Church Forays into Photo Editing

Gone are the days of quiet books, coloring pages, and small toys. Luca has gotten into editing photos in weird ways and recently figured out that she can make stickers out of other pictures. I really love that she purposefully took a picture so she could edit me in as her baby doll. If you look closely you can see that I am holding a raccoon that is conversely holding a smaller version of me.

Let's be honest, we were all very entertained during sacrament meeting.

The other picture, was Dude's creation. I personally love all the sweet faces of my daughter he found. Luca was much less impressed and sadly, our photo editing days may have come and gone just that quickly. But, for posterity, here's some fun we may have had at church.

P.S. Matthew is the man sitting on the stand, whose face has been replaced by a 14-year-old version of me.

Camping with Friends

Have I mentioned I am grateful for friends who plan camping trips and then invite my kids and I to join the fun? My darling friend Emily, once again, let us tag along on their camping adventure to Beverly Beach. The kids were only too happy to say yes, and I was happy they were happy. 

We drove out Thursday afternoon, just barely missing a returning Matthew from his business trip earlier that week. We got there in time to set up camp, make dinner, and then start our first fire. 

The next morning started cool but sunny and everyone had different ideas for what they wanted to do. Emily came up with the brilliant idea of putting everyone's choices into a pile and taking turns drawing them out. We went for a bike ride. We played on the beach, played games back at our campsite and we went for a nature walk through the woods (that one was my idea). Halfway through the walk, we came upon this beautiful nature surprise. What a fun gift someone took the time to give us. 

I had cut a bunch of wood, but was trying to conserve it for our whole trip. We managed to enjoy ourselves, but after that first night, I decided we needed to do camping up right and bought more wood. Emily and Luca also went and got a bunch of driftwood for our fire. Between what I bought, what I brought, and what they collected, we managed to have a raging fire that threatened to burn off more than a few hairs.

The next morning Luca and I left early so I could get to a wedding. Turns out the boys and Emily had another raging fire with the remaining wood, yet more driftwood and extra firewood from a neighboring camp. All hail camping adventures with friends.

P.S. A fun Dude creation.

God Loves Variety

I was in the temple, a sacred place for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I was reminded of this. God loves variety. In flowers and rocks and climate. In birds, bodies of water, terrain, but especially in people. It is because of our diversity that He can look upon the earth and call it beautiful. So, in case you needed to hear it this today, you, with all your complexity and uniqueness are beautiful. And God loves you.

Family Reunion

Luca Version

So us as the Marlers, we took a plane to Chicago and drove down to the beach. We played and ate for a little bit and then went grocery shopping for some food we needed for meals. Then we drove to a Michigan lakeside house where everybody was. It was super big and had a very convenient little playground with a path leading to a bunch of trails and a HUGE playground which was made of wood and had a loose parts play area with just a bunch of wood and "tools" to build stuff with. on thursday we hung out and went swimming at a lake. on Friday we also did some more swimming. on Saturday we did archery and river rafting. the marlers did not get to go because one of them accidently wore flip flops. Then some people went to a ballgame while others stayed home. On Sunday we all went to church and then had lunch at an aunts and uncles house. after an hour or two the Marlers left for the airport and left on a plane. what was most fun was probably seeing our cousins again and the fun of hearing and exchanging stories by the campfire.  

Mom version

I love Family Reunion. I generally am not in love with the logistics of getting there, but I love my siblings and their spouses. I love my nieces and nephews. I love that the cousins are kind to each other, especially the older ones to the littles. I love that my kids are living their best lives around their family, and I love that Matthew has leaned into the experience and ends up being the teenage boy whisperer playing games collectively and one-on-one with them. I love how happy it makes my parents and that my kids never want to go home. I am so thankful for all the hard work my darling SIL Merillee put into making this such a successful and memorable time together.

Fun Mom Day

This week, Matthew went to be with his sister Megan in Florida. In the past, the kids and I would have done all the fun things with him gone, but this summer I am trying to work and be a mom and finding the balance is proving more difficult than I thought. It doesn't help that I was gone last week for Girls Camp and next week we are going to Family Reunion so I had one week to catch up on work and get things accomplished. It meant that the kids had a lot of time to figure out how to entertain themselves at home. 

They did really well, but the mom guilt hit me big time. By Saturday we were all ready to have fun together. We quickly got our house remotely tidied and then headed out to the coast. First, we stopped to go shopping. Luca bought a figurine of a hedgehog in a quaint little shop with lots of dollhouse paraphernalia. Luca was in heaven. Dude found a pocket watch with a dragon emblazoned on the outside. I found a bunch of salt-water taffy I felt we all NEEDED. 

After shopping, we headed to the beach. You never know what you're going to get when you head to the Oregon coast. We managed to get sunshine but it was super windy. Windy enough that even Dude decided to  warm up in his hoodie. We found a reprieve from the wind by some logs but after an hour or so the kids were ready to head out. We stopped for a fun lunch at a local restaurant and drove home. We cuddled later watching a movie and I got to feel, at least for the day, that I wasn't totally neglecting my sweet children. I am forever grateful for the grace my children give me everyday.