Mountain Man Kody

Yesterday we decided that we would go on a hike. We had been hearing about Mt. Peak. So after driving around for awhile we finally, accidently, found it. After being told it was 1000 ft up, we headed up the trail.

The kids did awesome.

Karlie was a trooper and Kayla did not complain once.

I would like to say I was in the back for safety reasons only, but I realized the true shape I am in.

It was so pretty and quite calming!

We made it to the top only to find that there is no view because of all the trees, but still a good accomplishment.

Then Kody decided to take us down the less traveled path... straight down the mountain. After we had made it to far to turn back we passed a guy coming up the trail. His comment was, "This is not the best trail to be coming down.. be extra careful. " OK that was comforting (NOT)! We had to continue on. Kelsee freaked out several times (she was so loud I figured someone would send a search party after us.). Kody was so good and patient. He would take Karlie down a ways and then come back up and help Kelsee. We finally made it to the bottom. It was quite a work out, every muscle in my body was tired. So I guess the mission was a success.

Need Sympathy?

You can imagine the drama that goes on in our house. When the girls cry Tiko howls. We have come to call him the sympathy dog. He provides the sympathy which usually turns into laughter. It is so funny! Kody caught him on film the other day.

Clueless Luck

This past Saturday Kody had a friend from Pocatello in town and they wanted to meet and go to a Mariners game. So since I am a paranoid mom and have secretly been wanting to attend a game, we decided that we would all go. By the time we got there, the only tickets we could get were $22 and we could not afford to take all of us. So Kody met his friend and went.(I checked on him several times) Dennis and I decided we would take the girls to the Children's Museum. Little did we know until we arrived that there was a free festival going on called "Seattle Bite". So we joined several thousand others and spent the whole day wandering around. It was a fun relaxing day and just luck that we found something to do while we were waiting.

The girls took the fitness challenge and we even brushed our teeth in public. (quite interesting!)

Nervous Nelly even played in the water...and got really wet.

When Kody arrived he loved the 3 point contests.

Den, Kody and his friend made it into the finals.

Kay won a movie in the Disney Radio contests.

The Fair

On Friday the kids and I went to the King County Fair in Enumclaw.

My little cowgirls!

The Racing Pigs were so fun to watch! GO RED!

Karlie's Green one lost and she thought it was not fair. Kody's Yellow one started out in the lead and then got ran over in the turn.

It was so funny! The pigs were quite fast. The winning pig which was Blue, got an ice cream with oreo topping. Kayla and Kelsee received a blue ribbon because they picked Blue to win.

They got to make their own dolls. Stuffing, sewing and all.



They loved making necklaces and bracelets.

Kody like the root beer floats and kettle corn.

It was a fun day and the kids all thanked me for taking them. So all was good.

**On a side note you will all be proud that I purchased bike helmets for all the kids even Kody. His response was, "Now I can do jumps and dangerous stuff !" It's a boy thing, right?

The Gold Winning Gymnasts

Last week Kayla and Kelsee went to gymnastics camp. It was Kelsee's idea and I sent Kayla along for company. They both ended up loving it. Kayla is pretty good on the vault and Kelsee has a nack for the bars. They were both pretty cute.


Karlie got her chance to try out the beam.. she ran across it.

Wild Wendy & Nervous Nelly

On Friday we went to the neighborhood garage sales and found Karlie a bike for $5. We had such a crazy weekend that she really did not get to ride it until last night. She took right off. In fact she is quite wild. After the evening ride she's decided that maybe she doesn't need the training wheels. Kelsee on the other hand is pretty nervous but doesn't like it when Karlie comes flying past her. Now we need to invest in helmets for everyone.


Wild Wendy in action video

The Cardboard Box House

Last week the kids decided that they wanted to build a house in the backyard out of all the boxes we still had. They discovered a frog and then spent about an hour outside. They came in all excited about the house that they had built. They could not wait for me to see it.

This is what I saw:

Kody was a good sport and they all slept in there with the exception of Karlie (who was afraid a daddy long-leg would crawl on her. I honestly did not think they would make it through the night but they did and liked it.

The Threat

Our family had the opportunity to speak in church yesterday. We had known about it for two weeks and still waited until Saturday to really prepare. Dennis threatened us not to leave him more than 7 minutes for his talk or else he was getting us all up in mornings at the time he does (and that is way too early). I prepared mine first and he kept telling me I did not have enough material. Well he was way wrong. Kayla spoke first. She is a natural and was not even nervous at all. Then Kody took about 5 minutes. Then I got up and took about 15 minutes. I was so nervous I was having a hard time seeing the clock. When I finished it felt like forever, and I was such a windbag. Hopefully this will mean I won't have to talk again for a really long time. I left Dennis with about 7 minutes though. He was happy when he got a note from the Bishop asking him to condense his talk a little and quit in about 10 minutes. He spoke for about 5 and did really well. Making me feel more guilty for not leaving him more time. The only thing I can say is I am so glad that it is over. The funny thing was after the meeting I bent over to get my bag and as I raised up noticed the group of girls who had gathered around Kody. It was pretty cute.

Ummmmm....What Did You Say?

Yesterday I heard Karlie yell, "That's my boob and don't touch her." I was quite disturbed and ran to find out what was going on. I found Karlie and Kelsee fighting over a baby doll. Come to find out Karlie had named her baby "Bube" (That is what Kelsee wrote on the hospital bracelet). Needless to say I was quite relieved but talked to Karlie about the possibility of changing her baby's name. Of course everyone else got a big kick out of it. Later that night she said, "I think I should probably change my baby's name" I told her I thought that was a really good plan.

Happy Birthday America!

Our Fourth of July was quite relaxing and Dennis actually did not go to work at all. He installed the garbage disposal and enjoyed putting the girls in the "TRAP". Which they claim to not like. In the afternoon we loaded up and went to Enumclaw for their celebration. It was small and the girls loved it.

They made crafts.

Fished

and dug for treasures.

Dennis liked "kicking it up" with the Mariachi Band.

(Dad we really missed you for this one.)

The girls got to ride on a real pony carousel.

(The only thing we had to pay for. Which was way cool!)

Kelsee and Karlie thought it was really cool.
Kayla was worried she was going to fall off....and land in a real surprise!

Kelsee got to ride the famous "Patches".

After the parade we came home and watched some pretty amazing fireworks all around us. This way Miss Paranoia Kelsee could hide upstairs and not have to deal with them at all. I was warned that it would sound like a war zone around here.. and they were right. You could see the thick layer of smoke throughout the area. We were eating dinner and a firework went off. All of a sudden Kayla jumped up and yelled, "That was totally wicked!" It was unexpected and so funny!! With all the fireworks going on everyone was pretty considerate and things seemed to die down by 11:00 pm.

Before we went to bed that night Karlie asked, "Dad are you going to trap us again tomorrow?"

We received a pretty incredible show from Mother Nature on Wednesday night. There were over 2500 lightning strikes from 4 pm to 4 am and they figured the amount would double by the time the storm ended. It went all night and was pretty impressive. The funny thing is, Kayla was the one freaked out, it did not bother Kelsee at all and it was LOUD!!

Help, I am Lost and My Child Needs Me!!

Last Thursday Kody went to Youth Conference which was held at the Stake Center in Maple Valley. Friday afternoon I received a text from him saying he did not feel well but would tough it out. Finally a few hours later said he felt worse and asked me to come and get him. I jumped in the car, having never been to Maple Valley wrote down the address to the church and had Kayla punch it into the GPS. It took us the back way. As we were driving all appeared to be going fine. It seemed that we were passing the right places. When the GPS finally said "you have reached your destination" it was down a tiny dirt private road. Not my destination!! The GPS would not let us add Place to the address. Kayla could see my frustration and kept a cool head..thank goodness. She then had it take us to a restaurant in Maple Valley. After it took us forward 12 miles and then back the same 12 miles (somehow we ended up in North Bend). We thought we would never find it. I was totally lost! Finally Kody called and a nice gentleman got on the phone and calmly walked me through the directions. After only 2 1/2 hours we arrived at the Stake Center. The good news is Kody was not deathly ill. He actually thought my being lost was funny. He thought maybe he had the flu but it turned out to be Heat Exhaustion. The way home was a piece of cake. It turns out I had come so close but somewhere near my destination had taken a wrong turn.
I was thinking about how this really relates to life. We can come so close to getting back to Heavenly Father but with one wrong choice can be lead so far off the path. We may feel like we have no idea where we are or how to get back on the path. The good news is that we have everything in place, that we can be given the directions (calmly) to bring us right back where we need to be. It is a very comforting thought.