Annual Orcas Island trip

Every year we go stay on Orcas Island (part of the San Juan Islands here in Washington).

We go with Joe's mom and his sister and sister in law, and ALL the kids :)

The kids love it and have a wonderful time. They look forward to it all year. They get to play in the salt water, play in the lake, go hiking, make pottery, eat ice cream, eat snacks, fight a little, play games.

Here is some of what we do:

The lovely sunset off of our deck!

Peyton "throwing" his pitcher on the pottery wheel.

Collecting water for the Jelly fish to "stay" in. We had to look up what to do with jellyfish on google. Do you know the age old myth? Pee on a jellyfish sting. Turns out that is not the thing to do. Luckily we didn't have to test out that hypothesis.

"Dead" jellyfish.

Riding the ferry over to Orcas

Summer fun!

We have some good friends that live on Lake Sammamish up here so we spent some days playing at the lake. I even got on the tube--which the kids were so surprised and impressed with :) Funny! I used to love tubing and water skiing.

Catch up!

Wow!!  How does life get so crazy?

I am sure my mom will be thrilled that I am updating my blog :)

The last two months have gotten away from me.

In a nutshell. . .

Joe lost his job

I picked up a lot of odds and ends projects at work for some extra money

We had wonderful people help out!

I worked and worked.

Joe managed the kids and house :)  And well I might add!

Throw a primary program in there

and an Aunt's retreat to Eastern Washington with my mother in law and sister in law

and then there was the whirlwind trip back East-12 states in 6 days.

Halloween parties at school and church and trick or treating!

Soccer on the weekends.

You get the picture :)

It's been crazy and fun!

And now I am going to catch up on it all.

Three phrases we should all hear.

YOU IS KIND

YOU IS SMART

YOU IS IMPORTANT

Miss Aibileen

"The Help"

Swinging on a Star

Ms. Harcourt's Summer Drama camp presents:

**Careers**

Peyton got to attend a summer drama camp this year. He did skits and sang and had a great time. Then they had a performance on Friday. He was very animated and involved in the performance.

What a good oppurtunity for him!!

The cast after the final performance

A fish won't do anything, but swim in a brook
He can't write his name or read a book
To fool the people is his only thought
And though he's slippery, he still gets caught
But then if that sort of life is what you wish
You may grow up to be a fish.

Oh would you like to swing on a star. . .

Swinging on a Star

Peyton is the main patient in a "glue" skit.

Also Frankie the pillow pet makes his acting debut :)

Giddy Up!!

Lang's Pony Farm

Joe's mom gave all the grandkids a pony ride for Easter.

We finally got around to using it in August :)

Peyton's pony, Kermit--but not green and not a frog :)

Addison rides her pony with me leading--and walking through the muck.

Addison is upset with me as the gal that was instructing our group was a redhead and I teased that she could have Addison. Addison was not thrilled. I apologized, it wasn't very nice of me.

We Can Do hard Things!

School finally started yesterday!

Hooray!! The kids are thrilled as am I. It was time to get back into a regular routine and schedule.

As much fun as we had this summer we ALL do better with routine! :)

So Monday for Family Home Evening we had a little back to school lesson.

We talked about work and how we have to work hard to achieve those things we want in life.

And that includes school, sports, piano and getting along with each other as well as many other things in life.

And so we introduce our new family motto:

We Can Do Hard Things

We have this lovely new stained glass star that hangs in our kitchen window where we can all see it and it reminds us when we are having a HARD time.

Here's to a fantastic year of working hard to get what we want.

(More catch up pictures of summer to come)