1800 miles

...is what we put on my car the week before school started. We had to take Elly to basketball camp (about an hour east of Salem). We dropped off Elly's tab collection at the Ronald McDonald House. Thank you to EVERYONE who contributed! It is amazing how they add up. We took three full large boxes and will be taking 7+ more boxes that the FBLA at Carter's school collected! When we dropped off the tabs there was little boy about Noah's age being pulled around in a little wagon...it broke my heart because there we were with three healthy kids...but totally reassured me that despite the inconvenience it sometimes may be...I will never throw another one away!

Anyway...on to camp. About half the girls from Elly's old team were there and they learned so much.
Getting them settled into the room-totally felt sorry for their cabin leader- she had her hands full!

The girlies heading to their cabin to get ready for their first evening of practice!

Funny how much Audrey wants to be like them. Here she is trying to dribble, the ball being almost as big as she is. When we got in the car to leave she said, "you know mom, I kind of remind my self of Whitney."

After dropping Elly off we headed to a camp outside of Sisters where my parents have been working the past few weeks.
My parents retired about 5 years ago and are a part of an organization called MMAP - Mobile Missionary Assistance Program. They do volunteer work all over the country building churches, camps, etc. The month of August they were building cabins for a camp that burned down outside of Sisters about 4 years ago. We stayed a night up at the camp with my parents and were able to see quite a bit of what they do. It is amazing!

This is the timber around the camp- burnt to a crisp!

My dad showing Carter the cabin they were building.


We spend the next day in Bend visiting my dear friend and college roommate, Mary! So, So, So fun to see her. She showed up with everything to spend an afternoon/evening BBQing and floating in the Deschutes River, she completely spoiled us! Other than Audrey feeling a little under the weather, it was the perfect evening!




Then Saturday we headed back to pick Elly up for the night, they had a night off in between the two camps, so we PLANNED on staying at Silver Falls State Park. It and every camp ground in 40 miles was booked! We did spend the afternoon hiking around the falls, but ended up in a hotel for the night. Elly was so happy to sleep in a bed instead of camping because she was so sore!



After dropping Elly back off at camp we headed home only to turn around 3 days later to pick her back up. It was fun, but I am sooooo glad to be back home and into a routine.

After the closing ceremony

This is what Audrey and Noah were doing as we were waiting for camp to wrap up!

Deja vu

Today was Elly's first day of 5th grade...and at a new and very small school. All day I was a bit emotional wondering constantly how it was going and continually praying that she would click with her teacher and her new classmates. I don't know why I was so worried. I just kept thinking back to my first day of 5th grade:

For some reason it is the only first day of school I really remember.....

Our family had just moved back to California from the Aleutian Islands. I was wearing green jeans (oh yes, back when colored jeans were HOT) and a green and white shirt. I was very shy, but wanted to make a good impression. I was sooo nervous. I had my new yellow lunchbox with Jem on it...Jem, Jem, Truly Outrageous..., as I walked to my new classroom, the class was lined up outside the door waiting to go inside. It was like suddenly everyone realized I was a new kid and looked over out of curiosity about the time my lunch box decided to pop open and all of my food flew out all over the ground. Sounds minor now, but in 5th grade...total mortification. I wanted to just leave it all there and pretend it wasn't mine, but I think the open lunch box gave me away. Good times.

Anyway, back to Elly. I was worried for nothing. She had a great day and loves her teacher and the fact that school is only 4 days a week!

And I made her buy lunch.

Back to work for me...

Elly has been doing jobs around the house to earn money to buy a DS. This is something that she has been wanting for months but we didn't want to just give her (they aren't cheap!) so we gave her opoprtunities to earn the money to buy one herself. With her basketball camp quickly approaching, she really stepped it up to try to save enough to get it before the many, many hours in the car to get there and back. So basically I haven't had to fold laundry, wash cars, mow the lawn, clean a bathroom, etc. for the past few weeks. She even planned and cooked dinner the last week! Well today, after mowing the lawn one last time, she earned her DS! I was actually starting to get used to never having to fold clothes anymore! Sigh. Oh well, I am so proud of her and she was coming out of her skin excited as she handed all of her hard earned dollars to the cashier!

And here is Carter with his super soaker. He was in the dunk tank for the Grassroots festival last weekend...and he wasn't going down without a fight! (gotta love the ancient dunk tank)

Busy Week-UGGGH!

Last week was the busiest week we have had in a long time with so much happening all at the same time. I am very glad we made it through and have a quiet week ahead!

Last week was VBS at our new church...the girls had a blast...I had to take this picture because I wondered how many of you recognize the woman in the picture with Audrey?! She moved here the same time we did and was Audrey's VBS teacher. Yes, for those of you who had kids at BLP, it's Ms. Catherine.

On top of VBS, the girls dance studio marched in the fair parade and did a show on one of the stages at the fair...they did such a great job!

Getting lined up

Firetruck ride at the fair after the big show

Elly also had two soccer games last week, and Audrey's "favorite" friend had a birthday party in the Tri-Cities on Monday. I am so glad that this was a rare occasion that everything was going on at once, I don't like it when we are all going in so many different directions. Sunday we spent the day with just our family...in the mountains...with no tight agenda...loading the wood Carter cut last week and picking huckleberries. I am finally starting to relax!

And a brief stop on our way home