Noah is all ready to sleep tonight in his tent and has asked several times to go to bed. Jacob on the other hand wasn't so fond of the tent beyond the running and tackling and is now safely in his crib, as you can tell from the below picture:)
I'm even thinking about breaking out microwave s'mores...we'll have to see if Noah gets so lucky. This is Andrew's kind of camping. ;) Although we are going up to Mt. Hood tomorrow for a hike with some friends...so that's kind of outdoorsy! Happy Camping!

Play Time

We go to church on Saturday nights when I have to work in Jakey's classroom, so we had all day today just to play outside! We have lots of parks around us, but we chose one today about 3/4 of a mile away so that Noah could ride his strider bike and get a little exercise. We played base ball and soccer and had a good time together! Jakey is practicing his mean face in the first picture, he can only do a few faces: mean, happy, sad, excited, and wow.
It's so fun to see how Noah is able to physically do so much more in sports as he grows, and also to see how much he is starting to understand. You don't think much about having to teach how to play tag, or soccer, but you do! This is his strider bike which we are so pleased to have found out about from some friends. We met up with them at the park one day, where their son who is the same age as Noah is riding a two wheeler! We were so amazed, after all they had just turned three a month ago. They told us about this strider bike that doesn't have any pedals, so the kids learn how to balance right away. Noah started just walking around on it, but after a day, he stared running and trying to balance. The 3rd day, he was riding down the street the whole way just gliding and balancing...so funny! So after a week, we tried his bike without training wheels and the first time he tried, he went the whole way down the street without falling! But his bike is too big for him to touch the ground, so when he needs to stop, he falls. So until he grows another two inches...he loves his strider, and we ride his bike every few days just to stay comfortable with it. Ok, I'm done bragging now, but it's so fun seeing everyone's amazement that a just-turned-three-year-old can ride a bike with no training wheels:)
I love having the time to spend days like this with my boys!

Picture Projects!

I am so excited to share my picture projects! I love pictures, they are so special to have to remember all the moments throughout life and our memories as a family! I scrapbook as a hobby and love having them to look at too, but I'm not very creative. So I have lots of help in that area from a very creative lady, Nancy! You can visit her blog here and see lots of creative ideas and contact her to order projects, papers, and supplies. She is very reasonable and so helpful and has been very generous to me.
I loved all the pictures people took in Seabrook this year, so wanted to use them some way. I do not have enough extra money around to justify getting so many large frames (I LOVE large pictures), so I decided to try something new and see how it looked. I like the way it turned out for the playroom, and it really does something for the empty wall. You can click on the pictures to see them big and see all the little pictures!

Bountiful Harvest

Several months ago, I had the genius idea to join a new community garden at a church down the street. I got the largest size plot (15x10) thinking I would have lots to share with other people. Some of you are already laughing because you know how I am with being ambitious and having BIG ideas and expectations, and I get really excited about something and go all out. And you know they don't always work out the way I think because life happens;)

I trade off with someone else watering so I only have to go out every other day, but even that seems to have been a challenge with two busy boys who like to "explore" other gardens and crops. So I get in and out of there as fast as I can...which means my poor garden gets neglected. Add on that this is the first year the land has been used for gardening, so there are TONS of weeds and grass that's grow in. Plus the fact I have been gone for two weeks, and you get a bountiful harvest of weeds! It's actually embarrassing...it's like a meadow of weeds. Just ask my parents...I'm sure they will comment on the validity of this statement.

So today I decided to tackle this project. I went out for almost three hours pulling weed, after weed, after weed...with plenty of time to think, which is actually really nice and rare that I slow down and have some quiet in my life. I got to know many different kinds of weeds, and found some I am very fond of (the HUGE ones with very shallow roots as I get a lot done with very little effort) and some that I was not so fond of (the grass clumps and the tall skinny ones with roots that seem as though they are 10 feet long).

I got to thinking about how sometimes our lives just need a good "weeding." We tend to let stuff creep up and grow little bits at a time, then realize we have a big problem. I got to thinking about how Jesus helps to weed our garden...no matter how many or how few our weeds. He helps us even when it's become embarrassing. I thought about how the seeds that we plant can yield such different crops, and such different qualities and how that applies to our spiritual lives. How I have some corn that is so tall and looks like it is healthy on the outside, but it's not producing any corn! That is me. I might look like I have got it all together, but I'm not producing any fruit! Something I heard about at church yesterday was a missions trip in October to Mexico to work on various projects (one being a community garden), and thought about how maybe that's what the Lord is calling me to do. At the beginning of this year I had a feeling that I was meant to do something big, but had no idea what that would be that would impact others. Volleyball and my ministry to the high school girls there always came to mind, and they are still heavy on my heart, but maybe God has something bigger in mind for me? Would you pray about that opportunity for me? They said it would be great for couples, but I don't think Andrew could take time off of work, and frankly, I don't know if I could miss so much volleyball coaching, or could afford it, but God can work out all those details if it's meant to be.

Anyways, this is another "deep" post where I'm struggling/working through what God wants me to do in this life to really make a difference for Him!