Ella's Birthday Party!

On Friday, February 28th, we had a small party with Ella's girlfriends. All the friends that were coming over go to choir with Ella....well Anna & Addison usually go to choir, but they are taking this session off. Christina did drop them off at choir so they got to chat with their choir friends and then I came and picked up all the girls. We stopped at Costco first to get pizza for dinner and then we headed to our house. The girls enjoyed pizza and salad for dinner and then had mini chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

After the girls had been hanging out for a bit they wanted Ella to open her gifts. She got money from Owen with a birthday poem that Gemini helped him write and money from the Storer's. From Jack and Zeke she got a vest and a sweatshirt. Anna and Addison got her a make-up bag with an E on it, a hair clip, a turquoise bracelet, lip gloss, nail polish and chocolates. June got her lip mask, coloring book, sweatshirt and chocolates. I gave Ella an envelope with a birthday poem that ChatGPT helped me write! :) I was laughing so hard when Ella was reading Owen's poem because I knew that AI had to have helped him and then I laughed even more since I knew that I had AI help me. Anyways the poem that ChatGPT helped me write explained that since Ella's phone has seen better days she was getting a new to her phone. Michael and I decided to get new phones even though there is nothing wrong with them....they are paid off though. Michael's giving his phone to Owen since Owen's screen is all cracked and I'm giving my phone to Ella. She's also going to get to pick out a new case for my phone so she can make it her own. She's pretty excited and keeps asking when my new phone comes since she can't wait to get my old one.

These girls are so sweet and silly! 

Caitlynn was there too, but I didn't get a picture of her! :(

It was supposed to be a girls only party, but due to a medical situation the Storer boys came to our house instead of my boys going to their house. 

Ella wanted to have a sleepover and then have all the families come over the next day for a luncheon. June, Anna & Addison slept over. Caitlynn needs more sleep so she headed home with her brothers around 9pm after the girls finished watching High School Musical. 

 

Ella and I went shopping on Thursday afternoon to get all the food for her party. She wanted to have croissant sandwiches, chips and dip, veggies and fruit. For dessert I made a vanilla cake.  

June had to go home on Saturday morning and Caitlynn came back. Also Aidry joined the mix so we still had the same number of girls we started with. 

So happy to have Micah at the party he was in a bike accident on Thursday night and had just gotten released from the hospital the day before. He still has some medical concerns, but he's taking it easy and following doctors orders. 

My sweet man and I worked together that morning to get the food all ready. Normally we don't have parties at lunch time so I have all morning to do it myself, but since we were having lunch I needed another set of hands. It was nice working with my hubby! 

Ella put her hair in her new hairclip and it looked so cute especially with her curls sticking out. They didn't even curl her hair that's just from all her natural curls! 

Cute girl looked a little feisty to me in the above picture so I told her to smile better and now she looks a little less irritated with her mother! 

Time for the second round of presents! 

The OJEZ box made it's appearance! 

Since Pa wasn't giving Ella her birthday money until 2 weeks after her birthday he actually pro-rated the amount. So instead of it being $115 she actually got $115.60. He did round up a bit since it was actually supposed to be .57. We did ask him he was going to subtract that amount from her birthday money next year and his response was "Well...let's not worry about that" or something along those lines. She is Pa's princess after all! 

From Papa & Ruth she got this yummy smelling lotion that smells like lemon and coconut! 

I really enjoyed having a lunch party instead of a dinner party. It felt like people weren't in such a rush to get home and just wanted to stay and visit. It was so nice! 

In fact since I'm doing 75 Hard, Christina was all for helping me get my second workout done for the day so her and the girls and I drove over to the middle school track to get our workout done outside in the nice weather! 

Aidry had already gone home, but I was going to drop Ella off later at her house so they could have a sleepover, but once everyone left I could tell that Ella was spent. It was 5pm so she had been around friends for over 24 hours and the girls stayed up until 1:30am! Her voice was so tired from talking and she just needed some time to herself to be able to reset and rest so she ended up staying home instead! 

Thanksmas 2024!

We have been working towards remodeling our 17ft high "crawlspace" under our house into usable space since Sept 2021. There's been lots of things to overcome which I'm going blog about eventually. My hope was to be able to use the space for Thankmas 2025, but then God was like...nope I can actually make that happen this year. I love that He cares about the little things that make us happy! 

This is our old pantry under our stairs. We knew eventually this would be the stairs to the basement so in order for us to use this as stairs Michael had to build me a place to store all that food. 

So he built me these cabinets and they have been wonderful! We still used the under the stairs closet for storage because we are a family to 6 and you use all the storage you have when you have it. 

This is how the closet looked during the beginning of 2024 after the broken pipe. 

This is how it looked in November 2024. 

In all honestly I never thought this day would come...we have stairs inside our house that go to our basement! This was huge step...no pun intended...in the process. As you can see the stairs go down a bit and then turn to the right. 

Here's the rest of the staircase as it leads to the finished space below. There will be a door at the bottom of the stairs eventually. 

This year we really had no idea how we were going to have Thanksmas because our garage was a mess from all the constructions we've been doing. We actually contemplated getting heavy duty plastic and enclosing the covered deck space we have so we could set up tables out there. That didn't sound ideal though. Once I saw that we were actually getting close to have a semi-finished space I talked with our contractor and let me know that I would really appreciate it if we could utilize the space on November 30th for Thanksmas. He didn't give me a definitely yes, but he did seem open to shooting for that goal. He actually ended up coming over on Friday, November 29th in order to finish cleaning up the area so we could use it. 

The morning of November 30th, Ga-Ga & Pa came over early so Pa would have time to get all the tables set up. At first we thought we might do separate tables like we've done in the past...men, women and kids, but with this nice huge space we opted for just one long table and people could sit wherever they wanted.

The space is usable, but not completely finished. We have limited electricity down there and zero heat so I went online and rented an indoor propane heater from Home Depot. It was a little noisy, but it made it so everyone wasn't freezing! 

Our chiropractor was selling his practice and he asked if we wanted these cabinets for free. Yes please! We plan to make this basement space into a studio apartment so these will come in handy. We used them for the dessert and punch table. 

I didn't get around to taking any pictures of the food all set up, but here's food line. 

We ended up having 22 people present for dinner. Poor Christina wasn't feeling well so she stayed home. :( 

Since Papa comes over most Tuesday's for guitar lessons with Jack he'd actually already gotten to see the work that had been done. 

Later on Justine's family stopped by and we played a new game we learned called Tens. 

You're really supposed to play until someone has 200 points or something like that, but we were only able to play one hand. 

Look at this handsome guy! 

Cuties always wearing their matching shirts! 

While we were downstairs playing most of the adults were upstairs because it was warmer.

Ga-Ga is sitting with Linda Patrick here. Linda is such a gem and I'm so happy she was able to come to Thanksmas. She had just had surgery earlier in the week. 

The kids were horsing around upstairs for a bit. 

The bromance is strong! :) 

Gotta love this cute picture of me and my Dad with Owen cleaning gunk out of his eye in the background. Hahahaha! 

Caleb has gotten so tall! 

These girls are such beauties! 

Justine's Mom, Jhaycee and his little sister Micah...they were only able to stay for a little bit because they had already attended another party that day. 

Pa and Bill...such a wonderful, longstanding friendship. 

Thanksmas was awesome! It was such a treat to have so many people over and get to utilize the new space. I'm so excited to see how this space transforms even more this next year! 

Seaquest State Park Camping Trip!

We got out of school on June 13th and the very next day we left for our first camping trip of the summer. We were headed back to Seaquest State Park with the Kuch Klan. We stayed here a couple years ago and really enjoyed how quiet and wooded the park was and we wanted to share it with friends

The site that we were at the last time we were here wasn't available so we tried to find two spots that were side by side. On the map online it showed our site as a back in site when it fact it was a pull through one. We do not like those sites...they usually have very little space and this one was even weirder because it was a pull through on the left side not the right side of the road. So instead of your door being on the side facing the woods, our door was facing out towards the road. Thankfully this site was actually a good size and had enough space for us to put up the tent for the boys. One thing that was interesting about this trip was Owen didn't come with us. He had to work on Saturday morning at 6am and so he stayed home for 2 nights without us. He got off work at 2:30pm on Saturday, but he gets up at 4:45am so he didn't feel comfortable driving an hour and a half after work. So he came down to join us on Sunday morning.  

Here's the set up for our site from the road. We moved Bill & Christina's picnic table over so we could put the tables together and then we used two canopies. We did get some rain so we separated the tables so the water could run down in the middle and not hit the tables and get them all wet. The next thing they need to invent is canopies with changeable gutters so you can direct where you want the water to go.

Sitting around the fire roasting stuff is just the best! 

This year has been the year of volleyball for our family. Logan, Justine and I played outside while Ella was rehearsing for her choir concert and now we just love to play. 

The Kuch kids had been playing too so it was fun to play with them. Usually when we play Justine is in the middle, but this time Jackson got to be the middle guy and he loved it. We don't play a game or anything we just volley back and forth around the circle and try to see how many times we can hit it before it drops to the ground. I think we got to 17 on this trip. 

Like I said we had a bit of rain and it was a little on the chilly side, but I don't really mind that for camping. I love bundling up and then you can actually have a fire. I don't like it when it's too hot to have a fire. 

Fire masters over here visiting! 

This pretty girl! 

She loves to straighten her hair now. It looks good either curly or straight. 

Wild Waves had just officially opened full time on the day we left, but thankfully Jack was able to get the time off to join us. They have been really great about giving him any time off he requests. 

It feels weird to have a picture with all the kids, but not have Owen in it!

Bill and Pa just love to catch up. Ga-Ga & Pa weren't going to actually come with us, but then they rethought that and booked a hotel just down the road about 5 minutes away. I was so happy they got to join us...especially since we were camping over Father's Day weekend! 

My handsome man! 

The trees looked so cool so I thought this would be a fun picture! 

Pa with his Princess! 

Pa with these handsome young men! 

On Saturday, June 15th we drove across the street from the State Park and went to the Mt St. Helens Visitor Center. It was a small little museum, but it was really cool. 

We watched a movie first and then went around and read info about the volcanic eruption. 

There was even a seismic monitor in the floor so the kids were stomping on the floor trying to get it to read the seismic activity. It was really cool! 

 

After reading all the info we wanted to we headed outside to this cool boardwalk / nature trail. 

The kids are down the trail a ways you can see their silhouette in the middle of the picture. Also if the clouds weren't there you could see the mountain. 

Have stumps will climb! 

In the boardwalk area there were all these Lillie pads and I didn't know they actually flowered. They were so pretty! 

 

I just love a good nature walk especially since the weather was so pretty. 

We came across one of those doggie bag dispensers, but instead of it having doggie bags a bird had decided it would make a nice nest! 

 

Look at that egg and the little pink thing that's blurry below that was a baby bird. 

This marsh area was so pretty! 

It was a nice day for a walk! 

There were tons of beautiful lupines in bloom! 

Here the kids are looking at a heron. 

Can you see the heron?

It's fun being the youngest and lightest in the group! 

Caleb has been such a sweet friend to Zeke over the years.

Always sitting around the campfire even if there isn't one! :) 

Love these sweet people! 

Just visiting! 

This sweet girl was snuggling with Daddy because she missed Justine. This was the first time they were going without see each other for a whole week. They usually get to see each other on Sundays and Wednesdays, but we left on Friday and weren't coming home until Tuesday. We also told them no texting while we were on the trip. For one thing the last time we camped here we had zero coverage at all and for another it's okay for them to not be in communication all the time. It's actually good for them to be apart so when they do come back together they have all sorts of fun things to talk about. 

Since Ga-Ga & Pa weren't camping with us they had to use a discovery pass for their car because we could technically only have one vehicle on our site. Well they showed up at 8am one morning and the ranger came over and was talking about how they need to pay extra since they stayed overnight. Ga-Ga & Pa camping in the campground...yeah right. Nope...just early risers! Hahaha! 

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day! 

The Kuch Kids celebrating Father's Day with their Dad! 

Owen hadn't arrived yet, but I have no idea why Zeke isn't in this picture with his Dad! 

I made my Dad and Michael their favorite....there own batch of sugar cookies. 

3 amazing men! 

Later that day we went in a little hike through the State Park. The girls found this little field with wildflowers! 

The last time we were here there were tons and tons of huge ant hills. We did find one on our trek this time so that was fun! 

Poor Anna had hurt her hand playing volleyball...it was swelled up quite a bit. The only ice pack we had was one of those hard square ones for putting in your lunchbox, but it was better than nothing. 

Caleb and Owen...reunited at last! These two are hilariously similar! They have so much fun together and could literally talk non-stop for hours about gaming. 

Trekking through the woods gave us moms a great opportunity to talk through life. I have loved getting to experience life with this wonderful family. To get to relate and speak into each others lives. Such a treasure for sure! 

I can hear it, feel it and smell it! I love a good campfire! 

Speaking of gaming....there was a lot of this going on. These boys are serious gamers! 

Ella brought her coloring books to keep her busy. 

Then the girls decided to do flower hairstyles with all these little wildflowers! 

They all turned out so beautiful...

delicate....

and intricate! 

Love these sweet girly girls! 

Christina had seen this sign that she wanted to take a picture of the kids in front of. We waited until Owen got here so he could be part of the group. I just love the sign. Life is an adventure and it's just waiting for you to go on it! 

We said goodbye to Ga-Ga & Pa on Sunday night since they weren't going to join us on the next days adventure because Pa had to get back home in order to go to a meeting at church on Monday night.  

This is how cold Zeke is! 

The next morning, Monday, June 17th, we got up, made lunches for the road and packed up our stuff to head out on an adventure that was 10 years in the making. We as a family had been trying to hike through the Ape Caves on the south side of Mt. St. Helen's for 10 years. We wanted to go on our way home from our Disneyland road trip in 2014 and then there have been other times here and there where we've wanted to stop, but something would always get in the way whether it was time, energy or whatever...it just hadn't happened, but this was the day that would change. 

We had read that the caves are always cold so we all bundled up. We also had read that every person has to have 2 forms of light and they can't be cellphones. We all had headlamps. We had bought a pack of them back in 2014 in preparation for making this hike, but then we didn't use them. I think they got misplaced because I couldn't find them. So I just order a 5 pack on Amazon that were LED so they were better anyways. Christina let us a borrow one of hers so we didn't have to buy anymore. We normal flashlights in the backpack, but I don't think we actually had enough for everyone to have 2. No one ended up having any troubles and needing to use a backup light source.  

The drive to get there took about an hour and half. Bill and Christina took all the girls while Michael and I had all the boys. When I said that Owen and Caleb could talk for hours non-stop I meant it. They talked the entire drive all about gaming. I found out later that the girls ended up taking a nap! What alternate universe are we in here!!! 

When we got there the first trailhead we stopped at didn't have a bathroom so Michael drove us back to a different trailhead because I saw it had one. Then when we drove back we realized the first time we had parked in the overflow parking not the main parking. Silly me! So the main trailhead parking area had bathrooms and a little store. We had to purchase a day pass and then once everyone used the restroom we started down the trail. 

There's a staircase that leads you down into the caves. There are two trails you can go on...the easier shorter one or the harder longer one. We chose the harder longer one. Of course right away we ended up coming to a section where you literally had to crawl on your belly to get through. Michael, Caleb and Addison climbed/crawled in there and said it got even smaller. They also got all wet because the cave is very humid and wet. There was no way I was going to crawl in there...nope not happening. We were so confused because even though it was supposed to be hard we didn't think it would be at that extreme. That's when Christina was able to pull up a description of the trek online. We were definitely in the wrong spot so we backtracked and instead of turning left we went to the right and found the actual trail. The thing is trail is a bit descriptive for what it's actually like...it's really just mounds and mounds of rocks you have to climb up and over so it's not like you can see the full trail ahead. In some areas you can, but not all areas and this was one of those areas. 

At one point during out trek we all crowded together real snug and turned all our lights off. It was crazy dark! We were waving our hands in front of our faces, but you could literally not see a thing. So freaky! 

This longer cave was 1.5 miles long and about .8 miles in was when we got to a big lava wall that Michael had to help us get over. He used his leg as a step and we were able to get up. Then around 1.2 miles in we got to the skylight. This was so cool! 

At the 1.5 mile mark you got to the staircase out! 

You really had to watch your head coming out because that hole was not that big! 

Since the cave was so humid almost all of us ended up shedding layers especially since you are physically exerting yourself. It was so fun and I loved it. I am super happy that we did not do this way back in 2014 the kids would have complained so badly and it would have just been a disaster. It all worked out for a reason that's for sure! 

 

The crew that was out before me, Bill & Christina. 

When you still like each other after doing adventures like this that's a good thing! ;)

Because this was a one way trek we had to now walk 1.3 miles back to the cave entrance where we started. That was honestly a nice easy walk after what we were doing in the cave. 

When we got back to the entrance we noticed this little covered area that had maps of the caves so if we had looked at that in the first place we would have never made that wrong left turn. Oops...live and learn! 

Heading back to the vehicles to make our way back to the campsite. 

Back at the campsite just hanging out! 

Enjoying the last fire of the trip. Something that I didn't get pictures of was the kids having a blast with the Nerf Gel Fire guns. I bought these way back before Easter and I thought about giving them to the kids then, but decided against it since Ga-Ga & Pa's backyard isn't actually ideal for that type of play. We brought 6 guns and a bunch of ammo and the kids had a great time...even the girls enjoyed it. 

The next morning it was time to clean & pack up, but we had a cute visitor who was hungry. 

At first I wasn't sure if he'd even like watermelon, but he did! 

He was so cute just munching away! 

We needed to get the tables all cleaned off though so he ran away and then he came back and decided to eat some dry cocoa puffs from Zeke's bowl! 

I usually never take pictures when we're packing up, but I remembered to this time. Once everything was cleaned up we gathered together and prayed with the Kuch Klan....we love and enjoy their wonderful family so much! 

Since we had two vehicles Owen drove the van home, but first we stopped at the MCD's down the road to get lunch prior to getting on the freeway.