The Fourth of July!

Today is the fourth of July!!! How greatful we should all be to live in such a great country. At times we all take it for granted but I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the wonderful freedoms that we have.

Today we were at Micah's aunt and uncle's house on Black Lake in Olympia. We all had lots of fun full of great company, good food and awesome fireworks. They have this apple tree that had very tiny unripe apples that all the little kids pulled off and took bits out of. Veraty and Karma had lots of fun with their cousins, well I guess they would be second cousins. This is Veraty and Kelsie picking and tasting the apples. There are lots of pictures but it was so hard to pick and choose, sorry!



Ya, you pick a great apple!!!


















They had a tire swing which was a big hit for Karma and Brody. Those two had a great time together. I think Karma fancied him very much.

















Veraty picking her nose again. I have lots of these kind of pictures. She just likes to pick her nose.















She is just to dang cute.














Yes, you are too!
















Her uncle Connor is always looking for some sort of creature. In the bucket they had a couple crawdads and bullheads. All the kids thought it was so cool. He also found a frog.










What a great picture.















Veraty and Sobeida, they both have to have things in their mouths.









Trying to get a good picture with me and the girls was pretty much impossible.












Bruce aways has a great display of fireworks. This year was really good.
















Hard to see everyone, but this is Micah's family, well his cousins, brothers and wives anyways.










And the little ones.













Karma is ready for the firework show.






Veraty did not like the fireworks. She covered her eyes, she just didn't like the loud noise or the lights from it. She finally fell asleep.

Thanks Bruce and Linda for a great Fourth of July party.

Karma's Sleepover

Karma wanted to have a sleepover soooo badly. So she invited her friends Ellie and Katie over. They had so much fun. First they made their dinner, which was pizza. As they put the cheese on most of the cheese went into their mouths.











After lots of playing they wanted to make some brownies so they did. They all took turns putting the ingredients in and and stirring. I defiantly had to remove a few egg shells.










And here they are enjoying the delicious brownies. Yes they were good.












And now it was time to wind down so they all agreed on watching Enchanted. After the movie was done they still weren't asleep. Veraty was already in her crib asleep but these girls wanted to party all night. We told them to lay down and go to sleep. Ha, if it was that easy. Micah and I went downstairs waiting for them to fall asleep. 10:30 rolls around, not kidding, after much threating of separating them into different areas of the house they were still up there giggling away. All I wanted to do was go to sleep, I was really tired, but I had to wait it out. Micah finally convinced them to go to sleep. At 11 o'clock they were asleep. Thank goodness!!


I got up in the middle of the night for one of my many bathroom breaks and here they all are sprawled out and Tiki too. In the morning they all awoke with giggles and quite talks. They had breakfast the some fruit for a snack on the deck. What a great sleep over it was. And they all took a nap that day, so did I.

Karma's good friend, Katie, had a birthday party at the end of June and she had PONIES!!! Everyone was so excited. Katie had hats and bandanas for everyone and they all looked so cute.




















Veraty really liked riding the horses, she wasn't scarred at all. She trotted all around the yard and just held on.















And of course Karma just loved it she wanted to go again and again.













Thank you Katie, Ann and Ken for such a great party, the girls had lots and lots of fun.

Smashed Toe!

Okay so while we were on the Rogue River Trip my mom watched the girls. She had them over at her parents house and they have this little piano, 2 1/2 feet tall 2 ft. wide or so and really surdy. And Veraty always plays with it, well I guess is fell over and smashed her toe.










Here she is giving it lots and lots of kisses. And she shows it to you and says with big, big puckered lips, "Owww, Owww, Owww." It's so cute how she says it you just want to kiss those lips.


Karma trys to make it feel better too!!














Yes that looks like it is very painful.
Today is July 18th and the very last piece of her toe nail finally fell off. It got squished some time at the end of May.

Soccer and Summer Time Fun!

Micah has a soccer tournament at the end of June, which he was very excited for. His brother Evan and his wife and little girl came up so he could play in the tournament with Micah. It was blazing hot that day and their tournament started at 930 and he had two games that day. The temp was in the 90's. We were all hot but had lots of fun watching the games. Their team didn't do so well, Micah and Evan did awsome though. They lost both games that day, then the next day they had two more and lost one and tied one. Ohh well.





























After the game on Saturday this is what we did, which is a typical day in the life of the Valentine girls. If its hot and sunny out we are in the pool. We live in such a great neighborhood, we are all friends. We all have kids that get along for the most part and they play just about everyday together.

Here is Veraty and Shane, he is kindly sharing his pool water with her.






Miss Ann (as the kids call her), brings out the popcicles for everyone and they love it.

Katie, Elle Veraty, Lucas, and Karma.










The kids like it when we put the slide in the pool.
















And of course Veraty just loves the water, you can hardly get her out of it.









Here is little Sobeida, Evan and Sara's little girl. She had so much fun playing with the kids and in the water. We loved having them here and wish they could come more often.

Start at the blog that says, Rogue river Trip

It was so hot some even tryed to get a tan.







Yes there is a tree growing on the top of that rock.








See!!






And here we are at the end of the trip, now we have an 8 hour drive back home. Thanks to Spencer and Caroline for the use of their van, but no thanks to Dave's crazy driving!!
Also thank you to Steve and Robin for organizing such a great trip. We had so much fun. We love you both very much, thank you, we will never forget this awsome adventure.

Oh yes, and i finally realized I've been spelling Rogue River wrong, I now know its R-O-G-U-E. My bad.

This is Blossom Bar, it is usually the second worse rapid, but today it wasn't bad at all.









Just having a little fun on this hot day.






We stopped for lunch and a certain spot were there is this natural water slide, this isn't it but on the hike up to the slide there are all these little pools of water and it was just beautiful.







Robin