Preschool

Genevieve started back to Preschool on Tuesday. She is loving Mrs. Sullivan and enjoys going every day of the week (so far any way.) She is already writing her whole name and hates us for giving her such a long name!

Jocelyn started on Wednesday and goes 3x a week. She cried and screamed for me not to leave her on her first day. It was horrible leaving her like that but I knew in my heart that she would be okay...and she was! She was all smiles and giggles when I picked her up and they said she didn't cry for very long at all. AND, if you remember in Genevieve's class last year, everyone gets to take "Share Bear" home for a whole week, and Jocelyn gets the first week! So life is good now.

Genevieve's first day:

Jocelyn's first day:

Lake Chelan...Humfeld Style

Before I detail out our time with my side of the family in Chelan, I will tell you to sit back and enjoy the ride because there are a lot of pictures comin' your way!

Little toes hanging through the porch on the lake house

We spent one day with our family friends, Jaime and Armand Doucette at their lake house. There was nothing to complain about. Good food, good view, good company!

Lake time fun

The 3 youngest girls...and might I say CUTE girls!

Although the picture quality is sketchy, it catches Jocelyn's sheer excitement when going down the water slides

Jocelyn insists on taking a daily afternoon nap, no matter where we are, or what we are doing.

Genevieve and Mikayla

Snow cones for all the cousins!

Juliana is the resident dare-devil and only liked jet-skiing with Sam...probably because he is the crazy one that does all the tricks, trying to flip the jet-ski. Oh, and by the way, she had a fever of like 120* this day, but REFUSED to stay home and rest.

Even my parents know how to rip in up on the lake!

Uncle John enjoys nothing more than cherishing his time with his nieces and nephew

John and Macrina spending quality time together

Mom and Dad are all smiles...of course this was only the first full day of living in the same house with all 6 of their grandchildren. You should see the pictures on the last day! :)

Genevieve was pouting up to this point and so making funny faces at the camera helped get her out of her spunky mood

See! She is all better now!

Yeah, I know, I have a darn good-lookin' family!

I wish everyone had as good of a relationship with their siblings, as I do mine.

My niece and God-Daughter Mikayla won the contest and picked the most blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

My children decided to wake up a little too early for my liking one morning, (okay, every morning) so I did what any normal mom in her right mind would do...sent them to their grandparents!

The infamous tow truck story

The following is a detailed story of our evening last night. It is written in the words of Sam...


It's a really long story and a fun one to tell but not so much for typing. So you peeps are just gonna get the cliff notes here. :)

We ate dinner at Antojitos (yummy!) and parked behind Pappa John's (won't do that again!). When we came out the car was all jacked up. What a sight that was! Carrie even snapped a picture of it while it was up there in all its glory.

The tow truck driver was the stereotypical tow truck driver. I knew he wouldn’t respond to my good looks but I was surprised that I couldn’t interest him with a bribe. He wasn't about to back down. No way no how. Something about “state regulations.”

So I went inside PJ's and talked to the assistant manager, who, btw, was NOT the most pleasant person I've ever met (that's how I'll put it since some of you are impressionable youth). She told me she called the tow truck driver because I was parked where her delivery person likes to park. I should mention that were about 25 empty spots all around me.

So here's this big tow truck crowding out the whole parking lot for a good hour or so. (Really, calling the tow truck out is more convenient than me parking in one particular stall?)

I was cool, calm, and collected the entire time (I know this can be hard for some of you out there to wrap your heads around). Finally, a PJ's employee with a little more life experience came up to the front to talk with me. He understood me. We were equals. He understood things his underling did not (like the customer is always right ). We had a nice chat.

But there wasn't much he could do about it. Sure, I get it. The tow truck driver deserves to be paid. The problem was why the tow truck was called in the first place. We exchanged numbers (maybe, just maybe, someone “higher up” could do something magical for me) and pleasantries and I was on my way back out to chat with the tow truck driver. Not seeing any way out of it I gave him my credit card. (He told me he wouldn't charge me tax. Wow, what a guy. But it seems like charging state sales tax would be some kind of state regulation. ;) Just sayin.)

Then out of nowhere the PJ's OWNER showed up (didn’t even know he was onsite) and told the driver that he's told his employees NOT to call the towing company! What?! At that, the driver said, "That's it, I'm lowering the car. I don't want to get in the middle of this. And you guys (PJ's) need to stop calling us to tow from here. It's petty.”

We all shook hands. Even the assistant manager lady came over to apologize directly to me. In the end we're all friends and I don't have to make good on my little threat which may have had something to do with telling everyone I know not to get their pizza from PJ's. As if I really care to do such a thing. But it sounded good. And in the end, I think that's what made it all work out for everyone (mostly me).

Except the tow truck driver. In the beginning I offered him cold hard cash. In the end I didn't have to pay anyone a dime. I hope he's at least being paid by the hour!


I should probably also give a shout out to the PJ’s on Summitview. Without them, this post wouldn’t have been made possible. I’m sure they make great pizzas too. Yakima…Buy Into It!

All’s well that ends well.

Okay, so that's really not the cliff notes version. But you didn't get to see all of my expressions. :)

Oregon Coast- McCoy Style

For the first time in 4 years, the McCoy family took a family trip to Pacific City, Oregon. We rented a 4400 sq. ft. house on the beach with 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Enough space for the 8 adults and 6 kids, ages 1-6!

Here is our ginormous house:
And here is the view from our ginormous house:

This would probably be the one and only time that Grandma and Grandpa McCoy sat with their feet up, with NO small kids attached to them!
One day, we went on an adventurous hike:

Our fearless leader (AKA Sam) took us to our beach destination:

On another day, the grandparents graciously kept all 6 grand-kids while the other kids (us 30 year old siblings and in-laws) got to go have lunch on the beach at the Pelican Pub Brewery, followed by another adventurous hike.

The top of the sand dunes:

Jon taking a moment to practice his yoga at extreme heights:

Haystack Rock peaking through:

We got an to area where the water was extremely rough and dangerous...but absolutely amazing to sit and watch:

We hiked down to an area, (that happened to be behind a sign saying, "Do not go beyond this point")

The waves were crashing in and we all found it fascinating to watch:

Back at the house, the girls find cheap entertainment on the staircase:

One night, Sam made all the adults Bloody Marys with Bacon Vodka. Believe it or not...they are very tasty. The kids felt a little left out, so he made them some too...virgin style:

And what is a beach trip without an ice cream cone?

We drove to Newport Beach to see the Aquarium there. The girls thought it was pretty cool to touch the Sea Anemones.

Jocelyn has a contagious cheesy grin!

Genevieve the scuba diver:

At the end of the tour through the Aquarium, we let the girls pick out a stuffed animal. Genevieve's choice was a pink octopus and Jocelyn's was an Otter.

Jocelyn, Bridget, and Caitlin. 3 cousins within 3 months of each other:

Let's go walk on the beach girls...

We are almost there...

Ah! Precious!

Nothing like roasting marshmallows at the beach!

The best experience we had from the whole trip was sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya. Only we didn't sing Kumbaya.

Jocelyn has naturally curly hair, but being at the beach with humid weather sure made it curl up even more!

A mind of her own

As I was sitting on the chair right next to Jocelyn, a crusty green eye-booger in the corner of her eye caught my attention. I reached over and said "come here, let my get that eye-booger." She pulled away and told me not to get it. I demanded, and used my pointy finger to get it out while she was turning her head away from me. After I got it, she turned her head to look at me with the most angry look on her face and shouted, "Mom! Put it back!"