A Week in Pictures: 20 July - 26 July

7/20 - Taking care of my neighbors plants for a week while she's in Hawaii visiting her newest grandson.  Its quite a backyard!

7/21 - Gorgeous hop fields surrounding an amazing brewery here in town called Bale Breakers.

7/22 - Someone got an interview for a hostess position at an amazing restaurant in town!

7/23 - Fun day at Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho with these two!

7/24 -We stopped in Spokane on the way home from Silverwood.  Very pretty city!  This is a portion of a really cool sculpture representing their famous Bloomsday Run.

7/25 - As a part of the Yakima Rotary, Donald was in charge of the installation of a new playground at a large park in town.  Very proud of this man!

7/26 - This is actually a Saturday leftover because I didn't get any pictures on Sunday.  This girl is a nut and wouldn't she haunt your dreams if you saw her coming at you like this??

A Week in Pictures: 13 July - 19 July

7/13 - He shaves.  This part is not a good look.

7/14 - I took Ivan & Jenelle bowling.  It was so much fun.  The girl was disheartened at first, when she was getting only gutter balls.  This game ended with a total of 10 points and she was thrilled!

7/15 - We've been trying to grow okra for a few years, but it never does anything.  Our weather has been really hot and I think we might actually get, oh, I don't know, 4 okra this year!

7/16 - Hannah was out of town with friends on her birthday, so when she returned I took her to get her license.  She dropped me off and the gym and drove away.  It was pretty surreal.

7/17 - Beautiful girl (and her new favorite shirt)!

7/18 - Got this old cookbook out and realized there are some really good recipes in here that I'd forgotten about!

7/19 - Checking out this year's farmer's market.  We decided that 10am wasn't too early to eat a hot dog.

Dance Recital 2015

Saturday night after graduation, Jenelle had her annual CoMotion dance recital.

This is her 4th year dancing and she still loves it!

Ivan's 8th Grade Graduation

So obviously this is a bit overdue considering summer is half over.

Ivan is on to high school!
Can't believe it!
Two in high school and only Jenelle left at St. Joe's.

Granny and Grandpa came from Texas to share in Ivan's special time.

Ivan had been chosen by his classmates to be the speaker for their graduation like I had told you about in a previous blog post.
We figured with that honor as well as it being graduation, he should look sharp.
He got a new pair of slacks and a tie to go with a fantastic jacket that Aunt Susan had sent him last year.
Amazingly, the jacket was a perfect fit!
Turns out he was the only kid wearing a jacket...and he looked so sharp!

We took some pictures before we left the house...

 Someone is trying to look taller!

 The men...

 And the ladies...

Pictures with friends...some he's had for the past 9 years.

None of whom are going to Ike in the fall.

He's be on his own!

His long time friend Patrick is on the left..

They've been friends since the start...

Ivan and Justin.

 Hannah and Amanda did this just two years prior, but it seems so long ago already!

Yea!  He's officially done with middle school!

We're so proud of Ivan!
He's going to have a great freshman year at Ike...I can just tell!
He's growing up so much right now, but he's always going to be my little man!!

A Week in Pictures: 6 July - 12 July

 7/6 - Summer lunch...for me.  The only time of year that we actually have frozen chicken nuggets on hand.

 7/7 - Braces off!

 7/8 - Got distracted making my daily plans...

 7/9 - Love this poet and love this poem.

7/10 - The female part of our monthly dinner group.

 7/11 - A quick trip to check out a local lavender farm with Jenelle.

 7/12 - Slumber party summer fun and a pool all to ourselves at the next door neighbors!

Thailand - Part 5 - Extras!

It was amazing!
It was an adventure I never dreamed I'd go on!
The flight there and back was long and exhausting and not fun...but so worth it!
Here are some final memories of our time in Thailand!

Happy kids!

...and sometimes really tired kids...

Happy Parents (and really bad "selfie" takers!)

Happy times!

 Happy memories forever!