August

 August was filled with Summer's 16th birthday, time at the cabin with the Kirkwoods, camping in Cascade River State Park, back-to-school shopping, sports, and work. 

Summer's 16th Birthday

Summer turned 16 on August 3rd.  The day started with breakfast in bed, XC practice, and fun at Activate with the three kids and me.  Then, we successfully got her to Dairy Queen at 1pm where 16 friends surprised her to wish her a happy birthday!  She had no clue!  Later that evening, we celebrated with dinner and gifts.

The next day Summer PASSED her license test, and got her license!  Her first solo drive was to book club at her friends house, and then to work that evening.

Celebratory pizza and Icee!

Summer was celebrated at the cabin with the Kirkwoods and gifted an Escape Room Experience with Grandma and Grandpa T (they escaped!)

Cabin Time

We enjoyed a weekend at the cabin with the Kirkwood side!  We got to celebrate Larkyn's birthday with the Tommerdahls in Canada (see last post) and with the Kirkwoods at the cabin.  We also enjoyed lots of games, water time, water skiing (all 5 cousins skied together at the same time!) and spending time together.

Camping

Our family vacation this year with just us 5 (plus a cat) was camping at Cascade River.  It was absolutely amazing and exactly what our family needed!  We had no schedule, no signal, and no to-do list.  No sports, work, commitments, or chores.  Just family time and beautiful nature!  We slept in, stayed up late around the campfire, cooked leisurely meals, napped, read, went hiking, skipped rocks, looked for rocks, sat and talked, and connected as a family.  Perfection.

Excited to find agates

Family game to see who could throw a rock and get it to stay on a rock in the middle of the river.  Summer won :)

The kids loved looking for agates and breaking open rocks to find them!

SO grateful for this time together before the fall crazy sets in! 

Tiger loves camping :). Snoozin' on the drive home!

Gearing Up for Fall

We are wrapping up summer at our house.  Fall sports started this week.  I start back-to-school workshops on Monday.  Larkyn starts school next Tuesday, and our high schoolers start the following week.  I loved getting one-on-one dates this past week with each of the kids for back-to-school shopping, and am SO grateful for each moment we got to spend together this summer!