Labor Day Camping Trip!!

We left early Friday morning to head out to the Okanogan National Forest and snag a spot. We arrived about 4.5 hours later and after a couple more hours of exploring, we found the spot right on the Chewuch river, it was beautiful! Ethan did remarkably well for spending so much time in the car seat. Then our friends Chuck and Robin came up later that night. We spent four adventurous days and three freezing nights. We did some exploring and shooting, a visit to Winthrop and Twisp, more exploring, relaxing and altogether enjoying each others company. A few highlights of interest:

• Stopped at a street fair in Twisp and had the best peaches any of us had ever eaten!
• Saw 3 big moose!!
• Went exploring to see Billy Goat Pass and ended up seeing free range cows in the middle of the forest, much beautiful scenery, a mine and an amazing mining cabin near the trailhead built in 1949.
• Ate smores around the fire while we watched the millions of bright stars and the bats swooping to catch bugs...
• Shot Thomas' shotgun, was my (Talia) first time shooting a gun... can we say sore shoulder!!
• Stopped off at Washington Pass look out, Ross Lake and Lake Diablo to see God's stunning creation!
• We stopped at the actual town of Diablo, which felt more like a ghost town, as we saw cars and houses but not one single person on a sunny summer afternoon...
• Thomas and I continued the trip home to discover Baker Lake, a 25 mile dead-end road complete with an amazing dam and quite a few future camping sites along the way.

Gone Fishin'

We went fishing with Mima and Grandpa Starkey! What a blast! We arrived at beautiful Cottage Lake at around 8am and stayed until about 1pm. I forgot how much I love fishing, and Elijah was quite the natural himself. With a few pointers from Grandpa Starkey/Dad we were regular fishermen!! Our trip included a very laid back morning spending good quality time together catching lots of little 3-7in perch and baby bass, some tangled lines and tree climbing :), eating snacks, feeding the friendly ducks, sunbathing in the 95 degree weather, Elijah falling into the lake (oops!) and Ethan eating dirt and rocks!! It was quite the trip and we are all anticipating the next family fishing trip!

Ethan Landry is on the go!!

Ethan started to crawl this week! He is so happy to be able to get around. Now if he could just keep up with the other kids! This is him crawling through the kitchen!!

Gum-gum...The goat!

This is Elijah and Ethan's, very friendly, pet goat named Gum-gum. He was a gift from Mima and Grandpa Starkey and thankfully lives at thier house in Monroe, as we have no room for him in our condo! Elijah absolutely loves him and talks about him all the time and whenever anyone asks if he has any pets he always very excitedly and quite proudly says, "YES! I have 2! a bird named Bobby Norman AND a GOAT NAMED GUM-GUM!!" Praise God for things that bring joy to our hearts and smiles to our faces :)

Talia's very own preschool!!

What a day! Five preschool kids together are VERY energetic!! My neice Natalie(5), neighbors Hannah(4) and Mason(3), Elijah(3), and Parker(3)...Ethan(8 months) was sleeping in the other room...Thank God, and their parents, they are all good listeners!!

Ready to Ride!

Elijah and Parker preparing to ride bikes at Parkers house! They are such a crack up!

Surviving without Thomas...

Thomas left on the 29th of June to go on a mission trip to Fiji with our church... it has been quite the week! On Tuesday I (Talia) started taking care of my neice Natalie, she will be coming here for the summer! Elijah is very excited to have his cousin over everyday! It has been a busy house having 5 little ones running (or rolling) around but it has been fun! Thank you God for the sun so we can get outside to play!! Then on Thursday I pulled a no brainer and managed to burn the bottom of Ethan's foot on the top of the stove...a trip to the doc and a bandaged foot for 2nd degree burns :( poor guy. Lord willing the rest of the week will go by accident free, I do have a new appreciation for Papa through all of this, he really does a ton around here!! Thank you T! Thomas will return late Thursday evening on the 10th.