4th of July Fun

I know 4th of July has come and gone...where has July gone?! Summer is zooming by.

We stayed home for the 4th, which hasn't happened in forever. We usually go to Boulder Resort where the fun is. :) We went to a park and had a picnic with friends from Church which was a lot of fun. Then we did stuff with our neighbors. We had a water balloon fight, pinata, decorated bikes for a parade and then had a BBQ and roasted smore's. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. Three of us neighbors chipped in and bought fireworks together from the Indian Reservation (to get the good ones!) and so along with all the other neighbors we lit them off on the street in front of our development. It was like ADD fireworks! We've never experienced so much craziness and so many fireworks going off around us. Not only did we have our fireworks, but other neighbors were letting there's off all around us. It was nice to see so many fireworks, but not have to buy them! But it was so crazy and loud!!! We are used to rural Mattawa where you see distant fireworks and you can go to bed at a decent hour. Here there were fireworks going off throughout the night. Preston wasn't a fan of them, Lindsey was fine with them and Kate loved the roman candles. Oh and Chelsea was sleeping.

We are thankful for our FREEDOM! We live in the best country!

Kate and her friend Dallas. Dallas is Darbi's daughter and they are moving to Alaska soon for a job promotion (he's going to be a director of Fred Meyer up there and they want to move there!). I'm SO sad to see them move away. She is such a good friend. We talk all the time about everything while our kids are outside playing everyday. I don't like change.

Baby Time

Ballerina

Kate had her ballet recital last week. She looked so cute in her costume. My Mom drove over to come see it. Isn't she so nice to come over for all these events?! This is Kate's 2nd year with this dance studio. She has learned more technique this year and did such a good job in her performance. I wish they did more than one dance though! She said she was nervous and a little worried for her recital. ;)

Kate took swim lessons for a week during Splash Week at the YMCA in Mukilteo. It's only $10 for 5 lessons so that is much cheaper than the usual lessons we do ($75! for 10 lessons) and it's only a week long which is nice to get it over with. She loved it and I survived taking all 4 kids out on my own for the week. My friend Darbi had her kids in swim at the same time so she helped me with my kids and my Mom was with me one day. :)

East vs West...then Miner's

On a Saturday, a couple weeks ago, we went to Yakima for the day to watch the East/West All Star Football Game. Jared had been selected to play for the East team. We were so proud of him for getting chosen! He had a fabulous game and played defense. He even got a QB sack or two (or more?! not sure). 

We braved going over there and back for the day with a 2 week old baby (It's 2 1/2 hrs one way). I was feeling okay. I had been feeling worse all week because my back got tweaked so I could hardly bend over and move. It was miserable. But by Saturday I was feeling MUCH better and could actually function. I was glad because I didn't want to miss going to the game. We left later in the morning than we wanted, said goodbye to Melanie and the kids (they were going to the zoo and we wished we could have gone with them, but can't do everything!) and then hit traffic going over the pass so we got to the game 1/2 hr late. The weather was great though. I was thankful for all the help with the kids. It was kinda long to sit through for them so they were antsy and all over the place at the end. But it was the first time that a lot of my family had seen Chelsea. Jeff and Sadie drove all the way from Idaho so it was fun to see Baylor for the first time and Reagan.

Marci entertaining Reagan and Lindsey with candy. Gotta love being an aunt!

Part of the cheering squad.

The East is blue and the West is Red

During half time we let the kids run around. I thought this was adorable of Reagan and Lindsey holding hands with Marci and Jeff.

Jared is the #12 in blue. We lost in overtime, but it was so exciting at the end because we were down by a lot and made some awesome plays to tie the game with 3 seconds. So it went into overtime and each team got a chance to score from the 25 yd line. We went first and threw an interception so the red team went and scored a touchdown.

You can't go to Yakima without going to Miner's!!! Yummy! We were all SO excited to go here to eat. It was super busy so we had to wait an hour for our food which is longer than we've ever had to wait before so we weren't too happy about that, but it was worth it once we got the food. Nothing beats good hamburgers, fries with fry sauce and homemade milkshakes. Grandpa and Grandma Wright drove from Tri-Cities and met us there for dinner so they could see Chelsea and Baylor.

We made a pit stop in Ellensburg to see Grandpa and Grandma Sabin so they could see Chelsea. We changed the kids into pajamas before heading home. It was a long day, but fun to see so much family.

Cousin Time

Melanie and the kids came over for a weekend. We were headed out of town on Saturday so they just came on Friday evening and spent the night then went to the zoo the next day. She came over to go to our nephew's, Jared Fuller, mission farewell on Sunday (Kyle took Kate and Lindsey to it too). It was fun to have them come visit us. The kids had fun playing and we had fun visiting. We always love it when our cousins come visit!

I told Melanie I could steal Kathryn for the summer. She was a big help and the girls had fun with her.

Owen was funny. He would roll around to get to where he wanted so when you went in the room it was like playing hide and go seek. Who could find Owen?! He would be tucked around a piece of furniture or by the stairs or somewhere else. He sure got around! When Melanie was changing him Lindsey and Preston were blowing on his stomach. 

The kiddos all playing the ipad. 

(Nathan, Dane, Reed covered by Kate, Kate, and Kathryn)