Kah-Nee-Ta birthday

Monday we went to Kah-Nee-Ta to celebrate Ava and Harper's 9th birthday.

Rielee, Des and Kelly's friend Tracie and her boys came, too.  Charb and Lexi had to work so they came Tuesday.

Monday was a hot day-107 degrees hot so we spent the entire afternoon in the pool, the kids had a ball. 

Ava went slide crazy - she went down it 46 times! 

In the evening we had dinner, played some cards and the girls rode

scooters.  Then it was back to the pool, and more cards.

After a trip to the pool this morning, we went to the lodge to have their party.  The

cupcakes they made with Lexi got a little droopy hitting in the hot car

before we checked in, but they still tasted great. 

Yay, a fish bowl from Mom and Dad!  They've been

wanting a goldfish for a long time.

They got lots of nice gifts, some drawing and art supplies, toys, clothes and

gift cards. 

After the party, the 9 year olds were back in the pool.  Ava talked Lexi into going down the slide with her and they used the underwater cameras they got from Rachel.  Can't wait to see how those pictures turn out.

Beach house, Seaside

We left hot weather at home to find it cold and foggy in Ocean Park.  That didn't stop the kids from

playing on the beach though.  Ava and Harper worked on sand castles, Ava used all the

crab shells she had found on hers, while Rielee mostly did handstands and danced to music on

her phone.

They just love Cathy and Bob's beach house.  I found them upstairs looking at books, 

Rielee was reading to Harper.  We played several games, including Dinosaur Monopoly which was really different,

 watched a couple of movies, visited Jack's and had a fire pit dinner.

Tuesday we woke up to sunshine, stopped at Marsh's Museum to see

Jake the Alligator Man (since Ava and Harper didn't remember him) and get souvenirs.  

We took the girls to the Astoria Aquatic Center to swim before we went to Seaside.

Got to Seaside to find the beach socked in with fog and cold, darn it! 

So we went to the Aquarium, Funland and they rode on the carousel-Harper chose a pony/mermaid.

We also got "Pronto Pups", the best corn dogs ever.  Ava even loved them.

They spent lots of time in the hotel pool.

Wednesday morning we went to Funland again, got more Pronto Pups and then went to the beach before we left, the sun was trying to burn through the fog, but

we didn't see any blue sky until we headed back to Astoria. 

Didn't matter, it was still a very fun trip!

CR parade and fair

The kids posed for a picture while waiting for the parade to start.  We

thought they all looked really cute.

 

These three were cute, too, waiting uptown for the parade to start.

Gabe drove the tractor, we were #37 so it was a long wait for them.

They had a little bit of candy left at the end but not much.

We went to the fair afterwards.  The girls had to check out their fair entries and

were happy to get some big ribbons on their birdhouses, Ava got one on her

birdhouse/planter, too.

Ava got a big ribbon on her paper mache pig, Harper got a blue on her penguin.

Harper got an Outstanding ribbon for her teapot flower arrangement, Ava got a blue

on her arrangement,  I didn't get a picture of it.

Rielee was actually working at the pony rides this year.  Ava told the horse owner lady that Rielee was her cousin and asked if she could ride on Rielee's horse.  The lady, who remembers Ava and Harper every year, said "yes, of course!"

Harper rode a pony that didn't feel like walking much and kept stopping.

 

Float

Rielee, Jillian, Auna and Bridget working hard on flowers for the cake.  

The fair theme is "60 Years of Fun at the Fair" so we decided to

make a big, round cake (2 tables stacked on top of each other),

and show toys popular in each decade.  

It's a fun family challenge as we struggle to be creative. 

Thanks to Cathy's planning and direction, it always comes together.

The kids are really excited for the parade tomorrow.  Rick, David,

Bob and Dan were helping, too.

Great Wolf Lodge

 Monday night we went to Great Wolf Lodge, the kids loved the bunk beds in our Kid Cabin Suite.

Besides the fun they had in the water park, they also enjoyed playing Magic Quest.  They got a wand and had to use the clues in their book to find different objects throughout 5 floors of the lodge.  They tell you ahead of time you could walk up to 10 miles solving all the quests.  It was exhausting, but a fun adventure.

The Howling Tornado slide was their favorite.  They talked Papa into going along, Rielee said

he looked a little "shocked" at times.  They spent a lot of time in the wave pool, too.  We all

had a great time.

kids, pool, wedding

Cuties Rielee and Jordon came to visit Thursday, oh and Alan, too. 

 

Rielee's pool is finally open, just in time for the heat wave.  The girls got lots

of use out of it. 

Saturday we went to Erika and Cale's wedding.  It was very nice.

Dan, Kalyn, Em and Laury after the ceremony.

The light was perfect, Emmy said, and made us all take pictures with her.

She was right, it was very good light, made even us look decent.

We took advantage of that great light to get a sibling picture, too.  Had a great time visiting at the reception.

Kids and dogs

Sunday - Charb and Kelly and the kids stopped by with pizza on their way back from Luke's game in Centralia.  Rielee came over to eat and visit, too.

Afterwards the kids went out to play badminton and Frisbee.

Ava was excited when she beat Daddy.

Parker installed his electrical panel Sunday with some help from Dad, he was proud of it. 

 He'll have power this week.

Luke had another game in Centralia on Monday so they dropped the girls off on their way up. 

Rielee was dog-sitting some very cute dogs, she's holding Chance,

and Harper has Watson.  The kids had a ball playing with them.

Macee

Macee will probably not love this picture since she was sweaty having just gotten off the treadmill. 

 She came down yesterday to spend some family time at the lake but since the weather wasn't that great, they all came home for tonight.  Good for us since we got to visit with her.  She's a busy girl, loves her job and has a work trip to Chicago this week.  Also has a couple other fun trips planned for the summer before she has to go back for her last year of college. 

 

Fireworks, rapids, badminton

We lit off a few 5th of July fireworks with the girls.  This pooping puppy was everyone's

favorite, real name was "Sir Dumps A Lot".

We went to the river Thursday and again Friday with Rielee.  The girls had never

gone down the rapids but with Rielee there, they were brave enough.  It's so shallow that

they hit their bottoms and legs on the rocks, but it was still lots of fun.

They went over and over until they were all frozen, the water is still really cold.

We finally got the badminton net up, the girls were a little rusty but after

one match with Rielee, they were playing really well.  Ava didn't want to come in until it was

getting dark.

Rielee spent the night with us, the girls let her style their hair this morning.

We played two games of badminton before they left early for a birthday party.

Dolans 4th of July

The Dolans had a fun 4th of July barbecue this evening.  Dan's Mom and stepdad Barry were there, too. 

We got such a kick out of watching Emmy and Dan play cornhole against

Barry and Dave with all the dogs milling around waiting for someone to throw the ball.

  We also played some hilarious and pathetic (at least on our part) badminton and they shot off fireworks.  

The Dolan sisters can't take a bad picture, they're just too cute.