As summer nears an end...

So much has happened in the last few weeks, and I have been way to busy to keep up with the blog! We have been having so much fun as a family lately though, it really has been a wonderful end of summer. Here are some highlights:
Right before we left for Italy, Teage's family came for a visit from Utah. We took the opportunity to have a Christensen family picture taken by one of my friends who also happens to be a fantastic photographer....if you would like to see her website go to http://www.ravissantphotography.com/.

A few weeks after Itlay we were able to go camping with some great friends of ours, the Waggoners. The boys had never been camping before, and I was deathly afriad to sleep in a tent with two 2-year old boys, so we went to Camp Zarahemla where they have rustic cabins to rent instead. :) What a perfect camping experience for me! We still cooked all meals outside, played and had fun at the lake, and had all other fun "real" camping experiences, but had a nice roof over our head when we slept. :) Perfect! We had so much fun with our friends, probably a little too much actually. We had a hard time leaving so Teage could get back to work. We went canoeing everyday, ate way too many smores, played soccer with all of the boys and Maddie, etc etc. What a blast!The boys' first smores experience! It was so funny to watch them try to eat all the chocolate they could without getting marshmellow all over themselves.

Mr. Teage and Mr. Corey being masters of the canoes.

The boys having a little pow-wow...

The boys are also completely obsessed with baseball right now. Every time they see any game on TV, any picture in the newspaper, they start yelling about "hitting far" and "Ichiro!!". They really get excited about it. So, we decided to go to one last game before the end of the season, and end of summer. We were worried about the boys being up too late, the games don't start until 7pm, but they did amazing! Dylan didn't even want to leave at 9:30 at night, they were having too much fun! They were high-fiving, singing, dancing, cheering for the "Mariners!!!!!". They were even dancing so hard that they ended up on the jumbo-tron in the stadium! It was so much fun! Both boys were standing on our laps dancing during the middle of an inning and all of a sudden I look up at the screen, and there we are!

Bye bye summer....we will miss you! :)

The Christensens invade Ocean Shores

A few weeks ago we went to Ocean Shores with my step-dad's family for a family reunion. Teage and I were extremely excited about this because the boys had never seen the ocean before, or even been on sand, so it was going to be a fun first for us! :) We were a little worried about cramming into one hotel room with my mom and step-dad (worried for them more then us!), but we ended up having such a fantastic time! The first day we arrived we went straight to the beach for the boys. And boy did they have fun. Normally my little men are pretty timid in new situations, but they just went for it! They were playing in the water, running away from waves, trying to skip rocks like Poppi, and just having a blast! I was so thankful that they had such a great time, because for us, it was priceless!

The next day we were able to get together with the whole family for a lunch on the beach, and catch up with everyone. It was so fun to see them all again, as many we had not seen since our wedding over 5 years ago. My aunt and uncle live in Ocean Shores, so they hosted our big family dinner that night as well. We ate our hearts out, took some family reunion pictures, had fun watching the boys chase the dogs (at my horror....thinking they were going to knock down all of the beautiful decor in the house!), and laughed for hours. The boys were the only grand kids in the family so far, so it was wonderful to see everyone else interacting with them and having a lot of silly fun.

The weekend was a short, but great one overall. We are so excited to see the Engbretson family more often, and definitely have more priceless memories at the beach with the boys!

Walking up to the beach with Poppi

Tutu showing Lucas his first shell

Standing by their names in the sand....they didn't quite get why Daddy was doing this. :)

Dylan and Poppi running from the waves!

And Lucas and Daddy running from the waves.

Our first family beach picture! You will probably see this one on the Christmas card this year. :)

The whole Engbretson family at the reunion

Me and my brother, Christopher. We always call him "Toph" so the boys have taken to calling him "Uncle Toph"....it is pretty darn cute actually.

Team Jolene Cont...

I just wanted to remind anyone who would like to walk with us on September 26th at 11am, that you can sign up at the website for Team Jolene, www.cff.org/great_strides/Erinchristensen

Please sign up if you would like to walk with us, because then they can keep track of the number of walkers, and you get a t-shirt! :)

Also, if you would like to donate, please make sure you check with your employer, for MANY companies match non-profit contributions!

And please remember that even a donation as small as $5.00 helps tremendously!

Thank you everyone! We love Jolene and want to keep her memory alive, as well as help all those other children in the US with Cystic Fibrosis. The Foundation is making wonderufl strides but need our help to find a cure!

We love you!