Zoo

I am going to catch up on all of our activities of the past week and a half by starting with the zoo. We had a great time at the zoo with a couple of friends last week. We especially enjoyed the lion cubs, jaguar cubs, and sloth bear cubs. The very pregnant giraffe had her baby a few days after we were there.

 Making paper from elephant poo is always fun:)

 We happened to be at the lions during feeding time. The mother allowed her three cubs to eat before her. She then took her piece of meat. One of the cubs stole the meat from the mother and the mother didn't complain. What a nice mom!

 We try to get a picture on this tree whenever we go.  It is fun to see how my kids are growing.

Another Jetty Island Day

 I can never get enough of Jetty Island. It is such a fun place. I wish we could live on Jetty Island from July to September.

We enjoyed a day at the beach with a couple of friends. If you look closely, you can see Mt. Baker in the background.

 A very nasty old boat provided great entertainment. We imagined that it was Japanese Tsunami debris.

Our day at the beach is never complete until Rachel does a cartwheel in the sand.

Loving Summer!

While my friend is enjoying a trip to Russia, her children are enjoying time at our house. A couple of days ago, the girls had fun collecting slugs. I appreciated that they got the slugs out of my yard and away from my garden. They lined them up and counted....106 slugs. That's a lot of slugs.

They also got a pair of crutches out of a free pile at a neighbor's garage sale.  The crutches have become a very coveted toy.

I love how the girls make their own fun. There is currently a beauty parlor set up in one of the rooms where they do each other's hair, fingernails (actually the rule is fingernail polish outside only so that part of the beauty parlor is outside), and spray each other and stuffed animals with perfume. Lots of perfume. My house is a bit smelly at the moment.

On Saturday, we went to a local street fair type event. Rachel was so disappointed that she couldn't enter the hula hoop contest because the contest was for ages 10 and younger and she is now 11. She won the contest last year. Erin Joy and one of the girls staying with us were the last two people with hula hoops. Erin Joy came in second place to our friend. Our friend also was one of the three watermelon-eating contest winners. Nice! She got two $10 certificates to our local grocery story who sponsored the event.  Hopefully she chooses to buy us all ice cream.

Check out these great balloons! We were impressed by the balloon creations made by the "Balloon Buffoon."

We LOVE the church property near our house. We love playing in the river, camping, playing at the playground, and just spending time together. This year there is an added bonus....a slip and slide!! Fun!!!!  I went down it a few times myself.

Erin Joy thinks she is a monkey.

There are so many pictures that I had to make a movie. I know I take too many pictures. I just want to somehow capture every moment of my children's lives because they are growing so fast...too fast. Every picture means "I love you and I want to remember every moment of every day because every moment with you is so special to me."

Ice Skating Competition

Rachel has been taking ice skating lessons on and off for the past couple of years. She really enjoys it and I wish I could let her skate more often, but it is so incredibly expensive.  I want her to follow her dream of skating for "Disney on Ice" so I am supporting her as best I can by providing lessons every other session and taking her public skating once a week. I thought that would be enough, but I feel very guilty after listening to some of the other mothers talking. Some of these kids start skating when they are 3 years old and skate daily for hours. Sheesh. I don't want to devote that kind of time and money. I told Rachel if she really wants to follow her dream, she is going to have to work really, really hard with the few session I can provide for her. Her goal is to finish the basic classes by the time she turns 12 and have a private coach.   She is determined and will probably reach her goal. Sigh. Private coaches are even more expensive.  We'll make it work somehow. She also needs braces desperately and it isn't covered in any of my insurance plans. I really need to go to China and Taiwan too. I wish life wasn't so expensive.

Just had to vent a little....now to more important things....

A video of Rachel's first ice skating competition. I think she did a great job. Keep up the good work, Rachel!

Horse Camp

Rachel and two of her friends had a wonderful week at horse camp. I am so grateful she won the essay contest so she could attend for free.

Rachel has really enjoyed riding horses.  We are going to have to find a cheaper option in order for her to ride.

There is a movie at the end of this post, but it won't show up on my iPad. I give up. It will work on my laptop. It is video and pictures of their final show.  I use this blog as a record of all of our adventures so I suppose I don't really care if it works for anybody else.

Spokane/St. Maries

 We had a great weekend with our cousins in Spokane and at their lake house in St. Maries, Idaho. We sure love summer!! I sure love summer! Wish it could last all year...

This week Rachel and two of her friends will be going to horse camp. Fun! Each girl chose a camp. Erin Joy chose art, and Rachel chose horseback riding. I am happy Rachel wrote an essay for the camp and won first prize. She is at camp for free! Nice!