WHERE HAVE I BEEN.....

wow~ it has been a whopping two weeks since i have last posted. i have thoroughly enjoyed reading everybody else's posts and taken a little break myself. i think i am in a blogging funk. we have had lots of fun adventures over here at the boot house and i will blog all about them and get you all up to date on our lives very soon, but for now i am still in a funk and am not ready to rejoin the blogging world! school will start in about a week and a half, then i will be devoured by breaking dawn, so i will do my best to get back soon! until then..... 

NICO WHO

Nico has always been one with a very big imagination. he loves going outside and reliving what he sees on TV or the movies or makes up his own games.... These days his biggest thing is to be Indiana Jones. We as a family watched all of the 3 previous Indiana Jones movies to prepare for the new one (which we still have not seen!). He has been addicted to the movies and to anything Indiana Jones related...... he even put together the perfect costume that came straight from his closet and rob's accessories and a nice bag that grandma boot made him a while ago. he will play outside for hours trying to rope his whip around a tree to swing on it or just go hiking through our backyard pretending he is on a treasure hunt. one day he came home with his bag full of rocks, glass pieces and other found treasure from the yard. i love Nico, i mean indiana..... he is so funny!!

SUMMER CAMP CONTINUED

Jakob and Ollie saying hi

Jakob the cowboy
Sofia being very careful not to get too close
Ollie is not afraid of ANYTHING!
Annelies is a natural animal lover (like father, like daughter)

SUMMER CAMP

Annelies after kindergarten camp

Jakob and his 'buddy' on the moonwalk
sofia and jakob in the inflatable airplane
annelies proudly riding the pony
Jakob and his 'buddy', Shawn

this week has been a whirl wind of activities..... my cousin molly came for a visit, annelies had kindergarten camp, which she LOVED and now can't wait for school to start and  Jakob had his first week of camp. i have been so busy getting kids to there camps and then entertaining the ones that are home.... i am pooped!

we had an exciting week of activity while jakob was at camp.... we took the kids (minus jakob) to the aquatic center where annelies and nico disappeared to the huge water slides the whole time and oliver and sofia had a blast chasing eachother in the water. on thursday we went to our neighborhood pool and then watched some movies during a thunderstorm. 

Friday at Jakob's camp is carnival day and they blow up slides and jumpers and have popcorn and snow cone machines. They also bring in a petting zoo and pony's to ride. the kids had a blast and even Ollie loved riding the ponies. Sofia was happy just to feed the pony. it was a very fun way to entertain the kids for free!! 

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

I am so excited that NKOTB is back. i loved them and i love there new single. anyone interested in going to the concert in October? i want to go so bad! i went when i was in 7th grade and would love to go again. i was a HUGE joey fan. he is still so cute!! 

4TH OF JULY AND BIRTHDAYS CONTINUED

4TH OF JULY AND BIRTHDAYS

it is tradition to go the lake every 4th of july. This year we invited lots of friends and had such a great time. Our main 4th of July tradition is to celebrate Nico's birthday. so we arrived at the lake on friday afternoon after eating a yummy lunch at Jack's. we immediately got the boat in the water and started our adventures. we did lots of tubing, wake boarding, land locking and eating!!

the lake was perfect, the water was calm and the company was GREAT! we invited my sister (rissa), scott and baby beckham.... we also invited our friends Joe, Mandy and Sierra Smith. and were later joined by Randy Smith who was fixing a lovely buffet of burgers and hot dogs as we got off the boat after our last run of the night. we unfortunately were hit with a storm as dinner came off the grill so were ate inside and had no fireworks...... BUMMER! 

we finished the night by celebrating nico's birthday with a yummy cupcake cake and some presents. NICO IS NOW NINE!!! i can't believe it. it seems like just YESTERDAY i was at the fire works show in WA state being rushed out of the traffic line escorted by a police officer to the hospital. what an amazingly exciting night. i will never forget screeching up to the hospital with all of our family and friends waiting at the door because they got there before we did..... because the officer escorting us took us to the WRONG hospital. 16 hours later we had a little bundle of joy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICO.

this lake trip was a biggie for nico and jakob. it was our goal to get nico up on the wake board this summer. so the first chance we got we put nico in the water and gave him a few tries to get up. at first he had a lot of trouble and let go of the rope immediately. jakob then decided it was his turn and switched places with nico. on jakob's first try he was up..... (i have video and as soon as we get it on my computer i will post it!!) rob and i were so exstatic!!! we could not believe it although i'm not sure why, the kid is sooooo strong! 

the next time nico tried wake boarding he got up immediately!! he was not going to be shown up by his younger brother! although he was so proud of him. the next day the birthday boy mastered his skills and even tried his feet at land locking and did great!

all in all it was one of the most successful lake trip we've ever had. no one was hurt, everyone had a great time and nico had a great birthday. he got an indiana jones toy, iron man mask and jonas brothers tickets. it was a lot of fun!!

MEMORIES

last weekend we went to Briscoe Park. you may be thinking oh- big deal, but to me it was. this park is just about 20 minutes from our house and we NEVER go here, but friends of ours invited us to go feed ducks with them and this is where we ended up. 

It was so surreal to be where i spent my childhood and here i was taking my own children here. i remember taking swim lessons at the pool and being the only 4 year old brave enough to jump off the high dive, or the time my grandpa took us to feed the ducks and i fell in the lake. i remember climbing on the playground and going to summer camp, eating picnic lunches and just being a kid. 

then i got older and i became a camp counselor for FOUR straight summers. it was so much fun! we went swimming everyday, we organized crafts, played fun games, went on great field trips. we had summer crushes and got GREAT tans and made great friends. i cherrish these memories and it was so neat to visit this park again and tell my kids about the fun times i had at Briscoe Park. 

I'm sure some of the ducks that the kids fed were from when i was a kid!! they were SOOOO old!!

OUR EXCITING MONTH OF JUNE

the kids had so much fun catching fire flies. they tried to catch enough to be able to light up the whole room! it didn't quite work, but it was fun watching them try.

Brett's friend Justin has been spending most weekends with us and the kids have LOVED it!! Annelies has a huge crush on him and melts whenever he says her name. she always makes sure to wear her best and make sure her hair is done just right. it is very cute!!

Our cat Miley has gone MIA, but we luckily kept one of her kittens that we lovingly call Rascal.

Sofia is so happy to sit and watch Ollie and Nico skate board. she is so cute!

Rob wanted to show us his new office space/warehouse and the kids had a blast skate boarding around the warehouse and back docking area. Ollie got all scraped up trying new tricks.