Perfect Match

Mike and I met the kids in their bedroom, then we all went up to breakfast. I messed up. I was planning on having Stockton wear his pants from yesterday again. I just neglected to tell Mike or Stockton that. Stockton took a shower in our room and Mike packed his pants after Stockton got in jammies. So, Stockton spent today with polar bear pants. I had a nice shirt picked out for him, so it looks kind of strange. Haha! He is such a good sport! Sad that this trip is at an end. It has been so much fun. Cheri picked us up at the cruise terminal. She had a perfect pickup. We walked outside as she was about to turn the corner. We had to wait a total of two minutes before we were in her car. Now that is timing! Especially with Seattle traffic! Cheri brought us back to her house. We had stored our van and a few suitcases here. Mike got everything ready to go. My friend Cindy came over to say hi. They were camping when we were here last week. It was so much fun to see her! It's been years! I love these girls!

Stephanie, Cheri, Cindy

Cheri and I have almost the exact same family. It is so funny. Our kids are the same age. We were always pregnant at the same time. I didn't know her when I had Maysen though. The hardest thing about moving from Washington was leaving her family. I kept telling the kids that if we still lived there, these would be their very best friends. I forgot to take a picture with their match before I left, but as I was heading out the door for the cruise I asked Cheri if we could do one when we got back. Carter got his wisdom teeth out while we were gone. They said he was swollen, but I can't see it!

Lily & Preston ~ 6 months apart

 Aidan & Jorja ~ 10 days apart

 I think Aidan was born on Jorja's due date. She just came a few days early.

 Jorja told me to take multiple angles, I had no idea what she meant. They are laughing at me.

 Carter & Stockton ~ two weeks apart

 Carter with his "swollen" cheeks and Stockton's polar bear jammies.

 These guys weren't supposed to be born so close together, but Stockton missed his due date by over a month.

 Emily & Maysen ~ two months apart

 Emily is serving a mission in Taiwan right now.

 Carter, Stockton, Aidan, Jorja

Maysen & Emily, Lily, Preston

 Stephanie & Cheri ~ I love her!

 Lily & Jorja ~ these girls got along great!

 Gardenias ~ this was the flower at our wedding

We left Cheri's house and drove to a Bank of America. Mike has been wanting to cancel our account for years, but you have to do it in person. While we were up here he wanted to do it. He came back with over a thousand dollars cash. I can't remember how much. At least that is finally done. He found a branch in Kirkland. It was weird driving down streets that we used to frequent often so many years ago. I remember being with Mike's parents when Maysen was a baby and using the paddleboat in Lake Washington. We drove right past the spot. It was fun to come back here. I wish I could have taken the kids to the Space Needle and the fountain. Mostly the fountain, but we ran out of time. We drove to Coeur d'Alene today to see Brooke! Yay! Yay! Yay! We met them at Lake Coeur d'Alene. The boys got into their swimsuits. We couldn't find where Stockton's was stashed, so he wore Mike's. Brooke was on the lake with her family, so we waited on the dock for them. We were only there for five minutes, but the kids loved it because they got to play with dogs. Well, three of the kids loved that.

Preston, Maysen, Jorja

 Brooke, Len, Miranda, Shylee, Timberlyn

Len took the little girls out while Brooke let us have a ride. Stockton and Preston both rode the tube. We didn't stay long because the sun was almost down. It was beautiful. Brooke is a fantastic tube boat driver.

Preston, Stockton

Stockton

Preston

The kids watched the RavenTale movie. They are so weird. I stayed up until two in the morning talking to Brooke. When I finally went down to sleep I laughed when I saw Jorja. Jorja HATES feet. I mean she HATES them. They gross her out so much. Just look how she is sleeping! Hahahahahahaha!

Jorja & Preston's foot

What a long, fun day. Lots of driving, but I got to see many people who I love so much that I rarely see anymore. I'm so glad we can just pick up where we left off like no time has past. So lucky!

UAE

First I'll start with some pictures from yesterday that I got off of Mike's phone. The first ones are from our walk yesterday morning. Well, I didn't bring my phone, so this is when Mike and Jorja found us.

Jorja ~ I accidentally put this as a moving picture, so I'm not sure if it will work.

 Mike & Jorja

 Weird fireplace in the middle of nowhere

 Jorja & Stephanie

 Jorja

 Jorja up at the Springs

 Stephanie ~ I just recovered the licorice Mike sent down

 Maysen, Stockton, Preston

It is so hard to get Maysen off of the tube unless it tips over. She got kind of 'tube sucked' out on this one!

The kids stayed on, but Maysen swallowed a lot of water!

Okay, that was all the pictures from yesterday. Here are today's pictures. We ended up not getting on the lake. The sky looked ominous the entire day. We still had fun though. It was fun watching eagles flying around. This one was right outside our cabin for about thirty minutes.

I walked with Shannon up to the Springs. Sharon was leaving with a group to go rafting right as we passed. She rolled down the window and we chatted for a bit. She said she didn't know we were here, but she could throw on an extra raft really quick so we could come. I knew that would take at least an hour, so I didn't want to slow them down. Plus, Mike and Steve were on the lake with kayaks.

Walking down from the Springs

 If you look really, really close you can see Mike and Steve on the lake in their kayaks.

Shannon and I walked down there, but they were in the truck leaving when we arrived. They were taking the kayak from the garage back. We didn't know if it worked. Mike said it needed to be thrown away. It took on a lot of water. They left Steve's kayak on the shore because they were coming back with Mike's sailboat. When they got back the kayak was gone. They weren't gone that long either. That stinks.

We played some games. The weird slapping game that Stockton likes and Exploding Kittens. That was even weirder than the slapping game. It was fun though. Jorja and Weston explored on the 4 wheelers before they turned them over to Stockton and Brandon. I held my breath the entire time. I am such a scaredy cat! Steve and Shannon packed up and left around dinner time. Stockton and Preston made this lovely bananagram with the theme being Oregon Trail.

I talked to Brett today. He now has a date for deployment. He also isn't going to Kuwait like he originally thought. He is going to UAE. He will be stationed at Al Dhafra Air Force Base. I hope he likes it there. I hope this deployment isn't too hard on his girls.

Mike, Stockton, Jorja, Preston and I played The Farming Game until midnight. It was pretty fun. Preston loved the game. He loves all games. Stockton hit Spring Planting every year. That doubles his corn harvest at the end of the year. Every single time he hit the square halfway through the year that would send him to the second week of February. He never got to try for corn or cows! It was super funny. Jorja ended up winning the game, despite doing her Chinese homework at the same time. Preston was a close second.

Palisades

Yay! Today was a lot of fun! I went on a walk with Steve and Shannon. After awhile Mike and Jorja found us on the 4 wheelers. Dang it! I just realized all the pictures are on Mike's phone. I'll have to add them tomorrow, because I just finished loading these and I'm not going to start over! Anyways, I hopped on the back of Jorja's 4 wheeler and thought I was going to die. Just kidding. I just hate not being in control.

We spent most of the day on the lake. The water was great. It wasn't too cold, and there were hardly any other boats using it. So much fun! Maysen did the knee board. She loves that.

Preston watching Maysen

 Maysen teaching Preston how to knee board

 Preston loved it!

 What a goofball

 Mike sent Preston a licorice down the rope. He almost got it!

I got on the knee board after Preston. I was able to catch the licorice Mike sent me. It was really hard to chew though. Maysen warmed up Preston and fed him. Those two are adorable together.

Preston

Preston & Maysen

 Maysen feeding Preston ~ what a spoiled little boy!

 Stockton

 Mike

Jorja tried the surf board, but couldn't figure it out

 She likes the wakeboard better right now

Stockton continued his streak of domination on Bananagrams

Maysen, Stockton and Preston all got to ride the tube again. They had some pretty awesome crashes. Brandon, Weston and Jorja didn't get to go. It looked like a storm was coming, so we booked it out of there. We had just docked and Steve was hooking up the boat when it started pouring. Talk about timing!

I took Jorja to the grocery store. We sat in the car and chatted for awhile, which was really nice. I love it when she will actually talk to me about what is going on in her life. Usually she doesn't want to think about the things she is upset about, so she won't let me talk to her about it. It was nice she finally opened up to me.

Mike fixed spaghetti and then got tired. He went to bed early. Boating really wears you out, which is weird because we didn't do anything except sit all day. Except Steve the driver. Anyways, no super late night games tonight.