Oh my, July! . . . and August too.

July started with a bang!  Fireworks at a nearby park in Lacey.  Here we all are waiting for the fireworks to start.

On the 4th, we watched the Tumwater 4th of July parade.  It's mostly politicians and car clubs, but the girls seem to like it.

Here's Amelia getting her groove on watching the parade.

I caught this cute picture of the girls that evening.  When I asked them what they were doing, they said "waiting for the fireworks to start".  I'm not quite sure why they were looking in that direction, since we lit our small fireworks in the driveway behind them, but it sure made for a cute picture.

 And here they are holding their sparklers!

Amelia loved her gymnastics class and she did quite well at everything.

Ken and I hosted a BBQ for all the neighbors on our street.  I hadn't asked for RSVP's, so I was unsure of how many people would come, and I was pleasantly surprised that 10 out of the 20 houses on our street showed up!

Sophia loved her tap class too.  Here she is doing her 8 counts of improve jazz tapping.

Before we left on our vacation, Providence had a free family night at the Children's Museum, so we took advantage of it - I mean, how can you turn down free, right?!

They had a fun exhibit about China, complete with this scooter which the girls loved sitting on.

And then it began, the back-to-back family reunions.  Ken's family first in Yellowstone . . . but first a stop in Bozeman to eat at the famous Pickle Barrel sandwich shop where the pickles in the barrel are free and plentiful.

Yellowstone is even more beautiful than I remember as a teenager.  And we stopped at a few scenic spots before making it to our campground, just outside the South entrance of Yellowstone.

We stayed in these cute camper cabins - more solid than a tent, but not much more inside than a bunk-bed.  The girls, however, loved the "balance beams" that divided our lot from Ken's brother's lot.

The Schnell gang . . . ie. the happy campers ;)

The girls had great fun with their cousins and their "hiking buddy", aka. Uncle Kris.

They didn't seem to mind the steep, and sometimes scary pathways that we hiked.

And I was pleasantly surprised that they thought the geysers were cool. (This is NOT a picture of it going off, BTW - turns out I only took video of it not any pictures.)

The girls with their cousin Carmen.

After the reunion in Yellowstone, we drove through Grand Teton National Park and stopped for a hike near Jackson lake, where the girls loved throwing rocks into the lake.

The mountains are stunning, even in poor lighting.

Mormon Row near Jackson, WY.  The Mormon settlers sure picked a pretty spot.

Then it was continuing on to my Dad's house, where we stayed the night before starting the Thornley reunion on Monday . . . and no stop is complete at Dad's house without sitting on the tractor.

This is the house I rented for our family reunion - it slept 55 - there were 40 of us, so we all slept comfortably.

 And there were so many fun areas for the kids (big and small) to play on - inside . . .

 and outside.

We played games like "Left, Right, Center" . . . 

 and Sophia was the big winner!

 We played volleyball . . .

and played at Bear Lake . . . 

had dutch-oven cooking demos by my brother . . .

 and had FHE, with a lesson by my Dad.  Priceless!

The big kids did such a great job of interacting with the little ones.

 We rented bikes to peddle around Garden City (much harder than it looks).

 Played bocce ball

 and then got off the lawn when the moose showed up.

My cousin Kathryn came to take a group photo, but while getting set up, we got this fun shot of the younger set of cousins.

 We had a second afternoon at the beach where we did the "Dribble Relay",

 and the "Over the Head Pass" . . . 

 followed by the balloon toss.  Turns out the beach is a great spot to play that game because they don't break as easily when they hit the sand/ water.

 Amelia with her favorite cousin, Richelle!

And of course, you can't go to Bear Lake without getting at least one LaBeau's raspberry shake . . . which we enjoyed while waiting for the Raspberry Day's parade to start.  And oh, how I love small town parades.  The parade was only 6 blocks long, but it lasted almost an hour and we ended up with a grocery bag FULL of candy, beads, frisbees, and balls.  The girls, especially Amelia, were in heaven - they'll never be satisfied with the politician/ car club/ no candy parades now.

And we ended the night with a little night bowling (glowsticks in water bottles) on the tennis court, while the owl on the light post above us, screeched at us.  

The reunion ended Friday morning and I somehow managed to get pictures of everyone and their families.  How grateful I am for such wonderful siblings, in-laws, and nieces/nephews.  I can't wait to do it all over again in 2 years . . . although I'm glad I won't be in charge of the next one :)

!

June June Glorious June

June flew by with so many activities and happenings.  Sophia started the month by inventing/ creating a swing for her teddy bear.

Then Amelia had a field trip with her Kindergarten class to Tolmie State Park, and I got to come along.

 It was very low tide . . . 

 and the sand dollars were so abundant it was almost impossible not to step on them :(

Next came strawberry season - and between me and my helper, Sophia, we picked a flat of strawberries in no time at all; which she then helped me make into multiple batches of strawberry jam.

Sophia had so much fun picking, that she went again that evening with Daddy and Amelia to pick another flat or two.

One of Amelia's pictures from her art class was selected by her art teacher to be displayed at the Lacey Spring Fun Fair (too bad we didn't know that in advance, since we didn't make it to the Fun Fair).

Sophia completed Joy School . . .

and Amelia completed Kindergarten . . . and school is out for the summer!

One of my best friends came to spend 10 glorious, fun-filled days with me and we spent it being tourists.  There is a sculpture park in Tenino . . . and although it is closed, there were a few sculptures out to view so the drive to the middle of nowhere wasn't completely a waste of time.

We went to the glass museum in Tacoma - and that was amazing!  The girls didn't break anything, ha-ha, and we all thought it was cool to watch them make/ blow glass into shapes. 

I got a babysitter for the girls and Carol and I went to the Seattle temple.

On Saturday, all of us, Ken included, went to Mt. Rainier for the day.  It was a perfect day to explore, hike, and enjoy the beauty all around us.

When we got there, the mountain was covered in clouds, but eventually the sun came out and we had a wonderful view of the snow covered mountain.

Our next day trip was to Ruby Beach.  It's a long drive, but worth it.  Such a cool place to explore.

 The girls found a "teeter-totter" to play on.

 And loved touching the "sea creatures".

In the middle of this month, Amelia started a 4-wk class of gymnastics.  She loves swinging on things at home and is very comfortable trying new things in her class.

On Carol's last day, we headed to Seattle for the tastes, sights, and sounds of the city, not to mention all of the traffic.  The girls LOVED feeding french fries to the "dainty eaters", ie. greedy seagulls.

 And playing on the sculptures around the city.

 And this cool overlook of the city, that also happened to have a fun play area for the kids.

Carol did so many fun things with the girls and made us lots of yummy treats, and after she left we tried to go back to our normal schedule, but thankfully, Carol had left one more activity for the girls and they spent 2 fun-filled hours playing with "moon sand" while I worked.  Yeah!

May Mayhem and Memorial Day

Amelia has become a monkey . . . or rather, a monkey bar expert.  She loves the monkey bars . . . and plays on them so much, she gets blisters on her hands, but even that doesn't slow her down too much.

Ken has had quite a few gigs lately with his band, "Guava Jam". . . lookin' good and sounding great.

We went to the elementary for S.T.E.M. night and had fun making a marble roller coaster . .

building a boat and playing with a zipline.

But our best activity this month was going to the beach for Memorial Day.  We explored 2 in the Olympic National Park that we had never been to before - Kalaloch Beach and Ruby Beach.  Different from each other but both very beautiful.  And it didn't rain - so there was that.  And there was this tree desperately hanging on for dear life - amazing!

Of course, it was cold at the beach; when isn't it?  But we came prepared with coats.

 I looked like I was ready for a winter storm to hit, but at least I was warm.

On our way to Ruby Beach, we saw this huge cedar tree that had multiple trees growing out of it - I love the way trees do that.

Ruby Beach was covered with downed trees/ logs which made it interesting and adventurous to get to the beach.

And the river rock covering the beach was so cool; I wanted to fill my pockets with them and take them home . . . but I didn't . . . oh, but I was successful in skipping a rock on the water with one of the many flat rocks on the beach.  And Amelia was successful in falling into the water, with her coat on . . . thank goodness Sophia brought 3 changes of clothes instead of just the one set I asked her to bring since Amelia was already on her 2nd outfit and wears the same size as Sophia :)

Gone Fishin'

The City of Lacey had a fishing event for kids - $5 for a rod and a lake stocked with fish.  Technically, Sophia was too young to register, but Ken brought her along to watch . . . and for the free hot cocoa.

Amelia was pretty excited to catch her first fish . . . and only got mildly freaked out when it started flipping around . . . but oddly, didn't seem to mind watching the guy gut and clean the fish.

Sophia caught a fish too, even though she technically should haven't been fishing . . . but the people in charge didn't seem to care, so she got a rod too.  

Sophia got bored after catching her fish, but Amelia went back at it . . . and excitedly caught another fish (although not pictured).

3 rainbow trout for dinner . . . both girls tried it . . . and Amelia ended up eating 3/4 of her fish.

$5 for 3 fish and a few hours of fishing fun - can't beat that! . . . oh, and I didn't have to come - even better! 

Spring Break

The week before Spring Break (which completely took me by surprise) we enjoyed 1/2 days of school, due to Parent Teacher Conferences, and sunny weather.  So we went to the park, decorated the driveways with chalk,

and made "sand castles" in the sand on the side of the road.

Since I was relatively unprepared for Spring Break, I decided to take the girls to Portland for a few days to stay with my friends.  The weather was perfect and the girls loved being able to wear their summer clothes.  We played at the Bullocks, met a friend for dinner, played at a park . . .

and went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, OR.

The weather was perfect and the girls loved all the flowers, but had a really hard time not picking them.

I let them pick up fallen petals, and though not the same as the whole flower, it satisfied the urge.

Being relatively new to my smart phone and all things pertaining to, I found that I am not very good at taking selfies . . . but this one turned out okay . . . and a bonus that we got the hot air balloon in the background.

The festival had lots of activities for the kids to do - both free and otherwise.  I let them each pick a paying activity - and both girls elected to jump for 5 min.

It wore them both out, but they loved it and wished they could do it again.

And speaking of being worn out - even though we didn't do much, I was worn out by the end of Spring Break.  I was very happy when school started back up again this week.