Yellowstone Here We Come!

We are headed to Yellowstone this weekend. If anyone knows of anything that we just "have" to see, let us know! Hopefully I will remember to take some pictures!

We love visitors!

We were lucky enough to have the Bryans from Nebraska come through on their way to see family! Our kids had so much fun playing with their friends! Thanks Bryans for stopping by!

Our home is open to any old friends who would like to pay us a visit!

They Grow Up Way Too Fast!

I just couldn't resist. This is one of my favorite pictures of Sydney. It is crazy how quickly they grow up. With the first two kids I wanted them to grow up--FAST! But now I wish that it would slow done a bit. I love this age and stage!

Kindergarten Graduation

Well since I am on a roll I thought I would just keep going. Macy "graduated" from Kindergarten! Wahoo! I am not really sure why kindergarten graduation is a big deal but the kids had fun and they all felt special! Macy and Marin will be switching schools again. It will be their third school in a year. Macy is sad, Marin is glad. You can't make everyone happy. And when we buy a house (who knows when that is) they will have to change again. Maybe they will learn that change is good.

Family Reunion

Well, we went on a trip to Utah for a wedding in May and I took my camera all the way there. But guess who didn't take a single picture, ya, that would be me. So this last month at the Short family reunion I made sure that I didn't make that mistake again. We spent 6 days at a group camp place where we rented a lodge with a kitchen and eating area and then primitive cabins to sleep in. I was worried that we would all get sick of each other after 6 days, but we had a blast!

Poor Sydney, before we left she fell out of our front door onto the door mat and scratched her upper lip. She was born into the right family!

We had a fun morning of baseball and kickball.

The sandbox was a huge hit for the younger ones. We were washing sand out of hair and mouths all week long. (Sydney and Macy with their cousins, Katie and Gretchen)

Daddy and Uncle Arin blew up the raft and took the kids for a ride.

Marin and Riley took a dip in the lake. Nice clean water huh? Considering there was snow on the ground the week before, you wouldn't have caught me dead in the water!

One morning we had a nature scavenger hunt. We went looking for rocks, sticks, flowers, leaves etc.

Sydney eventually got the idea and started picking up sticks. We couldn't get her to stop!

I think camp fires are the best part of camping. The kids sat on the log and pretended that they were a train.

We taught the kids how to play kick-the-can. It took me back to when I was young and we would stay up late on summer evenings and play neighborhood games. I loved kick-the-can. Well while I was running away from kids 10 years old and under, straining every muscle in my body I realized that I am definitely OLD! While we were playing Sydney face planted in the dirt and scraped the end of her nose and forehead. We started calling her Rudolph the red nose reindeer. She went home with scrapes on her face and all up and down her legs. That is what happens when you are not a seasoned walker I guess. But it was better than having a crawling baby in the dirt!

This is the only picture of me on our camera for the last 3 months. I guess I am the one always taking the pictures! And what a beautiful picture it is!

Grandma had a birthday party for all the grandkids. They played relay games and simon says, decorated visors and ate birthday cake. Thanks grandma!

Alayna was so cute. She was sharing her birthday cake with Sydney!

Soccer, soccer and more soccer

Marin and Macy played soccer in April. They had so much fun. For me it was soccer overload. Between the two teams they had games 4 days a week and practice on Saturday. But it was worth it because they enjoyed it so much. I was worried that Macy would be too timid to have any fun. Boy was I wrong. She was the most aggressive player on the team and probably one of the tallest in her age division. It was fun to see Marin and Macy go in the backyard and practice together. It was one of the few times that I have seen them work together. Luckily this fall they will be on the same team, so that means only 2 games a week-much better!

Marshall is 4!!!

Ok, so Marshall's birthday was something like 6 weeks ago, but I guess it is better late than never to post something about it-right? We have way too many birthdays too close in our family so I got lazy about his cake and slapped a couple of cars on it and called it good :).

Grandma Short was so nice and took Marshall to Artic Circle for a fabulous birthday lunch.

Unfortunately he inherited some clumsiness from both of his parents and while he was eating he fell off the chair and landed on the back of his head. He had a HUGE knot on the back of his head. He seemed to be acting ok so I didn't think much of it. In the mean time Aunt Janet, Uncle John and Aunt Renae and Uncle Andy stopped in on their way to Quilt Market in Portland. We took them to see Loren's office and while we were there Marshall started acting really weird. He got really drowsy and his tummy hurt and he couldn't open his eyes. We got freaked out and took him to the ER. Once we got there he started acting completely normal. We didn't know what to think and even though we have horrible insurance we decided it was better to have him checked out just to make sure he was ok. By the time a doctor finally saw him he was bouncing off the walls. Luckily he was fine, but our bank account isn't fine. It is amazing how much they charge just to be seen at the ER. They didn't even run any tests.

In all the craziness I almost forgot to have him open presents. I told him to go get ready for bed and someone had to remind me to have him open his gifts. It was one of those days:)