Seattle Trip

John had an appointment in Seattle, so we met the Browns by the space needle and then visited our friends who just moved back from the Carribean, the Neirms! It was nice to catch up with friends, and I got to stop by the big Goodwill outlet in downtown Seattle! I'm at fault for not taking more pictures. I think I was subconciously thinking of all the ones I hadn't blogged yet!

Here's me...excited to go to Seattle. Yes, this hat was a fun yardsale find and does a terrific job hiding messy hair!

Family bike ride

Here's to our family bike ride. We had 3 adults (aunt Holly came) and 3 bike-riding children, and one infant rider. All I can say is it's a good thing we had 3 adults! The kids did a great job, but bikes with training wheels are just sort of slow. I probably could have walked at Joel's pace. The adults took turns walk/jogging. Holly and I rode home, got all the rafting gear, and John and the kids rafted home (remember we are blessed to live right off the river)! They even stopped by Treasure Island, and say pirates, who weren't wearing Pirate clothes....hmmm. Luke's had dreams about Treasure Island every night since. Oh what fun to be a kid with a dad who loves adventure as much as you! This pic is sideways, but as you can see, Zach definetly enjoyed himself, and even took a nap in the park, where we stopped to eat. Not a bad life, if you asked me.Man! This many kids/adults means alot of bikes! They're obvioulsy not all pictured.

John and Luke hooking our yardsale "chariot" to the bike.

Zechariah, getting ready for his 'chariot' ride, with our lunch :)

Where has the summer gone?!

So, where has the summer gone? I feel like I've accomplished little to what I expected, and John says he's dissapointed we didn't go on the many trips/get togethers that he had wanted. I guess next year we'll try to have more realistic expectations. Here are some random pics that I wanted to throw on here.

10 yrs!

4 kids, 8 moves (with a couple other little moves), 5 or so car trips across the country, Ranger school, a college graduation (John just started college again), so many friends, so many campouts, a almost 2 yr Iraq deployment, 3 houses...all fixers, and hey..we're still married! And loving our lives together way more today then 10 yrs ago. We both feel so blessed! God has been so good and there's no doubt that God made us for eachother!

Chloe's debut.

Here are some pictures of our rising star at her first acting class. John's favorite kid was the pinguine below, who he swears was going to take his costume off.

Priest Lake '09

The Priest Lake '09 crew..... Jon and Even in good spirits on the hike!

Nathan Brown, still smiling :)

another strem switchback......

picking huckleberries....yumm!

Annaliese, ready to hike to upper Priest :)

Me, and Zach, ready to go!

John and his 'map'....oh, I thought we were on this other stream.....

The crew, ready to hike down the river bed.

Our totally awesome campsite! Right on the beach at N. lower Priest!

Joel, horsein' around by our mansion tent :)

John and Jon Naught

Huckleberry pancakes. The kids talked me into putting peanut butter and chocolate on them :) Interesting mixture!

Joel man :)

This year we went to Priest Lake to camp. John's old stompin' grounds. His grandparents owned a cabin on the lake for years and he spent many summer days here. Jon and Even Naught, and the Brown family joined us. We had an awesome time!!! We ended up with an increadible campspot, right on the lake and hung out loungin' and the kids played in the raft. The second day was mostly taking a "John Goldsworthy" style hike, which we thought was taking us to upper Priest, but after two hours into the hike, with no signs of getting closer, most of the 7 kids, infant and couple mom's thought it would be best to turn around....we did have a great time, even though I will forever give John lots of crap for it.

What a great time with fun friends....hopefully we'll get to do it again next year!