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!