When we lived in WA we always had to distinguish great Grandma and Grandpa Hymas as “Grandma and Grandpa ‘across the ferry’ because they live on Whidbey Island. The kids knew which grandparents we were going to see if they knew they were going to get to ride the ferry. As part of our trip his week we drove up to see Grandma and Grandpa so they could meet Liberty for the first time. It was a wonderful visit. They live out there with no family around and were so very excited to see us. I think Grandma hugged the boys at least fifty times.
On the ferry
The boys almost knocked Grandma over.
I want one of these on my doorstep!!!
Liberty went straight to the doll case. Grandma has hundreds of dolls all over her house. And she even gave Liberty one to take home! 
Grandma and Grandpa have a wall dedicated to America’s founding documents and founding fathers and so I knew they would enjoy hearing the boys recite what they’ve learned of the Constitution and Declaration. Here is Cade doing the Preamble. Reagan did the Declaration, but did NOT want to be video taped. lol
After the boys did their recitation, Grandpa gave them their very own flag and explained what the colors mean. 
Liberty was fascinated by this music box doll.
When it was time to take pictures Liberty wasn’t too sure she wanted to sit by Grandpa. I LOVE their faces!
I sure wish we could see these two more often. They are perfect examples of good, faithful, Americans. I’m so glad our children get to have them in their lives. Hope they stick around for a while longer!
Sharks and the Seashore
No, this is not a post about the recent Great White shark sightings at various beaches in the country. Though we have seen sharks this week AND been to the seashore, they were not together (lucky for us). We’ve been studying the ocean this summer and during our visit to Washington this week we went to the zoo/aquarium to see some sea creatures as part of our ocean study. I was very sad to learn the Beluga whales were gone from the zoo, but we got to see lots of other fun things.
Point Defiance Zoo overlooks the Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. It’s a beautiful setting.
I’ve always loved this shark tank. You can get right up close to the sharks.
A consternated sea anemone
And a cute girl.
A happy sea snail
Then yesterday Grandpa and the boys and I tried to find a tide pool so we could check out some REAL sea snails and anemones. We went to a beach on the beautiful Hood Canal and found LOTS of oysters, clams, muscles and tiny crabs, but none of the more exciting stuff like sea stars, anemones and sea urchins. I was a bit disappointed, but the boys had a great time exploring.
Levi’s first big find-a cluster of oyster shells. He was pretty proud of his find. Behind him you see thousands of other oysters shells, and muscles carpeting the shore.
Reagan found this oyster shell full of tiny hermit crabs.
Cade was happy collecting shells.
Levi searched long and hard for a crab…
and finally found this one. 
He carried his new little friend around in this shell until it was time to leave when we put him back in the water. And then he filled the shell up with all kinds of little treasures; dead crabs, tiny shells, barnacles.
When it comes to outdoor exploration, thank goodness these boys are easy to please!
Talents and Terrors
Cade LOVES to play the piano. He practices at least twice a day many days. Here is a song he mastered the same day his teacher gave it to him. He was so proud of himself I had to share.
Liberty LOVES pink, as you know. Well, recently her changing pad started to rip so I decided to fix the problem with some good ol’ duct tape. She did NOT like the duct tape. In fact she was afraid of it and would not even lay down on the changing pad because of it. So I got creative. 
Thank goodness for PINK duct tape!
Levi LOVES to hurt himself, as you know. He currently has 8 major owies on his body and 4 bandaids. He is a walking scab and we have made up a poem about him.
There once was a boy named Levi
Who always had scrapes on his toes
He had scabs on his nose
And everyone knows
He had owies everywhere in between.
He emptied this in a week.
Reagan LOVES animals, as you know. You have to be careful right now not to get cornered in a room by him or you will have to listen to him regale you with his millions of animal facts. Every time I turn around it’s, “Mom did you know that tigers…., Mom, did you know that snakes…….Mom, dinosaurs ate…..” 
He has read the entire thing. And he just informed me that “It is the MOST valuable book in the world besides the scriptures!”
It’s Great to be 8!
Cade turned eight in July and yes, I am just now blogging about it. He took two friends to Red Robin and they all thoroughly enjoyed being 8 year old little boys together. Here is the cake. Well, ok, it was not really a cake because my children don’t do cake’s, (a fact I am still coming to terms with) but here is the Heavenly Dirt:
On August 4th Cade was baptized! 
We had lots of family join us for the big day! 
Lot o’ ladies! 
10! (if you count Liberty)
Rock’s Mom and Monica drove up for the special day. 
Monica is So Beautiful!!!
The kids convinced her to jump on the trampoline with her.
The last time Monica jumped on the trampoline with my kids was at Cade’s blessing!!! 
8 Years Ago!!
Grandpa Hymas was on his way to Brazil the day of the baptism. We were so sad he couldn’t be there, but here is…. on the phone!
Grandma Hymas brought some birthday presents with her for the July birthdays and so we had a little belated birthday party too! 
Thanks, Grandma!
And thank you to all of you who drove so far (or near) to come celebrate Cade’s special day!
We are so proud of you, Caderade!
First Annual Wesel Family Reunion
Since two of us are in Boise now and that’s more Wesels in one place than anywhere else, we did our first official Wesel family reunion the first week of August.
We knocked the torturous “No one wants to do this, but we haven’t had it done it in 13 years ” activity out of the way first.
Family Pictures!
(Now I’m going to make you go through the same torturous experience vicariously! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!)
The kids were mostly well behaved though we did have a few meltdowns.
This is my FAVORITE!
Other activities that were a little more fun were the water park: 
Silver City, an old mining town up in the Owyhee mountains 
Alli planned the First Annual Reunion Olympics 
The Cup Blowing Event 
The Bean Sucking Event 
The Cotton Ball Stuck to Your Nose with Vaseline Event 
Yes, he cheated. By sniffing.
And my own personal favorite, The Move the Cookie Down Your Face and into Your Mouth Event. This was HILARIOUS to watch as people contorted their faces in all kinds of ways to move the cookie. 
We had some late night fondue at the Melting Pot downtown. 
Lincoln really liked the skewers! 
We spent some time at Aunt Jane’s too and hardly any of my pictures turned out well-except for these two cute ones. 
I tried to get a picture of the infamous water fight, but this is all I got. 
And just a few last cute ones from the day we took our family pictures.
Lincoln and Liberty aka Linc and Lib
I loved this one of the Boise hills.
I’d say we did pretty good for our first reunion. Our air conditioning did go out for several days and we did miss the U.S. women’s gymnastics team win the gold, but overall we survived those very tough challenges. I’m sure everyone cannot WAIT to do it again next year!!!
Summer Fun
We’ve had lots of fun at Aunt Janie and Uncle Calvin’s home since we’ve been here in Boise.
Horseback riding… 
Chasing the Chickens 
Playing Horseshoes (all the rest of these pictures were taken by Jess-I really love them all! I wish I had her talent!) 
Reagan and Cade actually won a friendly wager with Uncle Calvin over horseshoes and were treated to some ice cream!
Love this one!
Gazing at Grasshoppers 
And roasting marshmallows! 
Irresistible- the brown eyes, not the s’mores.
Our Terrific Two Year Old
Liberty turned two this week! She was also a crying, pouting, screaming, moody two year old all day on her birthday. It does not bode well for things to come.
The song:
The gift:
Playing with Grandma’s gift. 
Tea anyone? (I LOVE having a little girl! It is so much fun!)
Dress up!
The Queen of Pink
Liberty LOVES pink. At this point it is no longer mom’s doing that everything she owns or wants is pink. If it’s pink, she thinks it’s hers. She only wants to drink from her pink sippy cup. She found some pink buckets as big as she is at Aunt Jane’s and carried them off. She found a pink fly swatter at a friend’s house and walked off with it. And… 
she found Sarin’s pink flip flops and jewelry. Sarin was lucky to get them back.
We love you pink girl! You bring so much joy to your mama! 
The 4th of July
We spent a quiet 4th of July at home this year. No visiting any significant Revolutionary War sights. No seeing any “George Washington was here” sights. And we did not hear one single rendition of the Declaration of Independence except for the reading we did as a family. I will admit it was a bit of a let down after our 4th of Julys in the east. But it was a good day nevertheless!
Our now traditional patriotic pop tarts
The star of the day.
Dessert-after a great American BBQ of course
Then Fireworks! 
A Boise Sheriff here in our neighborhood put on such a great show we didn’t need to go anywhere!
Thank goodness for our Liberty! 
Butterflies
We have had so much fun watching the transformation of our caterpillars into butterflies. Here’s the report!
They arrived two weeks ago in this nifty jar complete with food and air holes. We watched them grow from about 2 cm long to about 2 inches long in one week’s time.
Then they attached themselves to the top of the cup. For about a day we watched as each one wound itself into a chrysalis (chrysalides in plural form for those who are not as well educated as my children are now-wink). They were fast little buggers. We’d look at one and he was a caterpillar, then we’d walk to the sink to get a drink and by the time we came back, he was a chrysalis!
We transferred the chrysalides to the net butterfly habitat and waited for one more week. One morning I happened to glance at them and one had just popped out of his cocoon. 
His wings were all crumpled up for about five minutes. 
We missed the first four change because, again, they were so fast! But Alli was visiting and saw the last one start to change and we got it on film!!!
We fed them sugar water for a day and then Friday morning we set them free.
This experience was so awesome we plan on ordering more! The website insectlore.com has all kinds of bugs you can watch; preying mantis’, ladybugs, ants, etc.
Bring on the bugs!
Libby Funnies
Breakfast of Champions
You thought it was Wheaties. Nope. It’s Kix.
Surrounded by friends wherever she goes.
Some light reading
She loves hats.
She’s wearing a lei AND a boa.
This girl gets the greatest bedhead I’ve ever seen.
