I'm a misting fiend!

Oh, those beautiful Maya Mists! I am dreaming of misting, of new things to mist, of ways to make new masks for misting. I'm thinking it is a somewhat childlike love. My boys love to use squirt bottles in the summer - mists are gorgeous colors in a glorified squirt bottle. =)









As usual, lots of Studio Calico goodness on 4 of the 5 layouts.

Wish

Used a wonderful sketch from the Sketchy Thursday site.

I'm a huge fan!

Of Studio Calico kits, that is. Love, love, love them. They are practically the only thing I've been scrapping with lately. Love.






Both layouts completed with Studio Calico's Cotillion kit and add-ons from September.

Scrappy weekend (and Monday!) results

Summer 2009, part deux

Michael and I took a little trip for our 18th wedding anniversary. Yay for Grandpa who lives close enough to stay with the kids! We took an exciting little trip down the White Salmon River, including this 14 foot waterfall. We were the only boat that didn't lose anybody over the falls!



We also took a beautiful hike up to the top of Multnomah Falls. Gorgeous! But very crowded. We were glad we started early because it was super crowded on the way down.





I spent a great weekend in Seattle with my sisters. They have been going on little Sisters' Weekends for the past few years, but I have never been able to join them. It was a pretty laid back weekend, but lots and lots and LOTS of walking! We stayed right downtown in the tiniest little apartment and we were just blocks from Pike's Market. Very cool!



We took a fabulous food tour with Savor Seattle. Excellent guide! Really great tour! All three of us love it. We did the Off the Beaten Path tour. A little taste of Spanish cuisine, some very interesting African food, Bavarian meats, Scandinavian pastry, amazing varieties of popcorn and the very yummy Vietnamese food pictured above. If you're ever visiting Seattle, I highly recommend it!








Although my kids started school in August, Labor Day is the sentimental end of summer. Walla Walla had their Frontier Days fair that weekend, with the big downtown parade, of course. Wa-Hi's band marched in the parade and McKelle was front and center. She was first chair flute all last year, but she has moved up to the higher band, so we'll see if she might need to put in a little more practice time this year. She's the flute right in the front of the second row from the left.



Mason and Max joined Mommy to watch the parade. Dad came over after a morning at the hospital. It was a really, really long parade! The boys did enjoy rootbeer icees from the Farmers Market and got a few pieces of candy from parade participants, but we finally left after a couple of hours in the sun. You can only enjoy so many rodeo queens on horses!



McKelle and Matthew started Cross Country, even before school started. This is Matt's first foray into high school sports and he seems to be doing pretty well. McKelle's track coaches from spring season convinced her to drop soccer and go out for cross country. Since she made the Varsity squad at the meet on Saturday, it was probably a good choice for her. I, however, will miss the excitement of her soccer games. CC is hard to watch since they're off running...well, cross country...and the fans really only see the beginning and end of races.


Enjoying the summer weather on a swing! Mason's favorite.


This boy! What a kid.
We were standing at the bus stop the first day of school, waiting for Max. Mason got bored (the bus was very, very late) and started doing some kung foo moves with a stick. He started pounding it on the ground and shouted "this stick will kill everybody in the whole, wide world except me. Bye, Mom."
The funniest part was that he just said it so matter-of-factly. Just total deadpan. The kid cracks me up. Drives me crazy, definitely, but absolutely keeps us all in stitches.

Hope you enjoyed your summer! We definitely did.

Our summer in pictures...

McKelle enjoying a bit of water play at Holland Lake, MT.



A ride around Holland Lake lulled Mason to sleep on Daddy's chest.



Micah, McKelle and Matthew enjoyed a wild ride! The kids were thrilled to tube, ski and jet ski during the Stott family reunion. I was so happy to go back again. One of my favorite memories of childhood is going to Holland Lake every summer.



Guess who started looking at Skidoo ads as soon as we got home??



Max always manages to find a girlfriend, everywhere we go. He had a blast with all the second cousins!



We sent McKelle off on her very first solo airplane trip. She flew down to Utah to help Aunt Nyla out with the driving trip back up to Washington. She was the first of our family to meet the darling Samantha and fell in love with this adorable littlest cousin. The plane ride went off without a hitch, except for a too-big lotion bottle that she had to toss to me while going through security.



The kids spent some great cousin time together this summer. It was so nice to have Nyla and her kids up for a week. Very hard to get a good picture of all the children.



The "orange cousins" look like they had a good time at the water fight/5th birthday for Max/16th birthday for Matthew/35th birthday for Giana



How in the world am I old enough to have a 16 year old child??



Max had a pool cake for his 5th. Appropriate with all the water being thrown around. Chocolate cake for Matt, pool cake for Max and cheesecake for Giana!



A trip over to the Tri-Cities to Macy's Nana's pool was a great way to beat the heat (110!!) we had this summer. Mason thoroughly enjoyed the pool, even jumping off the diving board himself.





Some of my favorite pictures of the summer! Uncle AJ got a workout throwing all the kids in the pool!! Nyla's oldest Parker was a repeat visitor...many, many times!



A little hula-hooping is a fitting ending to Summer 2009, Part 1.

Wordless Wednesday

Poor, lonely neglected blog

I have no excuse. Or I have every excuse. Summer was a blast. Summer was BUSY. Fall is shaping up to be even busier. Yikes! My mom was hoping I could commit to some time next summer for a reunion. I can't even commit to time tomorrow for a shower!

The kids are back in school. Max started kindergarten, which leaves one lonely little Mason here with me. Playing with mom all day is just not that exciting and he keeps asking if two years are up yet. Matt and McKelle are running cross country this fall (after much pressure from the track coach for McKelle to switch from soccer to cc.) Seems to have been a good choice as she made Varsity after the intra-squad meet Saturday! Matt is doing fine, but this is his first foray into high school sports. He'll do fine - just needs to stay motivated.

Micah, Mitchell and Max are playing soccer. This is another bee in Mason's bonnet since he can't play til he's 5. I'm kind of glad he isn't because I don't think I could fit another soccer taxi run into the schedule.

Having Mason home all day has put a bit of a damper on my creativity. I can no longer send him off with Max for half hour or so and escape to my scraproom. He's much more apt to get into mischief than Max (speaking of mischief, I spent a weekend in Seattle with my sisters in August and while I was gone, Mason shattered the upstairs shower door, killed a frog and knocked down a flower arch at a wedding reception Michael attended with the kids. Oy!)

I did get a chance to spend some time down here yesterday and polished off several layouts. I'm in love with the pictures of the two boys on the front porch and have done several pages already. I will probably do more! Every once in awhile, I luck out and get a few great photos!

All the layouts except "Pucker Up, Santa" and "with my MOUTH open wide" are done with Studio Calico kits. Love them!!