Free Day

We had been feeling bad for our kids lately -keeping them stuck at home every Saturday since we can't afford to do anything. So I found a free outing we could enjoy.

 We went to the Childrens Museum in Tacoma -which is by donation or free if you can't afford to donate. We found out that it is free to park at the Tacoma Dome station and then we would have to ride the Light Link rail for 3 stops -which is also free.

 Our kids loved the new adventure of riding the rail!

  

Raidon loved putting the scarves in this air tube. We stayed there for quite awhile.

 This is Deko on the boat. His favorite place is the water area. Whenever we lost him, we knew we could always find him there. We also discovered that Raidon loves the water area too. His only problem is that he won't wear the smocks to protect his clothes from getting soaked.

We also packed peanut butter sandwiches so we wouldn't have to buy food. It was a fantastic free day!

Hang 10

Yesterday was our 10th Anniversary. How crazy is that! I told Randy that I wanted to re-create one of our wedding photos.

After having Tripp take this picture, I decided that we are really bad at re-creating moments. Randy is doing that dumb "no-shave November" so yes, he looks like a creeper who is going to kill me.

 Haven't changed a bit, have we?

 I bought some crab legs for dinner. My kids love them! The little stinkers probably ate more than we did! We also had sparkling cider and a sea salt caramel cheesecake for dessert.

 Raidon wouldn't try it, no surprise there...

 Deklan said he was going to use that against bad guys 

 I also force Randy to watch the wedding video that we made -every anniversary. I'm sure you made one for your wedding too. The pictures of us as babies and then all of our engagement pictures. Tripp kept shouting out, "That's me!" on all of Randy's little boy pictures. I think Deko actually looks a lot like me when I was little. I told Deko that it was a picture of him in a pink dress. So for the rest of the night he kept asking me why he was wearing a dress.

After all that excitement, Randy let me play in our regional volleyball tournament. It was so fun! It has been awhile since I was on the court. It was a very inexpensive anniversary since we are still stuck in a stupid lawsuit. We always said we would go to Hawaii on our 10th anniversary, that will have to wait. Thank you for a fun night Randy! I look forward to the next 10 years with you!

Family is awesome

My dad, Crystal, and my Grandma came to visit us in October. It was so fun to have them over. My dad had just bought himself a new tool set and needed an excuse to use it. So he built these sweet shelves in my garage.

And this bike rack

And a tool holder. My garage is so organized now! They were actually able to park their car in it. It was pretty neat seeing 3 cars in our garage.

My dad also bought us a city pass. I forgot to take my phone when we went to the Space needle, the Argossy cruise, and the Seattle Aquarium. But I did remember it for the museum of flight! This is my Grandma in front of a mail plane.

 And my Poppy

 Had to pose with Grandpa in front of the Blue Angels

 We also found my Grandma a boyfriend!

 Growing up, to distinguish which grandparents we were talking about, we called her "little Grandma." I guess I never realized how "little" she actually was. She is 4' 9"-legally a midget, but doesn't claim that status. Tripp started calling her mini Grandma. I guess that works too.

My hoodlums

 Did you know that I have two sets of twins? They just happen to be 4 years apart.

 And yes, Baine was crying the whole 30 seconds that I was trying to take a picture. Still haven't mastered the art of taking decent pictures of this crew together.

Winner is...

Frankinweenie!

Thank you to everyone who voted!

Need your votes again :)

We had another pumpkin carving contest at the apartments. Sadly I had no child entries this year. Please vote for your favorite by Thursday, October 30th. The winner receives a $100 rent credit

#1 Frank

 #2 Seahawks

 #3 Headless Horseman

 #4 Beetlejuice

 #5 Frankinweenie

#6 Boo

You can leave a comment on my blog or email me with your votes. Thank you for your help!

Summer Happenings

I find that with 4 small crazy boys, it's hard to find time to do the things that I want to do...like blog. So here are some of the things we have done this summer:

My cousin Camdon went on a mission to Chicago. We were able to attend his farewell. I love this picture of boys because we have a returned missionary, current missionary, and all my future missionaries ;) We just started writing Cam each week, and it is so fun to see how much he has grown spiritually. He is an amazing missionary with a strong testimony.

 While we were in Idaho for the farewell we stayed with my grandparents. Here is Grandpa John and the boys. Hope they didn't mind the extra noise we brought to their home ;)

 It was really hot this summer. So we had a water party with Alyssa in our redneck swimming pools. The kids loved it, so I guess it was a hit.

 We also worked on growing grass instead of weeds in our backyard. It's still a work in progress. We have quite a few bare spots.

 Randy turned 32! We spent the day with family and Willy took us out to Old Country Buffet and then we played a new Redneck Life game for 3 hours.

 We blessed this little bundle of joy. The blessing circle was full of giggles because Randy almost dropped this little guy. Thank heavens cousin Jordan caught him. 

 The day we blessed Baine, we also celebrated Deko's birthday. Our house was full of family and was about 90 degrees inside, but I loved it. It was so fun to have them all over at our house.

 We went to Ocean Shores for the day.

 It was actually a nice break from the intense heat we had been experiencing.

 We went to a wedding reception at a castle! This is the Thornewood Castle in Lakewood. It was huge and beautiful. This is a view of the castle from the secret garden.

 The happy couple. Jordan's family is in our ward. We found out that Stephen King had made some changes to the castle when he filmed some movies there. We also learned that Randy's brother, Brian was in a movie that was filmed there called "Rose Red"

 Just a random pic of all my boys. So hard to take a pic of them. How do you take pics of your children together? Did you notice Baine's face is blurred? 

 We went to Titon's pirate birthday party. Here is Raidon walking the plank:

 After the birthday party we took Titon and Diesol home with us and they crashed on the way there.

 Tripp started first grade. He also started riding the bus this year, which is new to us. Only missed the bus once so far...

 And Deko started preschool at a gymnastics center. His face tells it all. He still cries every time I drop him off. Hopefully he will get used to it soon.

Phew... hopefully I am all caught up now. It's been a fun summer, I'm sad to see it go but am excited for the fall and all the fun holidays coming up.

Ahoy Matey!

Free Dozen Donuts if you dress like a pirate today at Krispy Kreme. Totally hit that up!