4th of July

We had a perfect 4th of July! I can't think of anything more American than family, fishing, bbq-ing, eating home made ice-cream, and fireworks. It was a great day!

Melissa and her girls drove out so we got to enjoy some wonderful cousin time as well.

They started out the day by painting Grandma's front tire/flowerbed.

Then we headed down to the pond where Grandpa had a heck of a time trying to keep 6 fishing poles going for all these girls. Luckily, Isaac was there to help a bit. I refused to help with putting worms on hooks.

Audra overcame her fear of fishing. She said that catch and release is fine, but she doesn't want to see Grandpa kill a fish and then us have to cook it for dinner. I'm glad she isn't scarred for life from her previous fishing experience where she thought she would be getting a pet fist, only to discover we were eating her fish for dinner instead.

Audra was the lucky winner who caught a fish- can you see it?

Alicia passed the time by making everybody a floral headpiece:

The girls helped Grandma get a bonfire going. This maybe wasn't the safest activity, but it probably wasn't the most dangerous of the trip, either.

Grandpa grilled us up a delicious bbq:

I'm not sure where the mustaches came from, but the girls loved them:

Time for sparklers and snakes- we went with very safe fireworks this year:

Homemade Rocky Road ice-cream- my favorite!

And then we went into Cle Elum for the fireworks show. For such a small town (a couple hundred people), they really put on a great show. We were all very impressed. The best park: small towns means small crowds! Within 5 minutes of the show being over, the parking lot was empty and traffic was over. It was wonderful! I could get used to the small town life. Well, maybe not- but it was awesome. And, I can definitely see the cabin being a new July 4th tradition.

Granger

Stephanie really wanted to take the kids to Granger. They have a dinosaur park there- a bunch of dinosaurs that the kids can climb on. It's a two hour drive from the cabin, so we headed out early.

The kids really had a great time- it was a lot of fun for them to play together.

We stopped at a Mexican bakery. We had never been to one, so we had no idea what to expect- or had any idea as to what we were buying We each just picked one- 11 pastries total. We had no idea what they would cost- I figured about $3 each. My mom offered to pay. When she told us the grand total came to a whopping $5.50, we all thought she was rung up wrong. But, this is obviously a town of minority farm workers who are very impoverished, so I think the price actually was correct. They were delicious, we all gobbled our treats up. So, if you ever happen to be in Granger, stop by the Mexican bakery and support a local business. It's well worth your .50 per pastry.

We wore the kids out- mission accomplished!

The Cabin

About a year ago my parents bought a cabin in Easton, about an hour and a half from home. I'm pretty sure they will eventually move out here and rent out their home in the city, but for now it's a place they get to as often as they can to relax and enjoy the serenity of the mountains. I knew that I wanted to go up for a few days, so we decided to go up for 4 days. Honestly, I could have stayed so much longer! It was so wonderful.

We started out with Steph joining us for a night. We roasted some s'mores- yum! It was a perfect evening!

Friends!

I had a great opportunity to meet with some old high school friends- some of whom I haven't seen since high school 20 years ago. It was AWESOME! It was so great to catch up with them, and made me think I need to go to my reunion come August. It really was amazing, and made me once again realize how lucky I am to have had so many great friends throughout my life. Truly, good friends have been one of the greatest blessings of my life.