Lake of the Woods

We hadn't been to the lake all summer, so when a friend said she would be camping up there we headed up for the day on two different occasions. It was smokey from a forest fire the first day we went but it cleared out by the end of the day. The boys fished for hours!

Amber liked the ducks and mostly hangout on the docks with the adults. 

The boys didn't know how to canoe when we first got there, but with a little bit of practice they were all over the lake. 

 Ashlyn liked hanging out with our friend Mitch. 

Dallin caught a few fish. Here is one of them. Not many worth keeping, though.

 Hope and Ashlyn

 The second day we went up was on Labor day and Nate had it off so he came with us. He fell in the water with his cell phone, and luckily it revived after a few days sitting in rice.

Amber petting a fish. :)

End of Summer

The last week before school was dragging! The kids were so excited to go back and our activities we were doing at the beginning of the summer were old or unavailable, so we had to try something different. We hadn't been to Hawthorne park in a while so we went there with cousins. 

 Dallin amazes me with his focus. He did this on the etch a sketch during church last week. 

It is getting to my busy time of year for taking pictures, so I took the girls with me to scout out locations for photo shoots. Ashlyn is always willing to be my model.

 Dallin wanted to learn to sew one day, so we got out some scrap fabric and he went at it. He did pretty good. My sewing machine is very basic and can be annoying to use, but he did well.

Playing

Well, the summer is coming to a close. I am ready for it to be over. It has been fun, and I've enjoyed the kids, but I feel like we've run out of things to do. Some of the summer programs we were doing have finished and some have just gotten old. And I have run out of motivation to come up with new ideas.

Last week we went to my friends house and the kids did slip'n slide for a bit.

Went to the mall with the girls and played at the play area.

Went to the river to play.

Tanner made a shrunken head after he saw a cartoon with one.

This week

Not much happened this week. We finished up baseball. Thank goodness! That made for a long summer. We were at the fields 4 nights a week. 

Amber is such a good cheerleader for her brothers and sister.

We watched our friends kids twice this week. The little girl is 2 and loves my boys. She is small but tough. 

Ashlyn decided she wanted her hair cut one day, so we did it. Right then and there. I like learning how to cut hair on my kids. It was a simple cut. 

In Medford there is "Park and Play" where the city brings a bounce house out and has a craft for kids to do. It is at several parks during the week. We usually go to the one close to our house every week.

The other night we went black berry picking by our house. Amber rode a scooter. 

Selfies

I am not one to take selfies, but Ashlyn and I were at a baseball game, and Amber had fallen asleep so we stayed in the car with her so she could finish her nap. 

So, to pass the time...

Making Music

I keep some containers for food storage, and my kids found my stash and made drums out of them one morning. I love these little things that they come up with on their own.

Swimming

There is a man at church who has a pool the he lets us use, so we went there a couple times this week when it was over 100 degrees outside.

They are all getting to be confident swimmers.

My parents came with us one day. The girls love their grandpa.

Ashlyn is starting to swim without floaties. I never thought I would see the day. The poor thing sinks because she has no fat on her. This pool is the perfect depth for a beginner swimmer, plus it has a diving board for the boys to keep working on their dives and cannon balls.

Randomness

My cousin was in town with here kids and we went to Park and Play for the jumpy house and splash park. Ashlyn loves her second cousin Maysa.

We have gone to different water parks this summer. This was Amber at the Jacksonville one.

 And Dallin getting his head stuck in the chair. I had to take the chair apart to get his head out.

I thought this was pretty sweet. Amber grabbed Dallin's wrist on our way into church last week. 

This rarely happens, I guess we wore the kids out that day. 

Ashlyn's friend Hope has the same dress, they both wore it to church today. So cute.

 Amber had been coming into our room for a couple of nights. I can't sleep with a kid in bed with me, so I put all our decorative pillows on the floor and covered them with a blanket, and she was happy to sleep there. Luckily the fun-ness of that wore off, and she is back to her own bed.

Fair

Nate took the kids to the fair this week. Like baseball, that is not really my scene. Glad Nate likes to do this kind of thing with them since I don't. 

They went to see a magician that was on America's Got Talent a few years ago.