These Days

Eric woke me up with a kiss at 6:30am when he was heading out the door for work. Oh and by the way, he had just killed a chicken. He discovered one of them was a rooster when it started crowing that morning. So he promptly chopped off its head. He is quite the man. He gets a lot done while I slumber.

It is a miracle. My closet has stayed cleaned and organized for two whole weeks now. 3 weeks ago it was a disaster. And had been for some time. A tornado named Layla played in there. Clothes were overflowing and on the floor. I hated going in there. But I had other things higher in my priority list (like family, preschool, and girls camp). I told myself to hang tight and I would have time after girls camp and our vacations. The day we came back from Kalaloch I pulled everything out of my closet. I rearranged and filled 4 or 5 bags with stuff for goodwill. E wasn't thrilled I was doing this right then, but I feel a hundred times better knowing that my closet is clean--even though the rest of the house may not be . . . yet. I have big plans once school begins again. I just need to hold tight and enjoy these summer days with my kids.

Perry knows how to take advantage of every last drop of strawberry smoothie.

Layla asked me to take a picture of her. I did. She looked at it and said, "I looooove pictures of me."

The night she tried to sleep in the trailer with everyone, I had to warn her that if she kept messing around I was going to take her inside the house. Her response was two questions.
"For the rest of my life? And then I can't marry a boy?"
It was a both a snarky and hilarious comment for a 3 year old.

the 4th of July

On the 4th of July, we pulled out the pools in the backyard.

Then the Nielsen's came over for fireworks. My dad slept through the whole thing (I don't know how he did it when it sounds like a war zone around here), but Grammie joined us for the fun.

Perry and Layla enjoyed the tub of red vines. A lot.

My favorite picture of the evening--all of the Allred and Nielsen children (minus baby Hazel) happily enjoying the fireworks together. I love of all these kids.

more fun with grammie and papa

After our trip to the olympic game farm, our car was covered in bison and llama slobber. In the heat of the day, we all jumped in to wash the car and then play in the sprinklers.

One night, after dinner, we pulled out chocolate pudding for some fingerpainting fun.

It's funny, I did this as a sensory activity with Perry in mind. He wouldn't touch it with his fingers though. He actually used his spoon and focused on eating it.

I like the chocolate here on Kyler's lip.

My parents also spent time with all of the kids. My kids love the attention and time with grammie and papa. My parents even let Eric and I spend a long day together. We did some shopping, eating, and then spent the rest of the day at Green Lake. We walked around the entire lake and then rented a kayak to take out on the water. It was such a good day for us! We really, really appreciate my parents babysitting for us.

man night in the camping trailer

Many months ago, I got the idea in my head that we should buy a motor home for our little family to make vacations and travel easier, particularly for our Perry man. We did a lot of research. And we went back and forth about it. As soon as Eric was on board with the idea, I became super hesitant. When I decided we should go ahead and do it, Eric had changed his mind. We went back and forth like this for awhile. Then we tossed out the idea of motor home because the initial cost and upkeep of the "motor" would be more than we wanted to spend at this time.

We dropped the idea for awhile. And then Eric suggested a travel trailer. He gave me his reasons, which were all good ones. I agreed we should just do it and see how it went.

Then there was more research and looking at trailers. We found one we really liked. Then realized we couldn't tow it with our truck. Once we found the right chart that showed what we really could tow, we discovered our options for trailers was quite limited. We need light weight, but that could sleep all 6 of us without the kids sharing beds.

We scoured craigslist, but with only a few weeks before our big camping trip we were pretty anxious to find one. And sure enough, we did. We bought it from a nice big family with 6 kids. It is not fancy. Once we brought it home, we discovered a weird smell. But after taking it out a few times, we are happy to say it serves it's purpose well.

While my parents were here, it served as a man night party house. My dad took all 4 of the kids out to sleep in it one night. Layla didn't last long in there because she sat on her bed making noises and doing this and keeping Perry up: 

He didn't seem to mind too much.

But she eventually had to be brought back into the house. Perry followed, by his own choice, soon after.

The "men" stayed up late playing Hearts and eating chips and salsa. Eric wouldn't join them, but they slept out there for the night, too.

My older boys love Papa's "man" nights.