4th of July

Lindsea and her family were visiting Manson. Marissa and her family were visiting Manson. Whitni and her family were visiting Manson. So, we decided we should visit Manson.  Plus, it was the 4th of July, and Manson didn't cower to COVID-19 and still held their annual firework show.

We headed over and were met by a bunch of rowdy kids. Hadley quickly got to work on the piano while Leo accompanied her with some tunes of his own. 

After dinner we drove through the orchard over to Doug and Jama's house to swim in their pool.  It was colder than I expected, so Cambri didn't last too long. Hadley, on the other hand was loving it.  She did eventually succumb to the cold and started shivering a lot, however. 

This little girl showed no fear, and did such a great job paddling around and jumping in. 

Lindsea, Rissa, and Whit decided they were going to ride the Lady Express up lake to Stehekin for a few hours. We didn't really want to be stuck on a boat that long, so took dad up on his offer to fly up with him. This was Cambri's first time in the helicopter, and she pretty much just slept the whole time.

We met everybody down at the landing, and after Rissa tried to steal someone else's Suburban, we headed up to the Stehekin Bakery for lunch. There was plenty of space and toys for the kids to play around. It was a lot colder than anyone anticipated, so a quick stop at the gift shop and Hadley and Cambri had new sweatshirts. Unfortunately the smallest size was a youth XS, so they will have some time to grow into them. 

After lunch we packed in the vehicles and made our way to Rainbow Falls.  I might be alone in this, but I think Rainbow Falls is pretty cool.  We went up to the upper observation lookout and got pretty wet from all the mist as we got closer.

We really didn't have a lot of time for anything else, so we dropped everyone off at the landing and made our way back to the Stehekin Valley Ranch where the helicopter was sitting. 

Hadley and Cambri were pretty worn out from all the fun and running around we did. 

And they continued to sleep in the helicopter all the way back home.

Knowing there would be all her grand kids in town, Gma Rae bought a water table for them to play in. They made pretty good use of it, too.

With the ever ongoing landscaping and construction projects going on, there were plenty of gravel and dirt piles for the kids to play in.

I call this one Aaron Grilling Chicken While Kids Run In Circles.

I think it does a kid some good to take a break from her Kindle and play with sticks and dirt instead.

No playground or anything yet for the kids to play on, but there's always the mini excavator. 

Independence Day!

Meemaw bought the girls some patriotic outfits, and they looked absolutely adorable.

"This fabric feels like freedom." -Hadley

So, Slidewaters controversially re-opened. I mean, we weren't complaining they re-opened, some losers on Facebook were. We jumped at the opportunity to take the kiddos. We rented a cabana and everything. It was a lot of fun to watch Hadley go down some of the slides, and enjoy herself at the kiddie area. For the last hour she just wanted to go down the shortest beginner slide, and she did it all by herself, just me at the top and Emily catching her at the bottom. She loved it.

Not pictured: Our entire day at Slidewaters.

Hadley didn't make it out of the parking lot before she zonked out. She went on to sleep for like two hours. 

Cambri and Whitni's daughter Camille hungout with Gma Rae while we were out. We were told she did just great, which came as no surprise to us because we have good kids.

We sat the girls together in order to get some pictures of their cute outfits, and we came away with some pretty good ones.

After we put Cambri to bed, we went down to the lake to claim our spot for the firework show.

I like to think Hadley enjoyed her time alone with us.

Marissa was handing out sweet tattoos. Hadley went around showing hers off to everyone. It's been nearly a week later and it still hasn't come off her arm yet.

Cambri has been working hard on her neck strength, and it's been paying off. Just look at her.

I think it was Sunday? I don't know, the days kind of started to blur together. Most of the kids were outside playing with the water table and I was spraying them with the water hose. It was a good time. 

Brandon, Hadley, and Leo were all born within months of each other, and so it makes it fun when they get together. We are glad we were able to annoy Whitni enough to make the drive from Phoenix, and Marissa from Houston.

Before we left town we stopped off at Andy's so he and his parents could meet Cambri. Andy didn't mention his parents would be at work, so we took his picture with Cambri to make them jealous.

It was a great trip, and there was definitely plenty to do. Hadley had a blast playing with her cousins, and it was fun to see all the grand kids together in one place.