3 to 4

We had originally planned to go to the beach for Gary's birthday but then we thought it would be fun, since Greg had the time off, to go to Nana's (my mom's) house.

So Wednesday morning we packed up and headed out.

Gary ready and waiting



We wanted to head up to Mt. Rainier to take a short hike on our way out.
We wanted to do the wildflower hike in paradise buuuuuhhhhhtt when we got there, all we found was some snow. So we headed back down the mountain to find a warmer, more tennis shoe friendly hike.

I knew it!! There IS Snow in heaven!
Paradise, Mt. Rainier

If you've ever been to Mt Rainier, you know that there are no side rails on the side of the road, so this is your view as you're driving down the mountain!!!!!

We got stopped for a bit so I got out and took a picture of what it looks like over the side of the road.

I found it best to just keep looking up and out, instead of down and down.....

We decided to stop at this trail. It sounded easy and perfect for the boys.

Ashley was happy to be out of the car and and snugglin with her daddy!

I love how "out-doorsy" she already is. She loves to be outside with her family!

We crossed over a bridge that looked over a river. The sign said that it was a 180somethin foot drop and only 13 feet across at the bottom! it was a very deep, very narrow canyon!

I'd say our vacation is off to a pretty good start!

This was pretty cool.  We decided that we definitely need to go back to this mountain more often!
especially since it's only an hour away!

When we got to my mom's it was pretty hard to keep the boys out of the pool for very long.

These are all of my parents grand kids, 5 boys and 1 girl

from left to right, 9, 5, 4, 4, 2, and 7months

Ashley crusin in the car.

Isaac using his daddy as a boat!

The advantage to having it be 70 at 8am is that you can eat breakfast outside

PLUS you can splash in the water that lands on the patio from the sprinkler.

Breakfast + Water + Morning = 1 Happy little girl!

Gary wanted a Monster tuck cake for his birthday.

This is one of my favorite cakes to make for the boys...for obvious reasons.

This is what a happy birthday boy looks like!

He was getting impatient waiting for his cake so he started singing happy birthday to himself.

and then out came the cake!!!!!

the infamous, germ spreading, blowing out of the candles!

It was  hit!

Our long time family friends came to celebrate with us and the got him a hat, pencils, and little wooden bat of the Walla Walla Sweets, which is the hometown baseball team.

Uncle Jesse got him a Captain America Doll Uh-Hem.......Action Figure

Papa got him an Ugly Stick fishing poll

Isaac got him a bat and ball

Mommy and Daddy got him a baseball glove

Greg also secretly surprised Isaac with his own baseball glove, so now they can play catch together!

Tryin it all out!

We had some pretty amazing thunder storms while we were there and our favorite thing to do is sit on the porch and watch it. Greg took Gary out so that they could watch it and talk about how amazing his birthday party was.

Ashly trying Raspberries for the first time.

Gary and D. fishing.

Nothin quite like fishin with your dad.

Isaac and E. fishin with papa

Nothin like lickin a monster truck clean of frosting and cookies in a Captain America shirt

Happy Birthday to our little bear! Pretty sure that 4 is going to be a GREAT year for you!!!

BANG! BOOM! BAM!

This was too cute!

After church we set Ashley on the floor with some toys, I then took off my shoes and went to change into more comfortable clothes so that we could get dinner started! When we came back she was more fascinated by my shoes than her toys!

in other news, she is now 7 months old!

This baby girl wakes up like her momma sometimes.

bed head and all!

for the 5th year in a row we went to the July 3rd firework extravaganza Rainier's Baseball game!

Greg was nice and got the boys a tub of cotton candy!

Gary LOVES baseball!!

our view

during the 7th inning Greg always takes the boys don and lets them get their wiggles out.

baseball is about 2 innings to long

We won the game and the fire works were awesome.

our only complaint was that it wasn't as long as it usually is and they didn't play ANY patriotic songs =(

July 4th!!

Greg's family came up and we had a blast!!

Isaac is teaching Makayla how to Box

I made a water blob using heavy duty plastic that you can find in the painting section and duct tape!!

thank you pintrest

We decided Ashley should have first dibs since once the bigger kids got on it she most likely wouldn't get a turn. She LOVED it!!!!

The bigger kids had a blast! they jumped, rolled, bounced each other, wiggled and went crazy!!

We basically turned our backyard into a water park!! We had the water blob, slip n slide and sponge balls. I even bought Greg and Ben water guns!

We of course had to let Ashley try out the slip n slide, so we kicked the kids off and put her on. She loved that too!!

Yay!! She's a water baby!!!

The kids were starting to get impatient and I had some things to do so she laid down in the grass with her daddy!

I made this patriotic punch, which didn't turn out the way it was supposed to, but still looked cool.

Makayla's birthday was the 3rd, and Gary's is the 15th.

We missed Makayla's birthday party because Isaac wasn't feeling well and Makayla will miss Gary's party because they will be out of town.

So I made them a cake! Red velvet with white chocolate, cream cheese, and blueberry filling!
YUM!!!

The Water blob held up so well that by the end of the day I had to poke holes in it so that we could drain it out.

I poked 2 or 3 holes in it which basically turned it into a giant splash pad!

Ashley did so amazing with all the fireworks! She napped through them all and never cried when one went off!

I also found this idea on pintrest.

We took some red plastic cups (of the Solo variety....because that's how we roll) and we let the kid decorate them with stickers, poked a hole in the bottom and voila, sparkler guards!

"That way no sparkles get on our hands!" -Isaac

For dinner we did burgers and hot dogs and I made a Fresh corn and tomato salad that was AMAZING!!!!!!!

and a 'smore bar for dessert!

ps. I think my new fav 'smore is white chocolate with coconut on a chocolate graham.

For reference.

Remember last year?! how we couldn't even get Gary out of the house for the fireworks?! I had to hide with him on the kitchen floor or in one of the bedrooms, away from all the windows with his ear muffs on?!

*so cute, but WOW!*

This year, not only did we get him out of the house (still equipped with ear muffs) But he even did a Sparkler!!!! YAY GARY!!!!

I love this man and his Pyro tendencies!

He bought this one for me, it's called puppy love!

aaaawwwwww

Here we are....enjoying the show!

I even got Ashley to go to sleep!

This was Gary at midnight with the monster truck that Grama got him for his birthday (because they too will be out of town for his party), Kool aid stache and all....

This was Gary 15 mins later passed out on the garage floor!

Greg set the tent up in the backyard so that he could camp out with the boys. So we told him that we were going to get our jammies on and then Daddy would be right out to take him to the tent. He said he was going to wait on the steps. So Greg got dressed for bed and went out to get him and when he opened the door he found Gary asleep on the floor. So I picked him up and put him in bed with me.

This is what a neighborhood-wide hangover looks like! Hahahaha

We all had fun, as our neighborhood always does.

And this is Greg at 7:30 in the morning cleaning up our portion of the street.

Alex and Lilly were totally in love with Ashley!!

Ashley was happy to have someone to talk to!

And that, my friends, is how we do Independence Day!!!!

Hope ya'll had a fun and safe holiday as well!
Enjoy your summer. I know we are sure enjoying our 2 weeks of summer!!!