Sun Lakes State Park

We went to Sun Lake State Park with Mommy's side of the family this past week (Fri. to Wed.). Aunt Kirsten, Uncle Ranen, Mason and Owen were there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then Uncle Justin got there Sunday and stayed until Wednesday. Grandma and Grandpa G stayed there the whole time with us! We were lucky that Grandma and Grandpa G have a big trailer. We hauled over their old tent trailer (which we've used since Kayda was born), got to camp, started to set it up and the cables which raise and lower the top broke.  So we ended up sleeping in the big trailer the first few nights until Uncle Justin could bring over the tent with him. Warning, this is going to be a TON of pictures, I just couldn't narrow it down!

Dillon absolutely LOVED Owen. He would go over and touch him, sit next to him, and give him hugs and kisses. Kayda learned Mason's name really quickly, granted it came out more as "May" but she definitely knew who he was. They had a great time playing in the dirt at the campground and all the kids enjoyed playing around in the water. Here are some random pictures at the campground!

There was a playground in the day use area that we went to several times. We had to be careful the first time because the slides were hot enough to burn the kids so we came back another time when it was a little overcast.

I'm not entirely sure who had more fun at the playground...

About 2 miles from the campground there is another lake called Deep Lake. There is cliff jumping there which was one of the things we went there for. Daddy, Mommy and Uncle Ranen all jumped off the taller cliff which was around 25 feet tall. On Tuesday we even got Uncle Justin to jump though I don't have the pictures.

Daddy:

Mommy:

Uncle Ranen:

We played a round of minigolf, the people were nice enough to give us clubs for the kids to play with. When the kids got bored Grandma and Grandpa G took them down to a little ice cream stand, we of course HAD to join them when we were done!

On the way back to the truck from minigolf Grandma G was playing red light-green light with Kayda. She would make this pose everytime she thought there should be a "red light" whether Grandma said it or not!

We made an evening of a trip to the Grand Coulee Dam. It wasn't far away, only 45 minutes. We went on the tour which was unfortunately absolutely pointless. The elevator was broken so even though they are still giving tours down to the generators (which many dams no longer do thanks to 9-11) we couldn't go down so it was a walk around a very small portion of the top of the dam. After the tour we had several hours to kill because we wanted to stay for the laser light show they have. They let 6 inches thick of water go over the spillway (they don't use the spillway anymore EXCEPT for during their light show) and then do a laser show with music and a story. They were 20 minutes late starting and the babies were falling asleep so we only saw the first few minutes but it was worth the wait we had a BLAST in the 4 hours between the last tour and the light show!

A volcano erupting:

A wave moving across the dam:

Fourth of July at Baba's

We spent Independence Day over at Baba's house this year. Daddy's cousin Shad was in town with his family so the group was even bigger than normal! There were over 30 people there, all Daddy's extended family, granted one of them has yet to be converted (Uncle Greg is marrying Liz in November). We had a barbecue and then hung out until fireworks time! The kids were having a great time just running in the neighborhood field behind Baba's house. Kayda and Ella were actually together a LOT of the time. Dillon followed anyone and everyone around. He likes to be where the action is! Here are the pictures of their play!

The kids were introduced to pop its this year. Many of their cousins, along with my munchkins, were unable to throw them hard enough to make them pop. They tried and tried and evenutally we had the kiddos stomping to try to pop them.

As we do every year we had our tank wars. The four brothers (Uncle Pat, Uncle Scott, Uncle Greg and Daddy) all upgrade their tanks with jumping jacks, flash bombs, smoke bombs, other small fireworks, and tape them together to have a "battle" of modified tanks. They spend a LOT of time tampering with them. This year Kyle, Nathan, and Kevin joined in the fun. They line up the tanks towards eachother and light them all at once. It goes for several rounds, the aftermath continues to collect until all their creations have been used. It has actually ended up hot enough by the end that it's melted the asphalt, so this year they chose a spot were the asphalt was already in bad condition (a bad patch job). The little ones spent the time playing in Grandpa Mike's truck and in the space alongside Baba's driveway playing with the rocks!

Kayda and Dillon both got to do sparklers this year. Kayda did very well. Dillon did okay until I saw his almost put it in his mouth! Talk about scary!  Fortunately I yelled at him and startled him enough that he pulled it away. He didn't get to do that again. We did let the kids do the roman candles with us. Both of them really enjoyed that and Dillon ended up carrying one around for most of the evening.

When the kiddos weren't helping Daddy light fireworks (Daddy grabbed them and ran once the fuses were lit) Kayda would sit with soon-to-be-Aunt Liz and Uncle Greg with their puppy (Brooklyn). Kayda and Ella spent a lot of time there, poor Ella didn't get to hold the leash much because Kayda had it and would NOT let anyone else touch it.

I must say it was the most stressful Fourth of July we have ever had. The field behind Baba's house is a neighborhood field. There are houses with backyards against it all the way around. There were a few incidents with the neighbor next to us. Baba actually got hit by a firework! It rattled everyone pretty badly, Baba went inside. Fortunately they got her away from the firework and pulled her pant leg away from her skin (It was melted) before she got too badly burned. As it was she did end up with a little bit of a burn on her ankle. We're lucky it wasn't more serious. Later on in the evening the same group lit a fountain that shot colored balls one at a time up into the air. Well it fell over and everytime it shot it would spin and shoot a different direction. Daddy had Kayda out (they had been lighting a firework) and he turned and kept her sheltered. I was sitting on a sheet snuggling Dillon. I covered him as best I could with my arms. One of them actually went between soon-to-be-Aunt Liz and I to smoulder on the blanket beside me which fortunately was not in use. After the second incident the mood was pretty much ruined and everyone was a little frazzled. We had lost a good portion of our group after Baba was hit but the rest of us packed up after the second time.

Guess what? That's not even all! Daddy and I came home and the babies went right to bed. We had left Hank in the backyard, we had debated leaving him in the house but he still chews everything and it was too hot to leave him in his crate. When we opened the door and called him he didn't come. We searched all over the backyard and we couldn't find him. Daddy looked at the side gate and it was a little lose so we were scared he got out. I stayed home with the sleeping babies while Daddy went searching for Hank. There was no sign of him so Daddy decided to look out back again. Thank goodness he found Hank! Hank had somehow gotten himself between the wood pile and the house and hunkered down in there. We were SO relieved to find him. Definitely NOT the best Fourth of July we've ever had but the kids sure did have a great time!