Kanthak Karate Annual Picnic

Each year Kanthak Karate holds a family picnic and water fight. I know it's hard to believe but the students really enjoy this picnic. It's not everyday that you get to go after your instructors with water guns and soak them until they beg for mercy. Okay, they get their shots in too but it's not easy when the entire crowd of kids is chasing after you. The picnic is held at Hathaway park in Washougal. It's a great little park right on the Washougal River.

A dry group photo before the chaos begins.

And their off!
See Ollie in the middle?

Mr. B, well respected by all of the students and well soaked by all of the students.

Noah is the one kneeling, soaking Mr. B with the water-zooka that he and Joel built.

Mr. K, in his traditional Spongebob shorts, was the cause of many water guns going dry too.

Get him!

Noah didn't want Mr. K to feel left out so he emptied a water-zooka or two on him also.

Towards the end of the fight, the two water balloon launchers were pulled out. In this picture, the two girls on the table were holding the launcher, Mr. B had just released the balloon and if you look in the upper right hand corner of the picture you can see the balloon.

The kids all reacting to the balloon that just popped/landed.

Ollie drying off and relaxing with dad after the water wars.

More Random Stuff

I hate to admit it but my computer/blog/email/etc. has become a part of my daily life so when my motherboard went bad in my laptop and killed my wireless connection to the internet I felt a bit lost. My apologies if you've been emailing or trying to contact me and I haven't responded. We've, okay Joel, has temporarily fixed it allowing me access to the internet and we hope that HP will have answers about the motherboard soon. A couple of blog posts today to get you/me through this. ;)

Cherie's Flower
It's like a lot of little flowers living in the big one.

Heidi sent me a bunch of pictures of people "catching" the sun, thought I'd give it a shot too. Not bad for my first attempt and can see how this could be fun! Thanks for the inspiration Heidi!

This little guy followed us for quite a while on our walk the other day.

Hello dragonfly, my son would like to build an airplane with wings like yours.

Noah and Oliver saw this tree (not the best picture, sorry) on our walk and decided that it was the "Elephant Tree." The branch curls up like the trunk of an elephant and his mouth is open hoping for a treat. Noah decided that from now on, whenever we walk this path, we are to feed the elephant tree to keep it happy. The mouth of the elephant tree is higher than we are tall though so he tossed acorn after acorn until one finally landed and stayed in his mouth.

Hathaway Park in Washougal, the salmon are returning to spawn. We got to see quite a few fish shimmy their way up the shallows.

Random Stuff

I am avoiding housework and realized I should post something since I hadn't in a while. However, I've been so busy canning and freezing produce, trying to keep boys busy and fighting a cold that I haven't taken many pictures or had blog worthy stuff to post. So I'm just posting stuff today, because I can...

The largest candy necklace I've ever seen, compliments of Grandma Lavelle, my new rear light for my bicycle and a Joker-esque smile on my not so little boy.

He's mine too.
Okay, he's my sister's, but I'd take him in a heart beat!
Love the toothless grin, and the toothfairy couldn't find her change jar so the boy got $5 for those two front teeth. $5!

Some beautiful pink wildflowers up in Lake Stevens, sadly I was too far away to get more of the pink color.

WANTED: A barber that can handle a boy full of energy and attitude.
He will be wrestled in for at least a trim before school starts.
Shhhhh, don't tell him.

One last random thought...I hate back to school supply shopping. I understand that the supplies are needed but, if you're not careful or wait until the last minute it can really take a bite out of the checkbook. Plus Oliver is starting preschool this year and he has a list, although not as long, of his own. I decided to make it a fun challenge for me this year so here is what I did. I gave myself exactly $20 to find/buy all of Noah's supplies. Recycle, reduce, reuse and shop the sales were my motto. So often I just go and buy new because it's quick and easy, but this year I scanned the sales and shopped accordingly. I also made it a rule that I couldn't make crazy trips half-way across town just to save a few pennies, silly to waste the gas when my challenge was to save money. Here's how it all broke down...

• 2 dozen pencils $1
• 2 folders with pockets $1.44 (I could have done better on these but wanted higher quality that would last longer)
• 1 pack wide rule paper $.75 (had I waited a bit longer I could have got this for $.33)
• 4 spiral notebooks $.40
• 2 sets of Crayola markers $2
• 2 sets of 24 ct colored pencils $4.69 (my highest priced item, 24 ct doesn't go on sale much)
• 2 sets of 24 ct Crayola crayons $.50
• Large pair of scissors $0 reused from last year
• Ruler $0 reused from last year
• 1 large white liquid glue $.98
• 2 large glue sticks $0 reused from last year
• 1 fine point Sharpie $1.10 (this is actually a 2 pack)
• 1 pencil sharpener $0 reused from last year
• White erasers $1.48 (3 pack b/c my boy is hard on erasers)
• Calculator $1
• 1 box of Ziploc baggies $2.00
• Optional Water colors $1.49

Grand Total of $18.43!!! That's right, I had $1.57 to spare. Silly how a little self challenge can make school supply shopping more fun! Next list is Oliver's, a bit more challenging but still going to try for the $20 limit. He has things like wet wipes, snack crackers, paper towels and juice on his list...a bit more costly but I believe it can be done!

Shana's New Place

Okay, it's their new place, their as in Shana, Ron and Trevor but she is my sister, so it's her new place in my brain. We were so busy cleaning and moving this weekend that I didn't get time to focus much on taking pictures. I snapped these pictures though, tagged them this morning and posted them for your viewing pleasure. It's a perfect place for them, it needs some work, but with a little TLC it will be just right for them and their growing horse family. House, barns, 4 acres, Ron's new crazy riding lawn mower...yup, sounds like they've finally found their home.

Many of these pictures were taken while we were still moving, unpacking, organizing, etc. please pardon our dust.

Come on lady, move those boxes!!

Inspiration for the Day

I was helping my sister move this weekend, did a lot of cleaning at their new place and am feeling it a bit today. Just relaxing and getting caught up on a few blogs I read, I ran into this video. I found it, oddly enough, inspiring...

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Silver Falls State Park

The Pyryt Family invited us along on their day trip to hike in Silver Falls State Park. I've always heard about Silver Falls, even as a kid, so I was excited when they asked us along. I'm sure that many of you have been there but it was my first time. We left here at 11am, started hiking at 1pm and got home at 8pm. It was a long day of hiking but we loved it and all of the kids did a great job! Oliver really surprised me, we didn't see all ten falls, but the shorter hike we did take was still about 5 miles long with some decent elevation change, and he kept on trucking along. He needed a little encouraging at times but not once did any of us have to carry the boy. We took our time on the trail and stopped often to enjoy and view the seven waterfalls. At the end of the hike the kids jumped into the swimming hole near the entrance of the park to cool off a bit. It was another hot day and I thought that we all did a good job of drinking lots of water. However, after talking to Steph this morning, I think we were all a bit dehydrated last night. We all drank A LOT of water. I noticed, going through all of the pictures, that we got very few pictures of Noah. Joel quickly reminded me that Noah and Ty were usually up ahead of the pack and not back where the pictures were being taken.

Starting off and the scenery was already beautiful.
These trees were huge and covered in moss.

See? Huge trees!
These weren't the biggest ones out there.
We followed both the North Fork Silver Creek and the South Fork Silver Creek on our hike. This is part of the North Fork.

We had already seen, the somewhat disappointing, Winter Falls which wasn't very Falls-ish in the summer (it is truly a winter falls), so when we came up on Middle North Falls it was even more exciting.

The hiking path took you behind three of the falls, this is from behind Middle North Falls.

Still behind Middle North, the trail leads around to that little cave. You can click on the picture and see that Joel got us exploring the cave.

I am sure that I was lagging behind taking pictures but was glad it happened when I got this shot of my boys on the bridge.

Oliver lifted the log and held it for us all as we walked under. (wink wink) He can be such a gentleman at times.

Look closer, do you see the staircase that we had to climb?

Joel helping Oliver reach out and feel the water from Lower South Falls. Hard to tell because of the water, but that is Tori to the right.

Took a picture from the same spot as the above picture just zoomed back out. You can still see them standing behind the water.

I finally got behind the falls.

South Falls was the final falls on our hike. By this time John & Joel along with the kids, were way ahead of Steph and I. We were taking our time getting back and enjoying the scenery.

Scenery like this moss squirrel! Steph spotted it and pointed it out to me. It was even more squirrel like in person.

Finally at the swimming hole.

Sweet Pickle Relish

We have a TON of zucchini, yellow zucchini, crookneck squash and cucumbers coming out of our garden, I decided I'd try my hand at relish to use up some of the cucumbers. I'm not a huge relish fan, well not until now anyway. Wow, this turned out super tasty! We've already eaten one jar and I just made it on Thursday. In case you were wondering, it is super easy!

Chop up some cucumbers, onions and bell peppers...

Add a couple of spices and cook for a bit...

Can and enjoy!
Let me know if you want the recipe.
(sorry about the pic. it was late and dark)