Our Summer
Since this is officially the last day of summer vacation I thought I should update my blog and share some photos of what we've been doing for the past couple of months. This may be a long post, sorry I'm not a very consistent blogger.
Here's our summer through the eyes of our kids:
Cole wishes school was never invented. Typical for a teenager. He said that even though we didn't really go anywhere this summer he had a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time up in Seattle visiting my parents and then spending time with my family during the passing of my father. It felt like we were on the road a lot. But it was good family time. Cole's most memorable moments were going to the Chelsea vs. Sounders Game, going to the zoo with Uncle Steve and Shirley, going to the Redding Water Slides with Nick and rafting with Uncle Cam and Kasia.
Cole participated in about 4 soccer camps this summer. Last spring Cole announced that he would be playing football in the fall. At the last minute he decided to stick with soccer "the real futbol" and Garin was very happy about that. He spent hours over the summer working on his soccer skills.
Yes, Cole is officially a teenager now. And he is officially as tall as I am.
The cool factor has definitely hit Cole and his friends.
Pizza and Coke the official food for teens.
The boys had a scavenger hunt. The winners were Nick, Jack and Gabe.
Spen and Te came in second but because they dropped my iced mocha (which I put on the list for them to bring back) and lost a few items their time penalty caused them to be the Loosers.
And although Sam and Cole came in last place, their diligence and attention to detail bumped them up the 2nd.
Cole spent a lot of time hanging out with friends this summer. Lots of sleep overs, movies and yogurt hut visits. Here he is with good friends David & Gabe Lehrberger otherwise known as Gabid at our house.
Indulging in the mud pie at the Cheesecake Factory.
This is what happens after the mud pie.
Mud pie may be hazardous to your health!
Random Sound played at the growers market every Tuesday to raise money for equipment. Cole spends hours daily playing on his drum set and his keyboard. He will be audition for the jazz band at the Middle School and also for the Southern Oregon Youth Orchestra as well as continuing with his band Random Sound. We turned our dining room into the music room so the kids could have access to instruments any time. It's been a really good thing for our family, although we can't have company over since we don't have a dining room table.
Sounders vs. Chelsea Match in Seattle. We learned that Seattle is crazy about their Sounders. It was a great time and we had amazing seats.
Petr Cech & Kasey Kellar Goal Keepers
Nicolas Anelka the highest goal scorer in the English Premier League
Blue Jersey - Frank Lampard
John Terry (Chelsea Captain and English National Team Captain) signing autographs.
GO SOUNDERS!
Cameron and Kasia took our family on our first rafting trip down the Rogue River. Cole tried the inflatable kayak and loved it.
Cole spent lots of time with Uncle Steve this summer. He made Cole run and play soccer every morning to help him stay in shape while he was away from home. Rain or Shine, my dad used to take Cole to the zoo almost every visit from the time he was 2 years old. It looks like Uncle will be carrying on the tradition now.
The new penguin exhibit. The Woodland Park Zoo is a great zoo if any of you get the chance to visit.
Here is Cole with Steve's girlfriend Shirley.
New giraffe feeding area.
And the cheetah wearing a red hat. Photo compliments of Cole Coster.
Gemma's most memorable day this summer was her first Birthday Party. Well, not her 1st but her 9th birthday, this was her first party. She had a swimming party and had fun with her friends and were glad they could all come. We had to postpone it almost a month, but it was worth the wait.
At the beginning of the summer Gemma begged for a workbook. She diligently worked on it all summer and actually finished it. It makes me happy to know that I wasn't the only kid that loved to do workbooks during the summer.
Gemma and Sailor wearing Mimi's designs.
If you can see this, it is Gemma and I in a canoe at the UW on Lake Washington. Whoever thought it was a good idea to have Gemma and I in a canoe alone (Garin) made a very bad decision. We spent the first 30 minutes spinning in circles and Gemma asked several times if I knew what I was doing. I was laughing so hard that I was crying because I was just imagining how stupid I looked and that all of the inhibriated college students were getting a good laugh. After several "Sandra listen to me..." from Garin, I finally got it. If any of you have done this before you will remember there are a lot of people renting canoe's most of them college age and you have to cross over the main strip where all of the motor boats are going from Lake Washington to Lake Union. It was a very stressful 2 hours for me.
Gemma on the boat with half of the family. The other half with Kasia on a different raft.
The kids loved spending time with Uncle Steve. They spent many nights with him while I stayed at my mom's. One night I sent a text a 11pm to ask how it was going. Steve replied back that it was great and that they were watching a movie "Zohan". I won't share what happened after that but now my brother is scared of me and they only watch rated G movies at his house. In his defense, he doesn't have kids. Sorry Steve had to share..it's funny now...right?
Lilly and Sailor at Gemma's party. Gemma is happy to find out that she is in Mrs. Gates class with her two good friends.
Megan, Audrey and Mattie. Gemma was so happy they could come.
Gemma's good friend Sarah. Sarah spent a lot of time at our house last year in the afternoons when her mom was working. We pretty much count her as our second daughter and have been so glad that she's such a good friend to Gemma.
Mimi made a chocolate brownie ice cream cake. Yum!
We had planned to go to the Waterslides at Immigrant Lake but it was a little too chilly. Thanks to Josh and Allison they let us use their pool at the hotel. The kids had a blast.
Friends and swimming, what could be better at your birthday party.
Kai had an exciting summer as well. He learned how to swim, lost his first tooth and went canoeing and rafting for the very first time. And of course his all time favorite event was going to the zoo with Unlce Steve. Kai is going to be in 1st grade this year!
Kai loves his Marshie and Mello.
Marsh is not getting that much bigger but is proving to be alpha over Mello. He also has this terrible emotional anxiety to cars. He gets car sick everytime he enters a car. We are going to have to work on this as it is very annoying. Besides that he is turning out to be quite a sweet dog.
The canoe that knew what they were doing.
Kai continues to give us great photos with all of his many faces. I think this was how Jim Carey was when he was a kid.
Really thought this would be a Kodak moment that would end in a big splash.
Kai loves dogs, but isn't too sure about birds. Focus on the left hand in the following photos.
Kai with buddy Joshua.
We stayed an extra day in Seattle just for this event. Family friends of ours, have an annual seafood dinner at the end of the summer. The only word to describe this 5 hour multi-course event would be "FEAST". Every type of seafood prepared every possible way was served for hours. It was a dream come true for me as I am always complaining that I can't get good seafood in Ashland. Thanks to the amazing chefs Teresa, Tommy, Steve and whoever else was involved and it was great to spend time together again.
Unfortnately this is the only photo I got of my kids dressed up. If anyone else has a better one please send it to me. Kai was not comfortable and didn't want to pose, as you can see. And poor Gemma had a stomach virus but hung in there.
The only one brave enough to handfeed a seagull at Ivar's.
And one of the most exciting events of our summer was when Kai lost his first tooth at Gemma's birthday party. And once again I prove to be the absolute worst "Tooth Fairy" in the history of parenting. Again...the toothfairy forgot to come. So Kai was instructed to put it back under his pillow and go play. Amazingly the tooth fairy came into his room when he wasn't noticing and left him $5, not bad for one tooth but it was either $5 or $20. Kai said she came through his window when he wasn't looking and that it was ok because she was busy.
So that was our summer in a nutshell. We had some really fun times but some really hard times as well. I can say for myself that in the hard times I have felt the presence of the Lord and truly feel like a stronger person now. For me, it has been a time of growth and change. The verse, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" was faithfully shown to me in my life this last month. So, now onto a new school year and to me becoming a better blogger. - Sandra
Touch down!
All of the boys are getting so tall and changing so much. It's hard to tell who is who. All of us mom's can't believe how fast the boys grow out of their shoes. Seems like every other month Cole needs a new pair of shoes a size larger. Our little boys are growing up, fast!
I didn't get any actual photos of the tour. No camera's, cell phones or purses allowed. And no cute little 6 year old boys named Kai who was 2 inches under the height limit allowed on the tour either. Actually I puffed Kai's hair up and he went over the line, but the lady smashed it down when she was measuring. Kai and I spent an hour and a half playing around at the museum while the others went on the tour.
Cole participated in about 4 soccer camps this summer. Last spring Cole announced that he would be playing football in the fall. At the last minute he decided to stick with soccer "the real futbol" and Garin was very happy about that. He spent hours over the summer working on his soccer skills.
Yes, Cole is officially a teenager now. And he is officially as tall as I am.
The cool factor has definitely hit Cole and his friends.
Pizza and Coke the official food for teens.
The boys had a scavenger hunt. The winners were Nick, Jack and Gabe.
Spen and Te came in second but because they dropped my iced mocha (which I put on the list for them to bring back) and lost a few items their time penalty caused them to be the Loosers.
And although Sam and Cole came in last place, their diligence and attention to detail bumped them up the 2nd.
Indulging in the mud pie at the Cheesecake Factory.
This is what happens after the mud pie.
Mud pie may be hazardous to your health!
Random Sound played at the growers market every Tuesday to raise money for equipment. Cole spends hours daily playing on his drum set and his keyboard. He will be audition for the jazz band at the Middle School and also for the Southern Oregon Youth Orchestra as well as continuing with his band Random Sound. We turned our dining room into the music room so the kids could have access to instruments any time. It's been a really good thing for our family, although we can't have company over since we don't have a dining room table.
Sounders vs. Chelsea Match in Seattle. We learned that Seattle is crazy about their Sounders. It was a great time and we had amazing seats.
Petr Cech & Kasey Kellar Goal Keepers
Nicolas Anelka the highest goal scorer in the English Premier League
Blue Jersey - Frank Lampard
GO SOUNDERS!
Cameron and Kasia took our family on our first rafting trip down the Rogue River. Cole tried the inflatable kayak and loved it.
Cole spent lots of time with Uncle Steve this summer. He made Cole run and play soccer every morning to help him stay in shape while he was away from home. Rain or Shine, my dad used to take Cole to the zoo almost every visit from the time he was 2 years old. It looks like Uncle will be carrying on the tradition now.
Here is Cole with Steve's girlfriend Shirley.
New giraffe feeding area.
And the cheetah wearing a red hat. Photo compliments of Cole Coster.
At the beginning of the summer Gemma begged for a workbook. She diligently worked on it all summer and actually finished it. It makes me happy to know that I wasn't the only kid that loved to do workbooks during the summer.
Gemma and Sailor wearing Mimi's designs.
Gemma on the boat with half of the family. The other half with Kasia on a different raft.
The kids loved spending time with Uncle Steve. They spent many nights with him while I stayed at my mom's. One night I sent a text a 11pm to ask how it was going. Steve replied back that it was great and that they were watching a movie "Zohan". I won't share what happened after that but now my brother is scared of me and they only watch rated G movies at his house. In his defense, he doesn't have kids. Sorry Steve had to share..it's funny now...right?
Lilly and Sailor at Gemma's party. Gemma is happy to find out that she is in Mrs. Gates class with her two good friends.
Megan, Audrey and Mattie. Gemma was so happy they could come.
Gemma's good friend Sarah. Sarah spent a lot of time at our house last year in the afternoons when her mom was working. We pretty much count her as our second daughter and have been so glad that she's such a good friend to Gemma.
Mimi made a chocolate brownie ice cream cake. Yum!
We had planned to go to the Waterslides at Immigrant Lake but it was a little too chilly. Thanks to Josh and Allison they let us use their pool at the hotel. The kids had a blast.
Friends and swimming, what could be better at your birthday party.
Kai loves his Marshie and Mello.
The canoe that knew what they were doing.
Kai continues to give us great photos with all of his many faces. I think this was how Jim Carey was when he was a kid.
Rafting down the Rogue
Really thought this would be a Kodak moment that would end in a big splash.
Kai loves dogs, but isn't too sure about birds. Focus on the left hand in the following photos.
Finally Kai learned how to swim this summer. He was able to spend many days up at the Danis' pool with his buddy Josiah. Never got any pictures of that but that is where he learned how to swim.
Kai with buddy Joshua.
We stayed an extra day in Seattle just for this event. Family friends of ours, have an annual seafood dinner at the end of the summer. The only word to describe this 5 hour multi-course event would be "FEAST". Every type of seafood prepared every possible way was served for hours. It was a dream come true for me as I am always complaining that I can't get good seafood in Ashland. Thanks to the amazing chefs Teresa, Tommy, Steve and whoever else was involved and it was great to spend time together again.
Unfortnately this is the only photo I got of my kids dressed up. If anyone else has a better one please send it to me. Kai was not comfortable and didn't want to pose, as you can see. And poor Gemma had a stomach virus but hung in there.
The only one brave enough to handfeed a seagull at Ivar's.
And one of the most exciting events of our summer was when Kai lost his first tooth at Gemma's birthday party. And once again I prove to be the absolute worst "Tooth Fairy" in the history of parenting. Again...the toothfairy forgot to come. So Kai was instructed to put it back under his pillow and go play. Amazingly the tooth fairy came into his room when he wasn't noticing and left him $5, not bad for one tooth but it was either $5 or $20. Kai said she came through his window when he wasn't looking and that it was ok because she was busy.