Little Swimmers

We feel extremely blessed to live in the neighborhood that we do. One of the amenities is that we have two neighborhood pools, and every summer the neighborhood has swim lessons and a wonderful swim team. Sadie is on swim team and loves it. She has been a fish since she was a tiny girl, so it's not a surprise to us!

A few pics from one of her meets:

Cheering on a member of her relay

Ready...

Doing breaststroke, her second fave

The boys were able to do two 2-week session of swim lessons this summer. Zack began the summer a bit rusty on his freestyle (aka crawl stroke) and ended the summer having mastered freestyle AND backstroke!

Drew started out very afraid and refusing to even "steamboat" to his teacher off the steps. At the end of the summer, he has almost mastered freestyle, he just has to work on side-breathing!

It has been so fun to watch the kids grow in their swimming abilities this summer, all while enjoying being in the water!

More Burks Birthdays

I think I have said before that 7 of the 9 Burks family members have summer birthdays. So every year they do one big combo party and it is always so fun. This year the party happened to be a few hours after we were to pick Sadie up at camp (Camp and the Burks are in WA), so we went! The party started with yummy food and then we played musical chairs, water balloon toss and more.

The Burks kids sang a few songs for us :)

Then it was time for cakes!

Kaela is 14 (I still remember the day she was born, sigh)
Jane and Sadie adore her

Riley (11) and Wyatt (9)

Hudson (1) and Hunter (6). Levi (on the left) is 4, but his birthday is March.

The Burks are such a sweet, loving family and Sarah has been a dear friend of mine for close to 20 years. What a blessing they are to us. :)

Camper Girl

I grew up in a Covenant church, so I was able to go to camp at Cascades Camp and Conference Center every summer from 6th grade all the way through high school. I love that place. This year we decided that Sadie was old enough and ready to go to Cascades for a week long summer camp. She had a blast and cannot wait til next summer! I am so thankful for such an amazing place for my kids to experience as they grow up!

Taking the van up the hill to Brightwood Station

Sadie and her bed for the next week

Sometimes it's better to be silly than cry in front of everyone...

Sadie's "cabin"

Brightwood Station - this is where they ate all their meals and had chapel and praise and worship time

It was a long week and we all missed Sadie, but we knew she was having a great time. Soon enough we were picking her up!

These boys sure missed her

Sadie and her counselor, Mozzarella

Abbie, Emile and Sadie

Sadie had chosen to do a trail ride everyday as her extra activity option. So we went by the ranch and said goodbye to the horses

The Seattle Mariners

We love the Mariners. And seeing as we no longer have ANY baseball in Portland, we have to go to Seattle to get our fix! So for Tony's Father's Day gift, we went up to Seattle and to a Mariners game with my mom and brother and also our friends the Larrisons. Their kids are the exact ages as our kids and they all go to school together and also played softball/baseball on the same teams this spring. The kids all had a blast together! (We adults did too, of course!)

Safeco Field!

Sydney and Sadie and Brett made Rally Fry signs, in hopes of winning a big batch of garlic fries. They got on the big screen 3 or 4 times each, but no Rally Fries. But hey, they had fun!

It was a beautiful day, so they opened the roof for the whole game! Yay!

The game we were at was a special commemorative day of the 2001 Mariner team, who ended the season with 116 wins! They brought back a bunch of guys from that team. It was amazing to be there and see them all again.

Watching all those "old" players come out on the big screen

Some of the guys who were there were: Bret Boone (my favorite), Edgar Martinez (my other fave), Mike Cameron, Jamie Moyer, Jay Buhner, John Olerud, and even good ole Lou Piniella, the manager of that team!!
AWESOME!!

Ty and Drew, our silly boys!

Me, Mom and Tim

My boys :)

Zack and Mom

Sydney and Sadie. Girls just have to stick together, you know?

Me and Tony

Not sure what Brett and Zack were doing, but it was pretty funny

Um, yeah

My sweet family

Camping In Woods With Friends

Last summer we had 3 big immediate family weddings, so we didn't have the time to go camping. This year we made sure we went! We recently went to Fort Stevens, which is a huge state park/campground/old military fort at the very NW tip of Oregon. We went with our friends the Prices and the Bewersdorffs.

Dinner time! Zack, Jackson, Bryson, Ally, Maddie

Drew!

Exploring one of the batteries

Checking out some bunkers

Awwww :)

There is a small lake at Fort Stevens, so we went and the kids had a blast playing in the water and sand!

Kahz let Drew bury his feet

Bryson and Drew

Our friends, the Linnetts, live very close to Fort Stevens, so they came with their 4 kids and joined us for the day!

We went to the very tip of Oregon and looked out across the mouth of the Columbia River. The hills you see are part of Cape Disappointment, which is a Washington State park where we actually stayed the next night with my good friends Jody and Sarah!

The Fam

We love camping and had the best time hanging with friends and enjoying the beautiful land that God has blessed us with!