Independence Day {July 4}

Our community 4th of July party is always a big hit and something we look forward to attending each year.  We’ve had some crazy weather these past few weeks so it was actually a little chilly, but thankfully no rain so I actually preferred the cooler temps rather than spending all afternoon in the scorching heat.

Carly and Abigail quickly met up with friends and we saw very little of them the rest of the afternoon.  Jason saw Hyrum and his Mom waiting in line for this ride and joined up with them for the rest of the party.

Sarah sent me a few pictures of the boys’ afternoon

That left Justin and I taking Katie and Drew around to all the bouncy houses and other fun activities.  Drew needed a little boost to get onto the bouncy toys

We ate plenty of free popcorn, cotton candy and soda to keep us sugared up.  

Drew got really good at the Angry Birds sling shot.

Katie was too big for the swings, but Drew loved them

The kiddie train was also a hit

Near the end we posed for a few pictures in the photo booths.

The three big kids went mountain biking with the Ricks after the party while I spent the afternoon in the kitchen making food for a BBQ at the Squires that evening.  I wish I would have taken a picture of all the delicious food we had that night.  After stuffing ourselves we headed outside where the kids played on all the fun riding toys and then the Squires put on a little firework show in the front of their house. 

This is the first year that Snoqualmie has restricted the use of fireworks – nothing that goes up or blows up is allowed.  This is a HUGE change from previous years were the entire city seemed to be lit up with huge firework displays.  One house burns down two years ago and the whole city has to suffer ;)

The city worked with organizers to create a new 4th of July tradition by bringing in a professional firework show – Red, White, and Boom!  We were super impressed with the show and I’m excited for it to be a new tradition for our family in the years to come.

Berry Picking & Elk Hunting {July 2}

We spent the morning waiting and waiting for Abigail to get home from EFY so we could go berry picking.  Morgan’s Dad was planning to pick up the girls at 7am so we figured she’d be home by 8am.  I had sent her a text around midnight letting her know that we had gotten home late from the Mariners game and would likely still be in bed when she got home so she could just let herself in through the garage.

At 8:45am she still wasn’t home so I sent her a text, letting her know we were up and that we wanted to go berry picking.  It wasn’t until 10am that I finally got a text that she was “coming now”.  When she pulled up to the house at 10:15am with Morgan’s Mom I knew something was off.  Apparently, Abigail’s phone wasn’t working so she only got my text that we were sleeping in so instead of coming straight home she went to Morgan’s house.  When Lindsey got home from the gym and saw Abigail hanging out at their house she brought her home – finally!

We quickly left for Harvold Farms in Carnation excited for the delicious raspberries they are well known for.  Drew was ready for some berry picking/eating!

The fields had opened for picking at 7:30am after being closed since Wednesday so it took us a while to find some areas that weren’t already picked over.  Well worth the search – so, so yum!

Fifteen pounds of raspberries later we headed over to a nearby blueberry farm for several pounds of those as well.  We spent some time when we got home making jam and freezing some of the raspberries for later.  While Drew napped and Abigail unpacked, Justin and I went to the park and played tennis while Jason, Carly and Katie played at the park and rode bikes.  Such a great day to spend outside.

That evening Justin and I went out with the Reynolds, Vernons, and Barlows (who have made the “Texodus” and are spending the month back in beautiful Washington instead of miserably hot Texas).  Always a great time with these couples.

The Barlows rode with us and after dinner, instead of heading straight over to the Reynolds, Laura insisted we go on a hunt to find the elk herd.  It didn’t take long to find them grazing in an open field.  Seriously, who needs Yellowstone when we live among so much wildlife?

Mariners & Fireworks {July 1}

We try to go to at least one Mariners game each summer.  Mormon night is always a fun night to go because there is always lots of friends that go and each ticket holder scores a free t-shirt with the discounted tickets.  However, this year Mormon night was on the same night that Justin and I were going to the PGA Championship so it didn’t work out.

Justin had forgotten that T-Mobile had a few discounted tickets until just a few days before the Friday, July 1 game.  When we saw that it was also a firework night we booked them quick.  Justin was able to leave work early because of the upcoming holiday so we had plenty of time to go out to dinner beforehand.  Enough time that we could dip down to Federal Way where a new Café Rio opened last week and score our family free meals.  Totally worth the detour!

Justin doesn’t pay for parking {shocker!} so after driving all around the stadium and not finding anything close he dropped us off and parked the car out in tim-buck-to while we waited outside the stadium for him to make the trek back.  (I would have happily paid $10 to not have to make the trek back out to the van after the game - 11pm walking through sewage-smelling homeless communities wasn’t pleasant)

Turns out my kids attend Mariners games for the food.  I thought I’d brought lots of snacks and treats, especially considering we’d just eaten a huge meal at Café Rio, but I learned you can never have enough.  By the end I had to start rationing and only passing out goodies after the Mariners scored. 

It was a great game with the Mariners hitting three home runs and beating the Orioles, 5-2.  The fireworks show afterward was fantastic and far surpassed my expectations.

In Jason’s words the evening, “was really awesome!”  We missed having Abigail with us, but she was having oodles of fun at EFY. 

June Wrap-Up

June 17:  Today was our last day of school.  The kids got home early and got right in to having fun.  Jason was invited to go on a bike ride from the falls down into Carnation.  His new bike made the ride much easier than it would have been otherwise.  Sarah Ricks sent me a few pictures of the boys.

They caught the trail at this tunnel

   

And they ended in Carnation at Tolt-McDonald 

The Ricks were also nice enough to take Carly and Jason to the Federal Way swimming pool with them the following Friday.

June 18:  It’s no secret that we have a reputation for getting good deals on things.  A few months ago Justin discovered Dixey’s coupons on the back of the Fred Meyer receipts.  Buy a drink, get a free sandwich.  So for about $10-15 we can feed our family of seven and then fill in any gaps with their all-you-can-eat ice cream cones.  Dinner is served!

   

Drew really got a kick out of Justin’s twin towers cone

June 24:  I love seeing my kids spending their time enjoying a good book.  We’ve found some great books for Jason this summer and he’s already read several books including Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang and the BFG and is excited to watch the movie renditions of both.

June 27:  Abigail has been excited to attend her first session of EFY (Especially for Youth) program in Tacoma.  I was looking forward to taking her and Morgan down so I could be there when they settled into their dorm room and be able to watch them start their adventure.  I was raised in Utah where the majority of my peers shared my same faith and beliefs.  For these girls, walking onto a campus where hundreds of youth GET them has got to be an amazing feeling.  I hope that in a few years she can attend EFY in Utah where that feeling would be even more magnified.  To be honest I was jealous of all the fun awaiting her.  I never attended EFY though I’m not sure I would have fully appreciated the experience – it really is different for these teens that are so in the minority in their everyday lives. 

We snuck in Abigail’s first summer lunch date on the way down (she was technically supposed to go the prior week, but with Tyrone in town it didn’t happen) – it’d been a long time since we’ve been to Olive Garden and now I remember why ;)  The company was great though and they really do have yummy breadsticks.

These two girls had a fabulous week and met lots of great youth. 

I think it’s pretty funny that she’s using my college bedding – perhaps it might be time to retire them :)

Since I hadn’t heard anything from Abigail all week, on Thursday I sent her a text:

Me:  How’s it going stranger??

Abigail:  Good

Me:  Clearly you are home sick ;)

When I related the above conversation to my friend Laura she said that clearly Abigial is her mother’s daughter.  I have no problem completely stepping away from home and totally enjoying myself in the moment.  I’m so glad Abigail had such a great experience!

June 28:  T-Mobile Tuesday scored us tickets to see Finding Dory.  We had to choose a time late enough in the day that Justin could leave work and join us, but early enough that the kids could still make it to youth night – so we landed on a 3D showing!  Drew loved the glasses, but only when the movie was NOT on :)

And since we apparently have no shame when it comes to scoring free stuff, Justin bummed additional movie tickets off of his co-workers so we could get four more tickets to take some friends to another movie that evening – Shallows.  Two very different fish movies in the same day. 

June 29:  Jason’s turn for a summer lunch date.  He chose Red Robin.  Justin and I had just gone there over the weekend, but with a little customization my chicken sandwich was super yum. 

My license was expiring on my birthday and since I wanted an enhanced license that meant I needed to go into the department of license office to renew.  The wait time only showed 19 minutes online, but that was misleading.  It may have only taken 19 minutes to talk to start the process, but it took over 2 hours to walk out of there with my temporary license.  And after all that, they snapped a picture of me mid-blink.  The whole process was pretty irritating.  Thankfully, I had my birthday BOGO Cold Stone coupon that helped Jason and I feel better about the last two hours of our lives.

July 1:  Sleeping babies are always the sweetest.  Back in the fall Drew started taking off his pajamas at night so we put them on backwards so he can’t unzip them and that problem was solved.  Now he’s started taking off his clothes at naptime then he’ll tuck himself in with his blankets. 

On this particular afternoon I went in to wake him up so he could go to the Mariners game.  Besides no clothes I was surprised and pleased to see he didn’t have his binkie in his mouth.  Oh, my sweet boy!