Hike, shop, horseshoes

Today was a good day to check out the Dolan's canyon trail, it's nice with new bark.

The girls found some walking sticks and it was all we could do to keep up with them. 

They kept asking what would happen they stepped off the side in a couple of steep parts,

you'd roll to the bottom of the canyon, of course.

Ava and Papa went to the shop to build a birdhouse/planter for her to enter in the fair.

She got a lesson in how to safely use the brad gun, then used the leftover scraps to make

herself a cute little couch and pillow. 

Harper came out to check on them and decided she wanted to learn

to use the gun and made a little bed with pillows. 

The cousins got together in the evening and played first at Cathy's,  then here.

They had fun going from one thing to the next, laughing the whole time.

 

Luke baseball

Luke's Primetime team played at Kelso tonight. In the 1st inning, Luke tried a bunt to bring in the

player on third, when that went foul, he hit a triple instead.  He had a couple more hits, too.

Fun game, they won 10-9.

 

 

Life, last softball game

Rielee spent most of the day with us Monday since she was leaving for Disneyland today.

She bought a new Game of Life so we tried it out.  It was much more fun than the old game.

Ava and Harper each got twins and named their kids Luke Jr., Lexi Jr. and after each other. 

We also watched The Greatest Showman which was good.

It was cute-Harper was so excited when she saw a commercial for an "invisible" hearing aid

and wrote down the information for Papa.  "I saw an invisible hearing aid on TV, Papa!

 You need to get this, I mean-if you're interested." she said. 

 

The girls had their last softball game Monday night.  It was a good game, they both got hits

plus Dede and Lexi came to watch.

Tubing, water balloons

We were fortunate to be able to enjoy the hot sunny day with the girls at the river.  It was so cute how they held hands floating down the river.  They would walk up by the bridge, then get in and float to where we were sitting.  It's the perfect stretch of river for them, nice and shallow.

Rielee came over later and they played Frisbee, practiced softball, then went back to the

water balloons.



Rielee w/o braces, frog, Auna

Rielee's beautiful smile - braces are off, she was feeling good.

They couldn't catch any fish today, but Harper did scoop up a "river" frog, as she called it,

to everyone's surprise.  Ava wanted to hold it, but didn't get the chance.

Auna stopped by this afternoon to say hi and played some Frisbee with Harper while Ava

threw a fir cone for Sam.

Rielee's 13th, river, election

Rielee is a teenager, how can this be,?  Seems like she was just born, and we driving to Centralia to get Macee-who was 10 and playing in a softball tournament.  Rielee spent the day at the lake

with her friends, we had cupcakes with them in the evening. 

Took the girls to Harry Gardner Park today.  They searched for fish but

couldn't catch any.

Papa helped Ava build a "fish house".  She's hoping there

might be some fish hanging out there when we go back tomorrow.

We had an election today, complete with campaign speeches.  Surprisingly, it ended in a tie (even though Harper said she had more "on-line" votes, which I didn't quite understand?).  After some negotiations, they decided to share the office.

Water balloons, softball

We found that a box of 420 water balloons lasts about an hour with the Gourde girls.  And with 2 or 3 screams per balloon, it was a noisy neighborhood for awhile,

but, boy, did they have fun. 

They saved their big "baby" balloons for tomorrow.

Ava and Harper had a game at 6:00 tonight.  Rielee came along to watch. 

Ava forgot her cleats and had to wear her sandals to the field, but Mom brought them before

the game started.

Harper hit this ball for a double.

 Luke volunteered to umpire, which turned out to be funny when Ava argued with him for calling strikes that she thought were high!

Last day of 3rd grade, Auna's LCC graduation

Friday was Ava and Harper's last day of 3rd grade.  They look a little disheveled because

the school had a bouncy house for the kids.  They were happy for summer break.

 

Auna graduated from L.C.C. Friday night.  That's her in the 9th row (she's behind the guy with the big beard that blocked me from getting a good close-up picture, grrr).  We thought the way the stacks of diplomas spell L.C.C. was cool.

Proud parents and graduate-she worked hard for that diploma!

Rielee was our babysitter for the twins while we were at graduation.  When we got home, she was being silly, wearing the "car" Ava made out of a box. 

This morning we went to a few garage sales.  Harper bought a sack of marbles,

Ava found a microscope, they both got watches.  We taught them how to play a marble game-as best we could remember.

 

Parker rented a bigger excavator this weekend and he and Dad removed the rest

of the stumps and dug a trench for the power. 

Sleepover, card games

Jillian slept over Saturday night, they spent a lot of time again creating homes for rock people.

They built a blanket fort to sleep in and played Barbies and games. 

Rielee had the idea to play a game of "extreme" Go Fish today, which turned into

a marathon and soon they were sprawled out relaxing.  Due to

Harper's concussion last week, she was banned from watching TV or playing on electronics, so they

played lots of games.  Rielee said she kind of liked it that way.

Parker's graduation

As Kelso's class of 2018 walked in, Parker's friend Anders seemed to have said

something to make Parker laugh. 

Getting his diploma, wow, a long process with over 325 graduates. 

Plus, it started raining about halfway through.

 

The kids didn't seem too bothered by it though, Parker looked very happy.

Some silly string action afterwards to celebrate.

The sun came back after the ceremony so we could take lots of pictures with our graduate.

 

Auna's graduation

Auna walked into graduation with her best friend Trinity.   It was a soggy evening but fortunately the heaviest rain held off until the ceremony was over. 

Watching Auna, our last "country cousin" graduate from Castle Rock High School was a happy/sad time. 

We have so many wonderful memories from all of the kid's sports and activities at this school.

Emmy was a weepy sister afterwards.

 

Parker Baccalaureate

Parker and Jordyn after Kelso's Baccalaureate Service tonight.  It was short and sweet with

wonderful music from the orchestra.

Auna & Parker grad party, Lexi's 20th birthday party

Parker and Auna celebrated their upcoming graduations together at Gabe and Des' house on Saturday.

It was a beautiful day with lots of family and friends from both Kelso and CR. 

 

It's hard to believe these two have grown up so fast.

They've both had busy, successful high school years, and have bright futures ahead of them.

Parker hopes to enter the electrical apprenticeship next fall.

Sunday we celebrated Lexi's 20th birthday.  Charb and Kelly barbecued and we

played corn hole and ate the most delicious cheesecake and tiramisu.

 It was windy so we just sang to Lexi and didn't even try to light candles.

Ava and Harper showed off their newly cleaned out playhouse.   Ava beat me at a game of

Trouble.  Harper is smiling extra big to show off a newly lost tooth, she pulled it out last night. 

They had a sleepover with Jillian and Bridget at Aunt Cathy's and came home with some fun boxes they made with rock "people".  Harper plans to enter hers in the fair.