Quirky Cade

This picture captures perfectly one of Cade's quirky sides.

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while, whenever one of his bouts happens. Let me list a few examples of what I am talking about:

-Every morning, before Cade makes his way to our room, we hear every door shut.

- If ever he sees a toilet seat up, he puts it down.

(in fact one specific time, he was crawling halfway in the bath, saw it up, said "uh oh", crawled back out of the tub, put the seat down, and then said "okay" and got in the bath. It's that bad.)

-If he sees an edge of our rugs flipped up, he can't pass it by without fixing it.

-We used to have a cup of pens (before he dumped them behind our fireplace) and he would dump them out, line them all up perfectly side-by-side, then put them back in the cup, and start all over again.

- He can't stand to have boogers in his nose.

-He asks for wipes all the time to clean.

- He asks to wash his hands. What kid does that?

The picture above was one time when he took him to clean my Dad's dental office with us. He was being all quiet for a while, and Jon found him lining up these toys out of the toy box perfectly on the arm of a waiting room chair.

We love your little quirks, Cade.

(oh and p.s.... he always notices when I change my toenail polish.)

Richard Simmons Wanna-be

My next adventure:

Group Fitness Instructor!

I got offered a job to be a group fitness instructor at Peak Health and Wellness Center! (The gym I currently work at in the childcare center). They needed "new faces and dynamic personalities to keep a crowd and compete with the new Kroc Center". At first, I wasn't sure because they wanted me to jump in waist deep and take on my own spin and strong (strength training) class! But we made a compromise.

I am currently training and certifying to become the instructor of STRONG one evening a week to start out with, and I still will get one day a week at the nursery! Perfect! Keep both doors open and I will make the same amount of money in 1 hour as I do in a day at the nursery. I am excited and a little nervous for the new adventure...and it is kicking my butt getting in strength training shape!!

Eventually I hopefully would take on more early morning classes (that way I am done before Jon even goes to work) if I love it!

Besides, who doesn't want to get paid to work out?!

Lee Family Reunion

Here are the highlights of this year's bi-annual Leo Lee Family reunion:

Of course, whitewater rafting the Alberton Gorge of the Clark Fork river...including the infamous "Tumbleweed". It ate everybody alive and gave us a few more near death experiences. ;)

(below: the kiddy run)

Infesting the beautiful, white, sandy beach right on the river.

The guys having their "beach olympics" including the long jump:

and the 'walk continuously into the water holding rocks and see who can hold their breath the longest' contest:

of course, Brynne's old man won! That man has lungs! And who looks that great at almost 60?!

Which brings us to our next activity:

Steve's suprise 60th birthday party!

Each sibling (Tom thru Cassie) highlighted a decade of his life very creatively! Then A.J. highlighted his poetry and Brynne played guitar while the brother in laws sang "when the man comes around" by Johnny Cash. Couldn't have had a more appropriate party (in the woods) for such an amazing man!

Treasure hunts for the kids:

Cliff jumping:

There is a 45-50 foot cliff we always jump. Brynne knocked herself out on it 2 years ago doing a flip and then last year was pregnant so when she got up there this time, she had to face her fears. She did it a couple of times (without the flip) and got over it! The guys all did it together.

(below: LtoR Dan, Dusty, Brett and Jon)

(Below: Brynne)

Injury repairing (at least one each trip).

Sally sliced her ear open on the edge of the fire pit and had to have stitches.

luckily Dr. Old Man Gatten comes prepared for anything!
Brynne assisted on the procedure. Just like the old days!

and speaking of injuries...

The Gatten Marathon:

Not your average race!! WIsh we had pictures! It was about a half mile swim down and across the river, and a 2 or more mile run on trails and pavement. In this race, there are no RULES except to stay on course and not KILL anybody.

Well, we came close. Between Dan and Dusty's bike wreck, Brett and Sadies clothes line (at 20 mph on a bike), Jon's running into a tree, Brynne's sores from running in Chacos and all of the peppering, tripping, shoe stealing and vinegaring...miraculously we all made it! And, Brynne won it all!!

Softball:

One night a bunch of the adults met at Superior elementary and played a sweet game of softball (with a tee ball bat) in the sprinklers!

4th of July:

fireworks (always CRAZY) in St. Regis

after church in Superior, MT where we doubled the branch

We certainly love our extended family and it is always a blast when we all get together. It is crazy to see everyone getting older, having kids of their own and moving on with their lives. Although it is still fun, each year will never be the same as the last.

That's the circle of life.