Family Pictures!

 My dad was in town for a few minutes (okay, a few hours...)so we took advantage of him and got some new family pictures! We went to the very beautiful (and very unoriginal) Manito Park. The gardens are A-MAZ-ING and remind me of Europe!! 

 Dad probably shot 400+ pictures, and about 6 of them worked out where everyone was looking/smiling...of course 4 out of the 6 only had one person in it :)

Ah miss Maren, full of personality!!

 Notice how she is NOT kissing me back!  The only way I could get a smooch out of her was to make a fishy face...for some reason she'll kiss me only when making a fool out of myself...

 But Kelly will kiss me WHENEVER! :)

 

 My Girlies!

 LOVE this one too!

 Only a week after pictures all of the kids got their hair cut...so we're gonna have to do these again when they all look a little less rag-a-muffin-y.

 But they're still pretty cute-

 Maren would NOT hold still for a picture of her own- so Dad caught her off guard...(as if you couldn't tell!)

We are a Ditto Family!! (I hope you sung that to the tune of "we are a happy family"-we're that too)

 

Some Summer Random-ness...

 The 'first-of-August' trip to Seattle was SUPER fun- we saw ALL my siblings, some cousins, grandparent, etc.  We spent time at the cabin...(those pictures should be around here somewhere)...and watched the Olympics!!  We LOVED it, and wished Daddy could've been there with us!

 Here are some pose-y pictures taken by Papa...

 Hailey's turned out super cute...

 On the walk home from the beach one night, we spotted a 'fighting crime carnival!' They had face painting, hot dogs, bouncy houses, and balloons- ALL FOR FREE! That might have been the kids' favorite part of the whole trip!

 This was NOT Laynie's favorite part, she was running down the hill with uncle Casey, and she tripped and fell on her face! She had an AWESOME black eye to show for it!

Here is more evidence of my crazy baby- she is into EVERYTHING! This might be her favorite game: empty out mom's purse.She is a handful, but we LOVE this girl!!

The REAL Birthday...

 

 Apparently Addison keeps score on his birthdays...a fact I never knew until this year...he informed us all the last year his birthday scored 500 points after going to scout day camp, getting froyo with mom, going to Wendy's for dinner, then to Sky High with cousins, and AGAIN to Froyo that night...Sheesh! How do you beat that??! let me show you...

 I drove the kids all by my lonesome to Seattle so we could have some fun while daddy was being scoutmaster at the scout encampment.  Mary, Emily, Nana, and Papa woke up with us to catch the 7:30am ferry and drive to Port Angeles...more accurately, Crescent Beach for the low, very low tide.

...the ferry ride was 200 points alone!

 The tide pools were awesome! We found crabs, urchins, anemones, starfish! and a few random fish...

...that was worth another 100

 Then lunch on the beach with lots of yummy-ness.  Perhaps not worth any points all by itself, but then out of no where a bald Eagle swooped down only a few feet from us!! That was AMAZING and Addison gave it...200 points!

 This girl may have eaten her weight in sand...

 The birthday kids enjoying their perfect day!

 Squirt gun fight with Nana- another 100 points!

 Seriously, so wild, and so adorable...

 ANGRY BIRD CUPCAKES!! made fresh by mom and Nana- another 100 at least!

 So happy!

A few more point-winning items from the day...a new skateboard!, a stop for ice cream on the way home, and movie night with favorite aunt Mimi...

This folks was a 1000 point birthday!! (oh man, what ever will we do next year??)

Hawaiian Birthday Luau!

Great idea right?! Hawaiian birthday theme? Plenty of decorations at the dollar store, and such EASY ideas for food!  but lets be honest, the real reason we needed to have a Hawaiian theme was because of the dress the Kelly's grandma and grandpa got from Samoa on their mission that has been sitting in my closet for YEARS with no appropriate occasions for me to wear it- so I made the occasion!  The girls all had island-y looking dresses that Kelly and I picked up on our cruise this year, so they were set...



...and Addison's shirt I literally found THE DAY OF THE PARTY at, none other but the quarter sale!!! might be my best find ever...

(Maren just might have been the cutest...)

 



So Happy Birthday (a couple days early) to Addison (and me) with awesome island cupcakes (which I didn't even get a good picture of, grr!)

 



(You can ALMOST see the cupcake Laynie is holding...okay no you really can't...)

 



And because Kelly is the best husband ever, he got me my own cake- yes it was an ice cream cake, and yes it was from DQ. Told you, best.husband.ever.