Summer

Wow! All I can say is that blogging in the summertime seems almost impossible. With 3-7 friends over every single day making up to 11 kids in the house, I'm always on demand. (In fact, I was interrupted 5 times by 3 different people just typing those 2 sentences.) Maybe that's why I'm always finding (make that 7 times) things like a drier that got half loaded, a trunk that got one fourth emptied, make up that only got put on one eye, etc., etc. (make that 10 times by 5 different people.)

Okay, 2 are in bed, and two are getting scriptures read to them by their incredibly consistent father. Now to this summer and the post my kids have been begging me to finally make...

At our cousin's Seattle wedding, Chad burned it up! This truly needs a post all of its own! No fear, no filter, just feeling the music through every fiber of his being! He entertained the masses for over an hour often by himself on the dance floor. The Fotheringhams danced all night and shy parents were even asking ME to dance with their kids. All of those dance parties in the kitchen had paid off as my kids feel right at home on the dance floor.

After a high jump and a bit of a brawl taken to the ground, Sarah came away with the bridal bouquet! She's not shy.
Handsome.
Seattle Temple

We made it to Camp Peine twice!

My sister Kim and family came for a week!!!! We never even saw Sarah all week because she found such a great friend in cousin Nicole.

Me and my sis.
Sister Kim, Cousins Ryan and Nicole.
Kim and Me at my Dad's marina on Lake Pend Orielle
Nicole.
Sarah and Nicole.

We did so many fun things where we felt like kids again. Oh I love that part about summer! See these logs? We all had contests to see how long we could stand before falling off...just like kids. And it was cold. But who cares!!!

Cousin Jordan entertained us for hours doing all sorts of tricks including getting stuck in the these tubes.
See...there's Mom!!!! She is working nonstop, but thank goodness she could break away a bit. True to form, she had cooked for weeks so that when we all arrived there were dozens of meals ready to go. Saint Ardis.
The best host ever. He turned 70 this month and was out on the tube like a wild man and even let me drive the boat while he tubed!!! Now that was brave. I can't even keep up with my parents.
Alyssa surprised us the most this summer with her wild woman ways. She had no fear and even flew off like Superman once.

My sweet beautiful sister Pam from Nevada came up and I have NO PICS?! What is up with that? I think I was trying to play it cool like I don't blog or something. I regret that. We tubed, laughed, played games, and went to an all you can eat Alaskan ginormous crab leg feast. That was crazy good.

Sarah went to her Ballet Summer Intensive Program.

Chad did swim team. No pics. But very proud of him because that is some seriously hard training!

Caught some butterflies at "Butterfly Beach" as we call it (Liberty Lake County Park). Ava wore them all day and they never flew away once. It's like they thought they were still caterpillars. Saying that Ava has a love affair with bugs is quite the understatement.

Russ is absent from our summer pics because he's been out of town or super busy. I think he went a whole week without smiling once because of work stress. Poor guy. Things are better now, but the new job has been a doosey. More summer pics to come...