School and House Keys (Finally)

The boys hit the school year running. This year Ryker is going all day in kindergarten and Rock is taking a swing at the second grade.

See ya!

Every day Ryker rushed home to see his Rafi and Mommy, in that order.

Rock is halfway to becoming a human Jack-o-lantern.

Jens is going to half day pre-school two days a week and loves it. If Mommy picks her up early she is ticked.

After a month of delays and pushed back closing dates we finally received the keys to the house!

 Jens was more that happy to model the first decorations.

 Rafi quickly found his perch.

 For now we have a pretty view from the front room and side yard. Once someone else builds we will lose some of the vista but not all of it.

 Jens found her favorite spot in the living room. 

 Here's her bed in the bedroom where she doesn't sleep. 

 Rafi has a few favorite spots.

 Jens loves herself some Cafe Rio.

 

New House Progress and Rafi

Among the summer story lines I think the new house was the most exciting. We went through a stretch where we couldn't sneak in and watch the progress so we took a lot of pictures like this.

The smoke meant that the kids had to spend too much time inside. They adjusted well with drawing and video games but DeAndra still had her moments.

We adopted a little kitty named Rafael. He was going to be a garage kitty and our mouser, but the very first night he ended up here:

He's not really a garage kitty.

  

 He gets lots and lots of love, sometimes maybe a little too much love.

 Despite the rough love he still loves cuddling with them when they are asleep and less dangerous.

Rock is warming up for deer season by spotting game from his seat in the car. "DEER! Not shooters, not shooters!"

Ryker loves his Rafi.

Life is pretty tough around here.

Mama Zista flew up to help pack the house for the upcoming move. After working hard they took a  break to visit the Stehekin Bakery with Papa Dale in Whirly.

Jensley knew what she wanted and Mama Zista delivered.

Papa Dale showed them around the valley and the fishes.

You can tell that she's a little lower on energy after all that fun.

This is a pic from Ryker while he was playing with Mama Zista.

More Rafi pics.

There was a lot of this during the summer because of the smoke.

Ruido and Irma's daughter, Celeste, had a birthday party with a princess dress and pinata. 

The pinata had spikes on it that Jens and Ryker (background) used as party hats.

Celeste was a cute little Elsa.

The boys were willing to put up with the princess stuff as long as they got the promised cake at the end.

With school starting the kids received blessings and Jens wanted to do her part.

"Aren't you a little short to be a storm trooper?"

Golden Boy's wedding was Steampunk themed while the reception was Star Wars.

 Ryker made the cutest storm trooper.

 Rock was pretty menacing as Darth Vader.

 And Jens was very regal as Princess Leia. 

 And adorable, but she's always adorable.

 The wig got too hot and so she was blond Leia for the rest of the reception.

 All of the traveling, playing, swimming, receptioning wore the kids right out.

 Ryker would fall asleep sitting up.

 At the school auction I won the Mariners grounds crew prize which meant we got to go down on the field. Max and his parents joined us.

 Felix pitched, it was beautiful weather and things weren't smoky so it was a great day.

 Max seemed to love it.

 I started the game in center field where I saw Brad Miller make a nice catch (it was a routine fly ball, but with this team's outfield any catch is a nice catch).

 After a few innings I got to move down by the visitor's dugout. It was fascinating to hear the Athletics coaches and players discuss strategy and how good Felix was throwing. (These last pictures are from Nick)

  My job was to go pull second base so that they could rake the field. I got to fist bump Robinson Cano and talk to Marte in Spanish ("Hola" "Como esta?" "Q?")

 Bob Christofferson was great and helped me have a great experience. 

M's win! M's win!