good times at ross lake!

Scott and I went on the most fantastic backpacking trip last week. It was up in the Wind River Mountain Range in Wyoming. It was a pretty rigorous 8 mile hike to the most beautiful lake at sits at about 10,000 feet. I will let the pictures speak for themselves..

The view hiking in....it was breathtaking!

Taking a break after a major climb

Poor Scott! His knees had just had it. When we got to the outlet (where the lake drains down the mountain) he soaked them for a minute. But boy of boy is that water was cold! We still had another two miles or so until camp.

There were a TON of big fish in this lake. Oh how I love trout...especially when it is this fresh!

We went for a little adventure of our own on the second day while everyone else fished. We wanted to get a picture...it took a few tries before we got it right!

First try

Second try...almost there

Got it!

Hiking out...we just finished a grueling 800 ft climb up some switch backs. 

Katy wasn't thrilled...

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It was a terrific trip! I was so grateful to my sister-in-law Melissa for watching the kids. We had a great time and I can't wait for the next adventure!

more to come...

We just got back from the most amazing backpacking trip I have taken in years!!!! I will post more about it later...here is a little sampling for your enjoyment!

well under way

Summer is well under way....We have had a fun and very busy week. Lily and Adam have been doing swim lessons and it has been going well.

We have been doing our little schedule and having lots of fun. Lily participated in a track and field workshop done through the high school. It wasn't a hit right away. She is pretty shy and going to something where she didn't really know anyone was difficult for her. She is also very competitive so not winning all the races was also difficult. She stuck with it though and by the end it wasn't torture for her. I am hoping she at least learned a little about participation in track and field. 

Grace has been working hard on writing her name. She decided to spell it out in blocks! I thought it was pretty cute. 

Gracie looked so adorable for church on Sunday. Clearly she is thrilled about getting her picture taken afterward...What a stinker!

I found Davie asleep on the floor next to his door, with one slipper on. He is pretty much adorable!

 Hmmmm, that is quite an outfit...wouldn't you say! The wings and water gun go so well together.

For "What's Baking Wednesday" we made these yummy banana muffins. Gracie was really my only dedicated helper. 

I just realized I don't have a single picture of Adam on here. I haven't really seen him all week. He gets his chores done as quickly as possible and then is off to play. He likes to fully soak in the fun of summer!

here's the plan

So remember how yesterday I said I was pretty excited about summer...well here is our plan for summer fun! Every summer we have a daily schedule that includes chore and workbook time. Life with structure is just so much better. Lest you think I am the Gestapo I do let them play and have all the free time they want after lunch.

I thought is would be fun if we did something together every day. I saw this idea on Pinterest and I liked it a lot. So we are going to try it this summer!

I used to have an "I Bored" jar that the kids could pick out of to find something to do. It was filled with fun ideas like below and chores, so they never knew what they would get. That meant that no one ever wanted to pick out of it and no one ever said "I bored" either. I decided that this year I would just post a list for them to pull from. We will see if this works better.

They turned out super cute. I printed them with my printer on cardstock, then cut them out and laminated them. They are hanging with my menu and notes boards (found here). 

If you want a copy of any of these for yourself then let me know and I can e-mail it to you. I would probably even customize it for you if you asked nicely (well maybe I'd only customize one of the top two...probably not the ideas list).

yessssss!

I am pretty excited about school being out. Friday was the kids' last day. I can hardly believe I will have a fourth and second grader and a kindergartner next year...whoa whoa whoa, where does the time go?

I have lots of fun plans for the summer. And now that Davie is almost three we can run and play and if he misses a nap then who cares! It is the best. Good times ahead...


(My brother Sam hosted a "School is Out" Carnival...boy was it fun. Here are some pics from that event. It took all my skills of persuasion to get Gracie to go down this slide...she's a nut)

P.S. Friday was also our 11th anniversary! Can you believe it? And we are still love....I feel pretty blessed!