A Little Catch Up

I have some serious gaps in capturing our life in pictures lately, so I am going to write about a few things to get caught up.  I will use my Summer Bucket List to reference. 

Go on a hike- I wrote about this little adventure already.  We went on a great hike right by home.  The kids loved it and it was beautiful and ended with playing at a cool park on top of the mountain.

Go to the beach Did this for hood to coast, but I think I meant another trip to visit my sister and sight see around Astoria.  I guess this half counts because I did take the kids to stay there while we waited for the race to finish.  I did have a good visit with her, but we did not sight see.
Go on the boat 1 more time (before they drain the lake!) We took the kids out one last time, and had a great time. I love being on the lake at sunset, it is my favorite feeling, other than being in the temple.  Also went for our anniversary(see below)
Take kids swimming I actually got pictures of this when we went to a river during the heat wave.
Go to hot springs This is the last thing on my list.  My birthday is Saturday so we were planning to go then, just so I could finish my list.  Well, after researching a bit and seeing pictures online, I was very turned off by the nudity and hippies. This one is being re-evaluated.
Kids swim lessons (just got them signed up for the last session of the summer, that was close)As I said, this was so worth the time and effort.  The kids loved every second.
Get to a stopping point with playhouse Another half way done one.  Definitely more progress, but we still need to paint, finish deck, and build stairs. Siding and roofing are done and we bought a slide for it last week though.  I am indifferent for this to be totally completed at this point.  It'll happen some day.
Family picnic with my side Oh so fun!  We went to this very secluded PGE park outside of St. Helens on Labor Day.  We relaxed, ate, laughed and took canoe rides.  It was the PERFECT end to summer.  I am still hoping to get some pics from my sister's camera.  I didn't want to leave, it was so serene with beautiful scenery, water, temperatures, and family visiting.
Photograph a wedding I had a great day photographing a beautiful couple.  Oh, if I didn't have so many other things that take priority, I would do this all the time.  I need to add the pictures to my photo blog still, but I had a blast and I think things turned out well.
Celebrate anniversary 9 years!  Wow, we are old timers.  I woke up to flowers and a copy of Mockingjay.  Sweet boy.  For our hot date that night, I surprised Peter by taking him out on the boat.  After a beautiful ride around the lake at sunset, we were dropped off at the lakeside restaurant where we ate great food on the patio on the water.  So romantic.  The cool part was, this was how we spent our first date, to homecoming as little 16 year olds.  I can't believe that was 15 years ago!  I am so thankful for our life together.
Bike ride We did this at our family picnic.  The only thing was that my nephew really wanted to go so I stayed back so he could use my bike.  Oh well, I will still count it because we made a lot of effort to get all of our bikes there(we brought 2 cars) and it was a great success.

Family Reunion activities:
Skating Everyone had a blast.  This party was just for family so there weren't the usual amount of teenagers playing hockey. This led way for all the little kids to play more.  Eden was very fun to watch.  She was so into it as she chased the puck around determined to get a goal.  I had never seen her get into a sport like that before.  Now she does it all the time at soccer. 
Movie night in back yard We moved it inside to our basement, but nonetheless was a great party with a lot of Peter's family.  We set up one tv with Dr. Mario and the rest of us watched a movie on the big tv and ate lots of popcorn. 
OMSI Hmmm...I remember something about an elevator.  We went again last weekend when our visitors were here.
Hood to Coast So proud of Peter.  He really trained hard for the last 6 months or so.  He spent countless early mornings running up a mountain.  He was very dedicated and barely got sore after the race.  He enjoyed getting so fit and now he still works out at 5 every morning.  He and Aaron have added weight lifting to the routine now as well.     
Beach Oh my Tanner.  I still go back to that post and laugh. One thing I didn't write about that happened: When we went to the aquarium, we all walked in and Tanner kept walking along down the boardwalk (about 10 feet).  With all the people there that day, this could have been pretty scary.  A nice lady quickly stopped him and he insisted that she let him continue on.  She was trying to talk him out of it when we came and found him.  I didn't think much of it once it was over, but A few days later, Tanner recalled the story of how we lost him.  Apparently it was more traumatizing than I realized.  He couldn't believe I had let this happen!

Now that we are back to a more structured life, we are busy with school and soccer.  Eden made 6 or 7 goals in her last game!  Dallin was goalie and blocked every ball but one!

This list was so fun that it has inspired me to do something I have been thinking about doing for a long time.  I will post about it soon.