Reece Is One Year Old!

Reece, that sweet little Cupcake, turned one year old! She had a very fun cupcake party with all her friends and family.

How lucky... it was a really sunny and warm day. We got to enjoy a picnic lunch outdoors. Yes, that's a Cheeto Reece is munching on.

Reece loves her daddy!
All the kids were excited about making cupcake crafts. And Dani was excited about the glitter being outside so she didn't have to clean it off the floor for the next 6 weeks!

Mmmmmm.... picnic lunch! (Don't you just hate it when people take your picture while you're eating?!)

Time to open presents! Reece got lots and lots of fun new toys and summer clothes!

Rae gives Kota a big hug.

More presents for Reece!

Hey! I like this pretty bow best of all!

We got Reecey a new "car" swing. She was outgrowing her old "baby swing" and didn't like how it made her lay back... she wanted to sit up tall like a big girl!

Wheee! Grandmas are so good at pushing swings!

I LOVE this new swing, her face clearly says!

The kids enjoyed playing in the ball pit too.

Pinata time! Look at little Reece reaching for the ribbons... she had no idea what to expect, but she was so excited.

All the kids held a ribbon and pulled all together until...

...tons of candy and toys fell out!

Cake time!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, dear Reece!

Happy Birthday to you!

And many more...

Memorial Day Weekend Camping

We spent Memorial Day Weekend down at the property in Shelton. I believe this is about our tenth year of this tradition. And the nicest weather we've even had! The kids spent lots of time in the boats and swimming in the lake. It hasn't been very warm so far this spring so the water was still cold but it didn't stop the girls from doing plenty of swimming! This year we enjoyed having Aaron & Dani and the girls join us for the very first time. They came down Friday night and stayed through Saturday but couldn't stay for the whole weekend. Rae seemed to have a really good time on the boat and splashing in the water.

Also joining us this year were Bryan & Porsche Appleman with Mircea and Casper, Troy & Beth Burgess with Joe and Danny, Connor Modin came along to play with Dakota and Missy Walker & Megan Ward joined us to keep Marina company.
It is so fun to see how much the kids have grown and changed year-to-year. When we first started the tradition it was just Marina!
I couldn't get one of my camera cards to download the pictures to the computer so I'll have to work on it some more tomorrow & will update the blog with lots more pictures from the weekend. There are lots of pictures of "breakfast-in-a-bag", the Memorial Day Egg Hunt, catching a snake and just relaxing with friends. For now, I'm heading to bed early tonight!

Volleyball Game

Marina had another Volleyball game Wednesday after school. They played at Olympic which was kind of nice. Not only is Olympic nice and close to our house but some of Marina's old friends from Terminal Park Elementary days were there. She played against her old buddy Katelynn and old friends Kennedy and Alissa too. Her team won all three games of the match but Marina's serving was better during the last match. Still, she did really well!

And it's official. I need a new camera.

Campfire Night

After work and school on Friday Aaron and Dani invited us to come enjoy a campfire with them. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and had s'mores and talked and laughed around the campfire. It was a really fun way to relax after a challenging week. We had a great time.
Mmmmmmmm.... hotdogs!

Rae-Rae cooked her own hotdog!

Look at all the yummy stuff!

Ah... here's the smart girl. She found all the S'Mores stuff!

Raeden cooks her first marshmallow. It looked somewhat like an Oreo... black on the outside and white on the inside! But once you stick it in between two chocolate graham crackers and add a big hunk of chocolate it tastes just right!

Nice and warm around the fire. It was a beautiful sunny day!

More marshmallows ended up in the fire than in the tummies, but half the fun is the roasting anyway.

Look at my first S'More that I made all by myself!

Kota cooking another one.

Time to run off some of that sugar energy! Kota and Rae played and played, running around chasing each other, playing pirates, playing house and here they were driving their ship. Driving it fairly crazily you can be sure!

Look out for the sharks!

Those two play together so well. They both like to make up very creative make-believe-type games and they tell elaborate stories as they go. They are fun to watch. Rae just looks up to Dakota like he is the perfect playmate... which he is!

Getting dark... time for another S'More! As it got dusk we watched the bats swooping around overhead, catching mosquitoes.Remember, when it catches on fire you blow it out, you don't swing it around. Nobody wants a flaming marshmallow on their forehead!

It got a little cooler as it got dark. Ultimately it was time to go home. Hard to drag ourselves away from the warm fire and fun chatting & laughing. But Uncle Aaron has to get up at 3:00 in the morning to go meet Grandpa to go turkey hunting... he's not going to get much sleep!

So we had a wonderful evening. Thank you, Aaron & Dani, for the invite!

Fun With Sheep

OK, it was never my intent for this blog to be a place where I post a bunch of stuff off the internet, funny stuff, random videos, etc. But now and then I may make an exception. Hey, it's my blog, right? This is easily one of the most bizarre things I've seen. Where do people get these ideas?! I haven't decided if there is any kind of a lesson here. For now I'm just enjoying... FUN WITH SHEEP!

Introducing: "Volleyball Talk" with Marina!

Today after school Marina had a Volleyball game. Er.... Marina tells me it's called a "match." They played at Mt. Baker Middle School so they were the "Visitors". She played in two games and I only arrived after work in time for the second game. And since I went straight to the school after work I didn't have my camera so I had to just take a couple of pictures of her at home in her costume. Er... Marina tells me it's called a "uniform." Whatever. So Marina is going to write all about the Volleyball Match. If she starts focussing on who won please remind her that winning doesn't matter... school sports are about having fun, being active, making friends, learning and improving skills and practicing good sportsmanship. And now, introducing.....MARINA!

I played in the first game and the last. The first game, WE WON!!! YAY!! We won 25 to 12, and I even scored the first point of the meet. My team was really good, and we worked really well together. I scored the first point because I was tall enough to block a return hit, yay for me! My second game I was in, we lost, but we played really hard, and at the end felt proud of ourselves. WE lost 23 to 25. Oh well..

My coach is really nice, and an eighth grade manager we have is making up cheers all the time for us to do so that we always feel supported. Our latest is a version of Jiggalo. "Hey Rainier, Hey What, Hey Rainier, Hey What Hey What? Show us how you jiggalo! We set up high we bump down low and this is how we jiggalo!!" We always have lots of energy, which makes volleyball fun, and everyone is always really positive, and there with a smile if you mess up, which we all have done.... oops... So, that's pretty much our volleyball match... Back to dad!

Here she is in her Volleyball sweats. Her team name "Ree Ree" is on the back, below.

DeeDee got her hair cut today too... doesn't she look good when she's not a big hairball? She certainly smells better too.

And I just couldn't resist the urge to take a picture of one of my hanging baskets... they're going to look so good once everything starts filling in!

So that was pretty much the day. Now I need to get online and do some work. I have so many accounts to refer that I am never going to get caught up. We're just beginning our busiest season and already I feel so overwhelmed that it is debilitating. Today I had my "Roll Out" meeting/training for the staff to introduce the renewal of my Select Hotel program which renews every year on 6/1. That went well. But between that and the other meetings scheduled today I didn't have time to do any of my own work. So I need to do some tonight. The good news is that tomorrow is my Friday off. I work extra long days so that I have every-other-Friday off. And tomorrow is my "off" day. I am excited. I'm going to choose to spend it at work. Because I have too much work to do. At least I am thankful to have such a wonderful family to come home to in the evening!