In boats use is measured in hours on the engine (versus miles in a wheeled vehicle). That doesn’t count floating time… that’s hours the boat engine is actually running. Jim has a goal to use the boat as many hours as possible! We just turned 500 hours in the boat while we were at Banks Lake, so that’s a momentous occasion.

JT did more driving this trip. In fact, one day he drove us all the way back from the marina, which is about a 20-minute ride, without any help. He knew where to go, watched for other boats, and operated the speed safely. Jim has done a great job teaching him, and JT takes the responsibility very seriously.

Haley obviously felt very comfortable with JT driving, because she read Green Eggs and Ham on my Kindle while we drove.

We had a spontaneous leftover pizza dinner in the boat the night we turned 500.

And this is the moment!

I’m back! After 20 months of knee pain, a year without running, ten months of physical therapy, and four months after surgery, I was exited from therapy and cleared to start a running program. It’s a slow start back to running, but I’m thrilled! Another bonus was that I water skied two days in a row this past weekend without pain, for the first time in those long 20 months. Hooray! I’ve already done two little, so little runs this week, and I am sad to say my legs were sore. That’s what taking a year off does to you. Here’s a photo from my first run back. Haley took it!

So now I have my sights set on a triathlon. Yikes! Who would have thought? But I started swimming because I couldn’t run, and it turns out that I really like swimming. I swam in the open water during our camping trips and it went great. Then I was cleared to start biking a couple of months ago, and I really enjoy biking. So adding the running back in makes for a perfect trifecta. I won’t be able to run a 5K distance until mid-September, and it’s early in my rehab yet, but we’ll see what happens!

Also – PS – the kids are in swim lessons this week. Aren’t they adorable?

It turns out, kayaking is a really easy thing for kids to do. Not just our kids – I’m hearing from friends all over that kids just catch on to kayaking so quickly. My dad and I took the kids to Horseshoe Lake on Tuesday to go kayaking. Haley is improving rapidly and made it all the way across the lake and back!

I went back with her to drop off Haley on shore with my dad, and pick up JT. Then we heard about
one of the wonderful side effects of this trip: seeing all of the wildlife at the lake. All together, we saw bald eagles, blue heron, otters, Canada geese, dragonflies, and two kinds of fish.

It was soooo peaceful and quiet on the lake, and it was fun to pack up and spend a couple hours doing something outside of our normal!

We spent Monday afternoon out on Puget Sound enjoying the 80+ degree weather and the beautiful water with the Bonnells. Ali came over to babysit all six children while we boated to Poulsbo and enjoyed a lovely early dinner at The Loft and some street shopping. We did this trip last year as well, and we’re hoping to make it an annual event. 🙂

We’ve been getting together with this wonderful group of people for the past six years. The first time we planned a reunion, there were 7 children (with four more on their way) and 12 adults. We’ve grown into an annual winter reunion, but this year we attempted to add the summer day back as well. This year, there were 15 children (with one on the way). We hosted the event this summer at our house, since most hadn’t seen it and we live so close to the lake.

We started the day at Long Lake at our gracious hosts the Robertsons’ house. The weather was not the sunshine we hoped for, so most of the ladies stayed dry.

The kids really enjoyed kayaking along the lake.

Full boat, Jim is happy!

Back at our house, we ate Spiro’s pizza and side dishes brought by the group.

We did make sure to capture a few group photos, courtesy my nieces who had arrived to help with childcare later on.

So we snuggled the kids into a movie with Madi and Ali, and the adults lounged around the campfire and caught up on all of our family news. It was such a fun day!

For part of JT’s birthday gift, we signed him up for Cleat Soccer Camp with a local church. He plays soccer at recess, and we thought he might enjoy a week of learning more about it. It turns out, he loves soccer! We ended the week by watching a scrimmage and an awards ceremony, in which JT received recognition as green team MVP! This was impressive to us since it was his first ever time playing soccer formally, and because it was a second/third grade combined team.

Modeling his new gear

Back from his first day of camp, waiting to play soccer with Mom

Check out those shoes!

 Can you spot him in this game photo?

Getting his award

It just happened that Jim was off work the morning of the awards ceremony, so he was able to come!

JT ended up on the same team as his friend Talen from school. We had Talen over to play after the last day of camp as well!

We broke out the double slip and slide last week when the weather was lovely. It’s so fun to have two lanes for sliding! We invited Sawyer and Jozie down to slide with us.

We had such a great time celebrating JT. On his birthday, Jim had to work, but he got up early (on 3 hours of sleep) and made JT’s breakfast request: French toast. Then we had a quick round of gifts from us before Jim left for work.

The kids and I headed off to enroll them in swim lessons (in person. in line. it’s the dark ages) and finally made our way to lunch at a park.

We picked up JT’s friend Brady and went to Family Fun Center for the afternoon.

I did not realize the bumper boats had squirt guns on them when I started. I discovered it quickly. I was very wet.

The kids got excited about the trampolines and they all got to go – even though Haley was just shy of the weight requirement, the nice man said she was fine and she was all smiles!

The arcade was fun too and we spent about an hour using our tokens up.

JT used the tickets we won to buy ring pops for everyone.

Then JT and Haley and I went to Café Rio for dinner. It was yummy!

Then on Saturday, we had a family dinner at our house. It was soooo fun to be able to use our freshly planted much improved backyard!

Grandma Cole makes the birthday cakes in our family, and JT was thrilled with his vanilla-chocolate-vanilla layered bald eagle cake. It was crazy good.

We also measured JT on the growth stick. He is now 4 foot 3 1/2 and weighs 60 lbs. Right now, he loves building in Minecraft, reading non-fiction books, all things science and social studies and math, eating, and playing baseball and basketball. He plans to be an engineer, professional baseball player, or dentist when he grows up. 🙂

He had a great birthday and we can’t wait to see what God has in store for our EIGHT year old!

I have quite a few blog posts over the years with that same title (like this one)! I got a lot of positive feedback about the Sway I created for Disneyland, and it’s much simpler than adding all of those photos individually… so I did one for this trip as well. This year the weather wasn’t quite as nice as we like it to be, but there were NO MOSQUITOS. It was amazing. We did so much more playing outside in the grass: Bocce ball, volleyball, badmitton, wiffle ball, just throwing a football. We also enjoyed the extra relaxing that happened when it wasn’t so hot and we were just hanging out as a family!

We ended the season on a high, to be sure. JT and Haley both had their last games on Jim’s birthday, and Haley’s end of season party was immediately after. JT’s end of season party was Sunday this week because his coaches wisely waited until they could put “League Champs” on their trophies!

I didn’t take a ton of photos this year because I was scorekeeping a lot for JT’s team, and there are a couple of other moms who took gorgeous photos with amazing lens and they post them all on Facebook. But I decided I should get a few of my own this last weekend.

When JT’s team won, they took photos on the field. I was all the way on the outfield fence taking this, but it works!

Madi came to these last games and it was important to get a photo of her with the kids, since I’ve gotten them with Preston and Ali already!

Big winner!

Haley’s team party was on the waterfront in Olalla at a private beach and cabana. It was really fun. Her coach talked about each player and pointed out that Haley had the best “baseball ready” position that she held all the time. He also said she was a perfectionist. 🙂

The hosts announced a competition to find the largest live crab and bring it back in ten minutes. Haley spotted this one and Jim helped her get it into her cup.

Haley’s crab won! So she got the prize, $5 cash plus a bag of Skittles, and carried it proudly home with her trophy.

Their professional photos turned out awesome this year! I love the way the team photos are more relaxed than all standing stiffly in a line.

The day after the end of the season, we went to the Little League Mariner’s game as a family. The kids got sunglasses and we all got to walk in a parade on the field before the game.

We walked over to watch the pitchers warm up in the bull pen, and JT got handed a baseball after the pitcher was done with it. So cool!

Our seats were in the 300 level, but I thought they were great. It allows the kids to really see the whole game and all the players in position.