From The August Scrapbook Pages

My friends joke with me that I e-mail in flurries. (As in, no e-mails for a week or two, and then five in the same day... I admit it: I'm an all or nothing kind of girl!) So, I guess I must blog in flurries, too. ;0) Here are some snippets of the life and times of the Z Treehouse inhabitants from August 2009...

First up, a visit from some of our Idaho relatives...

We hiked Sweet Creek Falls:




Had our traditional lunch at Mo's:


And hit the beach for some crabbing:


This is my Sister-in-Law, Gena, and her family.

I had the privilege of doing a session for them while they were here; my first ever session at the beach:

(To see more from their session, check out this post and this post on my photography blog.)

Right after they left, we headed out for our annual Cuzn's Camp. We had all kinds of fun just hanging out at Fort Otter:

Isn't this the most fun idea ever for a kid's shirt?

Once again, I was overcome by the elegance of my family:

Ha ha HAAAA! But just to be fair, this is more the "real" Ben:

He just oozes kindness, and is a total kid magnet. He's also an avid reader who is always giving me awesome books to check out (like those by Athol Dickson--check out Ben's Book Review Blog here), and he's a crazy extreme mountain bike rider. He helped talk my hubby into an insane trail ride while we were there... check it out here if you want to get a little vertigo! (Thanks, Byron, for filming and posting that!)

Kim entertained us with paddle walking:

And Mom and Aunt Lynnae entertained us with their hysterics as we played games around the campfire:

How many of our men does it take to light the BBQ?

One more, apparently:




A little canoeing:


The pre-canoe instruction session, by Byron:



We headed out of camp one morning, and took a little hike to the beach:

Here's my "little" brother and my "totally taking after his Papa" nephew. You may not be able to see it, but Linc is grinning ear to ear:

The whole crew:

A while after Cuzn's Camp, we were visiting my Mom and Dad, and enjoying their fruit harvest...

...when a very important phone call came in:


My newest nephew was ready to make his appearance! I was thrilled that I got to be there. With my camera. ;0) This was one of my favorite moments from that night. The Grandmas, no longer able to wait in their assigned room, set up camp outside the birth room door. Check out the emotional praising that took place as we all heard Barrett's voice for the first time:

Here's my superstar Sis-in-Law, my brother, and their newest addition, just moments after his birth:


We ended the month of August just like we wrap up all of our months--on an outing with our Adoption Group, one27. This was our 2nd visit to Wild Ones Youth Ranch, which is run by my former boss from the Pregnancy Center. It's a HUGE hit every year (Thanks SO much again, Jeanie and Mike!):


Whew! I'm actually caught up to the current month!! And it feels gooood. ;0)