A little bit of summer, a little bit of fall...

Seattle can't decide what it wants..it is nice and warm during the day, but the light disappears quickly into the night.  So we definitely have that summer feeling and fall feeling at the same time!  I was watching Lauren swing outside the other night and thought her shadow looked so cool against the fence!! 

...end of summer

Emma is on Nordstrom's site!

Super fun...she did this shoot earlier this summer.  We wouldn't have even known it was up, but a friend at school said they saw her on the site!!  :)  She loved this jacket when she did the shoot and wanted it...however, she soon forgot about it because it was summer and hot out.  Well...now she has been reminded and wants it again!! 

Here it is on their site:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/the-north-face-resolve-rain-jacket-big-girls/3081784?origin=category&resultback=3296

Details! :)

Anniversary Flowers!

They are a day late on the blog...but they sat perfectly arranged on my counter top yesterday!! Happy Anniversary to myself and Bart!  Thirteen years....and going strong! 

Back To School 2011

And they are off!!  I am now officially the mom of a 6th grader (middle schooler) and a third grader.  Woo Hoo!!  The excitement was buzzing around like a bee this morning!  By 7:00 Emma had gotten up, showered, ate breakfast, made her lunch and made her bed.  I was like...hmm...this is nice!  I told her she was waaaaay early and didn't need to get up at the break of dawn..but she disagreed and was happy to have some extra time to hang out!!  OK..we'll see how long that lasts!!  I was happy for the extra time though because it gave her no excuse to deny me of that 1st day photo!!  She still rolled her eyes, but told me I could take a quick one!!  Then we packed up her jam packed backpack and headed up to her new middle school!!  She was not nervous at all until we pulled up, then she wondered  out loud...."Do you think I will be able to remember my locker combination?"  LOL..yes Emma, you will remember it!!  However, when you are almost 40 like me you will have lots and lots of dreams where you can not remember it!!  

So here is my ONE shot! 

Next I buzzed home to wake up Lauren.  Bart was working from home and since she does not start school until 9:30, she could have slept in until 8:00.  Nope, she was already showered and getting ready when I walked in.  She was over the moon with this new arrangement!!  She said it was going to be AWESOME.  Emma would be at school already while she got ready.  This is where lots of bickering took place in the previous years.  For some reason they had to argue over ummm...ANYTHING while brushing their teeth, waiting for showers..even though we have three bathrooms, or during breakfast!  So Lauren was pretty happy about having the bathroom to herself!  I have to admit..I was really liking it too! 

So Lauren was ready well before she needed to be too!  A few snaps of her and we were off!  Bart and I walked her to school and she practically was walking on air!  :)

Since I knew I wouldn't get a shot of them together, I did it yesterday when we walked Lauren to her Open House.  She was excited to drop off her supplies and meet her new teacher Ms. Welling!  Ms. Welling subbed  a lot last year and EVERYONE just loved her, so we are super excited to have her as Lauren's teacher this year!

I also took some fun "Back To School" themed shots of the girls the other day.  This was pure TORTURE for Emma who said it was the stupidest thing ever.  Pffft...some model she is!!  LOL!  So you will definitely notice her lack of enthusiasm!  Luckily, Lauren is still willing..but I think my time is running out with her too!  They are just way to cool for pictures!!  Oh vey!!!  

Excited for my time alone.  I miss the girls already, but will enjoy getting a few things done that I had been putting off over the summer!! 

Deception pass Part II...Silhouettes

The sky was so incredible every night!!  The blues and reds and oranges.  Ahhhhh!  We had lots of fun with silhouettes!!  :)

The first night..less red in the sky....

 There were tons of jelly fish and Lauren wanted me to take a picture of it...mind you..it is totally dark out..so she is lighting it with her head lamp. 

 One quick shot of the bridge...I thought it was cool looking.

 Then the next night we went back again at sunset and it was much more red and had some crazy cool clouds!!

Camping at Deception Pass...Part I

My oh my...what a wonderful time!!!  

We had lot of fun at Deception Pass this year:

We ate.

We drank.

We played lots of Rummicube.

We enjoyed the sun..YES, there was sun this time..no rain!

We enjoyed s'mores and beautiful sunsets.

Things that were not so fun:

Me locking both sets of keys in the car 1 hour after arriving.  Thank god for Triple AAA.

Waking up in the middle of the night FREEZING.  It was sunny during the day, but c-c-c-cold during the night..even in a mummy bag.

Having to get out of that bag in the morning just to get dressed.  That is the worst part of camping...however, I must endure it to get fun memories such as these....


Bart setting up the tent.  He looks thrilled. 

Our cute little home away from home for a few days.

All the kids swarming the Triple AAA guy.  Yay..he retrieved the keys!

Sweet little Archer.  

A shot of the Snoopy cap...hee hee.

Our delicious noodles Renee made for dinner the first night.  The kids ate Hamdogs.  (Oh so did Holly and Pete..they said they were having Hamdogs for every meal!)

The Swanson's wine stash! I know you are jealous of that rockin' fruit decorated table cloth!  LOL!

The big ass trees that let in NO SUN!!

Julia teaching Lauren the art of fishing.  We were heading down to the beach.

JJ and Lauren...being CRAAAAZY!!

Some of the group enjoying the outdoors!!