End of summer fun.

Sshhhh. Don't tell. But I think that WA is rather fun in the summertime. I know! I can't believe I said it either. Usually I'm just complaining and whining about all the rain. And for good reason. However - just like when we lived in Scotland - when the sun does come out, it is such a beautiful place to be. We decided to take advantage of the days we had left and play a little outside.

We went Blueberry picking.

It was still really warm by the time we got home that evening, so we turned on the sprinklers for some water fun.


By the end of the night, all three were soaked to the bone. Alaina and Ethan were pulling faces...but Austin really was as sad as he looks in this picture. He went in to get dry and cozy and the other two went back out for more water.
Right after we got home from California, I decided to make a baby quilt for a girl friend of mine who is having a baby. I cut out a bunch of squares of material and started to lay them out on the floor. Alaina found me there and insisted on completing the entire project herself. She put the blocks in the order she wanted them. She did every bit of sewing. I cut and ironed...but that was it. Once she finished the quilt top, I sandwiched the batting and backing on and then she insisted on quilting it together. That child is so persistent! I did end up doing the binding myself, but Alaina was not pleased with that. She kept begging me to let her finish it, but since binding is hand sewing, I talked her into letting do it. It turned out so great. I am so proud of her. After all that work that she did, there was no way I was going to give it away (although, she was willing to). So I bought some receiving blankets to send to my friend and this quilt now lays pretty on Laina's bed every morning.



Bella kept trying to sniff the quilt while we were taking pictures and so Alaina would pull it away and run. That made taking a good shot a little more difficult.


What a goose. Since then, she has designed, picked out the material and sewn a bunch of blocks together for a baby quilt for our little one. At her insistence and direction, we've added a million pieces of applique which have become the bane of my existence....but more on that one when we get it finished. It is a good thing that school finally started, or she'd be sewing up, well, who knows what? And I don't think I can keep up with her!

Everybody worries about their kids sometimes. There will always something about them that makes you wonder if they will be able to make it through life unscathed; whether those things are academic, social or emotional depends on the kid...or the hour of the day. I was having one of those moments the other day with Austin. He is so imaginative that sometimes I think he gets a little lost in his own thoughts. He was pretty excited because he had finally narrowed down "an-invention-that-will-get-me-into-the-book-of-world-records." That made me a little excited too, since he has been asking me, quite obsessively, for the last few weeks, what that invention should be. (Obviously, none of my very clever ideas ever made the cut.) And what would that winning invention be? A time-machine. Naturally.

Ideas were flowing so fast through Austin's head, that the ultimate vision was coming out a little convoluted by the time it passed his lips. Even once the words tumbled out, the mix of his excitement with his jumbled diction made it difficult to follow exactly what he was describing. I was doing my very best to keep my eyes focused on him for the eight minute overview I was getting (sans pauses for breathing) and I had to pat myself on the back for nodding at all the appropriate times. His description not only entailed a complex design (a large, circular dome with 'zooming' lights that flashed faster and faster) a very complex process (from what I understood, the person or item in the machine would shoot into space and come back down to earth at the right place and time) and of course, the purpose for such a machine. (to send letters to his best friend, Lizzy. Letters that would magically appear in her hands.) At one point, Austin must have caught me drifting because he took off, only to return with a hastily drawn out 'blueprint.'

You can see the dome with its flashing lights. The small items drawn around it are key pieces to the puzzle. Wires. Lights. A door. A letter. Lizzy.

Ethan, with his ever subtle and considerate manner yelled out from the other room. "You can't do that. It isn't possible. You don't even know how." Austin looked over his blueprint and shook his head. Then, with a voice shaky with emotion, he passionately stated/shouted, "No. I already know how to build it. All I need are wires, panels, plugs and lights. The only problem I have is where to build it." Before I could speak, Ethan came back with some equally enthusiastic rebuff but Austin was already lost again in his own thoughts. Staring hard at his blueprint, he had sullenly wandered off, muttering, what I am sure was, logistics and schematics to himself.

As I stared after him, I found myself wondering just how this child would ever make it through middle school. The vivid day dreams that no one but Alaina really has the patience to follow. The imaginary friends. The unclear speech. The precariously contained fizz-bottle of emotion that always threatens to explode or implode depending on the level of anxiety he feels. The viciousness of children who find an easy target for teasing and bullying. I started feeling weighted down with the fears of what Austin might possibly have to face in the future. Before I knew it, I had let my worries take me down the paths of worst possible scenarios. (I blame the pregnancy hormones) And then, I overheard my little angel Alaina talking to Austin in the other room. With nothing but unbridled enthusiasm she said, "Austin! You are so creative. You always think of such great inventions!" (Seriously. Those are the actual words that came out of that girl's mouth.) I could hear Austin smiling as he shrugged (yes...I also heard him shrug.) "Yeah. I know."

Instantly, I felt all of that silly worry dissolve back into a rational calm.

Yeah. I know.

Austin's gonna be fine. Because all those quirky, imaginative parts of him that could bring him such grief, will also bring him such success. Just where would this world be without our dreamers? We need people who not only can see out of the box, but also those who are unaware that 'the box' even exists.

Plus. He has Lainy. With his own personal cheerleader in one corner and the rest of us pulling for him in the other, I'm sure my sweet boy will make it through.

Imagine! Inventing an entire time-machine just to deliver love-letters.

Our trip back home from the Redwoods was beautiful and very, very long. The scenic, twisting roads up the coast didn't do any of us any good. When we finally got to the Oregon coast we decided to give ourselves a long break with a lot of fresh air. The beach was gorgeous. By some miracle, the fog that we had been driving through for the first half of the trip, disappeared and blue sky stretched over blue water. As pretty as it was, a biting wind reminded us that we were far north from the Golden Coast.
Austin doesn't like to leave anything to chance. The other two like to live a little closer to the edge.

A couple of days after we got home, we got a wonderful visit from Russ, Kari and the kids. They were on their way home from their own family reunion and arrived in town just in time for our ultrasound. We all crowded into the small doctor's room and we were all able to see baby-boy Jones in his first televised appearance. We spent the rest of that day just hanging out. The next day we all took off to the Portland Zoo. (Well, not all of us. Robert had to get back to work.) My kids all brought out their cameras and so I got ready to apologize to everyone for how slow I knew we were about to go. Fortunately, Russ and the boys all brought out their cameras and we set off at a leisurely pace through the zoo, taking million pictures at every turn.
Look at the cute, baby bear snack.

Ride 'em cowboys!

Ethan and Danny.
Ethan and Ben.


Jacob....And one little cowgirl. :)

The kids were in love with the penguins.
One of my favorite, wild exhibits.

The crew.
Awww.


Hey bunny.

Near the end of the day we took the train over to the Japanese Rose Garden. The train ride was nice and relaxing (I get more tired then the kids these days) and the Rose Garden was really beautiful.

Russ and Ethan.

Kari & Austin.

Me and my entourage.

And a couple of forced smiles to finish us off.


Thanks for coming and spending some time with us! We love you guys. And I promise anyone else who comes to visit at least one day of fun as well. :) After that, no more fun. Just cleaning my bathrooms. Any takers?

The last of the Jones' Reunion Posts. I just can't seem to fit everything in at once, like I know I should. (I can hear my old English professors chanting, "Edit! Edit! Edit!") Ah well. I see a cute picture and it is going up.

So, we spent a whole lot of time down at the river with the kids. Robert took the three kids tubing down the river two days in a row. The water wasn't really deep enough for him to tube as well, so he just walked behind them.

After they made it down the river we spent our time at two separate swimming holes. The first one was deep and shaded and also full of other people. It did have a steep cliff that had a rope swing at the top. Lindi was the only one brave enough to jump off of it. The first time she went down it looked pretty fun. The second time she went down, her hands slipped and she barely made it into the water. That scared us all enough to only be spectators after that. We all enjoyed ourselves enough with just the swimming. Once Robert got wet (that always takes a while) he had a good time playing JAWS to the twinnies.
Ethan spent his time throwing rocks. I spent my time protecting the other swimmers from the rocks he was throwing.
The second swimming hole that we found didn't have any other people there. The kids spent some time swimming/floating around, but were mainly entertained by Robert. He spent the whole afternoon chasing down and catching various forms of wild life. A fish. A lizard. Tadpoles. After he caught the poor creatures, everyone would huddle around him to get a better look.
Robert caught most everything in his hat. Here is Austin getting a closer look.
At one point Austin spotted a snake in the river. He pointed it out to Alaina who then proceeded to chase the sucker down until Robert could catch up with her. That poor snake tried to escape her, but she is fast and determined. She splashed her way up and down the river for a good five minutes before Robert could get over to her. Sure enough, he was able to catch it and add it to the list of wildlife he trapped with a hat. (Once Austin had pointed out the snake, he never made any attempt to get any closer. Seeing it from afar was enough for him.)

Our last day we managed to gather up our motley crew and get a dirty, but happy picture of everyone. (alaina was going for the 'wild girl' look with her mane of dirty, fluffy hair. Love it!)
Here is a nice picture of Tonette, Dad, Mom and baby Sienna.


And just Mom and Dad. Thanks for putting together such a wonderful camping trip. We loved being able to see (most) everyone. The kids are still talking about how much fun they had.

We spent a lot of our down time up at the camp. Here Austin, Ethan and Ryan are entertaining themselves with a creative game of Home-run Football. I think the only rule was to hit the football with the bat.

Ryan.

Anna, giggling.

Mom and Dad.

Nathan, Lindi and Anna.

Jonathan and Jet, Cole & Levi.

Jennifer and Devin.

Ever wonder how Austin manages to fall asleep in any position, at any time? It's in the genes. Dad, Robert and Nathan, fast asleep, in the middle of the day.

Here are most of the boys with some Popsicles.

Anna.

Lane.

One day all of the kids went to the Ranger station and they spent the morning becoming Junior Rangers. They took a little class and played some games and soon enough they were taking the Ranger Oath. (I assume that is what they were doing. Rob actually is the one who went down with them while I joined Jennifer down by the river. Thanks Rob!)


Here was a lucky picture. All three of the triplets looking up at the camera at the same time!

One afternoon a bunch of us took, what was suppose to be, a very easy, relaxing hike. I guess we didn't immediately connect 'Look-out point' with the fact we'd have to be high enough to 'look-out' over something. It wasn't that it was a terribly hard hike (the triplets managed just fine.) It just happened to be a little more taxing that Mom and I would have preferred. We made it up just fine but we needed to take a few rests on the steeper areas.

Here is Mom and Dad with Levi. Mom left her walking sticks back at the camp and so it was a good thing that Ethan brought up a pair of ski poles (a donation to be given to the boy scouts up in WA). All of the boys were using the poles to climb up a steep hill by our camp site the entire trip. You never know what random item is going to catch their attention.

Alaina stopped and allowed me to snap a picture during one of my little rest stops.

Here is Jonathan and the Nanny (can't remember her name at the moment) walking with the boys.

At Look out Point. You can't see the view in the picture, but it was very pretty. Trust me.

Here is Alaina with Auntie T. Two girls just hanging out in the Redwoods.