Zoo

This last week we were invited to go to the zoo with some friends in the ward here. They were able to get us all in for free, so it was a reat treat. The kids had a great time looking at all of the animals!

The spider monkeys were probably the favorite of the day. Very entertaining!

Lindsey and her friend Annika

Free carosel rides too??

Fun for everyone!

Happy 8 Years to Us!

Our 8 year Anniversary was this past Monday. We decided to celebrate it on the weekend because our weeks are very busy. It was probably better anyway since I didn't feel too good that day. We're expecting baby #4 (yes, this is our official announcement!) and are about 13 weeks now and yes, we're very excited! But Justin surprised me on Monday with a beautiful boquet from Pike Place Market. He works downtown and took off work a little bit early to get over there and pick up some beautiful flowers. Thanks Justin! That really made my day -- you know how much I love Pike Place flowers!!

On Saturday night we went to the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed an amazing dinner with cheesecake of course and reflected on the past eight years. So much has happened, and we have changed in many ways. I'm so glad that I have been lucky enough to spend it with my best friend! Thanks for the great evening Justin, I love you!!

We love company!

Another weekend here at the Maner house and another round of company! I tell ya, I'd be willing to bet that we have had more people come to stay with us or stop in to see us and the house this summer than we have had probably our whole marriage. Well, it's a close call! We've had many more visitors than I've had time to post about. It's been so fun to see so many people we love and care about!

This last weekend we had Lisa, Justin's sister and family come up from Oregon to play. We are so glad that we could see them and that they could stay with us. The visit was pretty short, but the kids played hard when they could and we got in some good talkin' time! They spent some time playing in Seattle and of course we had to take them to Justin's building to see the view and then down to the waterfront for dinner. Thankfully it was beautiful weather for being outside!

Nice Javan, very nice!

While their family went to play at the amusement park on Saturday, we went to the Amazon.com annual company picnic. And Justin and I were both very impressed! We have never been to an event that big with so many people that was so well organized. Needless to say, there was tons to do, tons of food and entertainment, and we all had a ball!

Concentrating....

The kids all got free kites, so we found a great spot and let them give it a try.

All three of the kids got their kites up into the air at the same time. The weather was perfect!

It was fun to watch the motorcycle show, you know the kind where they ride up ramps, get high in the air and do tricks? They're crazy!!

It really was a perfect day in a beautiful place!

Thanks Amazon, and thanks Gray family for coming up to play!

Camping

Well, the summer seems to be slipping away from us so quickly. We have intended to take the kids camping this summer but decided that we'd better hurry and get it done. We found a beautiful spot and set up our tent. The kids were so excited. The evening consisted of some treats, some stories and of course the kids staying up too late because they were just too excited to fall asleep.

The kids the next morning

The aftermath

Our beautiful camping spot

Fresh blackberries we found; they grow naturally like weeds here

YUM!

Luckily for me, we had all the comforts of home close by.

Camping in the back yard was a good idea. The kids were just as excited to camp here!

And I had food, water, extra blankets, working bathrooms (even my bed upstairs!) very close by. We stuck it out and slept outside with the kids though. Some of us slept pretty well, while others of us......didn't! :)

My kind of camping! And yes, those are our wild blackberry bushes. The blackberries are ripening and we're very excited! If you're in the neighborhood, come get some this month!

The Hottest Week

Things have been getting pretty hot up here in WA. This last week we broke the record, Seattle at 103 degrees and Auburn was at 104 or 105. Now that's not newsbreaking unless no one has an air conditioner. And unfortunately, that is the case here! The house probably heated up into the 90's in the afternoon, so it really was too hot to do anything. The kids and I survived the first couple of days by doing our traditional otter pops and letting the kids run in the sprinklers,

at least we kept our planters nice and wet!

But by Wednesday when we had the record breaker we just couldn't take it anymore. We went to go see "Up" in the theater. We don't usually see movies in the theater, much less pay full price, but the kids and I were desperate. We got popcorn and even got a DQ ice cream cone to share in the mall afterwards. One of the hardest parts was getting the kids to go to sleep at night when they were sweating in their beds. Not too fun! But that is over now and it has cooled back into the 80's, thank goodness. If we have another summer like this next year, I'll be feeling pretty motivated to spend the money to get an A/C unit installed!

Despite the heat, we did get a few things accomplished. We had the Crockett family over for lunch since they were in town for a family reunion. We haven't seen them since our days in Kansas and their kids are getting so big.

I also managed to work on my painting project in the mornings before it got too hot in the house. This frame started out a very brassy gold color. I wish I would have taken a "before" picture of it. But this is it after a couple coats of brown.....

And here it is all finished with some black and a gold rub in the middle. 100 times better, or at least, much more to my liking!

I loved this gold rub - so fun and easy to use! Much better. Now it has a touch of gold, not a ton of it.

We decided on pillows for the couch. These are great because they bring in the brown and red from "George."

(And can I just say that it is so funny to me when I see the kids do this. We finally have a nice big couch, a love seat, a big chair and ottoman, and they all like to sit in the chair together. Go figure!)

Then to top the week off, we went to see the Blue Angel air show in Seattle on Friday. It was very fun and very loud!

So I am happy to report that we survived and now we are trying to get our schedule back on track this week. We're definitely enjoying the 80's!