And the Years go by!

This past week served as a reminder of just how quickly time goes by.
This is a picture of our Washington State Capitol Building....

The little blog going up the corner of the steps is this guy....

Seemingly proud he made it to the top!
Why were we there?
To hang out with this girl....

This is my friend Holly, we grew up in Junction City together. Graduated from high school together in 1995. See, the theme coming in to play here? If you want to do the math....that was 16 years ago. Yikes! We got to reconnect at our 15 year class reunion last year. She lives in Arizona with these guys....

Her husband Mark and sweet little boy Jon Isaac.
They were passing through our area on vacation so we got to meet up.
It was a fun visit! Holly likes to visit state capitols and take pictures so Kade and I accompanied here on this trip. (Kyle and Ryne waited in the car with a video playing...some things are just easier that way. Ha!)

Kade really enjoyed getting to go inside the capitol.
He kept wanting to pose for me to take his picture.


It is a very beautiful building. So glad we took the time to go.
Now, want to see just how pregnant I was climbing all those stairs?

Yep, pretty big, huh?
After the tour we went downtown in Olympia to eat and had a fun time visiting some more.
So glad that we were able to meet up on their way through.

The next amount of years to go by isn't quite 16.
Nope, only 2 1/2 this time....

June 30th was Ryne's half birthday!
I think I've mentioned before our own little family tradition of celebrating half birthdays.
Not a big deal but on your half birthday you get to pick what's for dinner and you get a 1/2 birthday cake.

Ryne chose pancakes for dinner.

And practiced telling us that he is now 2 and a half.


Of course Kade was glad that it was Ryne's half birthday because that meant CAKE!


Ryne enjoyed the cake, too.
Guess it was a cake-y kind of half birthday with panCAKES for dinner and a half birthday CAKE for dessert!
And just in case you wondered....

Yes, we do sing "happy half-birthday to you."

Since Ryne is officially a two-and-a-half year old he decided he must be big enough to help Daddy with some chores.

A little car washing!

He really was doing a great job.

I do think his favorite part was wringing out the rag. Ha!

Next number of years to go by...only 1.

We planted these flowers last year and they were really pretty.
They really blossomed for us this year!

Just took these pictures yesterday and I cannot believe how many more flowers are still waiting to open up.

Maybe in another year they will be even more spectacular!

Speaking of spectacular....we are having spectacular weather for our 4th of July weekend.

Here's some proof!
The boys played outside all morning yesterday and then we had a picnic in the driveway for lunch. It really is something special to get to live in the Pacific Northwest in the summer time.
After a morning outside we just went ahead and spent the afternoon outside as well.
This time it was to celebrate some more years going by!
Forty of them!
We went to a luau that was actually a surprise 40th birthday party for our friend Vince.

Check out my fellas in their cool Hawaiian attire.

You think Kade knew he was cool?


This is the only pic of me from the party and you can't even tell but I too was sporting a nice Hawaiian dress. It was such a fun party.

Here is the birthday boy getting surprised!
I seriously don't think Vince had a clue.
It was great!

Kyle and the boys played a little basketball.

We had AMAZING food!
Vince's wife Chelo is quite the cook.
Of course Kade is enjoying the birthday cake.

I'm pretty sure birthday cake is the only thing we were able to get Ryne to stop playing long enough to eat. Plus it helped that he was getting to sit with Lissa.

We played a really fun game of Hawaiian pictionary.
Several of the older kids were getting to take turns on the drawing for the teams and Kade was just about to die to get to take a turn, too. All of the grown-ups were gracious enough to indulge him and let him have a turn.
After Alissa read his card to him he went around to the front and quickly asked if it was okay for him to use both colors. He was told that he could and that little guy just went right to drawing.
Within about ten seconds this is what we had....

To which his team all shouted out "Volcano!"


Wish I could have captured his face better. He was so proud that they guessed his picture that I thought he was going to explode! It was super cute! And the grown-ups were glad they let him take a turn.

Of course you know what had to happen after that...

Ryne had to have a turn. One of those only counts to Ryne kind of turns.
Can you tell what he's drawing? Yeah, neither could we but he was having fun!
Alissa helped him out a bit and we finally got that it was a rainbow.
His reaction.....

"I did it, Mom! I did it!"
He was just as proud as Kade. Adorable!

Kyle got a turn, too! The USS Arizona Memorial. YIKES!
But look at how his boys are right there giving him the moral support he needed.
It really was a fun day!
And I'm sure we could have stayed for more fun if the very much pregnant lady....that would be me....hadn't had to get home to rest.


We rounded up Ryne from cruising in the cool pink jeep he found.


And finally convinced Kade to limbo on out the gate so we could make our way home.
They both said they had "too much fun!" and could have "stayed there forever."
I think you have a pretty successful party when both the children and the grown-ups can say that they had fun!
Kade wants to know when he can go to another Hawaii Day Party!

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we are going to do our best to watch the parade in town and let the boys play at the festival at the park. Then rest up and maybe see some fireworks tomorrow night. Only problem with fireworks for us is that it doesn't get dark enough to do fireworks until about 10:30 around here. YES, that is 2 1/2 hours after bedtime!
We might just have to let a few more years go by before we are successful fireworks spectators. Who knows, we may just decide to be brave and give it a try this year????
I'll let ya know!
Happy Fourth of July to all of you!!