Summer has begun!

So much has happened since my last post:

1) Natalie had her baby - our newest addition to the Marecle grandbaby pool - Megan Katherine. Born June 17, 2009. She is adorable.

2) Kara finished up Kindergarten! What the heck...she is a first grader now! She had such a wonderful experience in Kindergarten. Thank you Mr. D!

3) Jace finished up his first season of soccer. I have to say the Bonney Lake/Sumner Rec Pee Wee Soccer program is so wonderful. Thank you Coach Carrie. Jace just loved his coach and the entire experience.

4) Kara celebrated her 6th Birthday! What the heck...she is such an amazing child. I could go on and on and on about how wonderful she is. We are so very proud of all she has accomplished and become in the past year! Here's to another great year. Thank you to all our family and friends who celebrated with us. She loved her b-day party! This was the first year she was just jumping off the walls and so excited about the b-day party

(sweet Jocelyn with her baby boy, Miles)

(new baby Lily Ann Kowalchuk born June 7, 2009 - 2 weeks early - isn't she adorable)

5) We actually took off to Friday Harbor for the 4th of July weekend. What an adventure! We left our house around 11:15a on Thursday, July 2 and didn't arrive to our destination till 11:15p. It sounds horrible, but we really made the most out of the CRAZY travel situation. We literally flew up to Anacortes to catch the ferry, but that's when we sat in line for 1 hour and 40 minutes before we even got to the ferry terminal. Then we thought we might get on the 5:10p ferry only to find out we would have to wait for the 8:25p ferry, which of course ended up being late and we didn't set sail for Friday Harbor till 9:00p. Once there we had a good night sleep and the kids were absolutely awesome! Bryce was a bit of an exception, but we all survived.

(I just love this picture of my boys)

6)Kara got 6 stitches on her 6th birthday! What a crazy weekend at Friday Harbor. She was innocently playing soccer with our friends son and she slipped on the gravel only to bust open her knee. It was the most awful wound I have ever seen. I wasn't able to grab the camera and I still haven't taken a picture of the stitched up wound, but I will.

(here is a picture the day after with the bandage on her left knee)

7)Whales, whales and more whales - of course, I couldn't get a good picture, but we saw quite a few whales on our trip to Friday Harbor. Kara also got lessons in shooting a bow and arrow. She got really good. Jace just liked to watch.
8) Fishing, prawns, clams - YUM...if you love seafood Friday harbor is the place to go! The kids got clams and fished a lot - although I think Jamin has a gypsy hex on him as they were skunked all weekend catching any salmon. They went ahead and caught some Cod so the kids had something to reel in.

(Jack, Jace, Ty and Kara after their only successful fishing trip)

(Bryce just loved driving the boat - that's Kelby in the background, he and his family live on the island. They were so nice to host us this past weekend. Thank you very much Anderson Family)

Field Trip & Stuff

I was lucky to attend Kara's first school field trip. It was a really neat experience. We visited Frontier Park in Graham and they had it set up with all these different "stations", sort of like field day, but mostly team-building exercises not necessarily physical activities. Then we headed back to the school to attempt an all school activity. I had a great time and Kara was so great to watch.

Kara and classmate, Nyala

Kara's "team" - Lucas, Elvis, Brandon, Kara & NyalaKara's entire school out in the field attempting a "sit-down" and then dance. It was a hoot!
Kara and Jace "cuttin' a rug" at Jamin's cousin's wedding. All three kids had so much fun dancing!

Here is the picture of the new truck (I believe Taylor or Spencer had requested)...not the greatest it was at night when we were leaving the wedding reception.

We attended our first Rainiers game as a family! WOW! what memories. The kids had so much fun and we stayed the entire game. Thanks to Jocelyn for the great seats and "perks." I miss my days at the ballpark. The above picture is of my friends Stephanie, Corey & daughter Mattingly Brandt along with Jocelyn, Frank & son Miles Hill. My great lifetime friends from the Rainiers. Jamin and the kids are in the back row.Jamin is already getting all the kids trained with taking care of the yard:-) Passing on that green thumb!
We finally planted our first garden! The corn is already growing so fast! I can't wait for the blueberries and raspberries.

Another Month Goes By

Here is a quick recap of the last month:

May 1 - Jamin had knee surgery. He is recovering just great, but he was flat on his back for a full week. Let's just say I had a major event at work and the timing was not quite perfect. We survived...as we all do.

May 4 - Kara's 1st t-ball game - rain out.

May 6 - Kara's next t-ball game - rain out. Seriously, we live in Washington why do we play t-ball in the Spring?

May 9 - Jace's 1st soccer game. Luckily this is indoor and he had so much fun. His coach is awesome and he just loves to smile and run!

May 11 - FINALLY Kara's first t-ball game actually played! She had so much fun, but we never explained to her what getting "out" is so of course, being her mother's daughter, she was so offended that she got out because she ran so fast and worked so hard to get to 3rd base (we had to calm her down and explain a few rules of baseball - oopey). All in all, she is loving t-ball! We have had 2 more games since.

Somewhere in that mix we bought a new truck, sold our old truck, had a baby shower for my sister-in-law Natalie (yah), had our last school conference for Kara's kindergarten (ah, she is almost done with her first year of school, what the heck!), chasing Bryce everywhere and are working frantically to get our yard back in working order. All I can say is "LIFE IS GREAT!"

Enjoy the pictures.

Jamin LOVES his hammock from his brother Taylor - it was handmade in Brazil (Taylor picked it up there when he was on his mission, its sweet - thanks little brother)

Of course, Bryce doing his favorite thing pulling everything out of the cupboards! Cheap entertainment!

So much going on...

It sure seems like life keeps getting crazier. With that being said, I can officially say that Bryce is walking. I know I jumped the gun about 6-8 weeks ago, but he is cruising now. He still loves to crawl, but he is full on "toddling" now. Here are a few videos of his triumphant "toddles."

Sorry this one is sideways, this next one is great because he is playing in the sprinkler:

One more - this was taken today at Jace's 1st Soccer practice:

So that brings me to my next "craziness" of our life: Jace had his 1st soccer practice today and he did so great. I was so impressed that he actually got out with his team and listened to the coach and didn't really look back at us at all. I thought he was going to be more clingy, but he really enjoyed himself and by the end was giving the coach high 5's. This is going to be fun!

Next, Kara is playing t-ball. She is loving it. I can't believe we are in t-ball already! She loves her team and we had a practice game the other day and I couldn't believe how well everyone on her team listened to the coach and actually proved that they had learned something at the practices. Our coach is great. So is Jace's soccer coach. I am so grateful that these coaches are not taking things so seriously when these kids are still so young.
Also, Kara earned a reward for all her hard work with reading this school year. She chose to get her ears pierced! I was so nervous and tried not to show it because she was so calm and excited. She did great! She almost started crying about 10 seconds after it was all done. Much to my surprise they do both ears at the same time - I know get with the times! They are all growing up so fast. Its so much fun:-)

Look closely, her ears have earrings in them...not the greatest picture (sorry).