proof

Despite what you might think after looking at our children's pale skin...we do let them outside occasionally!

My beautiful powder white babies. :)

Thank you Grandma

This post is mainly for my Mom, but I'm sure everyone can appreciate Mabel's cuteness!

Thanks Mom for the wonderful skirt and matching flower. We love it and it looks great. And thanks for picking up the slack on my lacking sewing skills! :)

some more random fun

So here's the pics from our big trip. Sorry for the picture overload all at once, but I knew if I didn't do it all at the same time, I might not get it done. And after I looked at all my pictures, I realized how much I didn't take pictures of! My sister was probably a better photographer, so if you're interested, head over to her blog.

Whitman Mission, Walla Walla Washington

The boys learning to ground up flour.

We took the kids bowling. My sister found this website, I think it's kidsbowlforfree or something like that. It's a summer program where you can get 2 free bowling games a day for kids, you just pay for their shoe rental.

We miss our cousins already!

The quadruplets. Both of our 2nd boys are about the same size as their older brother, so we have 4 boys all the same size!

4th of July

We went to my sisters for the 4th, fireworks are illegal in Kennewick so we took advantage of Hermiston.

Ryan relaxing during the fireworks.

It is light out until 9:30 in Washington so we started a little early.

Mabel's 1st sparkler.

Playing a little baseball. It was hard to keep up with the Pingel's little sluggers (they got their daddy's genes on their side)

The whole crew. 6 kids under 5...let's just say we stayed outside as much as possible!

Pop its. The big boys were bad examples and started throwing them at eachother.

in the water

It was nice to finally get some real summer activities in. I'm not all that excited to take my 3 little kids around water in ABQ by myself, so since Spencer was around and we had my parents to help, we took advantage.

The Columbia River. We had a picnic one day on the water...too bad it was only in the 70's outside and we couldn't get in!

Splash parks. These are the greatest inventions ever. Nobody can drown, the kids get cooled off, and they're free!

And after our crazy Albuquerque swim lesson experience, we signed Ryan up for lessons at my old neighborhood pool and it was awesome. Look at him doing bobs!

Front float. Ryan improved so much and has started really liking playing in the water. He even went off the diving board (his teacher caught him).

Stanfield Oregon

My sister's family lives about 1/2 hour from my parents which was great because we got to see 2 families for one trip. My brother in law Scott is the big shot city manager of this little town called Stanfield, Oregon. (They live in the big city neighboring it, Hermiston: pop. 16,000).

I'm sure the small town folks thought we were idiots for taking of pictures of stuff like this.

Main Street

Where the magic happens :) They rule this town.

The Great grands

While in Washington, we got to see my grandparents. They were good sports to come and visit us and endure all the little kids! We were so glad to see them. I hope I look that good when I am 88 and 92!