Kennewick Fire Department Open House

The Kennewick Fire Department had an Open House on Tuesday night. It was lots of fun and very interactive for the kids. I thought the Girl Scout cookies were the best part, but the kids enjoyed dressing up like firepeople and squirting the hose. Evan was happy in his stroller, especially when Sparky the firedog came around. The local news channel interviewd me when we first got there and it was on the evening news. Here is a link to the KNDU story, but I can't find the news clip - just this blurb and picture http://www.kndu.com/global/story.asp?s=8905896 It was a great evening out!

First Day of School - August 26, 2007

The kids started school on Tuesday. Kindergarten starts on a different schedule so Bubba went yesterday for an hour, but doesn't start full time until Friday. She's a little disappointed that she can't eat lunch at school until then.

Brett says all his teachers are funny - we'll see how long that lasts. He'll be playing the trumpet again, but doesn't have P.E. this year because they had to make room for all the kids that didn't take it last year from his grade. Apparently there were kids that had an extra reading class instead of P.E. in 6th grade. He now rides his bike to school which is nice because I don't have to leave the house in the middle of the morning routine to drop him off.

Erin has a great 5th grade teacher - there was one teacher that I requested she not get so I am pleased. She can't wait to be a patrol again, but has to wait for her turn. Erin is looking forward to setting off the rockets at the end of the year - a 5th grade tradition at her school.Kehli has two teachers again this year - Mrs. Solano for English and Ms. Chavez for Spanish. She got to go in the day before school started to drop off her supplies and meet her teachers. This year instead of having a Spanish partner they work in groups of 4-5. It will be good for Kehli to work with a group!

Kendall starts full time tomorrow - YEAH!! I'm not sure who is more excited, me or her. I'm looking forward to having one-on-one time with Evan. He's never had that. Bubba has Mr. Solano for Spanish and Ms. Baudrand for English. She is ready for the structure of school and a classroom.

in Moses Lake with Doug & Kristen

Doug & Kristen and their family were up from southern California last week. We went up for the weekend and spent a few days with them. The kids played so well together - we were actually surprised. On Monday we went over to Moses Lake again to the aquatic center. This time Kehli & Bubba wanted to do the surfing. They are too short this summer to do the surfing standing up, but were able to do the body surfing. They are so light that they pretty much stayed in the same place and had to steer the board over to the side when the lifeguard thought they had been out long enough. You can tell by the smiles that they were having a blast.

Evan is finally liking the water this summer - it's August, better late than never. He went around the Lazy River a few times and even into the pool for a while. His favorite was the sprinkler area, which I hadn't even noticed when we were there in June.

Here are Doug & Kristen's kids (Riley, Jacob & Ryan) with a few of ours eating ice cream at the Quincy pool. Bubba was able to go down the slide at the Quincy pool so she likes it better than in Moses Lake. Maybe next year she will be tall enough.
We got an offer on the house this weekend, but it was a little ridiculous. She wanted a 90 day bump - meaning if someone wanted to buy our house we had to give her 90 days to either close on our house or pull out of the contract. So we countered back and we'll see on Sunday if she decides to sign our contract or just pull out all together. There are two other people very interested right now so if it doesn't work out we aren't too worried. Our realtor said that over the last 10 years she has sold 3 times more homes during late summer/fall so we are still hopeful that we'll be able to build our new home this winter.

Beehive Camp

I had the opportunity to be a leader at Beehive Camp this month. Spending 4 full days with 8 girls age 12-13 was so much fun. It made me feel young again!! We camped up at Ensign Ranch in the Cascade Mountains. The weather was perfect - hot during the day, cold at night and clear skies. The stars were beautiful at night! The only thing that would have made it better was being able to sleep a little more than 5 hours per night. We got to go horseback riding one morning and spent the afternoons at a huge slip & slide. One day we went on a 5.5 mile hike through an old train tunnel through one of the mountains. It was cool to be in the middle of the tunnel and only be able to see a speck of light at each end. Below is our group on the west side of the tunnel after our lunch break. It was a beautiful view - lots of trees, green & wild flowers. I had to do the Sunrise Devotional the last morning of camp and it turned out better than I expected. There were about 70 people that went, which was a little intimidating, so I was glad when it was over.
Here is me on the rope swing. In the background you can see Emma Bryant on the platform that you had to climb up to swing down on the rope. It was scary at first, but soooooo much fun. The girls were impressed that I did it.
Here is the Child family picture from our reunion in July. I'm a little slow getting it posted. My cousin Brock took them for us and they turned out good. It is Mark's parents and all their children, grandchildren and 1 great grand child.