6 Yrs 10 Mo!

CET are 2 months shy of SEVEN, eeeek!
Taken a tad early since they were in CA without me on their mirthday. 

We have had a busy busy summer so far! I cannot even believe school starts in less than 1 month, ugh! I refuse to think about it and I'm ignoring all the back to school propaganda (geez can't they at least wait till August before they bombard you with that stuff!).

The boys have kept busy at summer camp while I'm at work. Since camp keeps them two hours longer than the school does I've been working a lot more. The boys love day camp and scoff at me when I sometimes pick them up early, ha! While I've also been loving the warm summer weather this schedule is wearing me out. I've been averaging 35hrs a week (I was trying to shoot for 40) and I just cannot fathom ever doing a full 40 hrs unless I hired a maid AND a cook! I'll be sad when summer is over but glad to get back to a more manageable routine : )

So my mom came a couple weeks ago to visit with the kids for a week. At the weeks end we drove my mom and the boys to California to spend a whole 10 days there with out us! We leave for CA in a few days but man have we been living it up without the kids, muuhahaha! It has been so nice to see the house stay clean so effortlessly. We've been eating out a ton too, it's sooo much cheaper when you aren't feeding 5, ha! Plus we can go to kid unfriendly places too, heehee. We do miss the boys a lot so we can't wait to see them soon. They seem to be having the time of their lives too. They are getting so much mama Elda time whom they adore. We've video chatted with them a couple times and I ask them if they want me to pick them up already. They immediately answer with a "NO!" Next summer we may have to bump it up to two weeks, hahaha : )

The Cove Palisades State Park

We had plans to go camping right after the kids got out of school in mid June. As we inched closer the weather kept looking worse and worse. You think we'd learned our lesson from last year when we got rained out although that was mid May! I guess you just can't count on dry weather around here till at least July. Lesson re-learned! A couple days before he had to go camping we scrambled to find a different place so as not to disappoint four little boys. We took a chance on The Cove Palisades State Park in eastern Oregon about 3 hrs from Portland and safe from any rain. I'm so glad we got rained out of our usual camp spot which isn't terribly exciting because this place was amazing! It's our new favorite camp spot and we can't wait to go back. There are so many great things but to mention a few...amazing view points, good fishing, hiking paths, safe for kids swimming area, organized kids activities by the forest rangers, a play ground, very nice showers & bathrooms, and great paved paths for the kids to ride their bikes.

The Fishermen
Our Friends K and Oz came too : )

They caught so many bass and blue gill fish!

My handsome Thomas

Great swimming area.
The depth by the floaty thing in the background was only about 4 feet deep.

The water was pretty chilly but that didn't stop anyone but me, ha!

The lake is at the bottom of a big canyon, it's all so breathtaking.

On our hike, that's me!

A waterfall in the desert, go figure!

Phil and I with Mt. Jefferson peeking in the background. From this vista point you could see almost every mountain in Oregon and Washington, Mt Adams, the 3 Sisters, Mt Bachelor, Mt Jefferson, and Mt. Hood! That's 7 if I'm not forgetting one : )

My 3 lovely's!

Wisdom From Caleb

We like to tell Caleb that he has 'long beautiful hair.'

As he napped on the couch Papi could not resist running his fingers through those long locks : )

Caleb is quite the character. His brain is full of interesting notions and funny one liners. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff but it keeps Phil and I laughing! Wish I could remember them all but here's a few that I've written down : )

Words of Wisdom by Caleb

-"I like triplets better than twins because they are more."

-"I like little puppies because they don't chase kitties."

-"There is a store that everything costs 5 dollars. And there is a store that everything costs 2 dollars. People like it better than the 5 dollar store because 2 dollars is not too cheap and not too spensive."

-Points to cemetery and says "that's where the dead mans are." A few seconds later, " dead mans have broken hearts."

-When asked if he would like a little sister. "No because sisters are just girl-brothers."

-"Someone thought I was in high school. For reals, they did."

-"I can carry Kirk, really I can." Kirk just happens to be a 6 foot tall 13 year old.

-"My earwax is black because it's Chinese earwax."

-"I only watch cute kitty and dancy dance videos."

-See's a graphic somewhere,"It's a skeleton guy looking so cool."

Without his knowledge I recorded Caleb deep in conversation with me. He's cute to watch and listen to. I think he has the most subtle of lisps which makes his babble even cuter. Here he shares some wisdom about bees, black widow's and blue widows : )


The other two boys have had their moments and have said pretty cute things too:

Eli: On the reason why school was cancelled during the snow storm. "There is no school because how would you go pee with all your snow clothes on!"

Thomas: During my first week of work Thomas must have overheard me telling Phil that I was so busy that I hadn't gotten to eat my lunch two days in a row (not too big of a deal since I only work part time). The next morning Thomas tells me, "Don't forget to eat your lunch mami!" How sweet that he'd think to remind me! Well what's even sweeter is that he even remembered to ask me if I had eaten my lunch after I picked them up from school. I told him I did because of his reminders : )

Eli: We went out to eat at a restaurant and Eli ordered a corn dog and fries. We were half way through our meal when Eli turns to me and says, "Mami I want you to tell this for me because I will be too scared to do it. Tell the lady that brought us our food that Eli really liked the corn dog and it was sooo good!" So when the waitress came back I told her, "my son Eli wanted me to tell you that he really really liked the corn dog, so compliments to the chef." The waitress laughed and said she'd pass it on to the chef. What a silly boy but very thoughtful : )