sand pile discovered.....

now that the sand is delivered for the patio and new sandbox, the little boys lost NO time in discovering how dirty they could get in just a matter of minutes. you should have seen the bottom of our tub when they got done. oh, but so worth all the cleaning with the joyous sounds of laughter!

who's children are these anyways??

dear 'old' dad...

my dad is a 'die hard'. during the biggest rain storm in months, he's out putting together the boy's sandbox! since van boven gravel was going to be delivering 2 truck loads of sand later in the afternoon, he was on a mission. out there in his always-snazzy-giddy-up. :) i tell you, this man is amazing. almost every hour that we've spent on this patio, he has been out there too! if you know him, this doesn't surprise you. he never complains. never has to be asked to do something, he just sees what needs to be done and does it. yup, that's my dad. thank you dad!! we appreciate you so much. love you dear daddy.

Fort Worden weekend....

we LOVE camping. we even LOVE camping when there are a few sprinkles...but camping in an all out down pour? hmm. let's just say, we love the people we camped with. on Thursday, we packed up the trailer for the first time this year and hit the road. our friends, the wiersmas & the wubbens joined us.
what a blast!
*10 kids.
*6 somewhat relaxed adults.
*plenty of biking and beach combing.
*a generous amount of campfires.
*an unfortunate amount of dry clothing. lots of shorts but just a smijin of WARM clothing.
*a really good trailer heater.
*one backed up drain. (poor wubs)
*one HUGE hike.
*a GINORMOUS amount of live, yes, LIVE snails brought back to the campsite on a dinner plate. (which i later dumped)
*one sad little boy who watched his FAVORITE camo croc float out into the ocean. (seriously one really sad max!)
*explored old bunkers up in the hills. kids and men thought the dark tunnels were fascinating. some of the woman(me),not so impressed. long dark tunnels, with places for people to hide and SCARE THE BEANS out of me (TAMMY) freaks me out!!
*playing 'house' in an old TeePee on the beach.
*watching 'hotel for dogs' and 'bedtime' stories FAR TOO OFTEN.
*a crazy amount of junk food consumed.
*tim + Malibu= happy.
*kids dressing up like 'little people'.
*jack admitting to me that he only changed his underwear once. (did i seriously just blog about that? boys. :))
*a few tears.
*a rip roaring game of baseball.
*closing down the ice-cream store.
*a couple slivers.
*kath and i getting mocked all weekend about looking like 'mary-kate & ashley' with our cool sunglasses. we don't care, we love them.
*i admit, the dog Sadie is growing on me.
*1700 plus pictures. thus, the reason for all the slide shows. sorry, but i must post.
*hanging at the beach in 40 degrees. (and loving it)
*watching kath do a kid photo shoot with all of us laughing at her from 'behind'. sorry,no pictures for you people. (you're welcome, kath! :))
*NO band-aids!!
*no major fights.
*much laughing.
*many incredible memories.
here's to next year.....(sites 37-40 TIM!!!)