kidgestdie cone please!

This is too funny...I had to share. So whenever the girls would get a ice cream cone from McDonald's I would get Jalen the little tiny kiddie cone which he loved because he could hold it himself like a "big boy". Yes it makes a huge mess and gets all over him and the car seat but to see his face while eating this is so worth the clean up! The best part is when I go there in the morning to get a coffee (which by the way is pretty good and way cheaper than starbucks) he starts screaming with excitement because he recognizes where we are at and thinks he has a cone coming...it's so cute I almost give in but I'm not quite ready to start the ice cream thing at 8:00 in the morning. Anyway, thought you would enjoy some of these pics with Jalen and his kiddie cone.

Gozzer Ranch

We made two trips up to Couer d'alene this summer to visit the golf and lake club Gozzer Ranch. This is by far our favorite vacation spot because it not only has golf for the boys but we got lucky enough to get a house on the lake so we could play with the wave runners and just enjoy swimming off the dock. The girls had fun a couple of days in their kids camp which is always a nice break and other than a bug that Ellie and Jalen got at then end of the week we had a blast! We rented a boat that came with two professional instructors so the boys wake surfed and the kids had fun on the intertubes! There was a water trampoline that we all had fun jumping on...although in case you were wondering it's really NOT bouncy so I'm not sure why they call it a trampoline...it's basically a huge flotation toy that is incredibly hard to stand up on let alone jump. It was still fun though to see who could last the longest! One day the kids wouldn't get off because they saw an otter...which we all thought was weird on the lake. At first we didn't believe them and told them it was probably just a big fish but Ellie promised that it had fur...so the rest of the week we joked with her that it was a "sea kitty" which is what she used to call a "catfish" when she was 4. It was so cute back then when she said it and now she is just too cool for that...everytime I joked with her about it she would just roll her eyes at me. Jalen is officially our little dare devil...the kid has no fear as he tried to walk right off the dock into the water. When we finally let him (Daddy was in there to catch him) I think the temperature shocked him a bit so he cried but the minute he was out he was heading for the edge again. This made it a very exhausting trip as you can imagine. He is 15 months and his only word continues to be ball...he loves any kind and anything that can be used to hit a ball as well. So he was in heaven on the putting green. He would go take clubs out of the bags that were sitting there and then scream when a kid would come ask for his club back...it was pretty funny. All in all we had a great trip and we will look forward to it again next summer...it's one of our new favorite family traditions!

birthday at the beach

We have been wanting to get over the beach all summer...actually let me rephrase that the girls and I have been wanting to go to the beach, Jamie is not a big fan of the sand. He is a good sport though and although he won't admit it he has fun when he is there. So for our nephew Jake's ninth birthday we went over the house that Jamie's parents have in Pacific City. It was beautiful blue sky but ridiculously windy so it made it a little colder than we would have liked. I'm not sure at what age temperature starts affecting your decision process when it comes to water...but I can tell you that it is not 9 or under! Jake, Ellie and Lily had so much fun running around in the waves, doing cartwheels and handstands and throwing sand in the air. Jalen was a little overwhelmed by the wind so he spent most of the day with his hood up and his head on my shoulder...do I need to remind you how hard it is to walk in the sand, let alone carrying an extra 23 pounds?! He finally warmed up to the idea of the sand in his feet toward the end when we found a log that somewhat sheltered him from the wind. He kept bending over and picking up the sand to watch it fall back through his fingers...until he got a little too top heavy one time and fell flat on his face right into the sand and came up with it in his mouth, nose and eyes...he was done with the sand after that! Pacific City has this huge hill you can climb up to see the most spectacular view, and this time I remembered my camera! When I say huge I mean gigantic, it takes a good 15 minutes to get up it with a few breathers along the way. But it is SO worth it once you get to the top. Nana waited with Jalen and Lily while the rest of us made the hike. Ellie was bear crawling toward the end and then her and Jake had fun running and rolling back down. Despite the weather we had a fun day and finished it off with cake and a birthday song!!