Cub Day Camp - Nick

This was Nick's last year at Cub Scout Day Camp (give me a minute while I get a tissue...sob...sob!) Seriously it was mixed emotions for me. He is growing into such a fine young man and I am so impressed by him. But at the same time I wonder where the time has gone! They truly do grow up way too fast!!!

Here is Nick (front middle) with his posse of outlaws! Ha ha! The theme this year was the "old West" and their group name was "Rowdy Renegades". They had a blast! And honestly (I am not being bias at all) our boys were the best behaved boys in the whole camp. I was very proud of them!

They worked on making wooden covered wagons. Very crafty!

The flag ceremony was nice. Good job Nick! They learned about flag etiquette, very important!

And you cannot have day camp without some BB Gun action! Nick is a great shot! Way to go!

And some archery. How fun!

We also did a zip line as part of the obstacle course. It was a lot of fun! I even did it! (Like that surprises any of you!)

Have to learn first aid. He's not breathing!!!

Some sand art...Nick is very artistic!

And the Monkey Bridge was a lot of fun! Nick held the record for the fastest time until the very last group. At least he was beat out by one of his friends. No hard feelings.

Nathan was able to join us on our last day. The kids enjoyed showing him around camp.

What a fun week! Nick wants come back next year as part of the staff!

Linn County Fair!

We had a fun time at the Linn County Fair. I took Tatiana, Ben and Andrew to the fair and our friend, Sara, came along to help and to spend time with the kids. Nathan and Nick met up with us at the fair after they got home from a big camping trip and showered and changed. It was a fun day and lots of memories were made!

The kids had fun in the free family zone. They played in the corn box...

Milked a cow...

pumped water in a rubber duckie race...

rode ponies (here is Andrew on his first horse!!!)...

Tatiana rode too, but Ben was not about to get on that pony!

We went to the free petting zoo...Tatiana loves animals...

Ben not so much...(that is our Sara holding him, we love her!)

They watched a fun show put on by Mother Goose herself!

Andrew had his own fun, or should I say we had fun with him!

So cute! So happy!

The kids rode on several rides...all of the big ones of course!

Sara rode with them on a few...

They had a lot of fun!

Ben loved the rides too! Once he warmed up to them...

Hands up!!! Yahoooo!!!!

And my adorable husband..."I love you!"

My "Momcation"!

My friend, Dianne, and I went to Sisters, OR for their annual quilt festival. Neither of us are quilters, but it was something fun we could do that our husbands and children would not feel jealous about missing! And even though I do not quilt (I've made only one pieced quilt in my lifetime) I do appreciate the art and talent involved. We left in the morning...no packing...no kids...no schedule...no stress...and just drove over to Sisters for a fun relaxing "momcation" for the day! It really was a lot fun but, as always, I ended up missing my kids. What can I say, I LOVE being a mom!


Dianne and I in front of one of the thousands of quilts hanging up all over town.

More quilts hanging on the side of one of the buildings.

Check out this quilted PT Cruiser!!!! Whoa! That is a lot of work and it was done by a quilting group from Lebenon! That is where Nathan works!

We viewed the quilts, went shopping in some cute shops and then we took a break and sat to listen to this harpist play. Before long a flutist joined in and Dianne was up there singing! What a concert! Dianne has one of the most beautiful singing voices I have ever heard! What a fun day!

We pulled into town just in time to tell our husbands to meet us for a movie! Dianne's oldest daughter babysat all the children at our home and Nathan and Joel met us to watch "The Proposal".

It was a good day.

Boys just wanna have fun!

Andrew loves getting rides in this "wagon" that Ben made out of a cardboard box. You know how it goes, they play more with the box then with the toys! Fun! These two are the BEST of buds!

Cherry Picking

Just a couple cute pictures of my cute kids picking cherries in our friends' back yard. YUMMY!!!

Nick LIKES to pack around his baby brother. They are both getting so big!

Our HAPPY 4th of July!

This year we had Grandma and Grandpa Tolman with us for the 4th again. It has been funny how it has worked out that they have been here for the 4th for the past three years. It is never planned, but always works out. For example, the original reason there were here this year was so they could watch the boys while Tatiana and I went to Girl Scout camp and Nathan worked during the day, and so Connie could go to the dentist!

Our day started out with our annual flag raising ceremony and pancake breakfast at church. It is always such a nice way to start the holiday. Then we did our tradition of stopping off and buying our fireworks on our way home. Buy one - get one free on the day of!

When we got home we had our own flag raising ceremony. Our resident Webelos Scout led the color guard.

Nathan and the kids had fun setting off some smoke bombs and other "daytime" fireworks.

We bought the Old Navy flag tees this year and they kids painted and decorated their own sun visors for a craft project.

Our back yard dinner was red, white, and blue! We had shish kabobs, watermelon, blueberries, etc. It was very good!

After dinner our friends, the Nelsons, came over for fireworks. It was a highly entertaining evening. It is hard to take good pictures of firework action so not many turned out. Here is a sweet one of Nathan and Ben with some sparklers.

Happy Independence Day everyone! We are truly grateful for our freedoms and this beautiful country we live in!