Drrrrrrrrew!

We will think twice before giving our garage code to Drew Lochhead.  While retrieving something that was his from our garage, he found some leftover April Fools signs and left only one of them in our front yard.  The kids thought it was a great idea!

Bunk finished!!!

 It turned out so great!!!  Good work, Daddy Jeff!

The Piper Glen Pets

Bunnies!  Behind our house, in Piper Glen, a dozen bunnies have taken the hearts of our neighbors.  It is so fun to bike over to see the bunnies near the Wasum's yard.  There is a little nervousness that I have about these animals...aren't they good at math?  (Multiplying, at least?!?)  As long as they stay on THIS SIDE of the neighborhood and not in my yard!

Linnea and Kaitlyn took the kids for a block ride while Jeff and I worked on the bunks!

Like I said, it's summer...

...bring on more of our favorite people!

I'm pretty sure Heidi offered to take the kids off of our hands so that we could work on Grace's room...Saint Heidi of Whitworth Drive!

Home from Camp

She loved it.  We knew she would.  She loved her counselors and cabin...loved the note that we sent and the note that G'ma Joan sent...loved the speaker and the food.  Loved it all.  We knew she'd be super sad to leave, so we were glad that Linnea had come for a visit and had come with us to pick up Grace.  Having a Linnea Visit made leaving camp a whole lot easier.

 

 

And having the beginnings of THE GREAT ROOM SWITCH well underway was a great surprise to her.  She happily read to Micah in her old, OLD bunk and fell asleep on her new mattress in her empty new room...

DIY Project #1--The Loft

Jeff was excited to take on the project of LOFT for Grace's new room.  He's good about measuring and cutting and measuring again and calculating and...all of that woodworking stuff.

He did take a break one of those days to go fishing with the boys...

And Kaitlyn offered to come over to help with the room transition.  Here she is relaxing with Joshua.

THE BOYS' ROOM

So as soon as we got back from dropping off Grace, we set to work switching the kids' rooms around.  Josh got to move up to the top bunk, and Micah got to abandon his crib and move in to the big boy room.

 Night #1 in the twin bed.  He didn't miss his crib at all!

 I found places for all the boys' combined things...

 ...and Gracie's were piled into our room for a few days.

I had to take one last picture of the crib before I took it down.  This crib held all three of our babies in our little house...  Good thing Mom and Dad asked to use it at the farm for grandkids--it soothed the heartburn that I was experiencing.

Camp Spalding for Grace

Gracie was so excited for camp!  She made a list and packed her bags...and we were excited to know people who were in her cabin upon arrival!  It was hard to say goodbye to her--for me, not her--but we knew the week would fly by.  We had a work project SURPRISE to keep us busy while she was gone...

The first days of summer...

The third child learns to fend for himself in the wild...seen here getting food for himself out of the cupboard...

The garden's growing!

"I need to brush my teeth, Mom.  See..." the rest said with mouth wide open, "...they're yellow."

And summer isn't summer until we get to hang out with our favorites in the middle of the week!  Bike ride/stroll through Whitworth--owning the place, as students are gone!

Somehow afterward, the biggers talk Auntie Heidi into a sleepover, of all things. It MUST be summer!

The only way I could get Micah home without tears--too little to sleep over!--was to offer special time with Mommy (and ice cream at Didiers).

The kids were worried about a cat that was roosting in our tree.  The cat and their worry entertained them for hours!

My Dads...

Jeff took care of Papa Scott for Father's Day, and I sent my love through the mail to the two dads on my side of the family tree...

Father's Day Camping at Priest Lake

The day school got out, Josh went to Camp Spalding with Daddy and the kids and I (with the trailer!) headed up to Priest Lake.  The original plan included Drew and Annie's family along with the Swanson and Lochhead parents, but Nels got an ear infection--and we all know what camping with a sick toddler is like--so the plans changed.  Oden came up with our crew and we met the parents, who had gone up earlier to set up camp.  They were so helpful in getting our trailer all set up.  Usually Jeff transforms the little trailer into a pop-up camper, but he was gone and I had to try to use the part of my brain that usually relies on him.

Jeff and Josh got to us on Saturday, and the cousins had loads of fun before Oden went home with Slick and Bama.  (Nosebleed in the middle of the night #1 called for laundry and mattress woes...)  But the cousins had lots of bike memories and wrestling in the camper memories...!  Colleen and Scott gave us an anniversary gift of...a night without children!  All three stayed in the camper with G'ma and Papa while Jeff and I...went to a movie and ate out at a fancy restaurant.

Actually we shivered down at the dock for 10 minutes--took a pictures so that we could remember that it happened--and then turned in to watch Ocean's Eleven on the laptop in the camper.  Wahoo, eleven year anniversary!  Actually, not having to pile blankets onto cold kids in the middle of the night and/or telling them to go back to sleep at 6am in the trailer is actually quite a vacation!

Amazing Grace.

Oh my JOSH!

Micah Man.

 

 

 

We have an awfully sweet daddy.  It's fun to spoil him with presents and love notes in June to remind him how amazing we think he is...  He's the kind of dad who wrestles with his kids, takes them on grand adventures...and then carries their lake-wet underwear on a stick back to the camper. Ha, ha, ha!

Father's Day ice cream on the way out of the campground...and sleeping babes in the two cars going back home...