Summer Randoms...

Building kitchen cabinets with Dad in the farm shop.

 This little lady finally determined to learn to ride a bike.  She wanted as little help as possible and she wanted the learning part finished.  So, she set herself to practising and probably spent 5 hours - all alone, push off, balance, feet down - at it the first day.

 She later remarked that her favorite part about learning to ride a bike was hearing Cam cheer for her.  It was SO cute!  He happened to be walking past and caught her pedalling on her own and yelled, "GO, CARA, GO!!!!

 Gluing floors with Dad to lay the new sub floor on.

 Obviously someone had snuck some inside time in, probably Cara.

 Gramps sharing an eyeball with Cara.

 Time to send the cool tractor back home... two big men weren't quite enough so....

 a few others came to the rescue.

That's it for random.

I love summer.

Cam Boy

There is something delightfully different about Cam that hasn't shown up in our other boys yet.  I'm not quite sure how to explain it... he's super boy and yet gentle too (that's the short version)  He's the middle kid... I'm sure that has it's effects too... especially in his scenario - still a baby when 2 more babies kicked him out of his baby of the family spot.

He delights in taking things apart right down to the last button and screw.

 Too bad he wasn't quite as excited to put it together again!

He would chop wood for hours if you let him!

 With his tongue peeking out for added concentration, of course!

And then there was the bike jumps.  All the boys spent days doing these jumps.  Hours on end of zipping around the yard one jump after the other.  I'm not sure what it is but this boy isn't happy unless he's flying on over!!!

 With his socks to his knees...always...40 degrees or not.

But he'll also just sit and snuggle the kitties and he's usually the first to ask to hold a new baby.

And then there's cars.  Last week he took out his favorite library book at school.  It's a big fat hard cover about cars that usually comes home at least once a month.  I finally outlawed having that book and his favorite car book from home in his back pack at the same time because the zipper is showing signs of strain.   When I left the van doors open with the lights on a couple of weeks ago?  Well, when I popped open the hood to boost the dead battery Cam was there in a flash, "COOL!!! LOOK AT THE ENGINE!!!"

Don't even get him started on the Mission Race Way.  He can spend an entire day there with Grampa Kerry (adopted grandpa) and come home with TONS of stories about everything he did and learned and who he met and which cars he sat in.  These pictures are from last year because Grampa Kerry said they were too busy watching races to take pictures this year! 

I'm unsure of how I managed to get mostly pictures of Cam this summer but I'm thankful for them and him!

Back to the House

 Drywallers came... Looking into the kitchen from the back door... bathroom on the right.

 We hope to build some pantry type cabinets on this wall but we have to work around some ducting and the funny space above the stairs so it will be hand framed not prebuilt.... means waiting for extra time :)

 And the dust.... despite thick sheets of poly hung here and there, there was still a crazy amount of dust in a living room that had a crazy amount of stuff stacked in it!

 poor piano!

 The new laundry area.  Maybe I mentioned before how Steve pulled out walls and what not to make this laundry space more spacious... will have to do some before and afters someday but for now it still looks pretty much the same except the appliances are hooked up... waiting for extra time :)

We made the choice to not hire most of these jobs out so now we will just chip at it one bit at a time.  This is in no way said in a complaining way.  It's how it is and we're ok with it (well most of the time :) ).  Plus, we are HUGELY grateful for everyone who took time to help us out, especially in the week before we moved back in!!

and back to summer... a rainy day

Means they spent a couple of hours in Gramma's dress up box and playing "masters and slaves".

It must be Adventures in Odyssey that fuels these kind of imaginations!!

A Second Gorgeous Day!

On the way up, just looking back at where we had come from.

Like down there somewhere, past the lake and through the trees.

Tons of delicious blueberries.  I did my best to eat a lot so that the bears would get worried and come have a look and scare me off but not a bear in sight.  (even though our leader used the words 100% guaranteed! :) )

Just stopping for a snack and breather.  Still no bears.

So astoundingly beautiful - despite my pictures.  Words cannot describe the beauty of mountain peaks as far as the eyes can see, the incredible thought of just taking some time to think that the Almighty God who created it all knows not only my name but the number of hairs on my head!

Also, it felt a bit cool to think that I was at the base of that big snowy peak in the center of the photo only a couple of days before.

Bird's eye view of home.

Fantastic hiking group!

Leah and co up at the very peak.

And don't worry... She's up on a rock!

Three of Leah's four special friends.

BOYS!!

Then there was the day Cody lost his first two teeth.  Not by wiggling them with his tongue like other boys.  Oh no, he lost his by way of tug of war.

Yup, he had his swimming towel in his mouth and his brother had the other end in his hands and Cody's teeth just weren't strong enough to resist :)  Thankfully it was Cody's and not Cam's because I would have been crying had Cam's adult teeth got yanked out in a manly who's the strongest contest!

The two that came out on Tuesday were pretty much ready to go because the new ones were right there but the third one that came out a few days later??? Well there's no room for it anyway so who cares if it's not in yet, right?!!

Summer Catch Up

I really want to record this stuff for our memory so I'm going to try and do some catch up.

We didn't move out just because the kitchen did so this is how we lived for about a week - with a griddle and a toaster.  We don't have microwave and didn't have a BBQ at the time and setting stuff up in the slow cooker seemed a bit crazy so mostly we're just thankful it was berry season because we ate most of our suppers off Gramma and Grampa's table!

Renos = much more spacious than camping but much more disorganized!

 This is strictly for my pride's sake seeing as I helped Steve with the insulation... did most of the walls :)  What a job for anyone doing it full time!!

 And we discovered why it was always SO freezing cold in the kitchen in the winter.  A single layer of cardboard box doesn't quite do the job!!