a little r&r at the ffc
last weekend, craig and i invited our friends down to the family fun center for an evening of serious fun. i still cannot figure out how the smith team lost when i put-putted TWO holes in one. i think alex cheated.

hanna, right before the big race. the boys took go-carting so seriously that they asked the worker which cart was the fastest. wow.

megan did such a great job on the trampoline! i, however, couldnt do ONE flip.

we were out of our minds to go on the swing right after a big, nasty meal at bullwinkles.

but we did it anyway. i love that swing.

we enjoyed a quick show in the 3-d theater. the seats even vibrate and move to go along with the movie. very fun. but also kinda gave me a headache.

hanna and matt.

skee-ball competition.

cheese ball face. this is me, trying to show the camera my fabulous skee-ball score: freaking 470.

megan, hanna, and i had to do the photo booth. its what girls do. we tried to get the boys in on the action, but they werent having it. i had such a great time that nite (we totally missed moulton maintenance) at the ffc. have to do it again soon.

let edward choose his bella

we had one memorable fourth of july weekend this year! (this picture was taken in the two seconds before tagg ripped the flag to shreds. i told him that wasnt very patriotic.)

it all started with a ferry ride. nothing compares to a seattle ferry ride in gorgeous weather. nothing. just ask mcdreamy.

 

tagg is such a thrill seeker. all he wanted to do was run around the ferry and feel the strong winds.  he would have jumped right off the edge if we would have let him!

tagg loved the ferry ride but i cant say the same for the three hour drive once we got on land. lets just say i had a little nervous breakdown once we pulled into........

 

forks, washington! this was the hustle and bustle of the birthplace of TWILIGHT. forks is a quaint town with only one traffic light. but that one little town sure does fit a whole lot of twilight crap in it. 

each store is filled to the brim with twilight memorabilia. my favorite bumper sticker read: my heart belongs to my husband but my neck belongs to edward cullen. 

edward cullen himself. ok, so the reason we traveled to forks for the fourth of july was so tucker could be in the twilight look-a-like contest. tucker SERIOUSLY gets stopped ten times a day about his strong resemblance to the main twilight guy, edward cullen (robert pattinson). so when our friends heard about the look-a-like contest they told tucker he had to be in it.

and boy, forks didnt disappoint. from the minute we got out of the car, girls were following tucker all around the town. they wanted pictures and hugs. it was so funny slash scary. 

but even though tucker was enjoying the attention, he had to put his game face on for the big event. (really, i had to keep telling him to stop smiling. vampires dont smile)

before the judging, tagg and i had a few minutes to ride around on the town train. 

all of us, anxiously waiting for the judging to begin.....

remember that car ride from the ferry to forks? yeah, tagg was still recovering from it. my recovery? a new face of make-up after the first one had been cried off. 

those two ladies on the left were the judges. hahaha. we couldnt stop laughing at how silly the whole thing was. 

but we REALLY started laughing when they announced that tucker was the only participant for the edward look-a-like. just our luck! needless to say, he won. at first, we were kind of bummed but then we realized that tucker would have won no matter what and it just made the whole thing even funnier.

plus, after the judges announced that they had messed up with the scoring on the bella look-a-like, i yelled from the crowd "let edward choose his bella" and tucker got to! arent they a cute pair?

after the contest, the town cronies (and by cronies, i mean TOTAL drunks. tucker said they reeked of alcohol) wanted a picture with edward. 

and as if the trip couldnt have gotten any better, we stayed at the craziest b&b ever. heres an idea of how gross this place was: USED bars of soap in the shower. heres an idea of how weird the people were that ran the place: they sat and stared at us as we tried to choke down the stale carbs. 

*update. angie, the lady who ran the gorgeous b&b (link here, to see the glory), called me to ask if she could use a picture of "edward" on her website and caption it, "edward slept here!"*

one of the prizes (the other being a bag of twilight coffee) for winning the contest was getting to be a guest of honor in the fork's fourth of july parade. so tucker got to brush elbows with some of the parade's elite. here he is with with the sequim irrigation queens.

megan's favorite entry in the parade was the "forkestra" truck. i think she just liked saying, "forkestra".

before the parade, we quickly drove over to some famous beach. i had no interest in the place, so i stayed in the car with tagg. but i guess i missed out on some major fun. like my dad pretending that some piece of drift wood was a giant dinosaur, eating his head off. wow.

as we waited for the parade to start, uncle david treated tagg to his very own ice cream cone. i think some got up his nose.

we were all SO excited to see tucker/edward come down the parade line.

i was running up and down main street with my big camera just waiting for "bella's" truck so i could snap the perfect shot of edward and bella!

here they are. i kept yelling, "dont smile". so this was his attempt at listening to his manager. 

dont they make the perfect edward and bella? the whole time in forks was SO much fun. and SO much entertainment. i cant wait to go back next year with a polaroid camera and charge for pictures with "edward".

tagg was doing much better on the drive back from forks to the ferry so we got to stop by lake crescent. that lake is my new favorite lake. the water looked like the caribbean and was quite warm. it was gorgeous.

taggs favorite part about lake crescent was all the little rocks. he was loving life. 

my dad and me on the ferry ride back.

later that nite, (after our run to outback) we joined forces with the jones' and had our own little fireworks show. 

grace and i stuck with the sparklers. (dont worry, tucker and his friends were burning barbies. i had no idea the fourth of july was an excuse to light anything on fire. apparently it is.) that was the best fourth of july weekend ever. no idea how we will be able to top it.

the gospel is true.

that is the ONLY reason i spent three days last week in the dirt, getting eaten alive by ferocious mosquitos/spiders, sleeping in moldy tents, and smelling my LEAST favorite smell in the world: campfire. the plus side? i got to wear "ruby red slippers".

this year, i was "invited" to girls camp to be a YCL leader. the theme of camp was the wizard of oz. the YCLs and their leaders were in charge of (among many other things) decorating the entire camp. when i called craig late monday nite, exhausted from a hard days work of setting up camp he asked, "why are you guys decorating a forest?" good question. this was the backdrop for our stage. i outlined the scene and the girls painted it in. dont even ask about the random tornado. that was not part of my outline. 

i could not have survived the week without these ladies. we had a grand old time trying to hide our diet cokes and laughing our heads off at all the drama. and even though i have sworn off camping forever (not kidding) i wouldnt mind shacking up with these ladies again. somewhere with flushing toilets and NO bugs.

a photo session

i was very excited when my uber talented friend, kristen, agreed to take pictures of my family. she is an incredible photographer and i love her style. and even though tagg wasnt the best boy during the session, kristen managed to eek out several gorgeous shots.  

thank you, thank you, kristen. i cannot wait to frame these puppies.