Back to school 2014

You know I just love to take beginning of the school year pictures, and with Finn starting KINDERGARTEN, and Avery starting preschool (like WOW!), I'm glad I took the time that I didn't have to do them anyway. Blake was in Califonia, so it was just the kids and I out in our favorite Lake Stevens field. Finn remembers Addie doing her kindergarten pictures two years back and was thankfully excited and quite willing to do pictures, and we had fun.

My little preschooler. She was also way excited to be included as one of the "big kids" and do school photos this year.

Bam! He won he ring pop! (Just in case you wondered, I totally believe in bribery)

My big five year-old!

Happy 10 Years.

 Sept 17,  2014 marked our ten year wedding anniversary.  It so many ways it feels like we've always been together, and others, it still feels brand new. Doesn't make any sense, but that's the truth of it. When I was young and first married I remember thinking I would be so "old" on the ten year mark (oh, so naive, when 30 was old!)...and never did I think we would have three kids and a dog and that I would be a stay at home mom. The image  in my mind looked more like, two full-time working parents..maybe on the second child...God had another plan, and I'm glad for it.

We have yet to do anything "big" for the occasion. With a wedding to photograph right after, and amidst the busy school day, it just wasn't in the cards. Which is not to say that we didn't enjoy the evening together at the beach with our kids, and takeout/dessert and wine when the kids went to bed for the night.

Our kids had some fun playing photographer for us while Junbug swam at the Howarth Beach.

Photo by Addie

Photo by Addie

Photo by Avery..(heck no she was not going to miss out on playing photog!)

Photo by Finn

And a little flashback to Sept 17 2004

Long Beach Trip

Back in June, we took a trip to Long Beach, Wa with our good friends Sheila and Eric and their two boys, Austin and James. It's kind of crazy that it has taken me this long to blog the photos from that trip, but that seems to be how I roll. The kids were super excited to be done with school, and on a trip to play at the beach, and play they did. It was mostly cloudy and even sprinkled some, but they never seemed to notice. They ran and built castles and got extremely wet and sandy with each walk to the beach. 

 

Our home away from home. This place was lovely, and we had WAY more room than we needed for the 9 of us, but  it was fun to have such a big place to roam around. And a bonus since the house was right on the beach, just a short little walk through the grass.  Perfection. 

The dirtiest one of all. Well, actually come to think of it, Junebug gave him a run for his money in that category. She also LOVED the trip.  

Sheila's twins are just turned one, and were happier a little further from the water...unlike my three. Though Addie sure loves babies and enjoyed playing with them.

Every Beach town should have a carousel!

And a horse-drawn wagon ride!

But mostly we just cooked at the house, played at the beach and enjoyed the hot tub.

There was a huge playroom in the garage. 

Junebug loved her spot under the twins during mealtime. She scored a lot of dropped food.

Sleeping in. Had to wake this one to get our of our rental in time on the last day. 

They loved having their own kids room. The kids room had 6 beds like this.

We tried for a group shot...

Noontime on the very last day, we had sun..So we stayed for an extra couple hours after Sheila an Eric took off to get some sunny beach time. It was worth it.

Until next time!

If you made it through all those pictures...I'm impressed! I just couldn't decide which to blog, so I just blogged a bunch.