June

I'm feeling a little bit of pressure to document our lives before this baby is born, since once that happens I will be RESTING. Is that laughable? September is looming over me and my to do list gets longer as the time gets shorter. So here's a briefing.

In June, school finally released its grasp on our schedule and we were FREE! We actually ditched the last few days to join Jason in Idaho before the big Zollinger family reunion. We won't do that again though. The kids were so bothered that they missed the end of the year assembly and class parties. They made us promise that we'd not miss the last day again! I think my fingers were crossed during that promise. . .

Here's a pictorial recap of our month

End of the Year Piano Recital

Kate

Ethan

Zollinger Family Reunion
Happy 90th Grandma!

This included all kinds of fun (even though it rained a lot and we brought home sickness) like fishing, pinewood derby, shooting, horse riding and chat-chat-chatting.

Ethan painting his derby car

Nathanael and Miller

Uncle Cody helping Kate with her fish

Jason and Eli on Aunt Kathryn's fabulous swing set

The fabulous remake of the family picture from so long ago. Sorry I don't have the original, but if you are dying to see it, check Jason's facebook, he has both the old and the new posted.

L-R: Jarom, Becky, Patrick, Julie, Bryan, Joe, Jason, Emilee

I turned 36. Not really momentous, but it happened.

Ethan attended his LAST cub scout day camp

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for a week!

We had a great time. We didn't do much and that's sure to bore anyone to tears, but they endured it well. Dad even survived without Fox News. If you know my Dad, that's quite an accomplishment!

May

May ushered in the end of soccer season which we welcomed whole heartedly. I am always pretty tired of 6 practices a week and 3 or 4 games each Saturday after 8 weeks. Little did we know Ethan would try out for and make a select team for the local club and be practicing all summer!! Luckily it's been pretty low key. He misses when we are gone and it's really not a big deal.

Nathanael

Kate

Ethan

We worked hard planting the garden and getting flowers in the front yard and had a marshmallow roast in our back yard to celebrate. It's always good to celebrate hard work with some unhealthy food isn't it?

Jason broke out the slip 'n slide for the first time this season.

Doesn't Kate almost look like a vampire with that hard-looking white skin??? Is she actually a Cullen??

Nathanael busting out his best can't-you-tell-I-am-starving-to-death-please-feed-me! pose

School should have ended near the end of May like it does in other places where we used to live. But here in WA someone in charge enjoys torturing us in the month of June. Our kids didn't get out until June 15th. I tried to stop complaining when I found out Joe and Samantha's kids (they live on the west side) didn't get out until later, like the 23rd or something. Ouch! So I put pictures of the kids with their teachers in this May post as a very small but personal protest to the school district scheduling committee. I know they will never see it, but it's making me feel better.

Nathanael and Mrs. McKay

Kate with Mrs. Mitchell

Ethan with Mrs. Brisbois. He loves that he's almost as tall as she is. He may be taller by now.

We had a few bumps in the road with school this year (like when Ethan was losing it at school and said to his teacher, "What do you know anyway? You haven't been to school in like 20 years!!" That wasn't fun. Luckily he got a handle on his little temper, apologized and his teacher laughed it off as one of her favorite disgruntled student quotes of all time. It helps that we know her and her family pretty well! Overall it was a great year!