Farmer's Market

Last Saturday I took Paden along with me to the Farmers Market where we had a great time snacking on fruits and veggies and watching some interesting performers and we even bought the MOST delicious cupcakes I have EVER eaten. The cupcake company is called, "icing on the cake" and they are SO much better than Katie's Cupcakes in Fairhaven unfortuneatly though they don't have a store but you can buy them at the Farmer's Market every Saturday or at Woods Coffee near Boulevard Park. Trust me and try them!

Hovander Park

After a fun trip at the Farmer's Market Robby and I brought the boys to Hovander Park to celebrate Pioneer Day. Evan was so cute, he was in love with all of the animals and didn't want to leave.

Marina and Grandma

The weather here has been hot, hot hot, and MUGGY...yuck! It gets so hot in our house that even at 10pm we are all sweating so last week I had enough and we met my mom at the lake to cool off. I kept the boys up way past their bed times, I just couldn't put them to bed hot and miserable. As you can see they were much happier to be at the lake than in bed.

Boys at the Beach

A bunch of my mommy friends and I met up here at the lake and had a good time watching our kids play and chatting, that is UNTIL the BOYS showed up!! Robby and my brother Jonathon were the only daddies at the beach. It's always risky bringing Robby along and I won't tell you why and what conversations he was having with all my friends but next time he comes along he has strict instructions not to mention anything involving me!! haha

The boys had to stick together!

Larrabee State Park

This morning we decided to head over to Larrabee while the tide was still low and discover everything that is usually hidden under the water.

time to play

After walking around the water and touching all sorts of stinky creatures we went over to the play ground and grassy field to play.


















































































































We spent almost an hour here at the playground. I took pictures while Robby ran and chased after Paden and Evan. It's always entertainging when Robby comes along to the park with us, it's a whole different experience. Robby is the ultimate dad. All the other fathers that were there either sat by and watched their kids play or walked around following after them. Not Robby! Robby ran up and down every slide and toy chasing and playing tag and all sorts of different games. It was funny watching the other kids at the park, they stopped playing and stared at Robby and the boys wanting to play along.
After all the excitement at the playground we went over to the grassy area and played with this bouncy ball for about another hour. All three boys fell asleep on the way home!

brothers

Let's go Evan. I want a ride.



















No. Get off or you're gonna get it!


















I told you. Now get off!

my first sour apple...

Boxx Berry Farms

Yesterday was a busy fun-filled Saturday. In the afternoon I brought the boys to Boxx Berry Farms for their annual Raspberry Festival. Paden and Evan picked raspberries for the first time and they loved it ! I think they loved eating them more than they did picking them though!

Aidan came along.

Home girl was there too!

After we were finished picking/eating as many berries as the boys could fit in their bellies and buckets we headed over to where all the festivities were going on. Evan enjoyed feeding the goats but had a hard time figuring out which end was their mouth...I was pretty surprised he was never kicked by one of them!

Paden and Evan have both gotten real familiar with this place. Evan LOVES the tractor ride and Paden even remembers the name of this placed he says, "is it time to go to Boxx Berry Farms yet?"

Dinner on the Boat

Yesterday evening my mom called me up and asked if I wanted to bring the boys on the boat for a little ride and for dinner. Of course I agreed! Poor Robby always has to stay back for work he says, "you get to have all the fun."
I LOVE going on the boat. We live in the most beautiful place in the world and I don't believe that you can really know the beauty of this area until you've discovered it from a boat. There are so many places and islands and different sea creaturesto see, I just love it!
My boys love it just as much as I do too. We stayed up way past their bed time and normally they would be pretty cranky but they were as happy as could be!

We met up with some of our friends and tied our boats together.

We then spent the next few hours laughing and eating together!

On the ride home Paden talked to me about a special girl he met. Here's how part of our conversation went. I can't remember everything he said but here's part of it...

Paden: Mom when that girl doesn't have a family she will live with us.

Me: Which girl?

Paden: The girl on the boat.

Me: Which girl? There were three girls on the boat.

Paden: The one with no clothes on.

Me: (I'm laughing pretty hard right now) Oh yeah, she's nice!

Paden: Yeah, she is!

Paden: When that girl gets older and I get older, we're gonna get married.

Me: Oh yeah

Paden: (after a few minutes of silence) Mom I found the girl I'm going to marry.

The girl Paden was talking about is Breanna Wilson who by the way was wearing a bathing suit and is about eight years older than Paden. I'm starting to get worried about my little ladies man. I wonder what the future holds for such a girl crazy four year old??!

Back to the Beach

Yesterday was another beautiful Bellingham summer day so I brought Paden and Kai along with me to the beach again. It was such a warm day and surprisingly the beach wasn't crowded at all except for all of 3rd ward!












































It's official: I really want one of these.

Bellingham 2nd Ward's "Berry Festival"

We had a fun Relief Society activity last night at our church, it was our first ever "Berry Festival."

There weren't too many of us that showed up but it was still probably the funnest activity of the year. For the berry festival we had a cute craft you could make and a few different games to play. The games included a strawberry walk and a strawberry relay with jars of homemade jam as the prize. There was also a berry dessert table with scrumdidlyumptious treats to eat!

















The funnest part of the evening was when we crowned a new "Miss Berry". There were three contestants chosen to compete in the Miss Berry Pageant and each contestant had a team to help create a gown to walk in. Here they are....



















We chose the new Miss Berry by the loudest applause














Here she is being crowned, "Miss Berry 2009"!





















Guess who helped create the winning outfit, yep that would be me!




































so berry cute!

Birch Bay

I got a call from my good friend Mimi this morning inviting me to come along with her to Birch Bay. I quickly agreed! What's better than chatting with your home girls and watching your kids play in the ocean? Nope...there's nothing better!

I've never brought my kids here to play so I wasn't quite prepared. I didn't think of bringing their swim trunks or little swimmer diapers for some reason but that didn't stop them from having a good time!

It is so beautiful here at Birch Bay. The funnest thing about this place is that the water is extremely shallow. The kids were able to walk out about half a mile in without the water going above the knees. It was a really crazy thing to see.

Paden had a blast especially playing with the other kids' water guns. Evan on the other hand was a little weirded out by all the sea weed and other weird crazy looking things floating in the water. Evan preferred to stay on the rocks most of the time and wanted me to carry him over anything that looked a little suspicious. When the older boys got in a sea weed fight throwing the green sticky, smelly, slimy mess at each other, Evan watched in complete horror! It was pretty hilarious.

Here are a million pictures...I have issues, I know!!












































































These are my home girls!
















My crazy Water Baby...

Playin at the Beach

Last Saturday afternoon my sister Amber and I brought the boys to the beach to cool off. It was one of our warmest days of summer and the water felt so good.

Kai enjoyed playing in the water the most, he is such a water baby! While we were there I would sit Kai down in front of this log with his back against it in the shallow part of the water. As soon as I would place him there he would immediatly push himself face forward into the water and Army crawl right in splashing and dipping his face in! I loved watching him have so much fun!

There were some other moms and grandmas there that were acting really nervous watching Kai too, they kept giving me advice and telling me to pick him up. I just smiled and let my baby play.

Check HIM out!

Kai has mastered the Army crawl!

By the way the music in the background is from a cartoon.

Meet my Date!

This handsome man of mine decided it was time for a date. So we left the other boys at home and went to get us some ice cream!

Oh and by the way...not just any old type of ice cream would do. Paden and I decided that it had to be Mallards AND not just the regular ice cream cone would do either. My man chose a huge ice cream sundae smuthered in hot fudge, whipped cream, and two cherries...of course!

Isn't he a cutie!! Eat your heart out girls, he's ALL mine.

Lake Chelan Vacation

We spent the last four days in sunny Lake Chelan. I love this place so much! Since discovering Lk. Chelan four years ago we have tried to come back each summer. Robby and I have decided that one day when we're making the big bucks we'll buy a condo or summer home and party here with family! Lake Chelan is the best place to go vacation if you live here in Washington because it's really hot, super fun and it's only a four hour drive.

We arrived last Saturday afternoon on the 4th of July and we headed straight for the lake. It was SO hot, almost a hundred degrees outside (the way I like it) so the lake felt refreshing not icy cold. Here are some fun pictures of us playing in the water...

















































































































The first night we were there, we stayed in a hotel and then the next two nights we camped. After playing in the water we changed and then headed over to a park to watch the fireworks.







































































These next pictures are really hilarious. At the park there was a live band and a ton of people drinking and dancing. Paden saw how much fun they were all having so he went over to join them. Paden immediatly began dancing like he knew exactly what he was doing, he even went in a circle of people who were cheering another little boy on he had a little dance off!!
He was pretty upset when the music stopped for the fireworks!

Helping set up camp!

Here are more pictures at the lake. Robby and I spent hours playing "four in a row" and I think I won only twice!??

We were able to find some shade and ice cream cones to cool off.

ahhh........!!!

For breakfast I made eggs, bacon and hashbrowns but all Paden wanted to eat were smores so why not?!! We were on vacation....right! The funny thing was Robby went to the bathroom right after eating his healthy breakfast and came out to find Paden, Evan and I roasting marshmallows (our breakfast)!

On Monday we went to a really fun water park. I liked it because there were alot of adult type of rides that kids could go on as well. Paden and Evan had a BLAST and did not want to leave. We spent four hours here but could have easily spent the entire day here playing. By the way don't judge me for wearing a grandma bathing suit!

The night before we left we took the boys on these race cars and then Robby took Paden to play miniature golf. When Robby came back to the tent he was so excited because Paden got a hole in one, he handed me his score card and told me I needed to save it forever!

During our little vacation I kept watching Robby from wherever I was sun bathing and I kept thinking how much easier and happier my life is because I have a husband that loves to play with our children. I only wish we could take a vacation like this each month.

Believe me if you want to go somewhere close and not too expensive go to Lake Chelan and than thank me afterwards with chocolate!

Happy 4th of July from the Lovelands!

I have been thinking more about the soldiers serving our country since my bother in law Dustin is in the Army and will probably be leaving soon to serve for a year overseas. I am so thankful for those that serve and for all the families that have to sacrifice the ones they love while they are away.

I hope you all enjoy this day and have a wonderful 4th of July...we will be celebrating at Lk. Chelan!!!!

Here are some pictures I took today at Squalicum Harbor...

Delivering Flag Cookies

I made sugar cookies decorated as the American flag (with a little help from Paden and Evan) to deliver to family. Evan was so funny whenever I would hand him the cookies to give away he would almost always touch, lick, crumble or bite them! Good thing we weren't delivering them to paying customers!






























1st stop-Aunt Amber and Uncle Lance


















Always the favorite stop- GRANDMA!!

























































Next up- Grandpa

















and finally-Aunt Shanna, Uncle Jonathon, and Jackson

Bloedel Donovan Park

I was a brave woman today...I took all three of my kids to the park all by myself!

Bringing all of my kids with me alone to the park, the grocery store, church or anything else like that has scared me but today decided to give it a try and it actually wasn't all that bad. They behaved so well and I even enjoyed it. Paden was the most excited to go to the park he carried all of the beach toys on his back and chatted with me all the way there. I just might be crazy enough to do this again!

Evan, Kai, and Paden!

Beach Time!

You know it's perfect weather when it's not even 10:00 in the morning and it's warm enough to go to the lake...so that's exactly what we did today! Robby and I headed over to the Sudden Valley beaches with three kids, towels, water toys, snacks, diaper bag, camera bag and beach chairs! The worst thing about going to the lake and having to haul all that stuff home (including kids) is that it gets covered in SAND...yuck! Other than that it was a perfect afternoon.













































































While we were at the beach we met up with our friend Anna Kate and her mom! Anna Kate is such a cutie I couldn't stop smiling at her in her cute little swimsuit and tutu...ahhh one day!


























































Here are some pictures of Evan and Anna Kate sitting together on a log. These two were so cute, Anna Kate was laughing, talking, hugging, kissing and tickling Evan. Evan wasn't having as much fun as his little friend, he just looked away with a mean scowl on his face the whole time!

It doesn't get much cuter than that, I almost want to stick a little tutu on Evan!