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!!!