For one evening, we had three

For one evening last week, an adorable little one came to visit.

For a few hours, we had three children.

She was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

She ran...never walked.

She was excited by everything.

She cracked up the kids with her conversation.

She sang songs to entertain.

She played and played and played.

The kids took their just-for-a-few-hours roll
of older siblings very seriously.

And now they want one of their own.

Once upon a time, a little girl sat on the floor, building towers withcolorful blocks. Her tower turned into a castle. All of a sudden, along came a big brother...a nice big brother. This is important to point out because this is not always the case. He brought down his Army men, built his own creation and suggested they have a battle.

~his~

~hers~

And they played happily ever after...or for a while anyway.

princess-bride-dancer-on-a-shopping-trip

Remember back when you were a kid? When you didn't even know to think about what

others thought about you? When you'd play dress-up and put a little bit of everything on plus a little more and it was okay? When you really thought that you were a princess-bride-dancer-on-a-shopping-trip and why wasn't everyone else coming along too?

I miss those days.

Friday

On Friday afternoon, we headed up to Lake Owyhee.

Our group included the four of us, Mom (Dad had to work), Max, Amanda,

Matt, and Ron and Carol (Amanda's parents).

This is Emma's favorite spot on the boat.

Sorry, Matt...I had to include this one.
He didn't know I was taking this as he gazed off.
Wonder what he's thinking?!

Uncle Matt

My little fish

Matt wake boarding

Ron and Carol

A very tired Emmalee

Amanda!

Ryan on the knee-board

Emma got to drive the boat

Ryan had so much fun. Max and Amanda have taken Ryan on the boat

a couple of times this summer. He's been on the knee board, but there has always been someone in the water to get him started. This time, he decided that he wanted to

try to get up on his own. He did it on the first try! He had such a look of determination on

his face. He tried really hard to crest the wake, but he just wasn't heavy enough.

Emma caught her first fish!

She, Ron and Carol were in the front of the boat. Each

time we stopped to get someone else in the water, she and Ron would pull out the fishing pole.

It was pretty funny to watch...one second the fish was coming over the edge of the boat, and the next second she was on her way to the back of the boat...

as far away from the fish as possible.

Saturday

It's been years...lots of years...since I've been to Lake Owyhee.

On Saturday morning, Max, Amanda, Matt and Ryan headed down to the

boat at 6 a.m. I wanted to take a few photos of them heading out.

If there are views like this every morning, I might

be convinced to go there more often!

there they go

Matt on the wake board

After breakfast, we left Matt here (yep, that's him

under the blanket...he can sleep anywhere!) and Amanda

napping in the tent, and the rest of us headed out to

go fishing.

I had forgotten how beautiful the lake is!

Carol (Amanda's mom) helped Emma fish.

Ron (Amanda's dad) caught a couple of fish.

Max's catch

Mom relaxing

The kids fell asleep on the way home from the lake.

We put them on the bed while we unloaded the car and

got ready to head to Jon's friend Kristi's house for a pool party.

They were so exhausted...it was incredibly hard to wake them up!

There's more fun to be had today, though.

Saturday night...

...we spent at Jon's friend Kristi's house playing in the pool.

Emma hitched a ride on Uncle Jon

there were scary things in the water

this pool starts at 3 feet and goes to 10-11 feet deep. It was the

perfect place to be on a hot summer day

If you know Ryan's history with deep water, this will amaze you. He took several years of

lessons when we lived in Portland. He got to the point where he could swim across the big pool (12 feet deep) on his own. Then, one morning at swim lessons, something happened. I didn't see anything and neither did the instructor, but he developed an intense fear of deep water. Up until Saturday, he could swim like a fish in water where he knew he could reach but wouldn't get into anything deeper than four feet. I had gone inside for a drink...when I came back out, Bob told me to look at Ryan. He was simming across the pool, over the 10 feet deep water! I was so excited for him. By the end of the evening, Kristi had taught him to do flips off of the diving board. Fear conquered!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

~~one generation teaching another~~

~~we love uncles who get down on the floor with us~~

~~they make good toy-holders~~