viewer beware!

after 8 years or so of anticipation- we finally held the sharp family wrestling match. it only took approximately 12 minutes and it was over. and the winner was..... the boys! we figure between spencer's girth, preston's skills, and brigham's strategy of holding down will's legs- they had him pinned in much less time than we ever would've guessed. (aside from will's extremely poor apparel choice!) nonetheless- they beat him. and he's demanding a re-match because he thinks he had brig pinned in the very beginning.

it was fun, disturbing, and a little unpleasant. but i'm glad it's over, and the boys have hardly gloated at all. :)

today was preston's first day of high school. i can hardly wait to hear how it went and what he thought of it. i spent most of my day cleaning a friend's house. she has breast cancer and went in for surgery today. about 6 of us went in and deep cleaned their home. they are the salt of the earth- wonderful people- but not the cleanest. it was seriously exhausting labor. it made me feel like i should appreciate how clean my boys are compared to others.

it looked so much better when we left. will is taking the scouts over there tonight to mow their lawns and pull weeds. one of our friend's is over there right now cleaning their carpets. (his business) i keep thinking how great it will be for them to come home to all of that. then i thought- why do we wait until someone has cancer for us to all step in and help out? like we should be doing this kind of stuff all the time.

my family

the boys had a really good time on trek! they got pounded with rain and hail, but they still said it was amazing and they both absolutely loved it. we surprised them by having their room redecorated when they got home. it wasn't finished, but we got some new furniture, curtains, accessories- and painted the room and their dresser. tons of work! but it looks so much better. i'll post photos sometime.

these are a couple of shots of our trip to phoenix. and yes, we're proud to call them family. :)

School has started and Quince is officially a kindergartner! I took far too many pictures of him that day. You would have thought he was our first.

And Preston and Spencer left on Trek yesterday. I have to agree with them, they looked a little lame. But they didn't have a choice. I'm sure it's hot and they're probably exhausted, but I hope they are having a very memorable time.

where did summer go?

we're finally back, and we have no plans to travel any time soon. the kids start school next week. it seems summer has flown by and i seriously can't believe it's over. july went by faster than i could blink. we had the 4th, then scout camp, then the trip to canada, then arizona- then august hit. crazy!!

we had such a good time on our trip to canada though! will and i both enjoyed it even more than expected. not the canada part- that was beautiful and everything- but not the best. we liked it, but we liked washington and oregon more. driving the coast was amazing! breath taking amazing!! i highly suggest it to anyone who can handle that much time in the car. there are several cities on the coast of oregon that i plan to go back to.

the trip to az was great. it was quick, but very fun. and hot. the first day there i was thinking it wasn't so bad, but by the last day i was dying and complaining more than anyone wanted to listen to. duane and misty were wonderful hosts. they went all out for brig's birthday and gave him quite a birthday dinner. it was photo-worthy food, for sure.

i'm excited to be home. for structure and schedules and fall- which can't be that far away. the end of summer until halloween is my favorite time of the year. (as i've probably mentioned a million times.) the boys start school next week, preston and spencer have trek, and then the next week preston and i are going to education week. which i love.

oh yeah- and will is seriously already looking into getting scuba certified for his trip he has planned to the Cayman Islands. :)

along the coast in oregon next to sea lion cave. (the largest cave of sea lions in the world.)

crater lake. amazing. over-whelming. kind of scared the crap out of me.

the butchart gardens. completely worth the trip to victoria.

snoqualmie falls, in washington. i have a trip planned there as well.

a sign as you drive into la push. one of my favorite places of the whole trip. la push is a beautiful little hidden reservation at the tip of the washington coast. i didn't want to leave it.