The best part of summer was...

Everything!

Tonight at dinner Lawr reminded the kids that this week at school they were probably going to have some type of assignment regarding what they did this summer.  He asked Lily what her favorite part was.  Before she could answer he told her she was not allowed to say 'Everything'.  She laughed since that is just what she was about to say.

We went through the extensive list of favorite things.  And wow, there are a lot.

Lily: 

Joseph, Joseph, Joseph

Learning to swim and going to Uncle Matt's pool
Going to Bullwinkles
Going to the beach with Grandma Lanie and seeing Caleb and Colton
Bowling at Big Al's

Addie: 

Her 5th Birthday

Going to Bullwinkles
The fireworks at Wallowa Lake
Ape Caves and turning off her flashlight in the dark with Daddy
Getting her yellow belt at Karate

Bryson: 

'pending time with my cousins at the beach 

Going to Buillwinkles
Going in the mud (aka clamming)

Jenny:

Our new deck

Our anniversary party

Jeanine and Otto coming
Going to Joseph twice
Beer Festival afternoon date with Lawrence

Lawrence:
Joseph the 2nd time, seeing Meg and OZ and Taylor and learn a new game
Clamming
Reading Kaya books on our Deck
Our anniversary party, and being with Jeanine and Otto
Shelby's Birthday

 Addie got her yellow belt!

Lunch time walks with a friend who recently moved back to Portland meant logging 3 miles some days...beautiful

Bullwinkles - Bumper Boats

Bullwinkles, me and the kids

Bryson loves mini golf

Lily was a rock climbing machine

Gulp, I did this obstacle course but took the photo when I came down and Lily wanted to "go around again"  I was terrified.

Trampolines

The Girls cooling off after trampolines

Free Big Al's bowling with Uncle Matt - Kids went about once a week all summer

Ice cream social

Sauvie Island

Boat race at church

Soccer camp

Wallowa Lake

Honorable Mentions: 

Memorial Day in Manzanita with my mom

Outlaw Memorial for Jim

My cousin Halley's wedding outside of Lincoln City

Joseph for 4th of July

Camping with the Ornelas Family

Father's Day at Fryer Tucks

2 VBS Camps

Soccer Camp for Lily

Joseph again for Blews and Brews

Bullwinkles (if you didn't hear about that above)

Jumping at Skyhigh Sports on Trampolines (like I did it too!)

and yesterday...Coffee and sunshine and playing in the sand at Sauvie Island

Lots of BBQs with friends

Sleeping outside with Daddy

Berry Picking

Lemonade Stand

2 half marathon's for Lawrence

I have a lot of pictures and should (as in I want to) write a post about every one of these events.  Maybe I will at some point.  Ha.  Ha.  Hahhahahahahahahahahahahaha.  Who am I kidding, I can't even make the time tonight to get some of these photos in some sort of reasonable order or caption them, or even fix the alignment issues that happened when I tried to get them into some sort of reasonable order.


Well, a girl can dream.

Instead brace yourself for more photo dump:

Full moon - fireworks at Jocelyn's parents house over Wallowa Lake

Mt St Helens

After coming out of the Ape Caves

Ape Caves with my passenger

Lawrence and Lily learned to Paddle Board, that is them to the left

Kaya (Lily's American Girl Doll) goes home, and meets Chief Joseph

Early morning Shananagans - yes please

As I did the dishes from tonight's dinner, and listened to my kids shower and bathe upstairs, the girls getting ready for their first day of school.  I thought about the conversation at dinner, and I had to stop and breath as I was amazingly overwhelmed at how full my life feels.

Addie will be in Kindergarten tomorrow and Lily will be in the Second grade.  Bryson is becoming a little boy with feelings and thoughts and ideas.  My kids are growing up.  And I'll need to blog about that next, so I've dumped as much as I can here to start fresh with first day of school pics tomorrow!

Thank you God for this full life.  Please place your hand of protection over them, and give me so much wisdom and patience.  More than I had today...or yesterday.  May life be so full and busy that I have no time to document it! Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the blessings that are given, not because I am deserving, but because you love me.  Amen.