A Berry Good Summer!

It's berry time here in the Northwest and it has really been slowing us down lately because we stop everywhere we see good blackberries to fill our bellies.  I love this time of year though because every day we get to pick and eat raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries.

So with all of the berries distracting me and my camera not turning on to upload pictures, I've gotten behind on my blog.   I'll just have to use some pictures from my phone.  We spent most of July in Utah visiting friends and family.  Here are the twins with Christina during our beach day at Bear Lake.

 Bear Lake

 I got to spend a day and night in Salt Lake with Tanner, Alissa and friends so I made the most of my freetime without the kids and we went running (saw a porcupine and a HUGE moose...we had to turn around early because the moose was right off the trail and he wasn't letting us pass),  indoor rock-climbing and mountain biking.  Thanks for introducing me to the deliciousness of beet salads too!  The kids had so much fun catching up with friends from Salt Lake too but those pictures are on my broken camera of course. 

I had fun trying out some photo features on my phone and Reagan was gladly the model.

We had lots of family fun with the Nuno bunch.  Here's Lito with all of the cousins at the park.

...and Nana with the girls.

 We went on lots of beautiful hikes in the Ogden area.

 And spent a lot of time trying to beat the heat while hangin with the cousins.

These two had fun scheming together and were inseparable.  They decided to wear goggles on this day even though we weren't anywhere near water.

 I explored the Skyline trail a couple of times which runs along the skyline of the mountains in Ogden so you can look down east and west and see two different valleys.  Incredible views!

It was a great trip and I'll have to add more pictures from my camera when I get it working.  It was also a long drive and so we did lots of little projects in the car to pass the time.  Here is CD showing off the walrus mask he made.

We also made some fun stops along the way home like at the Bonneville Dam fish hatchery and ladders.  It was impressive.  I haven't been there since I was a kid and was especially impressed by the 10+ foot sturgeons they have.   

Summer

 I keep finding Dreyton on top of the wood burning stove with a phone in his hand and pretending to talk. 

Rockwell sponsored athlete:)

These two have become best buddies lately.

4th of July race and festivities.  Keeping with tradition we all ran the 5k race along the waterfront in the morning (Whitney, Diana, and I all pushed our babes in strollers and spent the entire race weaving in and out of people trying to pass everyone since we had to start at the back of the pack with the strollers....we were the Momtourage).   Then we hung out at the downtown celebration and Jason drove his old school monster truck in the parade with all the kids in the back squirting people with squirt guns.  Carlos was in the back to make sure CD didn't fall out and had more fun than the kids by teaching them to lure kids out by throwing candy and then giving them the squirt command to douse the unsuspecting kiddos.   

 Then it was back to the house for a backyard BBQ and swim.  The twins have figured out how to get in the pool themselves which is causing me extreme anxiety. 

The next weekend was the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo parade and here's Rivers looking beautiful in her cowgirl gear. 

Shucking corn

 This was from the last day of school.  Check out the pimp new school buses P-town has.

Hangin with uncle Tyler.

We let the babies race in the 50 meter dash at the all-comers meet.  They were so cute.  Reagan used her long legs to outsprint Dreyton.

Dreyton brought up the rear after falling about 5 times, but he kept that determined look in his eye.

 Rivers' beautiful stride.

 We started up the Timberhill Harriers youth track and cross-country team again and here's the 4 x 400m relay team.  It was fun coaching with Diana and teaching the kids all about the great sport of Track and Field. 

I'm still having a hard time with the fact that Rivers is now 9 years old!!!  It's her favorite number though, so she's loving it.  She requested watermelon cake and they turned out pretty darn cute.  She had a whole crew of kids over to swim, play water games, and go on the enormous slip and slide we make with an old pool cover.   

Check this out!!  One of the bee hives on the farm swarmed (which means the hive got too big and 1000's left the hive and just stick together).  We found this cluster literally dripping off this branch a few meters from the old hive. 

Carlos and I decided to be brave and put on the bee suits to try to get the swarm into a new hive.  Carlos had a bee brush, gently brusing them into the hive that I was supposed to be holding steady.  I had to leave once because the sound of 1000's of bees buzzing was more than I could handle.  It was a success though and now we have a new hive of busy little bees.  We're excited to harvest the honey soon. 

 Learning to use spoons with chocolate pudding.

 Cassidy and Reagan the little bathing beauties. 

I like this picture because it shows the dramatic difference in their eye color. 

Tribute to Schatze

On June 24th, our great pooch Schatze went to dog heaven.  It was a hard day for us all.  We got Schatze 2 months before Carlos and I got married, so she has been a constant for our family for over 11 years.  Here's a picture of her one litter of puppies.  They looked like cute little bear cubs. 

As big and scary looking as Schatze could be, she was the most gentle dog I've ever seen around babies and kids.  Here's Rivers at age 1 1/2 giving her a smooch. 

 She was even tolerant of little dogs that snapped at her all the time :)

We were told by a vet a year ago that Schatze had 3 days to live at the most so we all grieved for days and treated her like a queen.  Rivers said a prayer that Schatze would live long enough to make it to the farm (because we were planning our move to Oregon) and amazingly Schatze got better after a few days and got to live her last 9 months relaxing at the farm. 

When Rivers and I slept out on the deck Schatze would always take my place if I ever got out of bed.   

She was such a huggable, gentle dog.  I have pictures of all my kids like this with Schatze.

She's always loved snow.  I remember being so impressed when I took her with me on a 9 mile run in the mountains through snow the whole way and she probably ran 15 miles from running up and back and all around me the whole time.  That was my favorite memory with her. 

We'll miss you Schatze!  Rest in peace.