What we've been up to...

We are heading off to Alabama tomorrow for two and a half weeks! Why then, you ask, am I spending precious packing time with blogging? Here's the thing, we are going to come back from Alabama with so much to blog about, I know that if I don't get this done tonight, it won't get done. So, here goes... A little re-cap of the past few weeks...

I uploaded these pictures in reverse order, and I don't want to take the time to put them chronologically, so here goes...

My cute cousin, Kristin came up and stayed with us for a few days. She wanted to see my sister while she was in town and she wanted me to take her senior pictures. (I still can't believe she is going to be a senior!!!) We had so much fun having her here!

Tucker had to come out with us on one of the shoots, because Ben hadn't gotten off work yet. Kristin wanted a picture with him, but his picture smile is so cheesy, I told him to say pee-eew. And then he plugged his nose, so this is what we got: :)

He also wanted to get on the train with her, which he thought was SOOO cool! Yes, he got his head buzzed a few days ago! :)

Here's a sneak peek at some of the shots! I think that they turned out SOOO great! She is absolutely beautiful and a natural model! (It must run in the family!) :) ha ha

Thanks for coming Kristin, please come back soon! We miss you already! :)

As I mentioned above, my little seester, Kayla came in to town for the month. Her and her husband are moving to Wisconsin next month for Medical School in the fall. They decided to spend about a month up here before they move. It has been so much fun having her home. Unfortunately, because I am leaving tomorrow, I am going to completely miss her most of the time she is here. :( SO sad! Luckily, she got here just in time for her birthday, so we were able to celebrate! The big 2-5! And of course, Tucker was right in on the action! :)

Tucker loves his Aunt Kayla, I only wish we got to see her more!

My friend Stephanie had a baby shower! She is having a little boy in September! Don't worry, I tell her that boys are the BEST! :) My friend Sharlene and I went out together! What cute friends I have!

And of course, Fathers day was celebrated! I have such a great father, I always feel like whatever we do for him isn't enough! He does SO much for us! All of us kids were actually able to be here on the big day, so we got a picture with the captain himself! :) Love you Dad!!

And of course, we celebrated the FATHER of my child! One lucky kid, I'd say; he has a pretty great father, too! :) Love you Ben!! What cute boys I have!

We, of course, have also been spending lots of time outside, enjoying the nice weather and our good friends. Here is Tucker with one of his favorite kitties. (NOT ours!) :) She was actually ran over shortly after this picture was taken! :( RIP Lola.

I guess a blanket and some grass is all you need for a good time! :)

My friend, Rosie also came to visit for a few days from Utah. She brought her friend, Savanah with her and we had so much fun with them! We miss them, too! :)

We headed down to Riverfront Park one day. Tucker loves going down the slide on the big red wagon!

Beautiful Spokane...

Swinging with Savanah...love that face! :)

At the falls:

Tucker was impressed! :)

Me and Rosie and Erica. We were all friends in Jr. High! It is fun to have had friends for that long and catch up! :)

Tuck and I in front of the falls...

All of our kids... there were so many cameras that Tucker didn't know which camera to look at! :)

We fed the geese, and these geese are NOT afraid to come right up and snatch the whole piece of bread from your hand! I think Tucker was a little scared at first!

We, of course had to stop over in Coeur d'Alene for the HUGE yummy desserts at the Dockside. I have loved these since I was a little girl! Me, Tuck and Savanah:

That's my boy, digging right in! :)

My friend, Rosie is an amazing photographer. I stole these pics from her blog because I thought they were pretty cool.

The falls:

And the blocks downtown:

Well, we are off tomorrow and I probably won't update until we get back! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer and I look forward to returning to the blogging world in a few weeks! :)

Oh, and congrats to my brother and sis-in-law who just found out today that they are going to be having a baby GIRL in November! :) This will be the first girl on the Campbell side and I am so excited! :)

Ok, well Ciao! (that's how you say goodbye in Alabama!) :)

Thirty, Flirty and Thriving!

This week my dear friend Sadie turned the big 3-0. I wasn't able to go to be with her on her day, so Tucker and I headed over to Seattle for a last minute visit last weekend. We left Friday morning and came back Sunday afternoon. It was very last minute and very quick. But oh-so-fun! :) I'm so glad I got to spend some time with Sadie on her big day!

Ben wanted to come, and we wanted him to come, but since it was so last minute, Doug hadn't gotten work off, so Doug had to work all weekend, and I think the whole weekend spent with just the girls wasn't what Ben wanted to do! :) He took advantage of the house to himself and got some stuff done around here.

On Saturday afternoon we took Tucker to the beach. It was such a beautiful day! I had packed our swimming suits, only because they have a hot tub, but as soon as Tucker found out we were going to the beach, that is all he wanted to wear! I was expecting cooler Seattle weather and didn't pack any warm weather clothes for myself. We just got some Subway, headed to the beach and enjoyed a nice relaxing afternoon in the sun!

That night we had a little girls night out with some of her friends to celebrate her birthday. We went to a fabulous dinner and show! :) I got to see: Cher, Madonna, Britney Spears, Dolly Parton, Liza Minelli, and Gwen Stefani all in one show! $5 bucks to the person who can guess what type of show it was! :) Needless to say, it was a very FUN evening! :)

Some of us girls...

I also always love going to Seattle to see my dear sweet friend, Emily. She was also one of the reasons I headed over last minute. She is going to spend the summer in the Caribbean while her husband is going to school. So I went to say good-bye for the summer! Lucky girl!

On the way home Tucker and I stopped for a photo-op in Vantage point, with a view of the Columbia river.

And we also stopped in Quincy to visit Allen, Kelli and Keyton and have a nice Sunday dinner with them. They live about half way between Seattle and Spokane. The boys spent a lot of the afternoon in Keytons little blow up pool. These are the poses we got when we told them to smile for my camera...

These two together, I tell ya.... :)

It was a quick trip and a fun weekend! I'm grateful for great friends and family!

Tucker & Carter...and Olivia too

We watched Carter and Olivia the other night so Eric could take Sharlene out for her birthday. I think its easier for both of us when friends are over. Tucker isn't bored with just me and I can get some things done while he is playing with friends. Its a win-win situation, really! :)

I had seen Carter wear this cute Star Wars t-shirt a few weeks before and thought it was so cute. So the other day I was at Target and saw that they still had a few left. I couldn't help but get one. :) Well Sharlene brings Carter over that night and what do you know...they are twins! :) It was too cute. The rest of the night was me trying to get a good picture of them together.

I think Olivia was getting jealous that I was taking so many pictures of the boys, trying to get a cute shot of them in their matching outfits. So I had to get a few of her. :)

Yes, this is the state of my garden box this year. I haven't had a green thumb this year like I did last year. Maybe next year. :) You can even see some of the onions from last year sprouting again this year, I am sure they are nasty! :) Tucker loves it as his dirt box.

Ben came home from work and was playing with the boys. Sharlene, if you are wondering why Carters shirt is stretched out, I got the evidence right here... :) Ben would try and grab them as they ran away from him. After this, both of their shirts were stretched out. :)

This was a typical shot of when I was trying to get a picture of the boys. Olivia kept running right in front of me doing something crazy. I thought it was so funny! :)

Olivia was being a monkey the whole time and kept on wanting me to take pictures of her climbing our swing set.

I am all about exchanges like this. I will gladly watch my friends kids for the night if it means that I don't have to worry about a babysitter when we go out on another night. :)

Our day with Grandma...

Tucker and I headed down to the Tri-Cities last Saturday to spend the day with my mom. We had such a great day! It was absolutely perfect. Kelli and Keyton were going to meet up with us, but couldn't, so we got grandma all to ourselves! Tucker was in heaven. :) Our first stop:

Chuck E Cheese for lunch. Our friends, Cherie and Carly came with us on the way down and ate some lunch and played with us at Chuck E Cheese, before heading out to do their own family thing, so it was fun having a friend for him at Chuck E Cheese.

We dropped off Cherie and Carly and headed to the Columbia River Temple. I didn't realize how beautiful it is! I thought it was just like Spokane's mini-Temple. But is is not. It is absolutely gorgeous!!! We spent a lot of time just walking around it and enjoying the beauty of it! The weather was gorgeous!

While we were walking around, we found a little bunny just hopping through the Temple grounds. Of course, after that it became Tuckers mission to find that bunny again to play with it! (He never did!)

This is Tuckers pose he did after I asked him to pose on the bench for a picture. I think we have a natural model on our hands here! :) I was laughing so hard when he did this!

After spending most of our afternoon at the Temple, we went to the church bookstore-which if you know my mom is a must stop in Tri-Cities- did a little shopping, and then headed to PF Changs for dinner before leaving to head home! YUM!!!

It was an absolute perfect day with grandma!

Thanks mom!!!

You know those types of friends...

You know those types of friends, that no matter how much time has passed, you pick up right where you left off?

Darci and I were roommates at Ricks College ELEVEN years ago!!! I can't believe it has already been that long! Sheesh...I'm getting old! :) We had so much fun together and for some unknown reason, totally lost contact with each other for years and years. She even lives here in Washington state.

Here we are as roomies, SO SO SO long ago...

Look Darci, we even liked to wear matching green back then! :)

Well, through modern technology (blogging, facebook, you know...) we have gotten back in touch and she even came out to visit me for a few days! We had so much fun and literally picked up right where we left off. It was SOO good having her here. We packed a lot of fun in our few days together. Late night chats, just like the good ol' days, some jewelry making, a little shopping, some ice-cream eating, and just a lot of catching up!

She brought her four year old daughter, Cassidy with her and Tucker loved having a new friend. They seriously got along so well and had a great time together. We had to stop at Baskin Robbins.

We did a lot of trampoline jumping:

and especially these two...

Ben had to show off his mad skills...because there is nothing sexier than a grown man who can do better tricks than a four year old on a trampoline! :)

Sunday afternoon we literally came home from church, spread out a blanket on the back yard and stayed out there ALL afternoon, until the sun went down. Ben made us hamburgers and milkshakes and we were set. :)

We, of course, had to bust out the old photo albums. Funny thing, I was a lot skinnier in those college pictures, but Darci is skinnier now! How does that work? Not fair!!! :) And she's tanner...and has whiter teeth...and ok, you get the point! She's fabulous! :)

While we were doing that, these kids had a jam packed day of:

swinging...

bubbles:

more ice-cream...

more swinging...

taking turns on the power wheels: (that was out of battery, so they had to push) :)

It was really cute to watch them together, they became fast friends...

Our night ended with milkshakes, and it couldn't have been better!

Tucker was sad to see Cassidy go the next day, as was I, so they protested by getting in our car:

Thanks so much for coming Darci! I am so so so glad! It was just what I needed to reminisce and re-connect with a great friend! It's now my turn to head over and visit her and her family and I can't wait!

...

Speaking of old college roommates...funny story.

Three years ago I am walking the halls at church and run into my old college roommate, Cortney, from BYU-Hawaii. Shes from Alaska, and I, again, hadn't seen or heard from her in years. Her and her husband live in Spokane and they are in the ward that we share the building with. A few months ago our stake did some major ward boundary changes. Because of those changes A LOT of my old friends are now in her ward and so we have, again, all of the same friends. It has been so much fun hanging out with her again!

Here we are in our house in Hawaii... I can guarantee you that I just jumped in this picture before it was taken, I definitely wasn't in the kitchen much, but Cortney on the other hand is an excellent baker and was always cooking. In fact, she now makes cakes for a living! And she is awesome.

Cortney's birthday was last week, so we all got together to celebrate! It was a lot of fun with a lot of WONDERFUL people! :)

Happy Birthday Cortney!

These boys...

My friends Sharlene, Megan and I all have boys the exact same age. (within a month) It has been so much fun over the past few years to watch our boys become little buddies. Tucker loves Owen and especially loves his Carter! :) A few months ago we started a play date rotation. So every third Wednesday I have all three boys at my house for a few hours. These boys love each other and I love watching Tucker interact with his little buddies. They don't always like sharing :)but for the most part they love each other and get along great! They're just boys, so anything outside having to do with dirt or cars or bugs makes them happy.

Or in this case, ice cream...

I love these boys...so cute!