I love to see the Temple...

We had the opportunity to make our monthly visit to the temple. Possibly our last visit to the Columbia River Temple, since the Boise Temple will be back open next month! Yay! We're so excited for that!!

Even being on the temple grounds gives a peaceful and calm feeling. The kids love going there at least as much as we do. We were also able to meet up with Megan and her fiance, Billy and got to go out to dinner with the 2 of them. The food and company were both great. We made a stop at Target and then headed back home. It was a beautiful day and the kids were good sports about spending 5+ hours in the car. They really do a good job!

I am so grateful that we have temples so close to us, that we can make it a day trip. I am grateful to my Father in Heaven for creating an atmosphere where I can feel Him so near and where I can receive inspiration and peace. I love going to the temple with my family!

Bees!

 We went on a field trip and got to learn all about bee-keeping! The field trip was for the kids. Daddy was mesmerized! He is convinced now, even more than before, that this is something he is really interested in learning and experimenting with. It was pretty neat!

 Our hosts put part of the hive/box between glass plates so we could see the bees at work. We were also able to point out the Queen. The kids thought that was pretty cool!

Jackson, Kate & Lucy

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 Then, they took opened up one of the boxes and removed the plates or screens or whatever they're called. They cut off the wax that the bees seal the honey with. Once the wax was cut off, we could see the honey just glistening. It was amazing! The kids were all invited to come up and taste it. The honey dripped onto our fingers. It was delicious. Pure, fresh honey is nothing like the stuff we buy at the store. I was amazed and the kids were in heaven tasting the honey over and over again. They placed those screens into a machine that spun them, extracting the honey. The whole process was pretty incredible.

This is the honeycomb (and some honey) that was cut off before extracting the honey. It was so yummy!

Jackson's Soccer Game - #3

Jackson played great today! He really enjoys playing; loves the game, like Daddy.

We may also have the best coaches. They are so good with the kids!

Jackson, Coach Dana, Caleb, Lillee, Katie, Coach Blake, Rosemary, Paige, Jaxon

 

Later that day...

We had such a relaxing day (and weekend, for that matter)! It was a nice change to just be at home (in town) as a family and do the things that we wanted/needed to. 

  

 Jackson painted for a bit while the girls took a nap. When Katie woke up, she decided that looked like fun and joined in.

 

Painting is practically a different activity with Kate. Maybe she is more "creative"? Or maybe she just needed a little bit more direction than I gave her. Either way, they both had fun and had a fun picture to show for their efforts. What a beautiful Saturday!!

Homemade Slide

 Boxes are great for a lot of things... in this case, a slide.

Evening at the park

 Daddy had meetings at the church, so we headed across the street to the park. Well, it's actually a private school, but they have a nice little playground and a good place to ride bikes. The kids were excited to ride their bikes and play at the "park".

 Kate has been practicing on her new big girl bike. Now, we just have to get her to balance without the training wheels.

Game Day #2 - Jackson

 Jackson scored the first goal of the game!! Yay!! Great job, bud!

 Jackson & Jaxon fighting the other team for the ball... we had lots of friends on the opposing team. It was fun to watch them all out there together!

 Game face. Getting hydrated between quarters.

 Quick smile for Mommy before running back out onto the field.

 I tried to get a picture of Lucy & James (Aubrey and her 2 little ones came down to hang out for a few hours today). He was a little wiggly, so we did our best.

 Kate with she & Lucy's new friend, Grace -- her brother, Luke, is on Jackson's team.

 Jackson & Jaxon defending the goal. They do a pretty good job!

Coach Blake giving the team a little pep talk between quarters. Overall, great game. This was a great match up. The kids moved around a lot; not so much bunching, as often happens with 5 & 6 year olds. I was really impressed! (And I think we may be "those parents" who yell from the sidelines during the ENTIRE game. I didn't anticipate how much I would get into it!)