Leavenworth, Washington!!!!!!

ok...so here they are:

Pictures from our vacation to Leavenworth!

and...there are a LOT :O)

We started out very early on a Wednesday morning and drove to Pinewood Lake in Oregon.

We camped the night there, and then drove the rest of the way to Leavenworth on Thursday!!!!

So this is our stop at Pinewood Lake!

WE LOVED IT HERE!!!!!

lots of fun things to do...

Frisbee, badminton, baseball....

little explorers...

cool, eh?

see...I told you it was SHORT!!!

just the way we like it:O)...

Fun in the tent!!!!

the cute frog we found...

a beautiful sunset

we finally made it to Leavenworth!

Ready to go around the icicle river...

THE HAT SHOP!!!

And doesn't he look thrilled!

SEXY!!!!???

VERY SWEET!

ICE CREAM FOR EVERYONE!!!!

she is
so messy, it's hilarious!!!!!!

A game of chase...nothing more fun than that!!!!

We LOVE YOU LEAVENWORTH!!!

daddy and sister LOVE!!!!

Dilly-dallying....it's what she does best!

His favorite toy there!!!

a favorite treat of his....

he can never wait to go camping because he wants S'MORES SO BAD!!!!

heading to Black Bird Island!

Watermelon Anybody?

she'll eat the rind and all!

Puppy Love....

so sweet

a little baseball on the peninsula!!!!

Mr. Bono himself......

bono with his microphone!

He was really serious about this....

haha, so CUTE!

We had a dance party upstairs one night, we played a bunch of U2 songs, and danced and sang our hearts out. Oliver gave his impression of Bono singing "crazy" and "elevation"...his two most favorite songs right now...oh, and "sexy boots!"

looks a little worried....

doughnut time!!!!

showing us how it's done....

(tyler and myrna making the doughnuts!)

cuteness...

more cuteness...

tired in the car....

after a very long day at "slide waters!!!"

at a park..

classic eliza shot....

eliza and boopoo

he was so tired...

he fell asleep so fast in the car and then stayed asleep even after we transported him from the car to the playground by the lake!

just hangin' out...

aaron was pretty impressed by this picture...

so I thought I would post it:O)

sweeter than honey....

oliver finally woke up...

but he wasn't too thrilled

:O)

(and neither was eliza apparently, haha)

so sad...but SO cute

sexy?...I THINK SO!!!!

that's right....

they found a bag of chips on the grass and decided to feed it all to the birds...

FUNNN

(cousins...aren't they sweet!)

daddy and lize....

I love this boy!!!!

We found a fun, quiet river beach to play on....it was a blast!!!!

this boy was having too much fun...

again he fell asleep, while eating his KIX and grapenuts!!!

YUMMM

cherry pickin' time!!!!

I know he looks thrilled :O)

can you believe all those

CHERRIES!!!
YUMMMMMMMM

family fun....

wild thing!!!

The lady at the cherry orchard "you pick", had these beautiful labs for sale...

I wish we could have one.

Hopefully when we move.......

we'll have a cat named "cat" and a lab named "polly"....it's already been decided!

after driving for over an hour in the 90+ degree sun/heat....with NO AC....aaron finally found the best deal on apricots and peaches!!!!

yummers!
I couldn't have been more relieved...atleast me and the kids had bono to jam out to....if we hadn't have had that, I'm sure there would have been a riot!!!!

:O)

My DREAM house!

Seriously, one of these days I'm going to knock on their door and ask to buy their "blue prints" for this house.

I love it, love it, love it!!!!

I know it's not a great picture...but use your imagination:O)

More lovin'

A lost kitten found the perfect home!

(atleast while these cute kids were around :O)

they gave that cat so much love and attention...and food.

it was really sweet.

Oliver really loved him.

I love playing in the sand...

probably one of my favorite things to do.

I'm sad because I forgot my camera when we went to pick huckleberries..

but here is what we made with the delicious little things...

huckleberry syrup for our waffles!

yummmmm

a little pb an j on the rock climbing expedition!!!

oliver getting prepped for the climb!!!

thanks nate and debbie,

that was SOOO FUNN!

up up and away....

don't hold back sister...

don't hold back!

haha,

she is SOOO FUNNY!

and look how dirty those hands are...

man, vacations are the best!

that would be me...

strut that little thing....

roastin' the S'MORES!!!!

again...

:O)

all of the grandkids (minus creede who was sleeping at the moment....I think:O),

being read to by grandma katz on the last night of our trip, it really was so sweet.

Oliver really came to LOVE LOVE LOVE his grandma katz this trip.

He told her after a while, "I used to be shy of you...but now I'm not". He was so sad to leave her and wants to see her all of the time. Whenever we go running on the dish you can see the ocean in the distance and he always describes how he would cross that ocean so he could get to grandma katz's house so he could see her....he wanted to use a boat, but I told him an airplane would be much faster, so he decided on the airplane!

He also on our run one time randomly asked about her back (it broke while we were together on our trip)...he said he remembered that she hurt it, and wanted to call and see if she was ok.

So grandma katz, just so you know, Oliver loves you dearly, and he thinks about you always, and can't wait to see you again!

on our way home we stopped to camp at another place in oregon....

Oliver caught this grasshopper ALL BY HIMSELF, and was so proud.

It was his first catch EVER, and he really wanted me to get a picture of it.

He also was excited to tell Tyler about it.

(Tyler, along with all of the other cousins are experts at catching grasshoppers, Now oliver is ready to join the club, and he has the "grasshopper picture" to prove it! :O)

pics...Pics...PICS :O)

just a few...I'm tired :O)

enjoy

and good night

sly

I've always been "kind of" obsessed with bandanas.

therefore, it's always my favorite when the kids will wear them...

too cute.

lizey and boopoo

mr. tough

this was a bandanna I purchased from a really cool shop in
Leavenworth, Wa.
I LOVE IT!!!!
so cute on eliza....SO CUTE!

just so HANDSOME...
getting so big!

in color...



ok...these are triathlon pictures...

ENJOY :O)

haha

a sexy HARD CORE bunch!!!!

love you guys!!!

just an interesting shot...

cute little "boppy"

We've got a PAINTER on our hands. HE LOVES TO PAINT!

this picture was of a waterfall that was "falling on both sides" he said...

CUTE!

sister and boppy working together...

sister's masterpiece!

Just playing around with color...

Why?, you ask....

BECAUSE IT'S FUNNNN!!!!!

cheers,

and may you all have a very good week to come.

Enjoy the rest of summer.....

life...Life...LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok folks,
I don't even know where to begin. Honestly. So much has happened, so much I have wanted to post about...but just haven't.
so....I guess I will just start from the beginning of the summer.

For finals week, we had my friend ashley williams fly out to help us watch the kids while I studied and aaron worked. I studied a lot...but I also think we had a really fun time too (wouldn't you agree ash?....hahaha, I'm not sure she would, she was the one watching our crazy kids:O)
On the last day of school and right after my very last final of my first quarter of nursing school....
we jumped into the car and headed to a salon. I CHOPPED MY HAIR OFF, and DYED IT TOO!!!! I'm not sure I was in my right mind as I had just had a miserable week of trying to study for finals....
BUT...
Ashley did a great job in "attempting" to make my hair look "cute" after we returned home. It looked great while she was here, but since she has left, I have done my hair ONCE (and she left at the end of june). I am bad when it comes to hair, I just never find the time to do it like I should...OH WELL, haha:O)
But thanks Ashley for such a great time....It really was fun to have you here; and thanks for putting up with "kipper", it has since been BANNED from ever being watched, so you would be pleased:O)

I also went to visit my other dear friend Ashley Brown/jackson (oliver very lovingly calls her "brown-ashley"....very cute :O). She was/is living in a near by city for the summer, so the kids and I went to stay for a night with her and had a really great time. I love reuniting with high school friends, they really are so special, and could never be replaced:O).

In the middle of july we went to Leavenworth, Washington....
Oh my gosh, this is honestly my very most favorite place to go on vacation (so far:O). Every summer we go, and each summer it gets better and better. I love it there...love it.
Aaron's mom and brother and sister along with their families were all able to meet up there ( along with many of their cousins...) We had a great time spending time together. We slept outside for a couple of nights, played badminton, picked huckleberries, and cherries, made cobblers, and huckleberry syrup for breakfast, made dough-nuts, floated and swam down the icicle river, skipped rocks, soaked up the hot sun, the boys went fishing (oliver caught 4 fish), we went shopping (I finally bought something from the fun Leavenworth shops), visited the HAT shop, got ice cream, went for several EARLY morning LLLLONG runs, debbie and I explored lots of new places to run...one of which took us "almost" to the top of a mountain where we had the most BEAUTIFUL view....man, that was a VERY memorable run...between the view, the intensity of the run (in other words I almost killed over), and "the bear scares"....It was very memorable indeed!
We go to Leavenworth because that is where Aaron's grandmother lives. However when we went this summer she was in a nursing facility, so we were able to visit her there. It was sad to see her in there, and it seemed pretty clear that she was ready to be with her husband....
she died last week, and we are so sad that she's gone, but even more happy that she is with her husband and other family members, and at peace on the other side. We love you and miss you grandma blanchard...
Thanks to the Katz family for such a great trip to Leavenworth this year. It was a very memorable trip; Aaron's mom broke her back while we were there (and I won't go into detail on how it happened because if it weren't for us...she wouldn't have broke her back...and I feel really bad about it).
But...she says it is getting better, and I hope and pray she will recover FULLY, very soon.

After Leavenworth, we had a lot of BIG IDEAS....we are so tired of living in such a busy place. We dreamt of moving to Oregon or Washington and living on an Orchard where we would grow lots of delicious fruits...and also have a garden full of yummy vegetables.....a home with LOTS of land for the kids to run FREE on.
We really hope one day our "DREAM" will come true...

We've done a lot of camping and it has been A BLAST! I am very happy about that because I remember the summers being FILLED with camp outs with my grandma and grandpa martin.....I've missed it a lot, and this summer it just worked out so perfectly to go out a lot...
Oliver loves it so much, and I love seeing him so happy.

We've spent a LOT of time with our Stanford friends this summer. We picked up and moved so fast last spring that we didn't get a good chance to tell them goodbye, or even hang out with them while I was in school...it was just so CRAZY.
We realized how much we missed them and how lonely we feel here...so we go back to campus A LOT and visit. IT'S THE BEST!!!! Thanks for being there you guys, and for loving us even though we kind of dropped off the face of the earth for quite some time:O)

I just did a triathlon with a few of my friends.....IT WAS AMAZING! I loved every second of it...even though it was REALLY REALLY HARD! I cannot believe I've been missing out on such a fun EVENT! I hope to do many more...it was one of the FUNNEST things I have done in a long time. It was so different too than anything I have ever done before...so...it was just amazing...end of story.
ps... It was a sprint triathlon and consisted of a: 400 meter swim, 11 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run.....it doesn't sound hard, but come on....you try it and tell me if you think it's a "piece of cake" :O). I about killed over, but man...I will do it a hundred times over, the adrenaline you get from doing it is incredible....

and now....
we're just hanging out. I've had a lot of fun hanging out with the kids this summer. We've done a TON TON TON of swimming because there is a pool here at our new place (community pool). Oliver is a FISH. HE LOVES TO SWIM SO MUCH!!!! He'll go under water for a long time and just hang out there and swim (try to swim)...he doesn't swim great, but he can do it, and is getting better and better.
Eliza is the cutest thing you ever did see...honestly, she is just so cute (sure, I know I'm bias:O)...
none the less, she is darling, and just so funny. Her and oliver love to play together and will go quite some time playing a game together (just silly games that they make up:O), without fighting at all....just lovingly playing. It is very sweet, and I couldn't ask for more.

Well... I hope to post pictures tomorrow. There are so many, so I'm not sure how to get them all up...but I will do my best.

Have a great night everybody~
SLY

pics...the best weekend in a VERRRY long time!

No time to chat, but thought I'd send some very fun pics!!!!
SLY
I love my husband, whom I am so proud of...I love my dear sweet two year old....and I love our little oliver..

I love that my mom and dad were able to come and visit us, and be here for Aaron's Graduation....it really meant a lot to both of us.

thanks mom and dad,

for everything...