Jammin' In June

Here's a couple of the random shots that I have from last month of fun times we had:

Ammon refuses to keep his shoes on outside, no matter how many times I tell him otherwise. I'll put his shoes on and he goes outside and takes them off two minutes later. And the beauty bark around here just isn't feet friendly. Therefore, we have a serious sliver problem that has to be taken care of regularly. Fifteen slivers in each foot makes it quite the operation.

Uncle Ryan had a birthday and turned a whopping fifteen. Oh to be young again.

The kids spend a lot of time outside with dad "long-boarding"....or at least their version of it.

We went to Maple Valley Days Parade where Uncle Ryan marched with the marching band. He gave up his clarinet playing to hold the sign, to our disappointment. Ammon got so much candy it was ridiculous. He shared with Lydia who opted for a birthday party she was invited to, rather than the parade.

We also started a hiking group with the stake. Every other Friday we try a new hike out in the area. The kids are giving a thumbs up for making it to the top of the mountain on our first hike. Though they were afraid of snakes, bears, and snails (none of which we ran into) they did good. And we even saw a chattering squirrel that was terrified of us and yelled at us to go away. It was quite the spectacle.

And here's the view from the top of that mountain. You can see Mount Ranier really well. The kids loved throwing rocks and thinking of names for the hike (this one was dubbed the Squirrel hike).

The next hike didn't go so well and we named it the Dead-End hike considering we couldn't figure out which way to go (no one in the group had done the hike before, and the map we had was worthless), ran into a dead-end and had to just turn around head back to the car. There was nothing really to see, it was long, hilly, and rocky, and Ammon cried the entire second hour of the hike until we made it back to car. Poor guy wasn't only getting over a cold, but also busted a hole through the front of his shoe with his big toe. He did not like his sock getting muddy and wet. It was the longest, worst hike. Hopefully the ones in July will treat us better.