Harris Beach

We did our annual Harris Beach campout with my family at the end of August. It is always a great time. And it gets easier each year as our kids get older and more independent.  I am always amazed how much time we can spend at the beach with just a few beach toys.

 Tracie bough this cool cushion. I need to get me one of these things. She just opened one end and caught a bunch of air and rolled up the end and viola! a super comfy seat.

A few phone pics

Amber on the slide at the playground by our campground. We always get a site in the A loop since the playground is right by us. 

A huge banana slug.

Smores

 Fishing on the beach

Paul can snooze anywhere.

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.