Ain't Life Grand? Day 1

Last month we were blessed with the opportunity to meet our parents, our sisters, and their families in Grand Lake, Colorado for a weeklong vacation.  It's been my dream for years that Steve and I, our siblings, and all of our kiddos would be able to have an annual beach house vacation together and having moved out to WA this past winter we're always looking for opportunities to spend time with our families.  It worked out last month that everyone except my brother was able to make it.  One house, 4 bedrooms, 17 people, 8 days. Sounds kinda crazy when you put it that way, huh?

Our first full day there we hung around town and explored the beach and shops in Grand Lake.  First thing in the morning, as we made the brief walk from our house to the beach, we came across this guy.

kiddos playing in the COLD water at the beach

the view from the beach

The girls had a great time in the gift shops.

Even though we intended for it to be a low-key day to give everyone a chance to acclimate to the altitude, apparently it was too much for these two boys.  Also note the snack stash on the table behind them. What you see there is probably only about 1/3 of the total.  Some of us went a little overboard :)

the deer that spent a good deal of time hanging around the house -

 this was taken from our kitchen window

Greta taking care of her cousin Lincoln

It's gonna take a few parties . . .

like this one to convince some of our tri-city friends who are less than enthusiastic about the 4th of July that it's really the BEST HOLIDAY EVER!  I think we made at least a little progress toward that end this year, though :)

Yummy Food

Elias REALLY enjoyed the strawberries!

Good Friends

The whole weekend was made so much sweeter because we were able to spend it with our good friends the Birds.  Friday night we had a perfect night of eating Thai takeout on the lawn while watching what seemed to be a fireworks show competition between some neighbors down the street, while the girls all stayed up late and ran around the yard screaming and laughing.

 Here's the Birds' sweet little Victoria.

CMan!

Noel and Benjamin

Praxis Kiddos

Fireworks!

Our neighborhood has a CRAZY amount of fireworks.  We chose to not even go to one of the city fireworks displays because there were huge fireworks going off in every direction and we could enjoy awesome displays without having to fight crowds and traffic.  Really, it went on all weekend; some people might find that annoying but I loved every boom, whistle, and scream!

Safety Instructions

'Rora and her sparkler

The Pattersons

The Ockenfels

Sandi and Tori

Our Greta

Aaron and Nathan

Baseball and Badger . . .

 . . . were just two of the many highlights of our week with Nonni and Uncle Jon in June.

 The baseball game on a Friday night was the Dust Devils' home opener complete with fireworks, so we took the opportunity to celebrate Father's Day a little early.  We had such a blast!  I'm pretty sure it's the first baseball game my mom has ever actually enjoyed.

Not only was it fireworks night, but also $1 hotdogs and small drinks!  Even Grace has probably had pop less than a dozen times in her lifetime -- they were pumped!

Elias just looking cute!

We stayed for the whole event including the fireworks afterwards, resulting in some very tired girls.

Despite a little of what we call rain in the tri-cities, we ventured out to conquer Badger Mountain  on Saturday morning.  4 kids 6 and under and one grandma with a broken arm barely even slowed us down.

The view from the top.

Devoted Uncle

After an intense game of playground tag at our local elementary school in which Grace opted to leap from the play structure landing on Uncle Jon, trusting that he would catch her and allow himself to be tagged, rather than allow her to fall to the ground, we had the great fortune of an impromtu sprinkler shower.

Monday we went out for opening day of cherry season!  Since this is the first time in 10 years we've lived outside Big 10 Country we have to find something to get geared up for :)  It's a great U-pick experience for kids because there is a lot of fruit and plenty of it is at their eye-level. 

On the last day of their visit we headed to the local splash pad -- fun times!

Such a memorable visit -- just wish they had stayed longer!  Love you, Nonni and Uncle Jon!

Burger King - this one's for Papa!

Since we moved to the Tri-Cities, Papa (Steve's dad) has sent the kids Burger King gift cards a couple of times which have provided us with great excuses to get out of the house on a number of occasions. What makes it even better is that all the Burger King's around here have playlands!  The last time we were there I got some great photos of the kiddos that I subsequently had some fun with. Thanks Papa!

 Notice the chicken nugget in the mouth.

Ezekiel George - Special Ops