It has been awhile since I've posted anything, but need to catch up on what we've been doing around here. I will start with the most recent and work my way back.
Grandpa Hawkes came to visit and got the 'Royal' Treatment. He had a business trip that had him flying in and out of the Spokane airport. He postponed his return trip by a couple of days, rented a car, and drove over to see us. Knowing he is a true farm boy at heart, we called our good friends that own a huge dairy operation to schedule a tour for grandpa. Boy did we call the right people. The Allred's not only took him on an amazing tour of their dairy, but also all kinds of other great things
Some of the Allreds, Christensens, and Grandpa Hawkes at the dairy.
Above, Grandpa discusses the finer points of dairy operations with Jerry. Below, he was able to tour the Allred's Apple Packing facility, as well. They even gave him a big box of Washington Apples as a souvenir. Delish!
After Derek and Jerry showed him the intricacies of modern farming, they took all of us to a delicious gourmet restaurant at the Gorge in George, Washington. I had no idea this place existed and it is amazing. We also spent a wonderful evening at their house eating pizza, carnitas, and cake and watching the Jimmer score 52 points. The Allred's sure do know how to host a great party. Thanks to them for their kindness.
Carter went on his first date! Terin asked Carter to Sadie Hawkins. He had a blast! As if I didn't already feel old enough celebrating my last birthday in my thirties, it didn't help having my son go on his first date. As I was helping Carter decorate Terin's car in answering her, it hit me hard that I was doing this for my own son, and it really didn't seem like that long ago I was doing it for my friends and myself as high schoolers. Then to top it off, the theme of the dance was the 80's. Apparently the 80's were long enough ago that kids are now dressing up in what I wore to high school as 'retro costumes'. Too weird. 
Chloe loves being artistic and while I was chatting away on the phone, she discovered her brother's markers and proceeded to color herself like "pinky pie" from My Little Pony.
After going to put her in the bath, I discovered she was very thorough in applying the layer of pink and was able to get a nice layer on her tummy!
She had a fun dress-up play date with 3 of her friends, Campbelle, Madison, and Case. All wanted to be princesses, with the exception of Case. He was only willing to be their prince if he could do it in a football costume.
Corbin finished up his season playing AAU basketball. I believe they were undefeated.
I celebrated my birthday. It's my last year in my 30's. Yikes! I got a lovely floral bouquet delivered and a gorgeous charm necklace arrived in the mail (one side says New York and the other has the statue of liberty). Thanks mom and sisters for the awesome surprise!
After Derek and Jerry showed him the intricacies of modern farming, they took all of us to a delicious gourmet restaurant at the Gorge in George, Washington. I had no idea this place existed and it is amazing. We also spent a wonderful evening at their house eating pizza, carnitas, and cake and watching the Jimmer score 52 points. The Allred's sure do know how to host a great party. Thanks to them for their kindness.
Carter went on his first date! Terin asked Carter to Sadie Hawkins. He had a blast! As if I didn't already feel old enough celebrating my last birthday in my thirties, it didn't help having my son go on his first date. As I was helping Carter decorate Terin's car in answering her, it hit me hard that I was doing this for my own son, and it really didn't seem like that long ago I was doing it for my friends and myself as high schoolers. Then to top it off, the theme of the dance was the 80's. Apparently the 80's were long enough ago that kids are now dressing up in what I wore to high school as 'retro costumes'. Too weird. 
Chloe loves being artistic and while I was chatting away on the phone, she discovered her brother's markers and proceeded to color herself like "pinky pie" from My Little Pony.
After going to put her in the bath, I discovered she was very thorough in applying the layer of pink and was able to get a nice layer on her tummy!
She had a fun dress-up play date with 3 of her friends, Campbelle, Madison, and Case. All wanted to be princesses, with the exception of Case. He was only willing to be their prince if he could do it in a football costume.
Corbin finished up his season playing AAU basketball. I believe they were undefeated.
I celebrated my birthday. It's my last year in my 30's. Yikes! I got a lovely floral bouquet delivered and a gorgeous charm necklace arrived in the mail (one side says New York and the other has the statue of liberty). Thanks mom and sisters for the awesome surprise!
Larry and the family took me to Spokane for my birthday weekend. I woke up to 30 plus helium balloons floating over me with my kids singing Happy Birthday. While I thought Larry and the kids were down having breakfast while I slept in, they were actually blowing up all the balloons and writing sweet messages on them. We had a great, relaxing weekend together.
I guess they got up a little too early while I got to sleep in. I was on one side of the room watching Food Network and didn't seem to notice that the family was migrating one by one over to the other side of the room to climb in bed together and get away from the TV noise. This is how I found them once I was ready to go get in bed. Funny.
Corbin was in a regional competition with his Hi-Cap classmates in Spokane. They had a really great time competing against other teams from around western Washington.
He also competed in the District Spelling Bee in Soap Lake, Washington.
He had one more competition, and that was in the Pinewood Derby. He and his dad worked hard on designing and building his car and he was quite successful in his races.
Carter got a fat lip. He was talked out of playing on the golf team by his friends on the baseball team. Even though he'd never really played baseball, peer pressure won out and he decided to go be another much needed player on the baseball team roster. His second day of practice a ball bounced and hit him right in the mouth !
The shoes Chase designed for his birthday arrived. Pretty sweet-huh? He's in 8th grade and wears a size 12!
Caleb is conspicuously missing from this post. We have lots of video footage of him shooting guns (something he spends a lot of time doing). Seeing as I am rarely around when he is participating in gun shooting, it is on Larry's phone and I don't have it here to download. I will do that in another post. He has been doing all kinds of great stuff, but I don't have photos of any of it on my phone. Sorry, buddy.
I guess they got up a little too early while I got to sleep in. I was on one side of the room watching Food Network and didn't seem to notice that the family was migrating one by one over to the other side of the room to climb in bed together and get away from the TV noise. This is how I found them once I was ready to go get in bed. Funny.
Corbin was in a regional competition with his Hi-Cap classmates in Spokane. They had a really great time competing against other teams from around western Washington.
He also competed in the District Spelling Bee in Soap Lake, Washington.
He had one more competition, and that was in the Pinewood Derby. He and his dad worked hard on designing and building his car and he was quite successful in his races.
Carter got a fat lip. He was talked out of playing on the golf team by his friends on the baseball team. Even though he'd never really played baseball, peer pressure won out and he decided to go be another much needed player on the baseball team roster. His second day of practice a ball bounced and hit him right in the mouth !
The shoes Chase designed for his birthday arrived. Pretty sweet-huh? He's in 8th grade and wears a size 12!
Caleb is conspicuously missing from this post. We have lots of video footage of him shooting guns (something he spends a lot of time doing). Seeing as I am rarely around when he is participating in gun shooting, it is on Larry's phone and I don't have it here to download. I will do that in another post. He has been doing all kinds of great stuff, but I don't have photos of any of it on my phone. Sorry, buddy.
