Crazy Roller Coasters

In July we took a trip down to Lagoon to take our crazy roller coaster riding children on some crazy roller coasters.  

First Stop; The Pizza Factory

We LOVE these breadsticks!

Lagoon!

So, the secret to doing Lagoon is to go on the hottest day of the year.  No lines for most of the day!  We were melting, but we got through all the rides we wanted multiple times! We opened AND closed the park!

 Libby is my kind of ride partner.  Nothin too fast, no flips or loops.  While the boys hit all the big rides she and I hung out and rode the rides she wanted to.  I was only too happy to oblige.

 As we walked past Tidal Wave and watched in awe as those crazy people screamed and our stomachs turned, we realized Rock and the boys were on it!  See if you can see them.

On the sky ride

 Levi got a little sick on some of those big rides, so he took breaks to ride with Libby.

Trying to stay cool.

Rattle Snake Rapids

The Ferris Wheel

Here is Liberty on her 6th or 7th time riding the mini Tidal Wave ride.

The next day everyone but Rock headed to Colorado.  Stay tuned for that post!

Our Liberty

Liberty turned 8 years old in July!

It is so fun to have a girl because I was a girl.  My boys have always been a little bit of a mystery to me.  Interested in dirt, bugs and animals.  But it is so fun to have a little girl doing the same little girl things I did when I was a girl.  Nail polish and hair stuff, gymnastics and hand clap songs.  Some things never change!

She finally has several friends in the neighborhood to play with and that's a big blessing. I blame it on the playhouse.

If you paint it pink, they will come.

Obviously, we didn't paint the outside pink, but just painting the inside pink must have brought the little girls.  Now they are always playing in it and in our yard and it makes me so happy to have our big yard and trampoline and playhouse used.

But most of all I'm glad she finally has friends in the neighborhood.

There is always some sign that little girls are playing in our yard.  From plates full of rocks and grass arranged to look like food, to little creations like this one I found in the yard last week:

They even decorate the sprinkler boxes.

Liberty LOVES shopping, especially at the mall.  When our Target got mannequins after a recent remodel, she ran up to them squealing with delight.  She wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up and spends hours designing clothes and jewelry.

Eating Smores

Her birthday was at the beginning of the month but because of summer travels we didn't get a chance to have her party until this weekend.  

The Bunny Birthday 

Liberty has had bunnies on the brain so we had to throw a bunny birthday party.

The Cake

Liberty made the sack bunnies for the table centerpiece.

We made bunny plates,

held a real bunny,

and picked up bunny tails with vaseline on our noses.

We even found Blue Bunny ice cream with chocolate bunnies!

Cleaning up the wrapping paper.

This girl made such a haul! 

I love this creative and fanciful girl who helps her 

momma stop and smell the roses.

Tamarack Getaway 2018

Rock and I got away for a few days up at the Tamarack Ski Resort a few weeks ago.  We stayed at the beautiful lodge in an AirBnB with an awesome view of Lake Cascade and the mountains and trees.  We relaxed by this gorgeous view for 4 days catching up on all the things we haven't been able to do since summer started.

I blogged, Rock worked on his new side project, Cue.  We read together, read alone, slept in and ate out. It was wonderful! 

Pancake House

Ice Cream Alley (3rd time!)

Rock took a zip line tour; eight zip lines and two suspension bridges.  It was a little two scary for my taste way up that high in the air.  This is the picture in the ad:

So Rock went solo.  Here are some of his amazing pictures and a video of him on a zip line:

On our last day we drove up past Brundage ski resort. It is gorgeous up there!

On our way up to one of the many lakes we ran into some unexpected company on the road:

It was a beautiful, relaxing, rejuvenating week!  Thanks for watching the kids, Sarin!

911....Again

You would think that one call to 911 from someone at our house would be enough for a lifetime, let alone a year, but you would be wrong.

Last week Levi and Cade were in the process of setting up a lemonade stand. I thought they were both down at the end of the cul de sac when I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize.  I usually don't answer those, but I felt like I should answer this one.  It was a police officer telling me that my son Cade had just been in a bike accident.  I was so confused!  I couldn't figure out how that could have happened at the end of the street without my knowing about it.  She then informed me that he was near target and that he'd called 911.  She was there with an ambulance AND a fire truck.  I guess I'm a terrible parent because my first thought was "Why on earth didn't he call ME!!! We can't afford another 911 call!"

She then went on to explain that he'd been riding to Target (to get cups for his lemonade stand) when his bike tire came off and he flew off his bike onto his chin. 

Here's the bike.  The tire was missing a piece and detached up into the chain.

He tried getting up and walking to his piano teacher's house who lives nearby, but he was bleeding so badly and had had the wind knocked out of him and so he stayed put and used the only resource he had-his old iphone 4 that has no data or ability to call anyone EXCEPT 911.  So he couldn't call me and didn't know if he should get up and move or not, so he called 911.  Not a terrible choice, considering the circumstances.

Rock went to pick him up and take him to the urgent care after the paramedics determined that his thumb might be broken and his chin would need stitches.  And it was a doosy of a gash.  Levi had 17 stitches in his forehead after running into a corner in the kitchen, but this was a much uglier wound. They only gave him 7 stitches, however, and decided after X-rays that his thumb was just sprained.

All in all, he was pretty lucky.  No broken bones and he will now have a scar on his chin just like everyone else in the world.  Based on what I'm seeing it will be a pretty gnarly scar, which boys find cool and mothers do not.  But I'm grateful he's ok.  He's up at scout camp this week and Rock and I had to interrupt our getaway at Tamarack to take him to the doctor in McCall to have his stitches removed.  Kind of annoying, but, actually rather convenient that we were up there so close to him already.  And I got to take a picture of both my boys up at scout camp together.

Let's all pray 911 gets no more phone calls from the Hymas crew this year...or EVER.

4th of July 2018

We had a great 4th of July this year!

Ready for the Pancake Breakfast Bike Parade!

The Cousins meet Cocoa

Cute Liberty

Cute front porch

Every year our cul de sac does fireworks together.  It is so AWESOME! 

And so American!  I love it!

 Finally lots of little girls for Liberty!

Cade was MIA for a lot of the festivities and Reagan was up at scout camp.  He had the best 4th of July ever! He got to see the fireworks on the lake in McCall and even made his own fireworks that night! Ooh la la!  

Riding at Aunt Janie's

The Littles spent a fun day at Aunt Janie's while R and C were on trek.

Thank you, Aunt Janie, for spending your day with us!  I hope we can spend more time there this summer!