Menzie Music Night 2019

Menzie Music Night is the perfect way to bid farewell to summer. This year, Aubree and Lily were well prepared with music. They signed up for a ten minute set and had more than enough music to fill that time.

We arrived early to help set up (or, as it turned out, to chat with the hosts and distract them from setting up). Aubree and Lily (aka The Bluebelles) used the time to rehearse.

They were nervous ahead of time, but you couldn't tell once they got on stage. They played three songs: a cover of Riptide, plus two songs they wrote themselves (Falling and Inside Out). Blogger says the file for Inside Out is too big to upload onto this post, so HERE is a link to the YouTube version.

Tallie convinced Aubree to do a set with her on violin, so Aubree and Greta played a violin duet of Drowsy Maggie, and Aubree and Lily did a cover of A Thousand Years (with Aubree on violin).

The night was full of talented musicians (and even a super entertaining yo-yo performer!). We all had a great time.

The boys spent a good deal of their time wandering in the woods behind Tallie's home and building impromptu forts. Can you think of a better way to end a lovely summer?

August Highlights

August in the Pacific Northwest is such a dream! We had a few fun adventures:

*Aubree participated in another MVYSO Orchestra camp. She wasn't quite as excited about the dress-up days this time around, but she did dress up as a fortune teller/gypsy for the circus themed day.

She enjoyed the fact that she's a solid enough player that she could fairly easily play the music. They sounded pretty great considering they only rehearsed for a week.

Afterwards we all enjoyed treats.

*Aubree attended our Stake's Girl's Camp. Again, she had a blast. A summer full of camps and friends is her idea of perfection.

*We decided to try out a new park - Flaming Geyser State Park. It's not too far away.

We had a great time spending the day playing in the river with the Dances and Asher and Finley.

*We redecorated the kids' bathroom - roadtrip style!

*Bryce went to his first (and last) boy scout camp. It was only an overnighter, but he loved it! Unfortunately, we sent him with a tent missing the rain cover and (of course) it rained in the middle of the night. Whoops!

*Bryce and Thane rented out their pressure washer to a friend wanting to pressure wash his deck. Adam was incredibly patient with the boys. He taught them how to pressure wash and let them help with the process.

*We participated in a couple more group FHE activities.

*We enjoyed our visit to Flaming Geyser enough that we went back with the Coberly's (the bridge to our regular/favorite summer river spot was closed for most of August).

They're the best!

*While I was at Scripture Hero Camp with Thane and Bryce, Graham kept himself busy at home making a few boats.

*We met up to play with friends at the playground of a nearby elementary school. Some of the kids got extra adventurous.

*Aubree and Lily hosted two different Ukelele Camps, one for kids 10-11 and another for kids 8-9.

The camps were a huge success!

*This sounds crazy, because it involves the idea of college, but Aubree and I attended a BYU sponsored college preparation night. At the end of the night, they held a drawing for a few BYU swag bags. Aubree was one of the winners!

She got a bunch of cool items, but her favorite was a super-soft BYU blanket. If you thought she was committed to getting into BYU-Provo before, this pretty much sealed the deal!

July Highlights

I mostly remember feeling like a lazy lump in July, but picture evidence suggests we did manage to get out and do some fun activities.

*We went to the Covington Days parade. We arrived early and the kids got balloons.

The balloons kept them occupied while we waited for the parade to start.

*Our friends continued their Monday night, open-invite FHE's at local parks. We didn't attend all of them, but we did manage to hit a few, and we always had a good time interacting with friends and enjoying the beautiful place where we are blessed to live.

*Aubree got her hair cut. In this before picture, you can see it goes wayyyyy down to her bum.

She got a good 8-10 inches trimmed, but it was still super long.

*I took everyone but Aubree to Storytime in the Park. This year they served PB&J sandwiches. Nice!

*We went to Pt. Defiance Zoo with the Dances. We visited on a week where they had a giant sand sculpture on display.

When we stopped to watch their animal show and have lunch, Graham won himself a new water bottle. The kids enjoyed seeing the show and the animals, but mostly they were just glad to be back to hanging out with their friends after our 2 month trip and the Dance's subsequent 2 week trip.

*We met up with a big group of friends at Rattlesnake Lake. 

 

Rattlesnake Lake is one of the places we visit that makes me feel like we just might live in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Aubree and Lily brought their instruments and kept us all serenaded.

*One day we were watching our neighbor's 4 kids when we unexpectedly became the happening place on the block. We invited over Finley as well, then other friends knocked on the door wanting to play. It was loud and crazy, but the kids had a great time together.

I sent some of them outside to pick blueberries. They polished off this batch in no time.

*Tallie invited us over one afternoon to chat about our trip and play. Her backyard is a great place to play!

The big boys played outside for a while, then decided to test their friendship with a game of Risk.

*We had pool parties with the Kerby's. Their yard is the happening place in the summer.

*Aubree went to Girl's Camp in California with Audrey.

This is her third year going, and she loves, loves, LOVES it. Their camp runs from Monday-Saturday and each level has a big activity. The third year girls did a 3-day backpacking trip.

Aubree said it was harder than she expected, but she had a fabulous experience.

*Bryce did a week long robotics camp. This year he moved up to the middle school level.

His team was all sixth graders, but their robot did really well and they ended up one of the top teams. I asked Bryce if spending all day for five days doing robotics would make him sick of it. "No way!" he responded, "It's just the opposite. I love it even more!"

*We had a couple game nights with the Kerby's. We sure love having them as neighbors.

*Last summer Bryce and Thane saved up their money and purchased a pressure cleaner. They started a little business where they clean trashcans for $5 per bin. Not a bad little side job for these young entrepreneurs.

Family Pictures 2019

Even though the choosing outfits process is painful, I'm so grateful we have the tradition of having yearly family pictures!

We love Andrea, our long term photographer, and are always so pleased with the results. 

We tried for a heathered color scheme this year with mixed results. Why is it so hard to find heathered shirts when you're looking for them?

If not perfectly well behaved, the kids are always reasonably compliant and willing to participate without complaint.

This year I think the biggest issues were convincing the boys to wear jeans (they prefer sport shorts year round) and keeping the youngest three from playing in the river.

I always love the individual photos Andrea captures. Nellie was so excited to be able to pose for her pictures. She had just turned four when we had this photo shoot.

Graham had a hard time doing his normal smile, which is ironic because he's pretty much always smiling. He was just a couple weeks away from turning 7 when we took these pictures.

Thane (9), who usually hates getting his picture taken, was arguably the most relaxed and easy to photograph this time around.

Bryce (11), really wanted to have a natural smile and practiced ahead of time to try to avoid looking posed. It was hard, but I think he was successful!

Aubree was just few weeks away from starting high school and turning 14 when we had our photo shoot. I think these pictures perfectly capture how much she's grown up this last year. She still has braces, and doesn't like to show them when she smiles.

At the end of the session, Andrea snapped a couple quick girl/boy sibling shots. Aren't the adorable!