Spokane River

When temps hit the 90's... the Charette's and Trantum's head to the Spokane river to cool down

 We recently discovered a perfect swimming area on the Spokane river while we were biking the centennial trail.  There is nice beaching area with soft sand, crystal clear water, a large shallow area to play in, 3 large rocks to dive off and best of all... it's kinda hidden away, so only a few people know about it.

 Someone had trapped a small fish in this pool.  Connor had fun watching the fish swim around.  We let the fish go before we left

 Zach and Jakob had fun playing with the water guns we brought

 The temperature may be in the 90's but the water was still very cold!

 A typical site at my house... Connor picking the sand out from his toes and Jason texting on his phone.

 We decided to have a water fight in our warm pool when we got home.  Well, Jason and I had a water fight... Connor floated nearby and laughed as we drenched each other.

My handsome little guy is ready for kindergarten!

show me your muscles

So, Jason and I were competing playing on the monkey bars at the park recently... we go for a bike ride on the trail by our house at least once a week.  The trail goes around our lake and right by the park, which just happens to be the half way mark.  So, we always stop to let Connor play at the park before we venture home.  Anyway, while Connor was playing on the jungle gym with some other kids, Jason and I were playing ourselves.  After seeing who could do more rungs, Jason's back was bothering him so, he hung upside down on the monkey bars, which stretched his vertebra and helped.  This gave him the idea to create his own version at home... he can use it to stretch his vertebra, but I'm going to use it as a chin up bar!

 Jason testing his new creation.  Not too bad, only a bit high

 Chin ups.. show me your muscles Jason!

Arts and Crafts

About every 2 months I get a strong desire to be creative and dive into some arts and crafts.  I always feel very close to my grandmother when I'm doing crafts.  She was the craftiest person I have ever known.  That woman created some extraordinary crafts.  I miss her dearly.

 I finally found some frames to display Connor's pictures that I cross stitched onto fabric.  That motivated me to create more art for our walls.  I don't care for buying random pictures to hang on our walls... so, several of our walls have been empty since we moved in.  I would much rather hang creative piece of art that we created ourselves! 

 Here is the trophy shelf that Jason built for Connor this summer.  Connor's room is also decorated with some Spider-man and dinosaur decals... along with a string of multi color twinkle lights.

 The left is his growth chart, which has been fun to watch his growth spurts.

 Yellow is Connor's hand at birth, orange is mine, red is Jason's.  Below it says "the Charette's Est. 2008," which is the year Connor was born and completed our family.

 I made a silhouette of Connor blowing bubbles.  I hung this in the master bathroom above the tub.  This is Jason's favorite of my crafts

 Connor's bathroom... a framed picture of him as an infant in the photo tub

The Splish Splash sign I made out of left over wood from his trophy shelf.  I love the framed pictures of Connor with crazy bath hair... very fitting for his bathroom!

 We made a hand print tile to display... me in pink, Connor in blue

 bathroom down stairs: I also made a "wash your hands" sign out of the left over wood from Connor's trophy shelf.  Below that is a frame of Connor's hand prints from birth to now.  I've traced his hand every year.

 

 We redecorated our fish tank with a beach theme.  We also added a new small plecostomus sucker head and a fancy gold fish.

And finally I made a frame with hooks to hang our keys and a "C" out of buttons... buttons that used to belong to my grandmother.  I try to add a piece of her every time I make crafts.

Bumpers

 Connor and I rode bikes to the library for story time... and to get some new library books.

 Aunt Stephani and Uncle Mark were in town and stopped by for dinner

 We decided our Plecostomus sucker head fish has out grown our fish tank.  Plus our tank decorations needed to be replaced.  We gave our Pleco to Nina and Ava who have a much bigger fish tank.

 What better way to spend a gloomy day than at Bumpers Fun Center!  Connor's second time bowling...  Jason won, followed by Connor and I.. well, I was last.  Maybe I should use the helper bars next time!

 Connor gave rolling the ball a try, but decided to stick with the bars

 After bowling we had some fun in the arcade center.

We finished the day with some school shopping.  Connor picked out a Spider-man backpack and lunch box.  Jason decided he needed a new lunch box too.