July Family Vacation

The first week of July was a busy one for us. Amanda, Jason, and Jakey came up for our family vacation. We spent a couple days on the mountain before heading over to Steven's Pass to meet up with Sabrina and Devin. But first, we had to celebrate Jakey's 1st birthday. I made him a dino cake complete with erupting volcano.

 

Can you see where Steven was sneaking the cookie border...

 The kids decided they wanted to go camping in a tent so on July 3rd we set up a tent in my parents yard to give it a go. They were so excited!

 They made it all of 15 minutes before they were begging to go back in the house. Caden got it in his head that the bears were going to get him and no matter how many time we told him there were no bears in Grammy's yard, he kept saying he could here them growling...2 of them. So then we took the tactic of the bears couldn't get in the fenced yard....,"dim bears jump da fence! TWO of dim!" So we called it in and put them to bed inside.

Then on the 5th we headed out to Steven's pass to stay in a rental home. On the way we stopped in Cashmere. Steven does work for a bank there and on of the ladies he works with had set up Nome houses all around town, so we went on a little Nome scavenger hunt.

 Caden kept himself busy by biting his feet....

 Then later down the road, Evelyn got to feeling sick. So we promptly pulled over to get her some fresh air and were pleasantly surprised to find a trail head and lots of little waterfalls just off the highway.

 Caden was nervous at first, then was loving the water, then got a little too comfortable and fell in one of the pools at the top of the little waterfall.

 While we were there, we went to a reptile museum in Monroe. This is the kids under an anaconda

 Caden loved the alligator

 I don't think I would ever have babies if the range was 3-80. That's a serious gamble.

 There was an albino alligator that the kids weren't overly fond of...Caden didn't trust him enough to turn his back on him.

 Evelyn shoed us how brave she was by petting a snake, and then eventually even holding it!

Caden felt pretty brave just poking it

 On one of the nights everyone went to a mariners game. Me and my mom opted out because, well, that's not really my thing. So we watched all the kids....and boy do other peoples kids like to cry. It turned out ok. The kids settled down by 10 and then everyone got home just before midnight and they all had a fun time at the game.

 

Things only got out of control for a little bit while everyone was gone...

 

 But we settled down real good

 Even little Jakey. He was solid asleep until I'm like lets take a picture and the flash got his arm a waving.

 

 Then the next day we took the kids down to the locks. They had a great time. Steven, I think, had the best time. It was fun to watch all the big boats. And the salmon were running too and the kids super loved that.

 

 

Little Miss Evelyn got a little too tired and did not want her picture taken with Caden...

 So we kicked her out of the pictures....

 And not to be out done, she pulled out her biggest smile for some by herself pictures

And upon threat of no ice cream, begrudgingly smiled with Caden.

Taking a family picture when a plane is passing above never works out for anyone...

 That day was also my birthday! Yay for 28!! So for my birthday I wanted to do something I've never done and that thing was cliff jumping! The place was so perfect. It hurt a lot more than I expected but no on told me to plug my nose. I didn't go for a super high jump, just like and 8-12 feet'er but you had to clear some rock so I was super nervous. How often do you have to jump out and over something...um, never. So I had no idea what my clearing range was. Over 3-4 feet apparently since I'm still walking.

 This one is Steven on the rope swing across the river where I jumped. It's a really bright picture so you can only sort of see him parallel to the water there.

And Steven took this cool panorama

 And the kids were so tired from the days adventures. Fell asleep while playing with his garbage truck.

Then  the last morning we were there we got a wild hair to hike up to Wallace Falls. The hike was not the wild part...The making it a sunrise hike and leaving at 4 in the morning was the wild part.

 It was pretty. Not real sunrisey since it was foggy.

 And then we headed back home. The kids got a little restless coming to Moses Lake so we stopped and played at the park and in the lake for a little bit to let them unwind. For the most part, they did really well in the car. No one threw up this trip, so I'm going to say they did really well.

 And as soon as we got back, Steven had a golf tournament....like I said, Busy.  And I wish I could say more about Steven's golfing but all I know is that he's on the board for a non-profit organization call Transitions and this was their fundraiser and he got his company to be a sponsor. I think that's accurate. I'm gonna say 85% sure on that one.