Band Camp

All I ever thought of when I heard "band camp" was the old American Pie movie...but the girls have brought a new meaning to band camp for me! This last week they attended a music camp called Sound Roots way out in NE Portland. Caleb did the camp with them so at least Lace and I got to carpool. It was in this cute little house and they all had a blast. They each got to pick whatever instrument they wanted to play (Ellie picked the keyboard, Lily the bongo and Caleb the drums) and all week they rehearsed two songs that they performed for us on Friday. The girls informed me on Monday that they had decided to join the all boys band (I hope this is not a sign of things to come!) and their band name was the Vampire Amps. They wanted to dress up on Friday for the big performance...in vampire attire of course! They raided my closet (not sure why they thought I owned anything along those lines) but they each found one of my tank tops to wear which looked like dresses on them, black leggings of their own and then I had to paint their nails black, put their hair up and spray massive amounts of glitter in it. We went to Mississippi Pizza to watch them perform on a full blown stage. All the grandparents came to watch and we were very impressed as they sang some song about Cheetos?! (Ellie thought I would be mad because in the song they had to sing a line that said crap...something like "not those puffy, crappy ones" I told her as long as they were talking about cheetos I would let it slide...too funny!) and then she was the lead singer for "Slow Ride". They all had stage names, Ellie was Fire Fingers, Lily was Calico and Caleb was Stitch. They did a great job and are already asking to go back again next year! I'm not sure where they get their music ability...it is most definitely NOT me but I'm glad they have an interest in it! I should have a video soon that I will post on the blog so you can see the performance for yourself!

Gozzer Landscapes

For all of you that have not been here to experience the beauty I did my best to capture some of it. I don't think these photos do it justice...mostly because of the feeling that you get when you are there in person. It is one of my favorite places to visit. Jamie prefers Arizona and while I like the heat and desert for the most part there is not a whole lot of exciting things to look at. You may get lucky and see some coyotes or javelina's and while the sunsets can be amazing the days for the most part are pretty blah. Where as here there is a breathtaking sight in every direction you turn. It reminds me a lot of Oregon plus the beauty of the lake.

The cousins

All but one...Caleb wouldn't have anything to do with his picture being taken...big surprise!

Little wakeboraders...big wake surfers

The latest trend is wake surfing which Aaron picked up right away being the surfer he is...but Jamie actually got in the groove this year and was able to let go of the rope and surf behind the wake! Caleb also tried and although it took a few times he was able to get up as well. Ellie and Lily gave wakeboarding their best attempt and Ellie was able to get up this year and go for a minute or two! She had said one more time after her last drag through the water but once she got the hang of it it turned into one more time with a whole new meaning...the kind that she says over and over again! Lily was where Ellie was at last year...she would get up only to be pulled back down face first. She gave it her best shot though...I have a feeling next year we will have some fighting of time on the board! Jalen and I stuck to tubing which he thought was pretty cool. He wasn't a fan of the lifejacket but finally gave up after asking me to take it off for the hundreth time and getting the same disappointing NO. He has no fear...in a couple years him and Addie will be shredding as well!

Future Fisherkids

All the kids had fun fishing with Aaron. I was actually surprised at the patience they had to stand still that long but they all did...except Jalen, he thought it was something to swing around like a bat so he didn't last too long! Even Addie sat still holding the pole. She was waking up so early that Aaron would take her fishing to get her out of the house so she didn't wake anyone else up. One morning she was leaning over a little too far looking at the fish and actually fell in. Aaron heard the splash and went running to find her splashing around with big fear filled eyes and reached down and pulled her out. He thought the coolest part about the whole thing is that she never let go of her pole...a true fishergirl he said. From then on she wore a life jacket at all times!

Gozzer Lake Club

So the best part of this particular club is that we get to take advantage of this beautiful lake. Down at Gozzer Bay they have paddle boards, kayaks, slides and sand toys for the little kids. It is an easy way to waste away an afternoon...between fishing and taking the wave runners out and all the other fun activities for the kids it is a quiet and peaceful place to be.

Gozzer Golf Club

Since it is a golf club we spent some time with the kids hitting balls and one morning Papa and Jamie even let Jalen and Lily ride around with them for 5 holes. Jalen thought it was so exciting that he was golfing and he of course LOVED the cart! He carried his little club around and would hit the ball and then smile and say "me golf too Daddy". We had to keep him off the putting green thought because there is nothing soft and easy about the way he swings a golf club and after seeing what he did to the practice green we thought it best to just keep him away! Maybe one day Jamie will have someone to play with because unless you can count past 100 it is not me! I just like riding around and enjoying the view...check out the lake behind them on the fourth tee box...it doesn't get much better than that!

Our Gozzer Vacation

As we have the past few summers we made the long drive up to Couer d'alene to enjoy the lake, sun and all the amenities of the Gozzer Golf and Lake Club. Only one thing was missing this time...the sun! We were there for a week and for four of the days we had thunderstorms and on and off rain. Now the kids don't mind as much as we do...they would jump in the lake or pool rain or shine but us "old" people prefer to have some sun shining down when we get into our swimsuits. The boys still found enough dry skies to golf and we managed to find things to do to keep the kids busy. We took them to Silverwood which is a huge amusement park about 40 minutes away...of course we lost track of the days being on vacation and didn't realize what day it was until we saw how long the lines were...Saturday. In hind sight we should have sent one adult with the older kids and the rest of us stayed home. Lace and I joked that we spent over $100 to get into the park to torture ourselves! We had to stand around and try to entertain two 2 year olds as well as keep Tristan entertained while they waited in line for up to an hour for one ride. They had little rides for Jalen and Addie but there were height restrictions and we were too tall which meant they needed Caleb, Ellie or Lily to go with them and as you can imagine there was not much interest in riding Dumbo or an airplane that flew around in circles at 5mph. And we were not thrilled with the idea of putting Jalen and Addie on it alone either...seeing how they can squirm out of the stroller strap we weren't taking any chances of testing them out 15 feet above the ground. So we managed to make a day out of it but I wouldn't say it was our best experience! We did get lucky enough to have some nice days the first couple days we were there and the last two days as well. We spent some time at the pool, went out on the boat two different days, played down at Gozzer bay on the water slide, the paddle boards and wave runners, sent the kids to fish with Aaron (Lily got the record this year for biggest fish caught!), played some golf and of course hit the comfort station every night. Pretty sure we all gained a few pounds but how can you resist the little shack stocked up with ice cream, every candy bar imaginable, Crush soda (yes...the best ever strawberry and grape soda ever!) and the boys favorite...jerkey. There is one on the front nine which happened to be right by the house we rented, and one on the back nine. It's funny cause the kids think it's all free...if they only knew how much this membership costs...and all so they can load up on sugar! We shared the house with Papa and Grandma, Aaron, Lacey, Caleb, Addie and Tristan and our friends Joe and Shannon came up to visit with their boys Grayson and Austin. All in all it was a fun week...as Joe reminded us you have to make lemonade out of lemons so sun or not we made up our mind to make the best of it.