Labor Day in Bonney Lake

Tony gave the kids Father's Blessings and drove to Oregon to meet up with Seth and Ben for their bike packing trip.  Labor Day for us consisted of a playdate for Jase and Ev and then we took Avi for a walk to the dog park.

While they were at their playdate, I ran errands and Max and Ryan joined friends at the beach.

Then it was haircut time for these two.

The night before school I had their stuff set up in stations and we started getting really bad winds.  I slept on and off and kept getting woken up by the wind.

Getting Ready for School

 We had drive through "Meet the Teacher" for Jase and Evelyn.  For middle school we got to go to the school, get our temp taken and go to different stations to get their supplies, get their picture taken, etc.  There was even a photo op. :)  Jase and Evelyn are going to be Lakers and Max and Ryan are Hawks (Nelsen Hawks, Lakeridge Hawks--we're destined to be Hawks).

End of Summer Sibling Sleepover

This is one of my favorite "Mean Girls" quotes, although there are many.   

I was kind of feeling like a cool mom when I had the idea to let them have a sibling sleepover downstairs.  I wanted to have another memory maker for the kids.  The kids got to sleep downstairs and play video games as long as they wanted.  My only request was that they could NOT be grumpy the next day.

I was not counting on my 8 year old staying up all night!  Yikes!  I didn't even think my 11 or 13 year old could make it the whole night.  I didn't have enough faith in the power of unlimited video games.

Here they are the night before.  I took one picture and then left them to their party.

Ev had come upstairs and climbed in our bed sometime early in the morning.  All of the kids woke up in the morning and had breakfast.  Max and Ryan played with friends for a few hours after breakfast but Ev and Jase fell back asleep.  Max and Ryan went back to sleep at lunchtime.  We had some pretty fun conversations with them when we were nudging them awake late in the afternoon.  

Ryan the builder

 Ryan is very good with tools so I asked him to build this kitty litter hider when it was delivered and he did it completely on his own!

Lower Falls Camping Day 3

 Day 3 was set aside to explore Mt. St. Helens.  We packed up camp and Max perfected his hands-free steering.  Then we went on a short hike to upper falls.  Then we drove to the Trail of Two Forests where we were able to climb through a lava tube.  

Lower Falls Camping Day 2

Our second day camping was September 1st.  Crazy how time flies.

The kids played cops and robbers with their bikes and walkie talkies.  Evelyn is "in prison" in this photo.

Then we explored above the falls making sure everyone stayed back from the edge.  

Max and Ryan said they were able to play the best game of pooh sticks ever.

Evelyn made friends with the kids one campsite over and we all ended up swimming upstream from the falls where it was calmer.  

Tony and I thought it was funny that our giant puppy sat in the booster when we drove to fill our water container from the pump well.

More swimming and rock skipping and cairn building.

Avi loved hunting chipmunks and squirrels.

In the evening we had a talent show.  Ev, Jase and Max showed off different bike tricks, Ryan mimed, I transformed into Mrs. Googley Eyes and Tony did a comedic stick balancing act.  Then we tried Cone s'mores and told run-on campfire stories.