Slumber Party/Claire's Birthday

For Claire's Birthday, we went and had a sleepover at the DeCremer's! Our kids get along so great together. It was a blast for them to play and stay up way too late and eat way too much junk food. Isn't that what summer is for?

 We got a cake, but then Stephanie made Ben and Jerry's ice-cream with her ice-cream maker. It was FABULOUS. In fact, I am planning to buy the same machine Stephanie has and getting the same cookbook. Oh, and I may be gaining 15 pounds in the next few months...

Stephanie and Makenna were also super sweet- they made Claire a dress with a matching doll dress! It was really sweet of them.

From us, she got a slack line for the local park at home. It was delivered to Colorado, though, so she has to wait until we get home to enjoy it.

And then we enjoyed Lego Movie 2. This movie is hilarious!!!! Seriously, it is one of my new favorites! I can't wait to get it and watch it with Ben- he will love it!

USA! USA!

Much of my trip was spent watching the Women's World Cup! It was so great to see the US win!!! Go Team USA!

Roslyn, WA

Back in May, Olivia had a bust of a Birthday party. When my girls heard, they immediately said, "let's throw her a surprise party!" So, when the Hale's came up to the cabin, they did. Claire made Snickerdoodles, they made this lovely HB sign with photo props, and we had a small gift for her. It was sweet.

Then we went to Cle Elum for a parade. It was pretty fun- it definitely felt like a small town!

Then we went over to Roslyn to do one of my girls' favorite things: Look at a cemetery! This one had graves back to the early 1800's. There were lots of babies buried- one woman had 4 babies buried. It was sad, and a great reminder of how lucky we are to live in an age where we don't need to worry too much about our babies not living until adulthood.

 We hit the candy shop for some ice-cream (I got lavender salted caramel, which sounds gross but was SOOOOOO yummy!)

 Ever heard of the TV show Northern Exposure? This cafe was used for filming. Even though the setting is Canada in the show, they used this cute little town for the true setting. Now I need to go home and watch the show!

And, Camille thrilled herself with these glasses that she made out of pipe cleaners.

Cousin Time!

Then, after our exciting morning, the DeCremer's came up. We went back to the Snoqualmie Tunnel- this time to ride bikes through the tunnel.

Unfortunately, even though they brought several head lamps for us to use, we left them at the cabin. That left us with a couple of flashlights and our cell phone lights- not nearly enough for our group. We got in the tunnel, and Camille got really freaked out. I have learned that when she uses her super scared voice, you trust that and not make her do it. Makenna was also freezing as she was in shorts and sleeveless shirt, so I ended up taking Claire, Makenna, and Camille back. We biked to another area and had snacks.

Then, we had a nice BBQ dinner, roasted some s-mores, and did a few small fireworks- sparklers and such.

There was, of course, also a lot of playing. They love playing in the motor home. They had a great time together. Cousin time really is the best!

The Miracle of the Glasses

The girls decided they wanted to go fishing. Dad decided we should go to the river that is in their backyard to fish. Perfect! I mean, look how beautiful this is!

But, Audra's pole wasn't working too well. So, Dad and Audra start heading back to the cabin to get a new pole.

The place where we are at is not a stable area- the foundation is not at all stable, and having your foot fall through a hole is common.

Suddenly, we hear a large "splash." While walking to the top of the ridge, Audra fell and stumbled into the river. She was completely submerged. Thankfully, she was completely fine. But, her glasses were GONE. Swept away by the swift current.

Crap.

Not only was she going to be blind for the next 2 weeks until we get her new glasses, but her glasses are very expensive since they are bifocals, so that fall was going to cost us a lot of money. And, she would be blind for several days! How awful!

For the second time in as many days (remember my glasses adventure in the tunnel yesterday?) we prayed for a "glasses miracle." If the glasses got caught in the current, there was no way we would find them. But, we prayed that we could find them- Audra most of all! She went inside to take a shower- I didn't want her in the river. Dad and I started walking up and down the river. I was walking downstream. I felt like I should turn around and go back upriver, but the river wasn't swift and so I decided to keep looking just to make sure before I headed back.

After not finding anything, I headed back upriver- and I heard Dad yell, "come on back- I found them!"

He went to the spot where Audra had fallen in and also said a prayer. He didn't see anything, but then felt prompted to walk to the middle of the river and then look back where she fell in. Sure enough, as soon as he turned back around, he saw her glasses under the tree floating just underneath the tree in the water.

Hallelujah! Never have her glasses looked so good!

Truly, this was a miracle! I have felt the Lord bless me in many hard and really big things, but I also have a testimony that He is also in the little things. He truly led us to those glasses- an absolute miracle indeed.

Snoqualmie Tunnel

We headed up to my parents cabin for a few days. We decided to hike the Snoqualmie Tunnel. The girls were excited when Grandpa suggested hiking through a dark tunnel with flashlights.

It was longer than we expected- 2.7 miles. And, we heard A LOT of complaining from a certain middle child (not me!). Granted, it was very cold, even with our jackets. But it was also really neat! It's an old railroad tunnel. It used to be a train that would bring skiers from Seattle and Tacoma to the slopes, but the train rides ended in 1949, so now it's just a really fun hiking/biking trail.

When you get to the end of the tunnel, you are rewarded but a beautiful meadow type setting. We were grateful to be out of the tunnel to warm up for a few minutes before we headed back.

Surprisingly, we didn't hear nearly as much complaining on the walk back, and the walk back seemed much shorter. I wonder if that's a coincidence- less complaining, much more pleasant walk. Hmmm...

About half way through this very dark tunnel, I realized I had dropped my sunglasses. Oops! I quickly said a prayer and went back, and thankfully found them pretty soon. Thank goodness for answered prayers!

A cute selfie:

Then, for the fireworks we headed over to Cle Elum. I love going to fireworks in this small town- you geet there about 20 minutes before the show, and there's still plenty of parking and seats. There's a great 20 minute show- and they really do a fabulous job- then you wait 30 seconds to get out of the parking lot, and head home without any problems.

Happy 4th of July! Our country has a lot of problems, but I am still grateful for this great country of ours!

Dash Point

It was way too chilly, but we braved one of our favorite places in the world anyway: Dash Point State Park. It's right down the street from my parents, and we could stay here all day- if it wasn't raining.

As we drove over, the rain was coming down pretty hard. When we got there, I told my girls they needed to go to the beach for just 5 minutes. They had been cooped up while Steph and I were watching the Women's World Cup, and they needed to be out side running around.

The rain mostly let up- it was a light mist. The kids came up with a "survival game" as the tide came in- trying to save the shells they had collected from the tide.

After about 40 minutes, when the rain really started coming down again, we had to drag them from the beach. We will definitely be going back when the weather is nice!