We love summer!!!

It has been a great summer for our family. We are left with only one week left before school starts and we wish we had another month. The time has flied by this summer and we have manage to squeeze in as much as we can since this has become one of our family's favorite season!!

Here is some of what we have been up to this summer:

Hanging out at Lake Tapps

We love Lake Tapps, for many reasons.
1. Grandma and Grandpa live there

2. It's beautiful!
3. The kids have their swimming lessons there.
4. Golf, basketball, tennis, pickle ball, playground, lake, blackberries, etc.

Winthrop WA, 4th of July!
Our family went up to Winthrop, WA for the 4th.

Winthrop is a beautiful small town in the mountains of north-central Washington.
We meet three other families there and had a nice weekend playing and relaxing.

Playing Baseball in Winthrop!
Craft fair in Winthrop! Lydia loved making all sorts of things at the local 4th of July craft fair.

It was fun to spend the weekend with friends.
We had 15 kids total in a cabin and they all had a blast!

Mariner's game!

Zeke came home one day with great tickets to the mariners game from his boss. We were seated in the 11th row behind home plate. We are so use to being up high that it was different. It was fun to have Grandpa come along with us. The Mariners won, which made it even that much better!

Cub Day Camp!

It was Landon's and Mason's last year at cub day camp. They were not that excited about going this year. However, I volunteered the first day and within the first 1/2 hour they told me that they were so glad they came, they had forgotten how much they like cub day camp.

Tacoma Children's Museum

While the boys were at cub day camp, Lydia, Jacob and myself with another family took advantage of a free day at the museum. We had not been there for many years.

Picking Berries

Summer isn't summer to us without visiting a berry farm. The boys have become great berry pickers, which is great, because we never seem to be able to get enough.

Summer Food Academy

Landon- (who likes to cook) signed up for a cooking class offered through the school district this year. They made breakfast and lunch each day. They also learned about gardening. A lot of the food they cooked with came from a large vegetable garden our school district maintains.

Sleeping Beauty Dance Camp

Lydia participated in a sleeping beauty dance camp. It was held one week for three hours each day. She loved it and had a great time doing it with two other friends, Abigail and Carly.

Drive in Movies
Auburn has one of the last operating drive in movie theaters. One night we decided it would be fun to go. We had a lot of fun.

Cameron surprise visit!

Cameron came to Washington with his dad Chris on business trip. We didn't tell the the kids he was coming, so they were totally surprised. The three of them have a great time together.
Pioneer Day! July 24th
We had fun celebrating pioneer day this year. Our ward had fun activity the night of the 24th and we had fun dressing up and making a cover wagon for the children's parade!

Landon, Mason and Lydia were also asked to sing a pioneer song for a short program they had before dinner. We were so proud of how willing they were to perform a new song they didn't know very well.

Record breaking heat!

Seattle has had one of the warmest, and driest summers ever. One night when it had hit over 100 degrees we escaped to the lake for an evening on the wave runner. It felt more like Lake Powell then Lake Tapps.

Discovering parks and beaches!

Lake Washington, Bellevue, WA

Elliot Bay, Seattle

Watching the sunset after a bike ride along the sound in Seattle.

Moonlight Hike

Chinook Pass

A few women from my ward enjoyed a night hike around Chinook Pass. This particular night was a full moon, so if the sky is clear you can hike this 5 mile hike by moonlight. It was a perfect evening, and the scenery was amazing.

The start of our hike.

The scenery half way through.

Museum of Flight

We could have spent a lot more time here. So much too see!

Finlay's visit!
It's always great when the Findlays come, but the only pictures we took while they were here is this one. Lydia and Jack have a great time together. Aren't they cute!!!

Visiting Boise, ID!

We spent a few days in Boise, so we could meet our newest niece Izabel and attend her baby blessing.

All the McKinney side of our family was there!
The kids loved being with their cousins.

In Boise we went to a water park.

Bronco vs. Seahawk game!
While most of us are a little sad to see summer end Zeke is thrilled that football season has begun. The Broncos came to Seattle last Saturday night so of course we were there! Zeke loves the Bronco and he was so excited to see the Broncos in this pre-season game.

Weekly Playgroup
We have also enjoyed many summer playgroups this summer with friends from church.