Whoo--freakin--hoo!! Adam had gotten 2 Red Sox Tickets for Tuesday night a few weeks ago, he was going to take Isaac, but then at 3:30pm Tues. afternoon he called me and said, "I've got 4 more tickets, awesome seats, so get a sitter for Luke!" I threw a quick dinner on the road together, got Luke to the Truscott's (he was thrilled he was going for a sleepover), and the kids were out on the driveway waiting at 4:30, although it wasn't till 5:30 that Adam pulled in. Such a fun night, and they even won!

By the last inning, there were a few seats on the front row of the balcony we were on open, so we moved up. Adam immediately said to Jake, "Do not spit!" I thought to myself, "of course he won't spit". Now how long have I been a mom? Then within less than a minute, Emma yelled out "he just spit!" I could seriously not believe it. It was like Adam gave him a great idea, and he just couldn't resist. We were mortified!!! Didn't appear that he hit anyone, although I'm not sure how he couldn't have. Why????

A little weekend getaway kayaking in Maine.... Adam had the idea of going kayaking in Maine over labor day weekend. My first reaction was, we can't go, we still have too many projects and not enough nice weather to do them all before winter's here. But I decided, what the heck, the kids are growing up way too fast and we need to get away and enjoy them more. So, Maine it was.

We stayed on the Airforce Base in Brunswick, Maine. The first night consisted of frisby, football, pizza, and the watching the BYU-Oklahoma game. It was a fun game to watch, and I had one very happy husband when the game was over!

The next morning we woke up and rented kayaks from the base and headed to the river. It was slow moving, no white water, so fun and safe for the kids.

The first 1/2 I had an extra child in my tandem kayak, and then Adam's turn on the return trip.

Luke was very nervous about getting in at first, but as you can see, he soon g0t over it and enjoyed the ride.

Em and Sarah both had their own single kayaks. Emma was a little experienced from girls camp already, and it didn't take Sarah long to catch on.

And lastly, the bridge we did not go under, because just beyond it are some falls. We're good and all, but not quite ready to take on waterfalls yet....

80% of my children got on the bus this morning!! and I tried to save my celebration dance until I got into the house. Then Luke and I started the party, well, the laundry folding party. It was oh so peaceful and nice to get back to my routine! Emma told me several times this morning, "please Mom, take care of Duchess!", like it was the first time she's ever left her.

You'd have thought it was Christmas Eve last night. Sarah couldn't fall asleep until 11:30, and Emma till 1:00, and then they both popped up at 0600!! The big 7 hour day for Isaac this year. He was a little nervous about it, and exhausted when he got home.

Sarah, the new Aeropostale model. Or should be. She should be getting paid for all the advertising she's doing. Whatever makes her happy. And oh how I hope those new Chuck Taylor's stay pink for a few weeks....

Jake started kindergarten. He was a little nervous. Didn't really want to go. But did REALLY well this morning, I was proud of him. He just got right up on that bus with his Sarah and Isaac, no tears and no looking back. Love having siblings to help!

Notice, Jake and Isaac have the same bag. Yes, Jake is a little copycat. He INSISTED, and I had to make an emergency run to the Gap last night. He HAAAD to have it for the first day of school.

Luke was not happy at all about being left behind. It didn't show up in the picture, but he had a big tear rolling down his left cheek...

Isaac's First 5k!! Isaac begged and begged last night to be able to run in a 5k that Adam, the girls, and I were going to run this morning. I told him no, when you're 7, you need to train a little first, etc, etc. He woke up this morning still determined as ever to run it. So I finally thought, what the heck, if he wants to run it this bad, maybe he can do it!? So I told he I would run with him. He did awesome!!! He didn't stop once. At one point I noticed his shoelace untied, and told him to stop so I could tie it. He said, "No, I dont' want to take a break", but I made him, convincing him it was unsafe to keep running with it untied. He just kept running and running, the entire time, and then totally sprinted at the end even! He had quite a crowd cheering him on at the end, and got his picture taken for next week's base newspaper.

Our new John Deer Orange....
The morning of Jacob & Isaac's birthday party last month, the lawn mower broke. It was great timing. It was pretty unfixable, so we hit craigslist and started shopping. It took 3 weeks (the lawn was seriously up to my waist), but we found and got a great deal on a new one. One that goes much faster, it only takes Adam about 20 minutes and he's done. This one has a trailer too, so the kids are in heaven!

Bring on the rain, we've got a trailer now.... We'd been promising the kids camping over the 4th. As we got closer, the forcast was rain, rain, and more rain. Our tent had a huge hole in it, so we either needed a new tent, or little trailer like we'd always wanted. So we started the craigslist search. The kids would get so frustrated when we'd drive an hour away to look at one and then not buy it. We finally found a trailer we liked late Thursday night. We woke up bright and early Friday morning and worked on it all day (cleaning it, etc), and arrived at our campsite in Plymouth around 11pm that night. We noticed we the campsites were pretty close together, and our neighbors were a little too close for comfort. Needless to say, my efforts of keeping the kids quite in our first night sleeping in the trailer were lost....our neighbors were gone by 8am. There was a 4 night min. stay, but I went down and pleaded with the campsite host--either to let us leave early or give us a site a little further away---and she gave us a group campsite. It was FABULOUS. We had a ton of room all to ourselves, didn't bother a soul. And with 5 kids & 4 dogs, we needed it (3 puppies).

A little 4th of July parade around the campground...

Late night boggle game.....so happy my kids like to play my favorite game with me!!

They weren't big, but we caught a ton, and they were FUN to catch!

Even Luke caught 4 fish all himself.

Adam had to get back to work, so Sunday night he took 2 puppies and headed home. I stayed with the kids till Tuesday, and hooked up/towed the trailer home all by myself!!!

Go Red Sox... Saturday afternoon Adam proposed that we take the girls to a Red Sox-Braves game that night for part of his Father's day. It was a little spur of the moment, but we had no plans, except that we were not doing any house projects all day. My friend Karyn took the boys for the night and we were all set!

We had planned on getting some military tickets, but they were all sold out. The girls were so worried we were going to turn around and drive home. We did find some great tickets that were right behind home plate though. The girls are old enough they really enjoyed the game--Adam gave them play by plays of everything that was going on, and they were on the edge of their seats the entire time.

The green monster....

2 very happy girls...

Happy Birthday Emma!! #12!! I'm not sure I'm ready for this. Adam told her numerous time this past week that he was cancelling her b-day this year. I almost wish he could have, except that I do get a legitamate babysitter out of this.... She is so excited to be able to babysit for "other people" now, and begin YW. This pic was right before she left for school--yes, wearing the crown to school---got to let everyone know it's her day. I've been strictly instructed to pick her up at 855, after her first class, to go shopping for the day. I've got a sitter for the boys, it should be fun!!

Isaac made Emma this homemade gift. I just love homemade gifts, and Emma was very gracious about it. (unlike Jake a few weeks ago, with the paper towel tube rocket/telescope Isaac had made him, but we won't go there...)

The puppies are getting huge fast! Still so much fun! Poop and all....

Project of the week: painting all of the exterior doors red, from green. Not as simple as it sounds though--#1, there are 7 exterior doors, including screen doors, #2, all but one needed wood glue, supports, wood wrot removal, and/or bondo first before painting. The joys of an old house....

And yes, the kids still love to play "pioneer", very fitting with a 150 yr old house......Emma actually is doing a immigration project at school and had all of my kids + 3 friends dress up in pioneer attire and pose for pictures with suitcases, baskets, shovels, etc, which she will print in B&W, all amidst me painting doors.....never a dull moment.....

Mouse Trap.... My little engineers....they can't help it, w/2 engineer grandpas, it's in their blood! The boys invented this mouse trap a few weeks ago. They were so sure it would catch mice. The stick holding the lid open was connected to a piece of fishing line which was connected to a chunk of cheese. They checked for mice for days, but never caught one. Maybe Glenda (our cat) was just doing too good of a job keeping them under control. This morning at 5am I let her in the house--she was drenched from the rain. She brought in with her a little prize: wet mouse. She played with that thing for an hour before eating the entire thing (well, she left the intestinal tract). She was having so much fun, I didn't have the heart to make her take it anywhere else---just lysoled the floor after.

Happy Birthday Jake!! Jacob turned 5 today. He could not be happier. Birthdays just don't come fast enough at that age.

We kicked off the day by opening presents at 0630. I made his favorite, oatmeal, but he hardly ate of course, too many presents to play with. He had Kindergarten screening at 0900. He recieved the most praising from the screener on his skipping (which I didn't even know he could do). His large motor skills are WAY ahead of his fine motor skills. Holding a pencil and writing his name---not so much his thing, but he can ride Tinker and do flips on the trampoline all day long....

Walking, sitting, little barks, and starting to poop....

Well, the novelty hasn't worn off yet, we are all still having the time of our lives with the puppies. Adam and I celebrated our 13th anniversary this past weekend with a little getaway to Burlington, VT to run the Keybank Vermont City Marathon. It was a beautiful run, through Burlington and along Lake Champlain--misty rainy for most of the run--just enough to stay cool, and we got our fill of Ben and Jerry's. (although mine was melted by the time I worked up the appetite for it) I came in at 3:50, dropping 13 minutes off my PR, and not taking any pit stops, so I was happy. Adam finished in at 3:15, qualifying him for Boston this next April. No one could be happier for him than Emma---she tells EVERYONE we see. So nice to make your kids proud once in a while. Actually, we first thought he didn't qualify by 1 second, and her reaction was, "DAD, weren't you wearing a watch??" Guarantee she'll hear that one back one day....

Happy 1 week birthday to the puppies! The puppy in the middle made me laugh. That's the only time I've seen one lay on it's back to sleep.

The red pup is still huge, and the boys favorite.

Yes, only 4 pups in the picture. We lost another puppy, the little runt, on Saturday. The kids only counted 4 in the whelping box, and called for me. I found Duchess up on the bed w/the little runt. She was licking it, doing all she could to revive it. I picked him up, he was limp. He was still warm, it hadn't been long. I tried to revive him as well, but with no success. I had been worried about him all week, he was so small, and didn't seem to be getting as much milk as the others. He was nursing some though. Now I'm wishing I had supplemented with formula, but I really thought he was getting enough. The kids (and I) were all pretty sad about it. The pet cemetary in the backyard is getting a little too big.... Duch had a hard time with it, she wandered around a looking for it, and seemed a little lost for a while. We kept having to remind her she still had 4 other little babies to take care of. The other 4 all seem very hearty and are really good eaters.