June Catch-Up

So here we go again! Another month-long catch-up post! :oP I am determined to get current with this blog! Arg! ;o) If you noticed, I posted six times in June....but every single post was about MAY since I was still behind. So here's hoping I really can get caught up over the next few days and we'll start right now with an overview of the month of June. I'm sure I'm leaving things out, but here's the quick version:

With the lovely warm weather we experienced in early June, we made good use of the sun and hit the downtown wading stream for the first time this season. The kids had a blast, as always. That place is the BEST!

Some friends of ours invited us to go on their homeschool field trip to Mt. St. Helens. We met the group at the Creation Museum just off of I-5, then drove up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, and finally stopped at the playground at the Weyerhauser museum on the way back down the mountain. So much fun! There was a particularly cute moment when Jake gazed over at the mountain with a look of fear on his face. I thought it was because of the huge drop-off we were standing near and asked him the matter was. Ever so seriously he said, "I'm scared the mountain is going to blow up!" We had just come from watching the re-make of the 1980 eruption in the visitor's center (complete with vibrations and LOUD sound effects). It took me a few minutes to convince him that it was not going to blow up again at any second. :)

With the seven kids between my friend and me, I felt a little bit like the VonTrapp family (of Sound of Music fame) climbing over the mountains at this moment. :)

 A quick picture of my silly Jake who frequently helps himself to stuff in the fridge - thankfully, he doesn't try to pour the milk himself but will bring the jugs and a cup to me. :) (we dilute our chocolate milk with about 2/3 white milk to cut back on sugar, in case you are wondering why the two jugs at one time)

This was a funny moment when Kevin had to fix something on the toilet and showed the kids how it worked inside the tank. They then preceded to flush it about twenty times to watch it before I decided that was enough water wasting :)

My mom recently gave Abby her own Bible - pink, of course. :) She loves having her very own and has started bringing it to church with her. She also completely surprised me by finding John 3:16 all on her own. She loves to find and read that verse and says it is her favorite. For those who may not know, it says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but will have eternal life." How precious it is to see one so young develop a love for God's Word!

We went to the free-night at the Children's Museum again. I almost went on my own and then at the last minute my mom decided to join us since she hadn't seen the new museum yet. I am sooo glad she did, because it was nearly impossible to keep track of all three children even with two of us adults now that Jake is so independent and likes to explore. But even with her help, Jake ended up getting lost one time. I turned away from him for about five seconds to say one sentence (seriously, just ONE sentence!) to my mom and when I turned back, he was gone. I didn't freak out right away, figuring he was just around a corner somewhere. We told the big kids to stay put together in one spot, and then my mom and I split up to search. One minute passed and then two. I started getting frantic. I passed Abby again and asked her to pray hard. Three minutes passed. We solicited help from the employees who began radioing it around to all the workers. Four minutes passed. I started to lose it. No longer was I quietly searching, but now I was hollering Jake's name loudly over the din of playing children. Where was my baby?!?!? I'm pretty sure it was well over five minutes (it felt like an eternity, of course!) before an employee finally spotted him UPSTAIRS in another part of the museum - I never dreamed he would wander that far away on his own! Oh my word. It was one of the scariest moments I've had being a parent. I've "lost" my kids a time or two before, but never for that long of time. So scary. Now I'm not sure if I want to return to the Museum on the crowded free night until Jake gets a bit older and is not so prone to wander off on his own. :oP

But on a happier thought, this little girl LOVED playing in the flower shop area and I couldn't help but swell with pride as she acted out my very first job I had. So cute! :)

 

Afterward, we walked out to the plaza to eat our pb&j dinner that we'd brought along (we ate so late because the kids were having so much fun at the museum and didn't want to stop!). Abby danced around the plaza and jumped off rocks, pretending she was a butterfly. She's had a thing with pretending and trying to fly for quite some time now. :)

Silly boys!

We went to several of my nephew Solomon's Little League games. Solomon was the star batter on his team. The favorite part for Ben and Jake was after the game when they got to run around the bases, play in the dirt and then head over the playground nearby. :) 

Abby lost her first tooth in June. She was so proud and excited...although I think I was just about as excited as she was! I don't know why really - because I hate seeing her grow up so quickly! :)

And speaking of her growing up, Abby got to go to camp for the first time at the Dunes Bible Camp where I grew up going. I volunteered to be Abby's cabin counselor and it was so fun to pass on my love for the Dunes to my daughter. We had a wonderful four days together. And although I had worried about Jake being away from me for three nights (I'd only been gone one night since he was born!), he did just fine and so did I (it helped being so busy with my cabin of girls!).

Solomon went to the same camp too and rode with us. On our way out of town to go home, the kids begged to stop one more time at the beach. So we walked along the Long Beach boardwalk and then went down on the sand for a bit and chased the seagulls. 

Then as soon as we got back from camp, it was time for VBS at our church. It was Jake's first year to be in an actual group, not just the nursery, and he did great! I helped with crafts again like last year.

On the last weekend of the month, we made a quick trip out to Grayland to celebrate Kevin's Uncle Howard and Aunt Jan's 50th anniversary. We were sad Kevin couldn't join us - for most of the last half of June and through the first part of July, he had been down in Astoria where he'd put his boat in dry-dock to repair, put on a new propeller and to paint it. But we had a lovely time with Kevin's family and went over to his parents house for a bit afterward before heading back home.

Jake playing with Grandpa's dog Haddie.

We ended the month of June with a splash! It was a Sunday evening and some friends of ours from church invited us to go with them to their Grandma's house for an evening on the lake! We had such a nice time and it was perfect for such a hot day (one of those 90-degree days we had!). It was also an interesting experience for the kids to get ride on a boat that was very different than daddy's - this one was more of a floating platform (or little barge) with a motor - it had rails along the edge and lawn chairs for seats! But it was tons of fun and we really enjoyed the leisurely ride around the lake. It was also funny to hear the kids use words like beach, dock, bow/stern, sharks and ships (as in, they wondered where they were!), etc, while we were there and that Ben noticed right away that the "tide was in." Obviously, my kids don't have much lake experience and mostly just know the ocean and Westport for boat-related activities. :)

And, Jake, of course, wore his red hard hat (and the Dora life jacket our friends supplied us with!). I'm sure you noticed his favorite hat in many of the pictures from June. :) He brought it pretty much EVERYWHERE we went, but that phase has started to pass the last couple weeks here in July now. We always got several chuckles when he went into a store with it on. :)

Yes, June was busy but fun, just as it should be!