sisters

I found these two in the backyard with my phone this morning.

From a distance they look so sweet and happy.

I just had to grab my camera.

Once I got closer and could hear them this is what was going down

"Molly! I can't see!" Said Emilie

"Emilie I don't want you to see" Growled Molly

"Molly, you have to share. Its not your phone." Said Emilie trying to control her tone.

This went on for a bit until Emilie gave up and came over and hung with me.

One day they will realize how awesome it is to have a sister.

Until then, good luck Emilie.

end of summer

Shortly after I pulled into town from Montana I left town for Southern California with these two lovely ladies.

My sister loaded the truck full of her oldest kiddos stuff packed awesome snacks for me, her true oldest child :-) and tossed in a cute white dog named Louie for luck. 1200 miles later we pulled into out amazing aunt Kimmy's town and enjoyed the last few days with Allie before we tucked her into her life at college.

These three ladies are AMAZING!!

My dads baby sister, Allie and her mom, my sister.

I can be myself 100% of the time with them. 

They will call me out on my shit but will also applaud it.
Love them.

While in Ojai, CA I fell in love with one of my Auntie's rescues.

Her name is Paisley and she made the 1200 mile journey back to Washington with us.

The kiddos and Doug fell in love with her the moment she trotted into the house.

She is perfect for us.

Max loves her, she is super mellow, doesn't bark and loves kids.

win, win, super win and win.

 Max is always watching out for her. For us.

His heart is so giant there is always room for more.

I've always said you should never get a dog to keep another dog company. 

{Insert foot in mouth}

I hope she can bring him some comfort this school year when our lives our busy with kiddo activities and less cabin, lake, ocean mellow activities with our Max dog.

The last couple of times we have had his brother for a visit Max has gotten really depressed after Duke goes home. Hopefully between us giving him more one on one attention and his new responsibility of watching over Paisley will help with his transition into becoming an old pup.

We headed down to Gig Harbor for an overnight-er this weekend and got to enjoy a fun sight.

These little fish plus at least 15 more jumped out of the water for about an hour.

Watching them it looked like they where  playing in the waves and snacking on the bugs that love to drive us crazy in the early evening.

Morning came way to early. 

I took this photo at 0730.

I'm glad I got my lazy bones out of the cabin. 

It is such a magical time of day. 

The perfect do over.

Plus the perfect light for pictures.

I love taking pictures.

I'm crazy lucky that I was able to get a camera a couple birthdays ago that makes it fun and rewarding to take pictures.

I'm also in love with instagram.

I love seeing all of the creative things that people can do with thier phone.

So much better than facebook.

Lots of eye candy and very few words.

On our way home we took a detour via ferry.

I am always amazed at the beauty of our city.

I am so glad that my kiddos get to grow up here.

The count down has begun until school starts. Em is super excited for kindergarten, Molly can't wait for pre school and poor Colin. He is not any of those. 

I'm split. 

Little excited for all of the time to sew without feeling like I am checked out during the day.

Little sad for all of the moments I will miss during the day while Colin is gone all day. Em is only 1/2 day and Molly is only 2 times a week. I will still have more then enough time with the girl's.

Off to bed....Since home from So. Cal I can not get it together during the day. Extremely tired and foggy all day. Need to try to get some good sleep tonight.

back....counting down until next time...

Our time spent in Montana was even better this year.

The amazing  B family survived the very long drive over and spent a week with looking for turtles, swimming, swimming and swimming.

I love that friends can become family.

Love you B family!!

Years later Emilie still looks like she just walks off the end of the dock.

Molly is all about safety first.

She would wake up and put her life jacket on.

On our first day home I found her wearing her life jacket in our tiny blow up pool.

Another addition I made this year was hammocks.

I love hammocks and the view from this one was perfect.

This quickly became Colin's favorite afternoon location.

Whenever I could get a chance my lazy bones where in it.

{I need to start hiding the phones when I take pictures}

The days spent at the lake are very lazy and perfect. Nothing is too important and the kiddos usually spend the day swimming and gathering random things. The one thing Colin has to do everyday is ride his four wheeler with his dad. That is truly one of his favorite things.

While they where on one of their adventures the girlies and I

made a fort for book reading and snoozing.

Emilie was able to fit in some painting between swimming and laying around.

She finally found her focus this summer. Before this summer she hated coloring, painting or really anything that took more than 5 minutes.

Now she will spend 10 minutes on something.

Colin found many hours in the days to draw.

I love that drawing is his go to decompression activity. He waked up drawing, falls asleep drawing and takes a few hours in the middle to draw. I wish I could draw. I can barely draw a stick figure and in a few minutes Colin whips out this awesome picture of the lake.

Another new addition to the lake was a power boat.

My size power boat.

I'm not a big fan of human size motor boats.

I am a huge fan of this size.

So is this little dude.

Every morning he would check to see if the battery was charged, throw on his life jacket and race it around the dock.

So cute.

We said our goodbyes to the B family and our hellos to Auntie and cousin Jack. 

I can not imagine my life with out my sister.

She would move the moon for me and I would defiantly try to do the same for her.

She loves my kids as her own and can always find a way to make me laugh. Even if it at myself.

Love you Ann Marie!

Her son Jack is an amazing kid.

He is my kids hero and in return he is funny, fun, kind  and PATIENT with them.

We love you Jack!

This summer Emilie brought her riding legs and a very brave spirit. She rode he bike on trails and got on Colin's 4wheeler.

Maxie dog turned 7 this year and he is starting to show his age. 
He still loves to swim and jump off of the dock but with age he has also gotten wiser.
He knows when he can just wait for a ball.

Sometimes you need to just wait and be happy with that.

I'm still trying to learn that skill.

One day....

You can see more of our trip over at intsagram. 

I'm @my3littleducks. 

I find myself pulling out my phone more and more lately instead of my big camera.

Our summers our like the movie Groundhogs day.

After awhile all of the pictures are the same.