Bigfoot tournament

Austin had a soccer tournament up in Snohomish a few weeks ago and we decided to make it a mini vacation for the kids and stayed in a hotel. It also saved on 3 hours of driving 4 days in a row. This is a really big tournament with teams coming from all over the state. The name of their team is Synergy and their colors are blue, white and orange. The atmosphere at the tournament was really fun . There were vendors, concessions and lots of people camping.
The boys did really well. They made it to the semi-finals and then lost. We are looking forward to the start of their season-go Synergy!

The coaches are giving a pep talk before their first game. They have 1 head coach and 2 assistant coaches.

The boys taking a little break and messing around. It is a lot of fun to see the boys start to bond with each other. They come from about 5 different schools so they did not all know each other before.

A couple of families on the team camped out so after one of the games we all got together and had a BBQ.

Sienna had a great time at the BBQ




Rylie and Colin were great at the games. They did a great job of finding stuff to do.
Colin can't wait until he can play soccer.

Here is the game where it was raining. Austin is #18. You can see the huge water puddles in the field.

Here is the coach telling the boys to not give up at half-time during the game they lost.


All white uniforms-just what a mom wants!

Little Streaker

Here is another funny story from the adventures of Colin.

One day I was putting Colin's 4th outfit on him because he either kept getting it wet in the pool (which he was not supposed to be in) or having an accident because he doesn't want to stop and go to the bathroom. So I told him this was the last outfit for the day and if he got it wet he would have to wear it the rest of the day. Well , not much later in comes Colin again saying that he got his shorts wet in the pool. I told him he would have to wear them. He went upstairs and I thought he was playing . About 15 minutes later I get a knock on my door. Jill (my neighbor) is standing there with a naked Colin. He had gone upstairs taken off his wet clothes and then gone next door to ask if he could borrow David's clothes because his mom would not let him have any. We were both busting up laughing at the picutre of this naked boy knocking on her door asking to borrow clothes because his mom wouldn't let him have any. It was pretty funny and definately made my day. One more reason why my life is never boring and I love my Colinator!

Let's Play Ball!

Rylie played baseball this summer and had a great time. I was a little surprised when she said that she wanted to play since last summer there was only one other girl on her team. This year though there were four girls and one of them was her good friend.

All ready to play some ball. Rylie loved putting on her uniform before the games.

Rylie would get bored out in the out field waiting for the ball and with so much sand around it was too much of a temptation not to play!

For her age group they use a pitching machine which is not always very accurate. Rylie had a hard time at first but never gave up and soon was hitting the ball every time. She even hit a double header (is that what you call it when you make it to 2nd base?).
Coming in to home plate. The kids always have a huge smile when they make it home .

So proud of her new trophy. Way to go Rylie for having a great baseball season!

Fun In the Sun!

It has been really hard this summer to keep up on blogging. I feel like each day is a blur with all the kids being home. I am behind in everything ...laundry, cleaning, meals. Any sort of a schedule I used to have is out the window right now. Oh well-isn't that what summer is all about?



Unfortunately we have had a pretty gray and chilly summer this year . When we do have those beautiful sunny Seattle days we like to take advantage of them. Going to the beach is one of our favorite outings because it is fun for all ages and it is free! Here are some pictures of our trips to the beach as well as the Auburn water park and our little pool in our HUGE backyard.



The kids have more fun playing in the sand then they actually do in the water. The water is pretty chilly.
My friend Camille and I have been asked if these two are twins. Emma is 1 year older than Sienna but with their cute curly red hair they do look a lot a like. What cuties!
Colin and his friend Hunter-I can't get a picture of them without one of them putting a hand on their face. Silly boys!




It's amazing how this $30 Walmart pool has kept my kids entertained this summer!

I love geting muddy!

Yes, I still like to eat sand.

She finally did it!

We knew that Sienna would eventually walk, but a small part of us (okay mabye just me) was a little worried that it was taking her so long. Well at 16 months she has finally done it. She loves to just roam the house picking things up and moving them where they should not be. I find shoes all over the place. Here are some pictures of her over the last month getting ready for her big debut!

We borrowed this walker from a friend hoping it would help her want to start walking. Whether it was the walker or just time she is now doing it.

Yes, she still loves to put shoes on her hands, but instead of crawling with them she will just walk around the house with them on her hands.

She loved all the attention she was getting in Arizona from the family. She is the youngest cousin on Brian's side and gets lots of lovin'!

Here I go!

Yes, I am very proud of myself!

Yes, Arizona in July!

We were hoping to keep our blog updated every few days while we were in Arizona but that didn't happen. I was then not going to blog our trip to Arizona because all our family was with us, but then my friend Tara said, "I was not there". So Tara this is for you. Here are some highlights of our trip.

Everyone was soooo excited for our trip to begin. Here we are in the shuttle bus on our way to get our rental car at the Phoenix airport.

Both Brian's sister and my brother had pools, so that helped us keep cool. The tempature got up to 116 while we were there.

The girls and dad

Taking a swim break- Rylie, Austin and their cousin Berkley. You really didn't need a towel to dry off-just sit out of the pool for 10 minutes and you were dry.
Britton and Colin

Had to get a picture in front of a cactus.
Jumping off the rock waterfall.

Eating chocolate fondue. What could be more fun for kids.....a pool and chocolate.
I had to take this picutre because these three guys looked so funny trying to put up this volleyball net in the hot sun.
My cute little girl!
Colin was so excited to see a "real" cowboy that we had to get his picture taken with him. It was actually a waiter at the Pinnacle Peak steakhouse. They have hundreds of ties hanging from the ceiling from different people from all over the world.
Grandpa taking a rest with the boys.



Colin loved hanging out with his big boy cousins. Here is Chase, Trey and Austin at the Rockin R Ranch. We went here for dinner, a show and a gunfight.

We had such a fun time in Arizona and want to thank Jeff, Jen, Tami and Steve for their great hospitality and for the great food! We loved being with our family and the kids loved being with their cousins. Thank you for the great time!