Summer's over!

I never finished blogging the end of summer....we took our annual trip to Lummi and celebrated Ainsley and Khalif's birthdays.  We found lots and lots of starfish this year, collected a bunch of seaglass, visited the rock beach and the school.  We also had another little bat friend, but he only showed himself to grandma in the middle of the night and she opened the door so he could fly out and we are going to go with that.  The kids just love that place!

 Pretty rough life they have!

 Playing with the new nail stamper that Ainsley got for her birthday

I decided to have a little party for Ryan's 40th, but I told him the party was for the kids birthdays (since they are all in the same general time frame), so it would be easier to plan and talk about.  It was a good turn-out of friends and family and I didn't have a good plan on how it would go down, so Gloria wished Ryan a happy birthday when she arrived and she didn't realize he didn't know it was his party, but he didn't get it, so I finally told him.

 Mom and Dad's gift to Ryan....corn hole!  We have dented the plastic because we have played so much and I am still feeling tendinitis in my elbow from the summertime.

The kids enjoyed the party as well.  There was a lot of nail salon and hair happenings:

Grandma Gloria missed the party, but came up later and it was soooo good to see her.  It has been way too long!

It has been close to 15 years since I went water skiing, but I felt inspired to go this year.  I got up on the first try, but it was a lot harder than I remember.  My mom thought she was recording and wasn't so you'll just have to take my word for it!  Ainsley tried again with the bigger ski's and did a great job.  She actually liked it better than the learning ski's.  Ryan ripped it up too :o)

My specialty is kneeboarding, so I was very excited when the kids tried it and a switch went off in Reggie.  He wanted to go everyday!  He tried and tried to get outside the wake and finally did and then it was Ainsley's turn, but she didn't quite get there.  It was so much fun....Khalif went and because he is so tiny, he could start sitting on the board...he didn't even have to get up.  Next year should be lots of fun!

Reggie so badly wanted me to go over the wake backwards and I had never done it, but I said I would give it a try and he was very impressed!