JEFF'S A "JUMPER"

This was Jeff's Father's Day present 2 years ago -- the kids and I got him a gift certificate to take a tandem paragliding flight off of Tiger Mountain. We drive by Tiger Mountain all the time and whenever it's a nice day the kids are always looking for "jumpers". So, Jeff finally used his gift certificate and had a really good time -- once he was in the air. The process to get in the air wasn't as fun as the actual flight. He had to meet his instructor at the base of Tiger Mountain to get all paperwork done.........that let's the paragliding company off the hook if anything were to happen. On one of the forms he had to initial that he knew how to use his emergency reserve parachute. Well, when he announced that he had no idea how to use it he got about a 20 second instruction on how to pull it and then initialed the form -- good thing he was going with someone that really knew what they were doing! After the paperwork he had to ride in a van up part of the mountain, get in another truck to go the rest of the way up, then he just had to wait for his turn!! (Of course instead of the van rides he could have hiked up the mountain, but why do that when you can ride?!!?!!) Here it is...........

This is Jeff with the guy that brought him down the mountain safely!

This is the view from the top of the mountain and where they jumped from. That is NOT Jeff out there.......he was the one taking the picture!

Here's everyone at the jump area getting ready.

This is Jeff circling around for landing.

Jeff with his feet back on the ground!!

HE SURVIVED!!

CAMERON'S ROOM MAKEOVER

After a lot of work (and several months) Cameron's room is finally done!! I don't have a "before" picture of the room because it was actually Maleah's room before and all it was was a plain white room. The walls were white, the ceiling was white and the trim was white.......and actually it wasn't even white -- it was a really dirty off-white. So, here it is..............the best room in the house!!

Cameron loves his bunk beds. Sometimes he sleeps up top and sometimes he sleeps on the bottom -- "because it feels like a fort".

The bookcase is for books, but also so that we can have somewhere to put toys and some of his projects from school.

Which is what the cork board is for also........to display projects from school.

This is my favorite picture.......Cameron made it at preschool last year.

Everyone helped out with the room.........Cameron painted,

the girls helped sand the bed before it got painted,

and Jeff painted all of the furniture.............(and I guess he did a few other things also...like paint the walls and ceiling, add a chair rail, put up new molding, install a ceiling fan, add a new closet organizer...yeah, I guess he did a few other things!). :)

Here's how the kids were sleeping for part of the time while we were working on the room. EVERYONE is glad that the room is done -- especially Cameron -- now he has somewhere to go to get away from his sisters!!

CAMERON'S FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL

Cameron had his first day back at preschool today. As I was taking this picture this morning he did point out to me that "it isn't really my first day of school........I've been there before!". He was excited and ready to get back to class. He was very careful picking out his clothes this morning -- he wanted to wear something that Miss Chris and Miss Connie hadn't seen before and decided that his soccer/t-ball shirt was perfect.


This is Cameron's first "invention" of the year. Cameron loves to build things out of anything that he can find. Miss Connie saved the white plastic thing over the summer especially for him because she knew he would do something with it! Last year we got one of these new inventions daily. That means by the end of May we should have somewhere around 110 of these floating around our house! :)

RENA'S FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL

Rena was very excited about her first day of school this morning. Last week we went to the store and she picked out this outfit all by herself for the first day. She was so excited that this morning at 8:30 she announced that "she was ready to go to school and wanted to go right now!". The school is only 10 minutes from our house and doesn't start until 9:15, but by the time we actually got loaded and on the road we weren't too early.

She jumped right in as soon as she got there. She's very familiar with the room and teachers since she's been going with me for the past 2 years to drop Cameron off. She didn't have any problems when Cameron, Maleah and I left.

This was her first "project" that she got to bring home. She was very proud of it and has it sitting out where she can show it to daddy as soon as he gets home!

DO THE PUYALLUP

We DID the Puyallup today and had a fun time doing it! For those of you that don't know, The Puyallup Fair (officially known as the Western Washington Fair) is the largest single attraction held annually in the state of Washington. The Fair continually ranks in the top ten largest fairs in the world and since it is in my hometown I've been going to it every year for the last thirty-some years. I don't think I've ever missed a year! Each year things change and, of course, with kids my trips there have definitely changed over the past 5 years. Here's how our day went.............

We arrived at 10 o'clock in the morning when the gates opened, walked inside and immediately started eating. First on the list was big sno-cones (in big cups) and.................
................fried onion rings. Yummy breakfast!
Then we moved on and looked at some animals. Cameron & Rena kinda liked them, but Maleah wanted NOTHING to do with any of them.


Then it was lunch time. We had some good 'ole fair food -- greasy Fair burgers, curly fries, hot dogs, pizza and coke.

Now it was time for some fun.............RIDES!!!!!!

Even Jeff & I got to ride one of the "adult" roller coasters while Grandpa Steve watched the kids.

And after all of those rides we needed a snack..........ice-cream!
And then MORE rides!

And last, but not least, to end the day we had to bring some Fair Scones home with us. Jeff thinks it's a rip-off to pay a buck for a little bit of Bisquick and jam, but I can't go to The Fair without getting them. Even if you buy the "official scone mix" from The Fair and make them at home they just never taste the same. And now that the day is over I'm ready to go back again and eat the Krusty Pup, Elephant Ear, Carmel Apple and Taffy that I didn't get to have....and (of course) more scones! I guess there's always next year!!

OUT FOR A MORNING WALK

At the recommendation of some friends we went up to a place near Snoqualmie Pass on Sunday morning called Gold Creek Pond for a morning walk. It was a great place with a nicely paved trail circling the Pond and a nice picnic area for lunch before heading home.

One of the highlights of the walk was the rocks. Everyone had fun throwing them in the water, but Cameron was even having fun using them to stop streams and start new ones.
Cameron & Rena pretty much ran the entire trail. And Rena (who I'm always saying is the slowest of the group) proved me wrong! If she wants to run fast she can and will! She was in the lead most of the way and had a great time running in-front of her brother for once!

DIGGIN' FOR POTATOES

We went out to a local farm yesterday and spent the morning digging up potatoes and picking apples, peppers and tomatoes. Rena was our star digger and picker again. She really has fun doing it and is now ready to try her purple potatoes!

Cameron and daddy were in-charge of pulling up the potato plant with the BIG fork........

.......and Rena was in-charge of digging through the dirt to find the potatoes.

NO one was allowed to carry Rena's basket..........until the end, of course, when she was tired of carrying it!! :)

It was a fun morning and now we have lots of good veggies to eat!