Home again

After four days away, I must say its nice to see these little faces again.

I missed all their drama and silliness.

Beach Day

When the weather finally warmed up this week, we finally got to enjoy a sunny beach day. Most of our friends are out of town for July so we went to the beach at the State Park, and Emma made a new friend. They swam for almost 2 hours together.

Henry was mostly nervous about the water and hung out with me on the sand. We mostly avoided sunburns, except for a large patch I missed on my shoulder, and its still hurting a little. It was so nice to finally enjoy the cool water and warm sun. We stayed until Henry was dying for a nap, and then went back the next day for some more. We are lucky to live so close to beautiful lakes.

4th of July Festivities

Emma was lucky and got to ride the tallest horse available. :)

The 4th is one of our favorite holidays. After an early morning flag raising program at the church, and a trip for Shane down to the reservation to buy some commercial grade fireworks, we headed over to downtown Issaquah for their celebrations. The kids rode ponies, and Emma got her face painted, and bounced for a while on the bouncy toys. Its such a fun thing to do, and one thing I love about our community. Issaquah has such a small-town feel to it. I love it.

Emma & her star face, (It lasted only about an hour before getting smudged).

Henry was super timid about the horse. Luckily he had Shane support him on the journey.

We then headed over for a family barbecue at my parents. Later that night, we talked them all into coming out to our friends house in Preston to light fireworks. They put on their own little fireworks show, and Shane got to help light everything off, so he was in boy-heaven.

The many faces of Maren (all these were within about 30 seconds of each other): Can't wait to see her as a teenager.

Emma adores Maren!

Cutie Pie Aaker

The rest of us sat around and chatted, enjoying the nice weather and good company. :)

Maren didn't love the wagon as much as Henry did.

The New Wagon

I spotted this wagon at Silverwood a couple months ago, and found it recently at Costco. Its collapsible so it fits easily in the back of the car and is our new favorite "ride" when out and about the neighborhood, the beach or the park. This was the first day we got it and the kids wanted to have their snack of strawberries, while relaxing in the wagon.