We went hiking yesterday up on Mount Baker with Mark and Edie. Here's a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment....hopefully this will make all my midwest friends and relatives insanely jealous and they will want to come and visit me!
Now...I'm off to Vegas to get LOTS of new blogging material!
Katie had her first hagel sandwich this week. Sam couldn't quit laughing...he kept saying, "She's got hagel boogers!" 
I get together with these ladies once a month for coffee, fellowship, and LOTS of laughing. I look forward to "Thursday coffee day" all month and I LOVE these gals.
My Katie Kat. 
She's growing up so fast.
It's getting tough to get a good picture.
Yeah...really tough.
Yes, she is spoiled. Could you resist this face?
Today was jog-a-thon day at the kid's school. Katie and I went to cheer on Sammy. Here he is on the first lap. I hate to brag but look at my boy go! See him? See the huge pack of other kids behind him? That boy can run!
He smiled the entire time. 
Look at that form! I'm pretty sure he gets his athletic prowess from me.
Here he is taking it a little slower with his good buddy Andrew. 
Here's my tired and sweaty but very excited boy at the end. He ended up doing 14 laps around the high school track in 50 minutes...I'm pretty sure that had to of broken some sort of record.
My poor Holly has been neglected in this blog. Here's a self portrait she took the other night.
This is monkey. Amid much happiness and rejoicing, he came home with Sam from kindergarten this week. Monkey comes with a couple of books and a journal. You are suppose to read and discuss the books together with your child and then write or draw in the journal about your experiences. According to Mrs. T. this is suppose to be a bonding and relaxing time with your child. I had high hopes. I was envisioning all three kids and monkey cuddling with me in bed after a calm and nonchaotic evening. Yeah, right. After school we had violin lessons for Holly and soccer practice for Sam. John had a council meeting so I was on my own after supper. I found myself saying things like, "If you don't finish those green beans, we are not cuddling with monkey" and "If I need to tell you one more time to brush your teeth, we are not having fun with monkey". I'm not sure Mrs. T. meant for monkey to become bribing material. Oh well. We did finally make it into bed with monkey and his books...even my almost-teenage-girl joined us. Despite a rather chaotic evening, we did have a good time. I decided monkey can come home again...lucky for me there are twenty other kids he needs to go home with first.
This is the picture Sam drew in monkey's journal. Just in case you couldn't tell...him and monkey are jumping on a trampoline. When Holly pointed out that we don't have a trampoline, Sam said, "I know Holly. I just WISH we had a trampoline."
Sam and monkey.
Not only do I LOVE Esther, I also think it's tough being a woman. I'm not saying that I don't like being a woman, I'm not saying that there aren't some real advantages...I'm just saying it's tough being a woman. Some days when the counter is full of dirty dishes and potato peels, when there is another huge stack of paperwork to go through, when I am tripping over matchbox cars and my socks literally stick to the kitchen floor, I think, "I want a different job". Some days when John innocently asks, "What did you do today?" I want to scream back, "WHAT DIDN'T I DO TODAY?!" Okay. Wow. Not sure where that come from. Anyhoo, we are studying Esther and I am very excited.
Thursday was hat day. I think Sam looks sad because he wanted Holly's hat. Who wouldn't?
This is what happens to your hair when you've had your bangs in a ponytail all day.
The joy of a boy. This is Sam using a zucchini as a gun.
Who are these kids and why are they calling me mom?
Yes, those are M&Ms in the hammock and yes, I have still have a big pile o' dirt underneath my hammock.
While we are on the subject...just so you know, commandment number 5 is my second favorite (honor thy father and mother) and number 10 is my least favorite (thou shalt not covet). I have a hard time with that one.
Moving on..my youngest daughter found a sucker on Friday. The girl can't walk but she did manage to pull herself up onto a shelf in my pantry and find a Dum Dum in Sam's treat bucket. When I found her, she had sucked most of the paper off and was just getting to the good stuff. How could I take it away? So I didn't. I did put her in the high chair and stuck a bib on her though.
On Saturday we all worked in the yard. I mowed the grass even though it really didn't need to be mowed just because I love to. In the afternoon we went to John's company picnic. I am not a huge salmon lover but one of the nurses husbands grills the most awesomest salmon. I ate a very large piece. There was also chocolate/caramel pie from the Lynden Dutch Bakery. I ate a very large piece. There were games for the kids... 
Here's Sam playing tug-a-war. He's in the orange shirt. The first game he actually was tugging the wrong way. Oops.
Here he is tied together with his friend Lydia. They were so cute racing together. Sam was giggling so hard, he fell over. Lydia kept yelling at him, "Just get up and run!" 
I love this picture of Katie and her friend Joey. He wants out. She's looking at him like, "What's your problem?"
John and Holly had a meeting after church last night. A meeting that took a long time. Lucky for me, Katie found a way to occupy herself in the car - sucking on her toes. Oh, to be that flexible again!
It was a close call folks but Sam's sunflower is still standing.
He got this at the end of preschool last spring. His first one died...let's just say that it was a little too loved (in other words, Sam watered it to death). Teacher Leslie gave him a new one and this one he's been obsessively taking care of all summer. Sam is very secure in his masculinity. He's pretty proud of his flower and he's not afraid to wear beads. 
Our dear friends, Mike and Annie came to visit this weekend. We met them when we lived in Birch Bay. When we moved to Lynden, they moved to Illinois. They recently moved back to Washington and although they are too far away to walk across the street to share a pizza, watch a movie, or place ugly things from the thrift store in their yard....we are still mighty glad to have them back. 
They have a beautiful baby girl, Elly who is two months older than our Katie. Elly and Katie pretty much ignored each other all weekend but I'm sure they will be great friends at Dordt.
Elly and Sam, on the other hand, got along great. Lucky for Becca, Sam is five years older than Elly which means they will not be at Dordt together.
We went over to the TerBeek farm on Sunday for hot dogs, s'mores...
and chicken holding.
Here's a cute baby sitting on the picnic table. 
SOCCER! Sam was especially excited about the bright green shirts. 
This is what my girls were doing while Sam played soccer. Katie looks like she's interested but she's actually watching the dogs in the off-leash park, Holly doesn't even pretend to be interested. 
