In August, I finally found a day when the sun and my schedule coordinated to allow this - water play in front of the Children's Museum. The girls were pretending to be mermaids ;)
Amelia and Sophia took a community class called "Stop, Drop, and Roll". It was all about firefighters, fires, etc. Despite Amelia's immense fear of fire, she loved this class and actually asked if she could take it again.
On Aug. 30, Amelia had her adenoids removed. The poor girl has been breathing through her mouth for probably over a year and her parents finally got around to doing something about it. She was a trooper and now she can breathe easy.
Over Labor Day weekend, we all went to Portland to visit the Grandparents. We went to the Dahlia Festival in Canby - which the girls love. They don't mind that they can't pick the flowers, they're just as happy to pick up flower petals . . .
. . . and broken flowers that have fallen in the mud. I love the variety of the flowers . . . and the funny/ creative names that they all.
On Sunday, we headed out to Lincoln City for some fun in the sun. The temp. was only 63F, but there was minimal wind (just enough to fly a kite) and it felt wonderful. No one minds not being in a swimsuit and we bring a change of clothes instead of trying to get all the sand out of the current outfit.
Sophia has been asking for her own kite for awhile now, and was thrilled to get one from her uncle at the family reunion. And even more excited that she was able to get it up on her own and keep it up.
Of course, no trip to the beach would be complete without wave jumping with Daddy. He's so good to stand in the frigid water with the girls, while I stay high and dry on the sand. We even saw seals feasting on the fish so close to shore.
School started on Sept. 7 for Amelia . . . this was at the Open House the night before when she found her classroom and her seat.
First day of school - 1st grade! Go Amelia!
Ken had an unexpected free Saturday and spent the day working in the yard. The girls LOVE helping him in the yard. He was grateful for the help and they made good progress.
By the end of the day, this beautiful rock garden was all done in our yard. I wish I could get things on my to-do list done in a day, ha-ha.
Despite not quite being 5, Sophia got to start Kindergarten this year. We found her classroom and met her teacher a few days before school started.
Sophia started on Sept. 12. She was so excited she could barely sleep the night before.
And rode the bus to school like a pro. No looking back for this girl. Go Sophia!
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 :)
