The Heat Was ON!

Tyler was gone. For 6 days. Even though we don't see him as much as we'd like normally, he's still around every couple of days to hang out with and I always get to go to sleep with him by my side. So he was missed. Lots. This is what he was doing...

Backpacking through the Olympic Mountains with the Young Men

Gorgeous much?

He showed them the easy way to get down a snowy mountain

Oh my!

This picture makes my heart beat a little faster...he's so handsome!

And this was our week without our favorite man...we still managed to have fun because I had to compensate for his absence. And because I'm pretty fun too. :)

This is always cute to walk in on...

We had a some scorchers this week. With no AC, anything over about 85 degrees is hard to handle. We did our best to stay cool...spent a lot of time outside in our kiddie pool, ran through the sprinklers, went to parks near the water, ate a lot of picnic lunches and dinners. The house was NOT the place to be in this kind of weather.

I was in the house and realized I hadn't heard Kelly for a bit...she fell asleep on the deck during one of our picnics

Oh, something funny. When we were running through the sprinklers (yes, we...girl's gotta stay cool in this heat), Max kept saying, "This is so refreshing!" "Isn't this refreshing, Mom?"I don't think I use that word often? It was amusing to hear my 4-year-old little man use it.

On Friday we went to Scenic Beach State Park to escape the heat in our abode. We had a fun picnic lunch under beautiful trees, changed into swimsuits and headed down to the water. It was such a nice, relaxing, perfect kind of afternoon. I really, really love these little people I get to hang with day in and day out.

Scenic Beach State Park - the PERFECT afternoon

I really needed someone behind the camera to get him to look in the right place...ah, well.

Could these little bodies be ANY cuter?! I LOVE Kelly in a swimsuit.

We spent about 4 hours there altogether because I knew that inside my house it was about 92 degrees and I wanted to have no part of that. We were getting ready to leave the water and play on the playground so I decided to change the kids back into their clothes on the beach (and by 'beach' I don't mean sand...we don't have many of those kinds of beaches 'round these parts). I told Max that we'd hold up his towel while he dropped his drawers and we did just that. I was helping to get his shorts on when I heard him giggle. I looked up and he was looking around at the people on the beach with a huge smile on his face and said, "They don't even know!" He was so tickled that we were changing his clothes 'secretly'.

Being so brave on his own...

I caught the end of a conversation between Kelly and Max in the car on the way there. I think Max said something about how we can't speed in the car and Kelly said, "Or the police will take you to jail?" Max said, "No, Kelly, you have to do something really, really bad to go to jail." Kelly said, "Oh (nodding her head)...like say 'butt'?" I'm glad that's the worst thing she can think of doing! We say 'bottom' in our house. Man, that's made me giggle the past few days.

I want to squish her

Ty came home on Saturday! Ahhhh....all is right in our world again. He had an amazing time on his 6-day hike with the Young Men, but I think (know) he was really happy to be home. We really dig this guy.

Heads On The Couch - a Foster tradition from Ty's dad. He traveled with work often and when he got home he would say "Heads on the couch!" All of the kids would run to the couch and put their heads down and their dad would put something he brought for them on their backs. The tradition lives on....

Some cool sticks that resemble a gun and a wand, plus some cool rocks

You'll see below one of the reasons he was missed so much...the man knows how to totally impress his kids. Dress in white temple pants and a white shirt and suddenly you're Silver Surfer to Max's Batman and Kelly's Lady Spiderman (with a backward cape, of course), running through the house and saving every other super hero your 4-year-old can think of.

Lady Spiderman, Silver Surfer, Superman

Oh, and while Ty was on the hike this week we found out that he once again got theMilgard Scholarship for the coming year of his MBA program! What a blessing! Between his work covering a good chunk of the cost and then this scholarship we are very well taken care of. Last night I learned how MUCH his MBA actually costs - $44,000.00 - and that we'll only have to pay about $7500.00 of that when all is said and done. I sure am proud of my hard-working, smart, hunk of a man. And SO glad to have him home...