Backpacking trip to the lost city of Monte Cristo

Hi. Steve here - making a quick entry on Cynthia’s blog. I took Mackenzie and Brooklyn on their first overnight backpacking campout last Thursday and Friday. It was four miles in and four miles out spending the night at a campground in an old mining ghost town called Monte Cristo. I was impressed how they both did carrying their gear and we had a blast. Here are some pictures from our backpacking adventure.
Here we are Thursday afternoon all fresh and loaded with our gear as we started out. Kia, our Border Collie, was excited to be with us and was a ton of fun to have along even at night when she slept with us in our tent. The scenery was spectacular with some snow still on the mountains, misty fog-like clouds floating in the valleys and a beautiful river that ran along and across the trail.

We cooked our tin-foil dinners with the backpack stove as all the wood we could find was wet and we couldn’t get a fire going until the next day. Here are our cookies cooked in my reflector oven with my backpack stove. Yes, we really rough it when it comes to food.

Friday morning after hashbrowns and pancakes we explored the old ghost town remains. It was pretty cool and we wished we would have had more time to explore.

Here we are ready to head back down.

Can you tell whose paw is whose?

Here’s the cool river crossing as the bridge was washed out some years ago – way more fun than a bridge. I look forward to doing something like this again. Great job, Mackenzie and Brooklyn! You did a great job carrying your gear and all! Thanks for the fun.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Father's in my life! I am blessed with such an incredible Father. Dad, I appreciate all you have done and continue to do for me and my family. Your love and devotion to the gospel and your family are such a great example to me. I Love you Dad!

I am also blessed with a wonderful Father-in-law! Dad LeBaron, I love and appreciate you and the great love you have for your family. Thank you for raising such a wonderful son. I am so thankful that I married into such a fun and crazy family. I Love you Dad LeBaron!

And last but certainly not least...I am blessed with an awesome husband! Happy Father's Day Steve! Thanks for being the greatest Dad to Mackenzie and Brooklyn. And thanks for being the greatest husband and friend to me! I Love you Steve!

Celebrating Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Steve! We hope that you have a fun day celebrating! YOU are an amazing Father and deserved a fun filled day of celebration!
Brooklyn and I made Steve's favorite breakfast for him this morning. Here is a picture of Steve this morning eating his cheerios with bananas, grapefruit, toast and orange juice. He is so hard to please and we spent hours making it! Just kidding! Can you say "boring breakfast"! But that is what he ordered!

Because Steve is in the bishopric of the young single adult ward and has early morning meetings, he rarely gets to go to church with us. This morning however he got to attend part of our sacrament meeting. Mackenzie gave a talk in sacrament meeting and her topic was "How my Father has strengthened my testimony". She did a great job and it was so fun to have Steve with us for part of our meetings today. For dinner tonight Steve requested all his favorites. BBQ trip-tip steaks, artichokes, bacon fried rice, fresh fruit and rolls.

Mackenzie and Brooklyn had fun shopping and picking out a few gifts for their Dad. Here he is opening them.

And tonight to top off a fun Father's Day we played Rummikub and for dessert Steve requested homemade strawberry shortcake.

Schools Out Party

School is officially over! Yahoo! As is tradition in our family the girls and I have been rockin out in the car to the the classic 1972 song by Alice Cooper - Schools Out!

...Schools out for summer...schools out forever...schools been blown to pieces...no more pencils...no more books...no more teacher's dirty looks...

After school today I took the girls to see the new Disney movie "Up". Mackenzie had a bunch of friends meet her there. It is such a cute movie. I laughed as much as the little kids behind us did! We highly recommend the movie for both young and old!

Tonight Brooklyn is at a friends birthday party and Kenz is having a big "School's Out" party. We had 30 straight days of absolutely gorgeous weather here in Seattle and we broke a record for the most consecutive days with no rain. As luck would have it the day school gets out it rains! So Mackenzie's party tonight isn't a pool party like she had hoped to have but rather a hang out at house party! They are having a great time talking, playing wii, guitar hero and munching on goodies.

Playing spoons! Both Steve and I have great memories of playing spoons at parties when we were teenagers. Good times!

We are so ready for summer and are glad that school is out! So let the summer parties begin!

Birthday Swim Party

Brooklyn turned 13 the beginning of April. Since her birthday was right in the middle of our spring break and a lot of her friends were going to be out of town she decided to wait and have her friend party in June. The theme for her party was a "flip-flop" swim party. The girls had a great time swimming, sitting by the fire, having BBQ hamburgers with all the fixins for lunch and enjoying cake and ice cream for dessert. Brooklyn gave all the girls a pair of flip flops and a cute beach-luau bracelet before they went home. Brooklyn had a great time with her friends.
Brooklyn before her friends arrived!

Check out this cute flip flop birthday cake. As is the tradition in our family I always make the cake and frosting and then Steve does the decorating. Nice job Steve! Very cute flip flop cake.

All the girls in the pool with silly hair-dos!

Brooklyn opening her gifts.

Having cake and ice cream! Yum Yum! Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

Musical - Fiddler on the Roof

Last night we went to the musical Fiddler on the Roof at the Historic Everett Theatre. We purchased 2 extra ticket so that our girls could each invite a friend. The play was really good and it was fun to go do something cultural with our girls. Here are a few pictures of the 4 girls being silly together before the performance!
Brianne, Brooklyn, Heidi and Mackenzie before the performance.

One of the main characters from the play (Golde) used to be our girls piano teacher. After the performance she came out with the rest of the cast and our girls got to talk with her. She did an amazing job playing the part of Golde. We sure had a great time.