We have a TEENAGER!

 

Our first baby is 13! I guess he's looked older than that for a long time with how tall he is, but at heart, he is still a little kid. Asher has such a big heart and loves constant social interaction. He is still fascinated with all things mechanical and is curious to learn and help whenever he can. We are so lucky to have this kid in our family!

 

 We started the day, as always, with chocolate waffles. Asher got most of his presents at the family party earlier in the week, but he still had a couple to open. He and his brothers made quick work of assembling the small Lego sets he got.

 

Asher had some friends over in the afternoon to have pizza and ice cream and play ax throwing (a plastic set from his grandparents for his birthday) and video games.

We were thinking about going camping for Asher's birthday, but in the end we decided to stay home so we could attend a cousin's birthday party the following day. We decided instead to let the kids camp out in the backyard. By the end of the evening, Asher wasn't really feeling up to sleeping in the tent, but his younger siblings were very excited about it, so he was a good sport and followed through with it.

And here is Asher's Birthday Interview:

 Who is your favorite person? Leif

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite thing to watch? Playing Minecraft

What is your favorite outfit? T-shirt and basketball shorts

What song do you like the best? Castle in the Sky theme song

What is your favorite cereal? Honey Bunches of Oats

Who is your best friend? Leif

What do you want to do when your grow up? Be a mechanical engineer

What is your favorite book? Lord of the Rings

What are you really good at? Legos and RC cars

Where do you wish you could go on vacation?  Oregon (we're leaving in a few weeks!)

What would you buy if you had a lot of money? R/C cars

What is your favorite dinner? Pot pie

If you could have a wish, what would it be? Free everything

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip

Who do you want to be like? Dad

What do you like to do with your friends? Hang out

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Build a motorized vehicle

What is your favorite thing to do? Play with Legos and RC cars

What are you proud of? Building stuff

What are you afraid of? Fear

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Take a nap

What does Dad do best? Buy stuff

What does Mom do best? Tell Dad not to buy stuff

What do you like best about Dad? He's fun

What do you like best about Mom? She makes us cookies

July Birthday Party

We have lots of birthdays in July on Austin's side of the family. Kate's is one of them, so she has thrown a big party the last couple of years. This year's was quite extravagant, but it was also extremely hot, so many of the things later in the day ended up not happening. This was okay with most of us though since it was already so busy! We started out going to Fort Fun, where the kids rode Go Karts, Bumper Boats, Paddle Boats, and played Laser Tag and in the arcade. I was pleasantly surprised at how quiet it was when we first got there and the kids hardly had to wait in line to do the things they wanted. I was also surprised that if a kid was too short to drive on Go Karts or paddle the Paddle Boats, an adult was allowed to go with them, even if that adult didn't have a pass. 

The kids were most excited about the Go Karts, but love doing anything with their cousins, so they had fun the whole time. Natalie said her favorite part was the arcade, though I'm not really sure why. I guess it was just the novelty of it. I took Natalie on a swan boat and Austin took Heidi. They saw a heron in the lake and spent most of their time paddling around by it.

We finished off our time there riding Go Karts again. No one picked me to drive them- but that's okay. I'm probably much better at taking pictures than at driving like crazy in a go kart.

After Fort Fun, we met at a Mexican restaurant. I only took a picture of Leif because he got a huge steak, which he couldn't finish (though he did finish it the next day). We also had a dish with octopus in it which almost everyone tried. It wasn't too bad compared to octopus I've eaten before. After lunch, we went to Austin's parents' house to play games, have treats, and open presents. Asher got lots of fun things including this ax throwing game, which all the kids have been enthralled with. It would be better as an outside toy, but they've mostly only played it inside so far because of how hot it has been. The boys have taken it out in the early morning to play, but they always bring it back in for the rest of the day.

Hike to Lost Lake

We ventured down to Roosevelt National Park to go on a hike this week. We tried to do a hike from the same trailhead last summer, but we went on a Friday and it was so busy that the parking area was overfilled and we had to take a shuttle, which we couldn't do because Torben was overly excited by the other dogs getting on the shuttle and was acting a little aggressive. We ended up doing a nearby hike that time that was very beautiful, but we were glad to get to do this one this summer. There are quite a few different paths leading off from the Hessie trailhead and limited parking, which was pretty full when we got there, but we still found a spot. Its a short hike from the parking area to the trailhead, but it goes past a nice little beaver pond and was a nice way to start the hike.

The boys had Torben for most of the hike so they were up ahead of the girls and I most of the way. They stopped to wait for us every now and then. Natalie has done all the hikes this year on her own without any piggy-back rides (a problem we were having last year). She is getting to be a good little trooper to keep up with everyone else, but still isn't as fast as everyone else. She complained a few times on the hike that her legs hurt, but was very interested and motivated to keep going when I told her that it meant that her legs were getting stronger. When I told her that her heart was getting stronger too, she kept putting her hand over her heart to feel it.

We stopped for the kids to eat an early lunch near a waterfall. The older kids liked the mist that was coming off of it and cooling them down, but Natalie said it was making her cold and tried to stay out of the mist as much as possible.

Not long after leaving the waterfall, we came to a sign with distances to several lakes. Lost Lake was the closest, and the kids were starting to get a little worn out, so although I would have preferred to keep going, we decided to go there. As we started up the trail a ranger told us that a moose had been seen that morning so we should keep a lookout. We never saw it (although several of the kids were sure they had seen "something" moving off in the trees ;) but we did see moose tracks and moose droppings right around the lake.

The kids had fun wading in the water and throwing sticks for Torben to go fetch.

The hike back down was pretty uneventful except that Heidi fell pretty hard and needed a lollypop to help her forget about it. She actually slipped multiple times on the way up and a few times on the way down and complained about her ankles, so I'm thinking we might need to get her some trekking poles to help stabilize her.

It was a perfectly cool day for a beautiful hike and we are so glad we got to do it all together!