We bought a boat!

Last weekend when we were packing to go to the lake for our ward campout, we called our friend up to see if we could borrow his canoe again. He had offered it last year and we were glad that we had borrowed it because we were able to fill it with camping supplies (sleeping bags, tent, etc), tie down the supplies so they wouldn't fall out, then flip the canoe upside down and strap it to the top of our minivan. It was like a car topper, only bigger. As it was we had the van filled with food and clothes (and us), so it was nice to have the canoe to fill all the other camping gear. When we picked up the canoe our friend told us that his neighbor was selling a 17ft aluminum canoe for $200. We took the hint (was he tired of us always borrowing his canoe?) and bought ourselves a canoe. We priced it first and comparable canoes on craigslist were going for over $800. Car toppers would be over $500, and it wouldn't be very fun to paddle those in a lake.

Everyone had to take turns with the different poses.

We ordered real paddles from Walmart.com, but Marianne is modeling a plastic paddle we found washed up on shore at the lake last weekend. The lake was low and we founds several things. Makalya found a nice red cap. 

Everyone had the opportunity this summer to use their spending money to buy a container of ice-cream of their choosing. For the older kids it coincided with a friend sleeping over, so their ice-cream didn't last too long. This week it was Ben and Marianne's turn to buy their ice-cream. Here they are diving in! 

For the past two years, a field of sunflowers was planted on the side of the highway halfway from Chewelah to Spokane. I wanted to take pictues of the kids in front of the flowers, but missed my chance last year. This year I never made it down with the kids on other business, so I set aside a morning for the purpose of picture taking. Imagine my disapointment after driving 30 minutes and finding that I was too late again!

We found a few sunflowers still in bloom.

OK, these were all of the pictures I took this week. We have one more week before school starts, hope it is a fun one!  

Miniature Frogs

This picture was taken at the Chewelah Creek, next to the Lutheran Church. The kids participated in "Lutherhaven" a bible day camp there at the beginning of the week. It was from 9am to 3pm, with a preschool from 9am to noon. My kids went to the Catholic "VBS" bible daycamp a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I thought it was a good way for them to see their friends from school over the summer and make new friends. I thought we'd give it a try this year. I was surprised that Marianne went without too much of a fuss. She actually enjoyed it more than the older kids. I think it was just a long day for them. I really enjoyed my "week off" and got around to a lot of projects that are put off due to homeschooling and taking care of six children all the time.

Our ward campout was this weekend. We went on Thursday and returned on Saturday. The campground was on a lake and the kids enjoyed swimming. They went swimming three times on Friday.

We saw dozens of these little frogs. The kids had fun catching them. At night there were bullfrogs the size of a small fist. We weren't sure if these little frogs were just the bullfrogs babies, or another species all together. The bullfrogs only came out at night, so I didn't get a picture of them. They wimpered like little puppies when caught. We did hear normal croaking in the mornings, however.

Marianne holds a "miniature frog". 

Mindy poses in the hole that they dug.

We camped 2 miles south of the ferry, so we went across for a fun outing. There is no bridge across, so you drive your cars on the ferry which runs on the half hour. 

This is the ferry we went on. The other side has cellphone reception, but where we were camping we were "unplugged".

The ferry ride was about 5 minutes long.

Maddy read alot this weekend.

Digging the hole.

Marianne wrapped up to keep warm. It was a cool, overcast weekend. All in all, a successful campout.

Summer Activities

Barry and Avery at Salt Lake Temple for Gerald and Sharon Thomason's sealing.

Avery was trying out Barry's brother Jon's camera and took this picture.

Jon took this picture of the temple with his camera.

Gunny sack races at ward activity. See the camel in the background?

Benjamin lost his tooth this week. 

Beautiful flowers and a beautiful girl.

Go Mindy!

Marshmallow shooting game.

Barry's baby pig has a saddle and a jockey, ready to race. 

Hand games.

Barry helped at the archery station.

Ready, Set, Go!

Having a fun summer!

Tall Enough

Mackensy got her haircut. The ponytail measured 26 inches long. She said, "I didn't know my hair was this long! I think the bob cut she has now looks really cute on her.

Mackensey celebrated her 10 year old birthday! We took her on a date night to Mondo's, a new Italian restaurant in town. Maddy made her a rainbow cake. She baked 7 cakes of each color of the rainbow, then stacked them with frosting in between. She used the bright food coloring. WOW!

I took the kids to Colville to buy shoes/clothes for back to school shopping. We wanted to go swimming in the colville kiddy pool, a free pool that is about 12 inches deep. They were having problems with the pump and we were told it would be ready in 45 minutes. While we waited we played at the park (next to the pool) and I took pictures. Unfortunately they never did get the pump running, so we went home without swimming. On the way home we passed the Chewelah park and noticed that the sprinklers were on. We hopped out and the kids got all wet in the sprinklers. 

Mindy looks so grown up in this picture. Marianne looks like the monkey that she is!!

I drove a van of girls out to girls camp this year. I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a picture of Maddy at girls camp. As you can see she did not cooperate, so I had to get one while she was helping unpack. She had a wonderful camp experience:-).

We took the kids to Silverwood, using their free tickets they earned through a reading program through the school. We went on Toyota Tuesday, so the driver of our toyota sienna got a free ticket. We also took advantage of a deal where we bought $50 worth of supplies at our auto supply store and got a free ticket (we did that twice and got two tickets). So we didn't have to pay for any ticket this year! 

Is Ben behind the wheel?!?

The big kids enjoyed the kiddy rides as much as the younger ones:-)

Barry and Marianne (with Mackensey and Mindy behind) go around and around on the train ride. 

The height milestones at this amusement park are: 36 inches, 42 inches, 48 inches and 54 inches. Benjamin was past the 42 inch mark and was finally able to go on the rides outside of the kiddy part. Barry took Marianne on kiddy rides while I took Ben and the older girls on his first big roller coaster ride. He had watched this ride on a youtube video and thought he was prepared. As I sat next to him on a ride going 50 mph he said, "This is not what I expeeeeeeeected!" He was a brave boy, but didn't ask to go again. I was glad, it is a very jerky ride. Our silverwood trip was something our kids have been looking forward to. Our next thing they are looking forward to: ward campout in the middle of august.