Just a few pictures from our quick trip up to Glacier. A lot more to show and some cool stuff to tell, but it will have to wait. Love the reflection at Lake McDonald

Spent lots of time throwing rocks down at the lake - this was a calm quiet moment

Lunch break at Logan's Pass

There was still a lot of snow up top and the kids loved it!!

The most exciting part of our trip is still to come......

Still on the road. I am thankful I have had a functioning washer for so long. You never realize it until it goes down, but hauling clothes around is not fun. Coming out Friday for a full diagnostic. Hopefully it is the lesser problem and not the more expensive, extensive possible problem. For the first time in my 8 years as a parent, I had someone recently tell me to 'quiet my children down.'. Oh, I grumbled for about 10 minutes in my head and thought of all kind of things I could have told her. They honestly were not being that loud. We were just sitting at the table eating and having conversation. I think JB would periodically get a little loud with his grunts. I can understand if we were in a nicer restaurant, but we were in Pizza Hut...Pizza Hut!. After my mindless grumbling, I started feeling sorry for her. That she could not enjoy the conversation of children, even if it were a little loud. JB continues to do well with words. One thing he has started doing, when he sees something he likes, he will say the word over and over until you acknowledge what he is seeing. If you cannot guess the word correctly, he gets irritated and raises his voice a little louder each time! Both therapists are very pleased with his words. When my mom was here last, he had very, very few words. He exploded with vocabulary just after she left, so will be fun for her.

I have been so good about posting every two days...I can't stop now. Up late preparing for family's arrival soon. My sister, two nieces, brother-in-law and mom are headed this way on Wed. We are taking a two day road trip, so will be silent a few days :-). A road trip complete with swimming, rustic cabins, magnificent mountains and hopefully a little cooler weather! Not that I don't have enough to do, turns out I am headed to the laundromat for the first time in 5 1/2 years. Yep, doing laundry tonight and it appears the drum bearings on the washer are going bad. My dripping wet clothes are in a hamper for the night when I will get my workout carrying it around tomorrow. Food to pack, cameras to charge, bathing suits to grab....then hopefully off to bed before the clock strikes midnight.

Recently we were headed somewhere. I began early telling the boys to get their shoes on. After several requests...this is what I got from my oldest and youngest.

Wool socks (in summertime) with crocs and a rain boot/spiderman slipper combo. They just crack me up. Every time I look at this picture, I just smile! Yes, I let them leave the house that way. Glad I know that my kids attire/appearance in no way reflects my parenting abilities. I have just learned to let them be their own individual!

I took the boys the other day to the 'big' BMX track. Other than it was hot, they had a great time! I timed them on the track and it was about 1 minute 20 seconds, so great workout for them.

Poor JB. He just did not have it in him to try riding down hill (thankful!) but he sure struggled getting his bike uphill. I found him getting so frustrated that he would get his bike to the top of a hill, only to want to push it down and watch it crash.

JB had had enough...decided it was time to ditch the bike and just walk/run

and walked

and walked some more

\ And I finally got all three of them in one shot.....

On Friday we had B's party. Everyone showed up, so we had 8 boys, a younger sibling and then our 3. Quite the houseful. I was nervous since we made it 3 hours. However, as soon as they got here they all grabbed guns and started running around the house playing "Halo". I am not real sure how to play Halo, but they sure had fun and were entertained for close to an hour. Then it was pizza, presents, cake and ice cream. Then we did sculptures out of marshmallows and toothpicks. Then we all headed into the field in the back of our house! They again, ran around playing Halo. All in all a great time had by all. B got a Paper Jamz guitar, Halo stuff, fireworks (which I had never thought of before as a birthday present) and money. He had a great day. Here is his cake I made, which the boys like and I think turned out pretty good. 4 Lego bricks.

A quiet week ahead. Not much on the schedule except therapies and B's math classes at the library. Looking forward to a slower week, since the last two have been busy with morning stuff.

Here are some pictures of B's last soccer game and the Green Ninja's.

He actually got some pretty good throw ins.....

This is one of my favorite...I love the shot I got of B...

Their team lost by several scores but overall a great season for B. It started coming together for him and I think he might just become a little soccer play. He found his hustle on the field.  He almost scored two goals this game but twice he was robbed by a friend of his who took advantage of his slight hesitation as B approached the ball.

Happy 8th Birthday to my amazing B. So thankful that God has given me 2,922 days of being your Mom.

I love you Booger Boo!!!

My boys are like most boys, they aren't the best at picking up after themselves. One thing all three of them do, is take off their socks. Anytime they walk in the house. The socks come off. It drives me nuts because the socks lay where ever they are taken off. I can walk into any given room and find 4-6 socks somewhere in the room. This makes laundry difficult. So I decided a few weeks ago that I was gonna quit trying to match up their socks. Half the time I can't find the match because it is under a bed, a blanket, the couch, in the car, etc. So, now when I do laundry I throw all the clean (unmatched) socks in one 'bucket' and they have to go grab their socks. My precious, almost 8 year old (tomorrow is THE day)! He obviously has a lot better things to do than look for matching socks. When we went camping, take a look at what he wore. (This is not the first time I have seen this combo).

Yes, that is one shin high wool sock and one white ankle sock. The other day when he had baseball camp, I bought him a pair of baseball pants...his first. It did not dawn on me to buy him some baseball socks. So, what did he grab for socks that were high enough....

his wool socks....at least they matched.

I love this kid!!!

On Saturday the boys and I headed out to camp. We always have a favorite spot, because it is a little out of the way, not as well known, potential for lots of wild life, a water supply and free camping! Sure enough, we scored on the wildlife. This spot is 8 miles back and you reach it through an easement on private property. The private property is home to lots of buffalo, it is just that the land is massive and you never know where the buffalo will be. Not only did we get a close view of the buffalo, we had to stop in the middle of the road so they could pass in front of us. I did not even need to 'zoom' on the pictures.

We actually saw a wolf too...a black wolf at that. JR was quite impressed and sorry he missed it. (He met us out there a few hours later)

 

 Here are the boys goofing around at our 'lunch spot'

 

 The view from our campground. There was not a cloud in the sky in the temps were in the 90s. Rather hot for us. Fortunately there are mountains on both sides of us, so shade came sooner for us.

JB walking across a bridge....The 'no railing' on one side made me nervous, but he did great.

The boys trying to pump water from the well.  They were not quite big enough so mom got her workout.

JR brought the BB guns.  He cut off the stock on one of them so it fits Jbird perfectly.  They set up wood with aluminum cans on them.  It took Jbird quite a while to get it, but B did awesome.  He even got to where he could stand up and scoot back and still hit the can.  One time he was even messing around and using only one hand and it the can.

The boys have been wanting to play baseball.  Jbird had a couple of really big hits where the ball actually hit cars.  Fortunately it was a tennis ball and no damage was done.  This was right after he clobbered one that hit a car.

Their first experience with true mountain biking.  They were not real crazy about the rocks, but hopefully in time they will get the hang of it.  (Mom does not do mountain biking...I have come off too many bikes.)

Of course every camping trip has to have s'mores.  Our chocolate got too soft, so we just stuck with marshmallows.

(I sure wish I could remember what he was laughing at...I love his expression.)

 

 As evening wore on, B began asking about church the next day.  He did not want to miss church.  He was adamant about that.  So, after dinner, he and I packed up and headed home so we could go to church.  JR hung out with the other two.  I can't say I was too disappointed since it meant I could sleep in my bed versus on the ground!