A Visit from Addison

  The first week of July we were fortunate to have our niece Addison come visit from Phoenix.  The girls had such a wonderful time playing together, and we had a lot more fun than we usual do for sure.  We went to two different parks, had lunch at McDonald's and played there, visited the Cougar Mountain Zoo, went cardboard sledding, jumped at the Flying Circus, swam at Grandma and Grandpa's community pool, and did a little cruise of Lake Washington.  We ended our great week with a cook out at Brad and DeAnna's.  Addison was such a joy to have up here.  It was sweet to watch her excitedly meet baby Benny for the first time.  We love Addison and the girls were bummed when she went home.

Luke, Addison, and Harper

Addison with Lake Sammamish in the the background.

Addison and Emery look like they are having the time of their lives while Harper is laying down in the fetal position.  Avery is toting her sled back up the hill.  She wore her helmet pretty much the whole time.

Addison, Harper, and Emery at the bottom.

Avery jumping 

Emery and Harper 

Avery using the zipline at Flying Circus

Addison's turn

Harper and Emery thought they were going to battle it out but they were too heavy for them to lift.

Emery posing for me in the foam pit.

On the way home from Flying circus they sacked out.

Luke offering me a M&M at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Harper, Addison, Emery, and Luke helping themselves to candy at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Logan and Luke playing together in Luke's room.

An alpaca at Cougar Mountain Zoo.  Daryl took the kids since my knee was hurting that day, so the kids took pictures with the iPad.

This is Harper's picture of a bunny in the crane enclosure.

Someone took this great pictures of some of the parrots.

On the Argosy cruise on Lake Washington.

Luke and Harper with Addison behind them.

Harper and Daryl

Emery and me

Luke and Lady

The kids having a water balloon fight at Brad and DeAnna's.

Fourth of July

  Fourth of July was a busy day.  We started the day off right with breakfast at the Buttered Biscuit with Adam, Angie, Logan, Ben, Grandma, and Grandpa because it's my Dad's birthday.  We had Addison visiting with us that week, so we had extra cousin fun.  After breakfast we took the kids to Northwest Trek.  They loved seeing all the animals there and having ice cream of course.  Then we spent the evening at Daryl's Aunt Debbie's.  There were a whole mess of little cousins there to play with and Daryl's cousins too of course.  The kids had a blast playing together.  Addison especially enjoyed the fireworks since she is from Phoenix and has never seen them up close.  It was a great evening.  The only drawback is while I was running away from a pack of water gun wielding children I tweaked my knee and have had to take it easy ever since.  Fortunately nothing was damaged and I should be good to go in a couple of weeks after a little physical therapy.

Avery, Addison, Emery, and baby Ben

Logan

Addison, Avery, Luke, Emery and baby Ben

Harper on a business call as usual.

Avery, Harper, and Addison on the tram at Northwest Trek.

Luke and I

Emery, Addison, Avery, and Harper checking out some animal furs.  They were really into this station.

All the cousins having a grand time with pop-its.

Addison and Addie.  This is Daryl's cousin Jennie's girl.  They are also from Arizona and Addison actually met them last year when we visited Arizona last year.

Addie, Harper, and Addison

A whole bunch of cousins.  Let's see whose names I remember.  Starting in the back:  Harper, Addison, Addie, Emery, Luke, Penelope, Ethan, Sofie holding a sweet baby girl whose name I can't remember, Jules(Aimee's niece).  Front row:  Jaden, Avery, and Tyler

Mike and Daryl helping the kids with fireworks.  

Debbie helping Emery and Jaden with a firework.

Emery and Luke being silly.

The Last Gasp of June and the First Breath of July

   Here's some stuff from the last week of June that hasn't already been covered and then the very first day of July when Aimee, Karl, and Tyler came over to celebrate Emery's birthday.  Tyler was a super awesome cousin and gave all his little cousins piggy back rides around the house much to their delight.

Harper composed this Dad poem on Daryl's white board.

Harper lost her second front tooth and now she can't enjoy corn on the cob anymore.

I ended up at Little Jon's one morning with the three younger kids and we went crazy and got the big cinnamon roll.

Luke at Little Jon's.

Harper and I went on a date together when she had a hair cut.

She chose a hamburger place and then ordered the mac and cheese.

Luke helping me doing some baking.  

Dax decided there wasn't enough stuff on this console already.

Tyler and Emery

Tyler, Harper and Luke

Tyler and Luke

"Mom I'm going to make a tunnel."

Emery Turns Five

   Emery's fifth birthday was the last Thursday in June.  She has been looking forward to her birthday for ages.  To celebrate her birthday I took her, Harper, and Luke to indoor play place in Factoria where she had a great time running around and playing.  (Avery was at summer school in the morning.)  I actually made a homemade chocolate cake for Emery's birthday; an anomaly that Harper took note of.  Emery was suitably impressed with the cake and uttered a breathy reverent "holy" when she saw.  Apparently to awestruck to finish up the holy with a moley or toledo or perhaps even smoke.  She had the same reaction to the gifts she was given as well.  Of all our children I think Emery is the most satisfying to give a gift to because of her overwhelmingly positive reactions to them.  

Luke at the play place.

Harper and Emery coming down the slide.

Emery in the birthday crown that Harper made for her.

Harper, Emery, Luke, and Avery with the birthday cake.  Note how the cake has a single five candle on it.

Emery was unsatisfied with just one five candle, so we had to add five candles before she would even consider blowing out candles.

Emery's delight at getting gifts.

Emery's big gift was the Minnie Mouse tent she had asked for.

Luke was extremely upset he didn't get to blow out candles and was insistent it was his birthday too.  He was humored with the candles.