Our Ward Pioneer Celebration Day

We went to our Ward Pioneer Day celebration and had lots of fun. Kaden really wanted to help tie a quilt that they had set up. He did a really good job too!
Austin and Branden tried their luck at stick pulling. I wonder who will win this one?


Branden enjoyed a little time playing with the water squirting toys. Good way to cool off on a hot day!
After having a ton of fun playing all the games we went and had bite to eat. I am sure the pioneers would have died for hamburgers and hotdogs!!!!
What could make a mother more proud. Out of all the games like the egg toss and stuff my son won, in his age group, 1st place for the seed spitting contest. He was able to spit one 15 ft away! I think that is really pretty good all considering, I am just not sure where he got this talent from!!!

The Story of the Tomato Plant

This is one of those stories that you feel bad for your kids but at the same time you have to find the humor in it and I have certainly found the humor. Last year all of our old tomatoes from our garden got thrown in the back lot behind us. (This house is still vacant) Well this year of course the weeds are growing and the kids went out to play and saw all these weeds and Austin comes in asking if weeds grow tomatoes. We explained what happened and so they decided to weed around these plants and care for them and finish growing these plants on their own. And so the story begins......This is Kaden out creating a moat and a rock wall around the big tomato plant.
Then to his wandering eyes appears another little tomato plant for him to nurture to full growth!
This picture was taken not even a full 2 days after they discovered the plants. They had just gone out and watered the plant an hour before this and were so concerned for it's welfare and wanted to take care of them. This is a picture of the boys when they heard a loud noise out back......
Yes, after a whole summer of the weeds growing tall and out of control they send in these men to take care of the problem. Well the funny part of this story is the look on their faces. Here they walk the yard and stop and look at these plants that are being cared for and shake their head. However the man with the weed eater looked at the plant for about 5 seconds and was processing how and why this would happen and without another thought cuts it off at the bottom without another thought.
The boys had a gasp of ohhhhhhhh....... and then it was all over. This is them assessing the damage and seeing if their is any hope. Austin chose to plant one of the left over tomatoes in the ground thinking it will do something. So to say the least this is the story of the tomato that the boys put all their hard work and effort into and was destroyed by the weed eater.

A Quilt for Kyleigh

I finally managed to finish a quilt all myself. I was so proud of this. I have tried to make a quilt for all of my kids. This was me attempting to quilt. Jared came over and said,"Aren't the stitches suppose to be closer together?" I had to tell him if he wants to hand quilt better than me he was more than welcome to. So to say the least I am not that great at hand quilting but I got it done.
I also had my many hours at the sewing machine!
But in the end the blanket got done and the blanket is officially kid tested mother approved. They seemed to enjoy it so hopefully Kyleigh will too!! One more thing off my check off list. Yeah!!!

Floating Down the River

We decided that we needed to do something with the family except work around the house so we floated the River. Just a fun easy going time. Dad made sure to hit the few rapids just right to get mom all wet! Kaden decided to float in a tube tied to the boat. He did really well. Of course we don't have pictures going down cause we didn't want the camera wet. This is after and Branden was on cloud nine just running around everywhere.
We went with some friends and while Dad was getting the car at the top we saved a little shade and had a fun picnic while we waited. The kids had too much fun.
Austin was enjoying his new form of a chair and thought it was soooo... cool.
While Kaden and Branden were spinning each other in the hole of the tube. I should have taught them the way we use to do it as kids but they were having so much fun. We really enjoyed our time together and came home tired and sunburnt... well at least me cause I left my back up to Dad and that didn't turn out so well!!! I should have known.

Learning as I Blog

Well I am learning a little at a time. Here I have posted our 4th of July trip backwards. I guess start at the bottom and move to the top. I am finding that it is really hard to pick only so many pictures to actually post. Have fun looking!!!

Cannon Beach

This was Cannon Beach and we went for a nice walk on the beach. The boys found a huge pile of seaweed and worked hard on pulling it out and then using it as a whip. We had to stop that fast before someone got hurt.
They found many other things that kept their interest. They found this piece of wood that worked great to swing on and also jump on. Kaden is jumping and Branden swinging. Austin is thinking of just what he could do next.
Kaden waiting for the next wave to come in to get his feet wet. This was the most beautiful beach.
Branden catching a ride on dad. That one mile walk was a lot for little legs and he still has the next mile ahead to get back. Good thing Dad is their to bail him out cause Mom might not be that much help.
This is the bottom of Haystack Rock. We got their just as the tide was starting to go out and thought we were in luck but were told that it wasn't going to go out that far for this night. We were able to see many things one that looked like a really small eel. Not sure if it was or not but it was really neat to see. Dad thought maybe he could just walk out there to get on the rock but it was a little deep still.

Just A Little Hike

For the actual 4th we went to the local small town parade and of course had to have a little Tillamook ice cream. That was fantastic. The parade was fun too! The boys really enjoyed eating some candy that was thrown to them.
Jared, Branden, and Kaden headed down the slope on a trail leading out to a great view point.
Not that you can tell from the picture but Jared went over the fence and is out on this ledge that gets really skinny and is drop offs on both sides and was making me go insane with him over there. Beautiful view though. Under all that and straight down was a really neat cave that all the water goes in.
Kaden thought the view was great but really wanted to be a little higher so he thought he would climb this ladder that was put there just for him.
The Keetch family together and enjoying the day of no more drizzling rain. I tell you that a drizzle can really soak you in no time at all.

A Little Bit of Beach Time!

This is the first time ever that Branden has ever seen the beach and the ocean. He was more tickled pink by this than anything else in his life. As you can see he was literally rolling in it. And of course Mom didn't bring any swim suits cause the water would be too cold! Yeah Right!!!!
Maybe it was just too many hours in the car....?? Or maybe the ocean is really just all that!
Our first night the weather was great so we decided to have a fire on the beach so we did hot dogs and marshmallows. Sort of felt like camping on the beach.
We got up and out for an early walk on the beach and caught the tide pools and found lots of cool things. Austin and Branden found a little purple crab.
Kaden found a really cool purple starfish. He was really interested in the muscles and the hermit crabs. Branden liked the sea anenamie. Not sure how to spell that but they are the things on finding Nemo that no one can pronounce. Well when you touch them they squish up. Later we found out that they can actually sting you. Glad nothing happened!!

July 4th trip 2008 Oregon Coast

This is our first day at Multnomah Falls. We didn't hike to the top of the falls but we had a lot of fun on some of the trails along the way. Austin Kaden and Branden really enjoyed the cool cave that they found. This is also one of the few pictures that Branden didn't have his tounge out and Kaden's didn't have his hands over his face!
We decided to stop and have a little break on the way back down.
Kaden decided that he would just hang out and wait for us!
Wow!! Mom is actually on vacation with everyone. Not often you will see a picture of me cause I am normally the one behind the camera.