Beach+Family= Good Times!

It's has been the McKinney's favorite vacation spot for years, and last week we got to spend a few days there together.

CANNON BEACH, OREGON

Building sand castles




Finding Star Fish!


Flying kites was Lydia's favorite part of the trip!







Just walking along the beach! A favorite of mine!


On Sunday after church the weather was a little cooler. We went and climb this Lewis and Clark Column. I didn't think I was scared of heights until I tried climbing 350 stairs to the top.

The view from the top was amazing. The kids loved sending off little wooden airplanes that Uncle Josh got for them.





Our family at the bottom, with the Astoria Bridge in the background.

Jacob and Mom



This was the old house we stayed in. It was a kids heaven, 4 stories of fun! Over a hundred years old, we were all suspicious it could be haunted. My one regret is that I never did spook Chris at night.

Jacob enjoyed spending time with Quinn and Amelia.

All the cousins (except Jacob- he slept a lot of the weekend)
On the first day Amelia turned one! We were happy we got to spend her birthday with her.

Thanks for the fun times everyone!

Happy Birthday Zeke!

Zeke turns 32 today!!!

10 things about Zeke that I love…

1. He is a handy man! Give him a project and some time and he can fix or build whatever!

2. He’s a complete sports nut! Thought I understood this about him when we got married, but I only understood about 10 percent of his passion. And now, I have even grown to like the Broncos.

3. He is a kid at heart. For example. he spent a day at Cub Day Camp this summer in the rain and completely enjoyed himself, especially during this fun activity! He really rallied theses boys.

4. He is a smarty pants! However, he will never admit it.

5. He never stops running. Figuratively speaking of course, but he is hard to keep up with sometimes.

6. He’s my favorite person in the world to tease, and I think I am likewise the same for him.

7. He loves his family(extended and immediate)

8. He is an awesome Dad!!

9. He is faithful!

10.He is loving, sweet, patient, understanding, helpful, kind, gentle, etc to me, and I love him a ton!

Happy Birthday Zeke!

(Just as an added note: He's going to wish I didn't do this post, so hopefully he doesn't delete it.)

Girls Camp 2007 "Anchor in Christ"

Girls camp came off without a hitch last week, and now I can take a breath and wait a month until I think about next year. Overall the week was a success! The weather perfect, no one got seriously hurt, the food was yummy, all the classes and activities were a hit and all 85 girls seem to enjoy themselves.

Our theme for camp this year was "Anchor in Christ" to go along with the value Faith. We took the nautical side of the theme and had a lot of fun with it. Each level was a cruise line (Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity, etc.) There was so much to do with it that it will be hard to come up with one for next year.

For our craft we made these "Anchor in Christ" boards and also decorated bottles and put our testimonies in them for "Testimony in a Bottle".

One night for our Spirit Walk we had a slide show of pictures of the Savior. To go with the words from "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" It was very powerful.

Tired Girls after a scavenger hunt.

The lake up at camp is really cold. But it didn't stop many of the girls from jumping in on those warm afternoons. They usually jumped in screamed and then climbed right out. Big reason why we required them to wear life jackets.

Chipmunks were EVERYWHERE! I mean EVERYWHERE!!! They get very spoiled at girls camp, because the girls leave treats everywhere. I started to wonder what they ate on the weekends.

Jacob was well loved at camp! He was fought over several times by these girls. It will be a fun story to tell him someday of how he spent a week at girls camp and the girls all loved him. Not many boys will be able to say that!

Gangster Steph with her Gangster Jake!

(Jacob was part of our act)

Hawaiian night! Me with some of the leaders.
I had awesome leaders!!! Couldn't have done it without them.

Every cruise ship has a spa, so we had a spa day during free time just for leaders. The women came and enjoyed a foot bath, a massage, a drink, a treat, and even got to wear my fan hat! It was fun to pamper them.

Camp Zarahemla is so beautiful. Our driving time changed from 2 hours to 3 hours due to a road closure and many people complained about it, until they got there. They all said "Well worth the drive". It is now my favorite place to camp.


On the last night we had a cruise dinner. It was a lot of fun. The girls all dress up and they looked so good. Here are a few of them before the dinner. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the dinner, I was too busy with Jacob, and helping out that I never got a chance.
Here is myself with my Assistant Diane. We worked so well together and she kept me laughing through all the stresses.

2 Boys, 9 Teeth, and 2 Surgeries

I haven't been much of a blogger lately, and I promised some family members that I would post about my boys teeth, so here it is:

Earlier this year while taking Landon and Mason to their routine dental examine. I was waiting in the waiting room for Mason to finish and the dentist called me back and said that Mason had a rare mouth. He had an extra baby tooth up in his gums. This extra baby tooth was preventing his adult teeth from coming in and it would need to be removed through oral surgery. This extra tooth was located in the upper front of his month. Mason had lost one of his baby teeth in that spot, but not the other. He looked pretty funny with an adult tooth and 1 baby tooth right next to each other in his mouth. The dentist said this was something he has hardly ever seen, and Mason was probably his 3rd case in his career. Well... until Landon sat in the chair next........

As I went back out into the waiting room I thought about taking Mason in to an oral surgeon, and how Landon already goes to an orthodontist and being somewhat frustrated that teeth cost so much $$$. Soon I was called back again to hear Dr. Sadlier say: "Stephanie, this is making me want to cry...Landon has two extra teeth!" So this makes Landon the 4th case he has ever seen. Well, to make an already long story short, the boys waited until the summer (Landon had to wait to get his expander out from the orthodontist) and last week both boys had teeth removed on two separate days from an Oral Surgeon. Here are some before and after pictures.

Mason right before

Mason right after: he was so loopie:) but so happy when he woke up with this Mariner's hat on his head and bat bag in his lap. Dr. Molen couldn't have given him a better reward for pain. It actually made Landon look forward to his big day!

Mason today! He's very proud of his one tooth pirate look!(he lost 3)

Landon right before!

Landon today! (He lost 6 teeth and yes the tooth fairy came)
Both boys with Dr. Molen. Dr. Molen was a friend of Melissa (my sister) growing up, so I thought she would enjoy this picture. He was a great Doctor!

So I guess you can say these boys share everything, even teeth problems!

Summertime!

Summer began and along with it come lots of fun and lots of landry! Having a baby to tote around this summer adds a new twist and a lot of more work, but it's of course all worth it. Here is what we have been up to:

Mariner's Game: For Landon and Mason this is "Pure Joy!"

And as a bonus The Mariner's even won!

Zeke made Jacob this little bed under our seat. He was quite comfortable and it gave our arms a little bit of a rest.
4th of July! The kids participated in the kids parade on Tapps Island. They all decorated their bikes and enjoyed following the fire truck around the Island. I only made it about 1/2 mile, keeping up with bikes in flip flops carrying a baby was a little more then I could handle. Zeke went the rest of the way.

We also met our new cousin Quinn, he is one month older than Jacob. He's a cutie and we loved meeting him. They are different in size, but have some similarity in looks.


Grandpa feeling proud!Then too the water.....

The kids had fun riding the tube behind the wave runner. Lydia was the biggest daredevil. She rode all by herself and while out there would only ask us to go faster with the hand signals.

On Saturday we went boating on the Sound. It was a perfect day to be out on the water.


(Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for taking us on your boat!)
"I thought Dad was reading you a story:)"

All 3 kids were in swimming lessons the last 2 weeks. They each learned so much more. The boys are getting better at their form and correct breathing techniques, and Lydia is a fish, she is now swimming by herself for several feet.

Our summer fun is about to take a break, due to Landon and Mason's oral surgery which will take place this week.

American Idol here we come....

(Mason came up with title)



Landon and Mason enjoyed watching Blake Lewis this year on American Idol. We would record the show and let the boys watch Blake (he was our favorite Idol, and he's also from Seattle!) For our Memorial day Camp Out Landon and Mason wanted to sing one of the songs he sang on the show. So they say "You Give Love A Bad Name" (originally sung by Bon Jovi). They of course loved performing it, and then Landon decided to sing it for show and tell one day at school. So one thing lead to another and they ended up singing it on the last day of school, (this last Tuesday, yes we are finally out of school) during the end of the year assembly. They sang in front of 600 of their peers and about 100 adults. It always amazes Zeke and I that they love to perform in front of others, this is something you would have never seen either of us do, but we are happy that they have the confidence to do it.