Fun in the Sun

We have had some glorious weather this week and we have taken full advantaged and went on so many fun adventures. I truly love where we live and love the many places we have to explore.

For our combined youth activity this week, we went and hiked the Green River Gorge. It has been on my bucket list for a while and it was incredible. The views were stunning! We got to go behind a waterfall, climb over lots of rocks, explore, and enjoy time together.

Nona and Pops volunteered to watch McCall, which was so kind and made the trek a little easier for us. Nate and Baylor joined us and we all loved it.

This was the million dollar view!

It was a wonderful evening, and I would totally go back again!

We got to spend one afternoon at the lake with Celina and her kids.

The girls had so much fun in the water.

This was a cute little moment. I saw McCall messing with her hair and then running into the water. Baylor is the one that figured it out. We had watched Frozen 2 the day before and there is a scene where Elsa tightens her hair right before she dives into the water. McCall was reenacting this scene and she did it over and over. Then once Baylor figured it out, Baylor was Else and McCall was Anna, and they were in their own little imaginative world having so much fun together.

Paige enjoyed playing in the sand with Jonah. I always enjoy sitting and visiting with Celina and Matilda went back and forth between the water and the sand. The water is still pretty cold, so the girls were shivering after a while and enjoyed laying on their towels to warm up. Baylor was using her googles as sunglasses. :) Right before we left, McCall found a bug in the sand and kept moving it around with a stick and trying to pick it up. That really surprised me because she is usually not a fan of bugs at all. She will look but always refuses to touch much like her mom.

Then we ended our warm weather adventures with a trip to Dash Point State Park. It was such a fun beach day. It was relaxing and the perfect weather for wandering around, beach combing, playing in the sand, putting our feet in the water, and enjoying the gorgeous views of the Puget Sound.

Paige spent her time finding tiny sand dollars and then soaked up all the sunbathing on the blankets. Baylor and McCall loved going back and forth to the water and then to the sand. It was truly a beautiful couple of hours spent with my family.

I'm looking forward to many more adventures with my family this year!

May

The first few days of May were very busy with our young women fundraiser. We did a bake sale, and the ward was incredible and we ended up get 89 different orders which is incredible for our tiny ward. The girls worked hard to getting all the orders. I bought the ingredients earlier in the week and delegated to some of the young women and their moms to make the chocolate chip cookies and the Rice Krispy treats. I ended up doing all the banana bars and homemade Oreos. On Friday, I got so much help from one of my counselors in making everything. She would help me measure and prepare things for me as we baked most of the day. I had the young women come over in the evening and they packaged everything up. Saturday the young men put on a lasagna dinner and silent auction and all the bake sale orders were picked up then. It was incredible to see the turnout and it makes me so grateful for my ward family and the unity and support we have for each other.

We had a warm day early in May, and Baylor and McCall had fun playing in the lake.

One Friday evening, I spent the evening watching a high school football game. One of my graduating young women invited me to come since it was her senior night. It was sweet to be there for her.

McCall usually falls asleep every day in the car when I'm picking up Paige form school. Sometime depending on when she went to bed the day before, she will randomly fall asleep at home. It's usually on the couch or in Nate and I's bed. I can only let her sleep for about a half an hour, or she is up until 10 or 11 before she is ready to go to sleep for the night.

One rainy Saturday, we didn't have much going on and we had a rainy week, so I was going a little stir crazy. So, I put rainboots on Baylor and McCall and we went outside to jump in puddles. Then Baylor and I got the idea to measure how deep each of the puddles were that were down our street. So she created a measuring stick out of popsicle sticks and I would record her measurements on a piece of paper. 

These two are as silly as they come!

The flowers in my yard righ now are gorgeous! It makes me so happy!

Another sleepy day for our little girl, and Dad joined her for her nap this time.

I did watercolor painted for each of the birth months of the grandkids for my mom's birthday. It was a really fun present to create and I love how it turned out. It's not perfect but it is beautiful and I loved watching my mom open it up.

McCall loves to go on walks in the stroller. One walk she joined Nate and I on the Soos Creek Trail and she loved taking a break to throw rocks and flowers into the creek.

One Wednesday for our young women activity, we did chalk drawings at the park. It was such a fun and relaxing activity. The girls had fun just drawing and then they all ended up working together and making a hopscotch that was 100 spaces long. It was sweet to see the smiles on people's faces as they walked by. We went and played at the playground for a bit and when we were walking back to my house, it was so fun to see other people enjoying the hopscotch. We ended the night with smores in my backyard. It was a wonderful evening spent with an amazing group of girls!

Another nap spot for McCall- in the stroller. Nate and I have been going on walks again through the neighborhood since the weather has warmed up. It's one of my favorite parts of the day. She fell asleep and then we just kept her in there while Nate and I cleaned up the garage.

Paige got to go on a field trip with her humanities class to Flaming Geyser State Park. It was a beautiful day, and she had so much fun. They hiked to the bubbling geyser, created some videos in groups, and just enjoyed time together out in nature. She has some really good friends that also got to go, and they were all in a group together.

We ended the month with some fun in the sun which I'll blog about in another post. We also went to Blake's state track meet to watch him compete in the 300 hurdles. He did awesome, and it was fun to support him!

Memorial Day

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed lots of time with family and friends. Friday evening, we went over to our neighbor's house for dinner. Celina made us a German dinner which was wonderful, and the girls had so much fun playing with their kids. It was a wonderful evening spent visiting and just laughing and enjoying each other's company.

Saturday, Adam and Chelsea and their family joined us for dinner. We had a BBQ and enjoyed playing in our backyard and then to end the evening we went over to the lake. It was a beautiful evening to spend on the lake. We brought over a kayak and tried out our paddle board for the first time. It was so much fun and I'm looking forward to using the paddle board all summer long. 

All the kids had fun in the water and Paige especially loved being out on the paddle board. They had fun taking turns on the kayaks and Paige was happy to take anyone that wanted a little help out on the paddle board.

We saw our first baby ducks of the year. They were so cute!

Whenever I went out on the paddle board or kayak, McCall wanted to join me. It was so sweet, and she loved it. She loved putting her hands in the water and did so good at holding still.

Then Sunday after church, we went on our annual outing to go see the flags at Tahoma National Cemetery and put pennies on some graves. We gave the girls each the same amount of pennies and McCall quickly put on her pennies down a row of headstones and didn't quite understand saving them for different ones. She was very busy and loved running and weaving in and out of the flags. Baylor was full of questions about the information on the headstones and cremation. We had some good conversations, and it is also peaceful to be there. I saw one older man there with a Vietnam veteran hat on and so I thanked him for his service. He was a little taken aback and told me how kind it was that I said that to him. It was a sweet little moment for me.

Happy Memorial Day! I'm so grateful for all those that have served and are currently serving in the military. I know that I live in this beautiful country and enjoy the freedoms I have because of their sacrifice. 

We enjoyed another BBQ with Nona and Pops and Anna and Scott's family to end our fun Memorial Day weekend.