Corks...lots of corks.

We recently went to a garage sale where we spotted a tiny basket of corks and asked what they were charging for them. Our answer we got was "they are free, and there's lots more over there so take them too". And that we did. Hundreds of them. Ive seen many cork crafts and have always wanted to make one, but never had enough corks. Well, now I did. So I sat down one one morning to transform our regular old borring cork board into a fancy wine country cork board. Jake rolled his eyes and snapped a picture of me, saying that it was proof for when he could say I ruined a perfectly fine cork board. I sure proved him wrong with the results, as Im pretty darn proud of my work. But little did I know it would take millions of corks, tons of glue and many many many bottom numbing hours to complete. But now every time I walk past my board, or go to check our calendar...I can smile and say "man that looks good, and Im to thank for that!"

Birthday Breakfast at Slappy Cakes

The morning of Zachs real birthday we headed to Portland for some pancakes with Aunt Jen at Slappy Cakes. Such a fun experience!

Happy 7th Birthday Zach!

Friendship, rising sun, Strength. What more could a seven year old boy ask for? We went for a more relaxed layed back atmosphere at the park with just a few of Zachs favorite little Ninja buddies this year, but he still insisted on a theme and chose Ninjago. So we made some headbands, ninjago goody bags, cake-outs, and a cooler full of park friendly lunch for everyone and headed to the park for some fun in the sun.

The naked egg

I love arts and crafts and science experiments AND summer time. I recently canned a ton of dill pickles and had lots of extra vinegar left over. In a random google search of experiments that use vinegar I came across a really cool experiment that needed an egg and vinegar and sounded REALLY cool. Here's what you do... Put an uncracked raw egg in a cup and cover it with vinegar. Let this sit for a good 12 hours, occasionally checking on it. I didnt tell the kids what would happen, I wanted them to guess along the way.

You'll start to see a white foam forming on the top of the glass probably 4 or so hours in, this is the shell!

After about 12 hours, tada!, we had a naked egg. The outer shell makes way, leaving the thin membrane in place. You can pick it up, squeeze it a little...we even bounced it on the counter a few tiny times. Its see through and you can see the yolk floating around in there. It was pretty neat. My camera didnt quite capture the color of the egg correctly though, it came out more yellow for some reason.

Oh but we didnt quit there. After we played with it for a bit, we dumped out the vinegar and put the naked egg back into the glass and filled it up with water and let it sit for another 12 hours or so. The thin membrane allows the water to absorb into the egg...GROWING THE EGG! See Eli's difference in a brand new un naked egg compared to the naked egg. Pretty neat little trick I must say.

Visiting Jake at work...or at school...

This last month Jake did some metal work on the school the boys go to, so we met him up there one afternoon to watch him as we played on the playground. It was a ton of fun for the boys to see Daddy work on their school, and a prety proud moment for Jake to be working on his kids school. Even yesterday we were up at the school for soccer practice and I noticed him looking over the work admiring it.

Hertel Campout 2012

As with every year, this years campout was full of family, fun, food and forever memories. Over the years as the boys have gotten older, and Ive gotten more confident in myself, the boys and I have traveled down early to the campout to enjoy more of the trip while Jake finishes off the work week and meets up with us for the weekend. I am camp woman, hear me roar. :) Our first evening there, it was CHILLY. We left home at about 96 degrees and hot, only to show up at the beach to windy foggy cold beach weather. It was 5pm, and at Beverly Beach though, so I shouldnt complain. Plus the rest of the weekend was sunny, chilly and beautiful. What else was pretty nice about this trip, besides spending such a great weekend with everyone, was that we camped in a yurt for the very first time ever ...and LOVED it. We will definatley be taking advantage of those durring some cooler months so we can camp outside of summer months. I do have to admit, I missed my little cuddle bugs scooting their sleeping bags as close to me as they could when we sleep in our tent...but on occasion the yurt is going to be a big plus.

On the beach the first evening, see that fog!

The next couple of days were much better. Beautiful and sunny, with some fog and just a little chill to the air to keep us cool.

Eli had a hayday in the sand and water this afternoon. Jake will be the first to admit he HATES the sand. We go to the beach and it drives him nutts when sand gets everywhere. So since he was at work and not here yet, Eli covered himself head to toe in WET sand...yes, even filling up his shirt.

The big cousins playing bocce ball on the beach.

Zach and Clem worked on digging a hole for the longest time this afternoon. Constantly getting discouraged that the waves kept coming in and wiping it out. They even tried a tiny little wall of sand, but even then the water wiped that out as well.

So they decided to play in the water instead.

Eli and Ray were soon to follow.

Its cold...lets go rest in the warm dunes.

This is the I dare you to lay in the wave moment, courtesy of Jake

We've owned silly small kites before, but never a nice real one. Never would I have thought that a REAL kite made that much of a difference for a kid. But I was proven wrong when Ray flew this cool kite with mad skills. Eli sat and watched for a while as Ray dug his heels into the sand yanking his arms from side to side keeping the kite up in the air, and was soon asked if he wanted to try. I mentioned he'd never flown a real kite before and was worried he'd let their $ fly away. I should have just kept my mouth quiet, because he actually did really well. I was super impressed that he had mad skills as well...and probably now wants a real kite too.

Oh those treasure trunk officials. Always so stern.

The treasure trunk for those who havent heard the wonderfully glory story before, is an amazing trunk full of yummy snacks that the fantastic Aunt Joan and Uncle Paul bring on the trip every summer to share with all of us. This year there were some sneakies going on, un mentioned family members stealing it in the middle of the night and such...so security had to be added to the treasure trunk for safety measures.

I spotted these cute little monkeys in the tree.

Oh George. The Georges add such fun to the campout every year. ("George" translated means, lots of the cousins of any age that have answered to the name at one point or another over the years....although this trip Eli became Chicken Bone and Zach became Mudpuddle, Im still not sure of the story behind that though.) Its pretty apparent that the Georges all hate eachother alot. Oh who am I kidding, all of our kids love the fun Georges more than their own parents on this trip every year and Im pretty sure the Georges just love running around entertaining the younger Georges in return. As far as I can tell anyways, unless behind those smiles are "help me" warnings. Me personally, Im thankful for the Georges endless energy and strong backs. I probably owe them a ton of ibuprofen though. And reading back over that paragraph, I can see how confusing that all must sound to understand what Im trying to explain here with everyone going by the name George.

And I know for a fact alot of us, including little Ina, were very happy she was wearing a helmet while riding on Georges shoulders as he was chased by the mob of children.

Its been a lot of fun watching the next generation get old enough to play together and start to build fun friendships. I look forward to the many more years of watching them all grow as we enjoy our weekend trip with all the family.