Our 4th....picture overload (as usual!)

As we were getting last minute things together and loading the truck.... this is what Eli had been up to! It's a good thing daddy waited to take a shower after we were done loading things, Eli got in with him and I found him another 4th of July outfit. :) My dirty little boy! :)

Watching the parade in Coeur d'alene.

Kambria was telling the people next to us: "this is my baby brother!" She loves to tell people that! :)

After the parade we got our beach stuff out of the vehicles and headed to the beach very quickly! It was so HOT! Needless to say, when we finally got things situated in our traditional spot on the beach and in the process of trying to put lunch together, everyone was a little over heated and cranky! Thank goodness for the water! It cooled everyone off and all was peaceful again! :)

Audriana on the tube and Madeleine lounging on the fish boat

Rhiannon and I took care of the kids and had fun while George and Jon did a little running around that had to be done and took Eli with them. Thanks guys! They got to play as soon as they got back!

Eli went straight for the dirt when he got back with Daddy and Uncle George! :) Boys love dirt! :)

LOL!

Kambria was shivering and her teeth were chattering when she got out of the water.

Eli loved sitting in the fish boat on shore..................

.........but not so much in the water!

Daddy trying to get Eli used to the water

It didn't work :(

So back to the dirt! :)

Such a good Daddy! :)

Jumping the little waves!

Eli tried so hard to pick up this watermelon................

............................................

.........................but just couldn't muscle it!....................

............he was so frustrated! LOL!

Not only my little boy got really dirty.............

................Kambria too!

Eli trying to scare me as he came around the corner in the play area in the park

2 cute girls! Kambria and Madeleine

You can't see it really well, but I love all the lights lined up on the lake from boats waiting to watch the fireworks.

Me and my cute kids with their glow bracelets (thanks Auntie Roo) ....it looks like we have an aura around us! :) LOL

There were some rough spots during the day, but all-in-all it turned out to be a lot of fun and relaxing! Another tradition done for the year! Can't wait for next year! As for the fireworks.....they were the best I think we have ever seen and we have gone to Coeur d'alene to watch them for.....I don't even know how many years?! I was going to try and take a few pics but my camera battery was too low by that time. So many other great, fun pics! :)

A birthday and a beautiful downtown park

July 2nd we celebrated Ruth's birthday (a family friend). She has been wanting to go to Riverfront park and doesn't have the opportunity to get out much. So for her birthday we took her to Riverfront Park for a picnic and playtime in the fountain. It was a hot day so even when the sun went down the fountain felt so good!

This is Ruth holding Eli. He didn't like being in the fountain very much so he just snuggled with Auntie Ruth and watched the water instead.



It was starting to get dark so my pics are kind of dark. Here is Kambria running through the fountain, this is the first year that she has wanted to get this wet in it. Usually she would always complain that it was too cold. Yeah for wanting to have fun! :)


So wet! :)


Daddy sticking Kambria in the water!

Kambria and Audriana warming up in their towels after having fun in the fountain! :)

We have such a beautiful city! I can't believe how good this pic turned out! :)

This one didn't turn out as good, but I still like it! I wish you could see the river running at the bottom of the pic.

It was a great evening!!! We are so happy that we got to give Ruth the Happy Birthday that she deserves! :)

Updates coming soon!

I can't get my computer to download my pics! Ugh! I keep getting a dumb error message! Anyway......hopefully I will figure it out soon or just go get a disc made at the store. Then I can post about the fun things going on....like the 4th of July! :)

Floating down the river

I so wish I had some pictures of our adventure, but I don't. :(

I have lived in Spokane all my life and had never been in the Spokane River. Of course you don't want to get in anywhere near downtown, but there are other parts that are good.
Last Saturday, the Elders Quorum at church planned an activity to float down the river on tubes and rafts, and since Jon is in the presidency and planned a lot of it we definitely needed to go. I am so glad I did!!!! We dropped the kids off at the church where 3 awesome adults were there and willing to watch all the little buggers! :) Thank you so much! ......and off we went! We all met at the ending point and then car pooled up to where we would begin so we had vehicles at both ends. I was totally expecting the water to be a lot colder than it was, but it wasn't bad at all. Jon and I shared a big tube, it was snug but that's okay it made it fun! At first the water was very calm and we just floated along, then came some little rapids and I thought "wow, is this it!" I was totally expecting it to be more fierce! I just needed to wait! There were more coming! After floating for about an hour we all floated over to the side and had ice cream sandwiches and drumstick cones....so yummy! They were in a cooler in the raft, what a great idea! We then all got back on our tubes and continued down the river......I had no idea how much further we had to go still! Probably about a 1/2 mile or so from our ice cream stop we hit some fast and high rapids and.......flipped our tube right from under us! It happened so fast! We were both wearing life jackets and both know how to swim so it was just another fun adventure! We finally got back on the tube (thank you Maria for helping me!) and continued down the river yet again. It was so beautiful and relaxing....most of the time! And it was so nice to spend the time with Jon, without the kids! After 3 hours of floating.....which did become a long time after 2 hours, we finally reached the end of our journey. We were able to get to know a couple in our ward that we didn't know very well and that was awesome too! Thank you to all of those who helped to plan it! It was a great activity!

A beautiful day, beautiful scenery, my love next to me, good company, relaxation, fun, and time away from the kids!!!! Although it seemed long, it was a great 3+ hours!!!!!