What a serious update

I have been out of the loop for awhile and a half. Our family has been super busy with engagements... Engagements that I should've captured via camera, yet I am a kid stuck in the body of an adult! If I have the chance to go run and play with others, I do so. So my apologies!

July was a SUPER busy month. Leo and I camped for four weekends total, and as a family we camped for three weekends in a row with the kids. On one of the camping adventures we camped for four days straight out in a beautiful forest service area... With tons of cow pies. I luckily found every cow pie that my children might step in, sans the one rebellious cow pie that Leo had stepped in, and sent Koyote looking for me to take care of it. :P Ah well.

The kids LOVE to camp. The four day camping stint was lovely as it was our yearly outdoor music event with our extended family, also known as some of our close friends. I got a kick out of Koyote walking around shirtless, as he followed around other shirtless male friends of ours...
Yote hauled logs to and fro with Robin, threw knives with Uncle James (OKAY I was not informed of this activity until AFTER the fact; yet I trust James and I thank him for letting Koyote try it once but then say that Koyote couldn't throw any more knives until he "improved his ninja skills by listening to his mom, dad and teachers" LOL) and helped set up tents with Kevin, McKenna, and others... Satori twirled glow sticks, Go-go danced on random tree stumps to the music that was playing, and had no accidents while camping! I am proud of the portable toilet I fashioned out of a bucket that I spray painted red. :) Yay.

The second camping trip was supposed to be in Kurt and Jennie's back yard, but we opted for their daughter Claire's room instead! Kurt and Jennie were kind enough to take us boating and swimming up in Sandpoint. I absolutely ADORE when the cousins can get together, and my heart melted when I'd hear Yote and cousin Claire's giggles echo up the stairs into my ears. I hope to get the kids together one more time before school starts, and if not then, sometime in September.

The third camping trip was for the family reunion and I LOVED the area where we camped at. There were clean bathrooms and showers, a laundry facility, a lake AND a river. Our campsite was located 20 feet away from the river, and I was grateful enough to be able to fall asleep to the sound of the river running and to spend time with Leo with such a back ground. :)
The family reunion was fun as always with the annual float trip and consuming tons of food.

So, we zip over into August... I can*t recall what happened the first week of August, oh wait yes. The kids were deported to my parents house for a week! It was a spontaneous move on our part to allow my family to take the kids back with them, but they came back alive.--Plump and slightly more tanned, but at least happy and ALIVE. The week the kids were gone was.... Weird.

I felt like a single teenager with a driver's license! I*d drop Leo off to work and take off on my own adventures: swimming for five hours, riding my bike into town and around town, having a girl's night at the bar, hanging out over at people's houses, playing Wii with friends until 5 in the morning, taking one of my best friends to Sangria to split a pitcher of Sangria and some food--In the middle of the stinkin' day! And in our slightly tipsy stupor we ended up walking our cute little selves to the mall and window shopped at Macy's until we worked out the alcohol from our systems. Oh yeah, and having quiet time with Leo. :) Quiet dinners, lots of naps, and cleaning.

Yes cleaning. I was able to do a bit of deep cleaning and it was LOVELY.

And on to the middle of August, in which we are in at the moment...

My side of the family surprised me with a visit to my home state! My sister and her husband rolled through town and invited us out for pizza in exchange for putting up their kids at our place. Now my sister's kids are like little sisters to me, except for the fact that we tend to act like a pack of misbehaving, rowdy brothers. :P

So the kids ended up going to bed at midnight and I ended up going to bed at two am, left at 10 am to drive to Silverwood and went bucknutty with my family members. The kids and I had SUCH a good time with my family! Jeff, my brother in law really appreciated the barrage of thank yous and hugs and kisses from the kids. :)

At Silverwood, Koyote and Satori rode a bunch of rides, and went swimming for a little bit. Koyote even rode the Panic Plunge with Alexis, Dominique, Savannah, and myself, which carries us to 140 feet into the air and dropped us at around 47 mph! I LOVE YOTE! He didn*t cry, or scream... I couldn*t see his face, but as we got off the ride he was shaking yet smiling at the same time, and wanting to go onto it again!

Dominique somehow got me to go on a ride that cycles in a circular motion, yet the cars that you sit into can be steered left or right, or sometimes upside down. I lost an earring, laughed until my sides hurt, cried from laughing so hard, yelled so hard that I lost my voice later on that night on that ride. The funniest part was that since Dom was heavier than me, I ended up having control of the rotation of the cart, thus squishing her 90% of the ride. :) Alex, Dom, Jaz, Savannah, April, and I just roll like that: making fun of each other, sometimes having heart to hearts, attempting to black mail and get each other in trouble, and sometimes wrestling.--We show love in interesting and unique ways.

And at the end of driving from Moscow to Coeur D'alene to Athol to Spokane to Pullman and then eventually home, we were pooped.--And are still recovering.