Pyper and Junie

I really should post an actual post, but it's evening and the girls are all sleeping and I'd rather just sit here and watch this cute little lullaby on youtube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiAzcWiwE5Y

But I do want to share this sweet picture of Pyper and Junie I took yesterday. I love it. Pyper was in the middle of saying something, which portrays her perfectly. She is such a talker. And then there's Junie with that rad hair and that sweet face. Love it.

Seattle Trip and First Day of Kindergarten

We went to Seattle over the weekend as a last get-away before school started. We started our visit with a stop at the Seattle Aquarium. We LOVE the Seattle Aquarium! The girls have watched almost every episode of Octonauts, so every creature they saw, the girls were like, "Oh! There's a spine nosed fish!" Or "There's a (something that I've never heard of)!" They loved it.

 These tide pools were our favorite. The girls were able to stick their fingers in and touch the creatures. Pyper loved it the most.

Jellyfish tube:

This was one of the cool things we could touch. Watch what it does!

 We also went to the outlet malls and got some great deals on school clothes for the girls. Sorry--no pictures because it was mad chaos with a million people around and our bunch of kids wandering and being independent. But we all made it back safely to the hotel. We even got our own private "room" at the Olive Garden. Rhett and the girls waited in the van until the table was ready, and I think they misunderstood me when I said two adults and five kids. I think they thought one kid and six adults because she brought out six adult glasses of water and one kiddie drink. Haha. But it's okay. We usually get crammed in the middle of the room at a table for four and we all have to squish in and eat over each other's elbows, so this was perfect for us!

We had such a fun trip. It was wonderful to spend all the time together before the girls head off to school again.

And today was Claire's FIRST day of Kindergarten! She was so excited. 

Junie is growing and changing so much! I can't believe it. She also starting to smile. Her smiles are often, and it's almost a guarantee that she'll smile every time that Rhett breaks into singing "Hey June" to the Beetles song "Hey Jude." It's so sweet.

Another big thing about today was Summer got to change her earrings for the first time! (And NO ONE passed out! woohoo!)
She was so excited that she woke up at 5:30 and came busting into our room with the earrings she'd picked out. I made her go back and get her pillow and blanket and lay on our floor. Surprisingly, she fell asleep (she usually doesn't ever fall back asleep once she's awake) and I caught this picture.

After Claire got home, she told us about her day. Everything she said, Summer would say, "Oh! I love the owl chart!" Or "That's my favorite!" (Claire has Mrs. Ochse like Summer did.) It was so cute.

 What a big girl! I can't believe it. Sure, she went to preschool since she was like 18 months old. But Kindergarten is different. It's the step everyone takes that says "I'm growing up!" Yes, I got a little teary eyed as I thought of her throughout the day. Our sweet Claire is off to school, getting ready to change the world. 

Fishing

Back in the beginning of June we started talking with the girls about a special summer gift for them, and then we talked about it again, and talked about it some more. It was very exciting for the girls to contemplate all the things they might get! Finally, they decided they wanted to get fishing poles. So last night we loaded everyone up and headed to the store. Summer, Claire and Pyper each picked out the pole they wanted, and then Rhett got some of the gear we'd need for it.

Today, we got up at 4am to go fishing.

Just kidding.

At about 8:30am, everyone was up. We Skyped with their cousins Inara and Alba in Sweden, and then we ate breakfast. After that, we got ready to go . . . which ended up taking a looooong time. Rhett worked on getting the fishing poles all ready--winding the line on it, etc. But the girls were so excited that they'd push the button on the reel and then pop! there goes all the line. He'd have to untangle it all and do it all over again. 

We finally had everything ready and we headed out. We actually wanted to try out a lake other than our own, so we went to Newman Lake, which was about 30 minutes away.

(Click on this picture to zoom in. It's my favorite. I love how you can see all the girls and Rhett--minus Junie.)

I think Claire was the most excited out of everyone. Look at her sitting there slightly smiling.

Rhett spent the ENTIRE time doing this:

And he didn't lose his patience once. What a guy.

I just kept praying that we'd get at least one fish to make all his hard work worth it. And guess what???

We actually caught THREE pumpkinseed sunfish! Claire caught the first one, and Summer caught the second two. Claire was actually just holding some string that Rhett had cut because it was tangled. The string had the hook and bobber on it. She was holding it in the water, then all of the sudden, she had a bite and she pulled it right out! Long story short, Claire's fish escaped (luckiest pumpkinseed fish ever, but he/she looks really silly with about 4 feet of fishing line sticking out of its gills and mouth).

The girls really wanted to bring the remaining two home to keep them as pets. Pyper asked Summer, "Summer, since I didn't catch one, can I name them?" So, the girls decided that their names should be Sparkle and Twinkle. Unfortunately for everyone, they died. They are now resting peacefully in our garden next to the peas.

We had such a fun time. It was pretty hot so we cooled off with frozen yogurt in Liberty Lake, and were planning on heading over to our lake after dinner, but we decided to wait for another day. We had such a great time and made great memories.

And a special thanks to Aunt Annie!