Rielee's first day of school

Rielee's first full day as a freshman at Kelso, she also made the varsity volleyball team.

Katelyn & Colin's first day

 Katelyn had her first day of 8th grade today,

and Colin had his first day at Skyview High School. 

Ava and Harper are enjoying their last days of summer,

Rielee comes to hang out with them after volleyball practice.

Ava soccer, end of summer party

Ava had a tournament in Vancouver this weekend.  They played hard against very tough teams.  

They had a little "end of summer" cousin party Sunday afternoon.  They wanted to do this donut eating contest, of course Rielee won with one big bite.

They played water balloon volleyball, water balloon toss,

and ended with some giant water balloons, then they went swimming at Rielee's.

Auna and Laury came over to visit while we were having a fire pit.  The smoke was getting to Bridget and Rielee.  The cousin fun continued with a sleep over at Aunt Cathy's.

Luke, garage sale, Harper's bike wreck, Ava helping Papa

Luke left for college Friday, the girls will miss him terribly, as will the rest of us.

Then we heard yesterday that he was evacuated for a nearby forest fire, yikes!  

Saturday was the family garage sale.  When Ava and Harper saw that Jillian and Bridget were selling things, they wanted in on it.  So we went home and they drew some pictures to sell and we made cookies.  They sold everything, then spent some of their money.

Tor provided entertainment for the shoppers this year, he danced for the longest time and made lots of tips.  

Monday - Harper injured her hand in a bike wreck, falling down in the gravel at Alan and Vera's, she got a splint and sling from the doctor on Wednesday.

Tuesday-Ava helped Papa by running the splitter, they finished up the last of our firewood.

This morning-the sun was too bright in the car for their devices...

they've been coming up every day since Mom and Dad when back to work.

Bike riding, Ava's injury

Wednesday the girls rode around the elementary school parking lot, 

Harper practiced riding with no hands, we didn't stay long since Ava's flip flop fell apart.

Afterwards we visited the Vault for ice cream.  Ava's leg

is bandaged from the bike wreck she had the other night.  She blamed it on the fact that she went riding without Harper, telling us "I was away from her for 2 minutes and this happened!"

River, fair

Tuesday we took the girls to the Harry Gardner Park.  They thought the water was cold so after one trip down the rapids, they spent the rest of the time trying to catch a fish.

They finally caught one.

Friday we went to the fair with Nola, Emily, and her friend Alex.

Ava's favorite ride was the Area 51 gravity ride, she went on it 5 times, Harper went twice, but it made her kind of sick.

She liked the bumper cars, 

and they both liked the roller coaster and rode it several times.

They went on all but two of the rides, even asked to go on the sling shot, but we said no, too dangerous and too expensive ($30 a person).

They thought this flying ride was fun.

And Ava managed to find a flamingo, too.

Ava and Harper are 10, beach trip

Wednesday, July 31, 2019 - Daddy took the girls to the zoo (Mommy was working) on their birthday, mostly so Ava could see the flamingos.  Later they had a family pizza party at Papa Pete's in Ridgefield.

10 years old-"double digits" is a big deal!

Most of Ava's gifts had a flamingo theme.

They got new comforters.

Posing with Luke and Riley.

Thursday we took the Gourde girls to Cathy and Bob's beach house in Ocean Park.

They had lots of fun playing in the water,

riding bikes,

hogging all the noodles at the Astoria pool,

digging holes to bury (?) jelly fish,

and having a fire pit.  It was a fun trip.

Since they love bike riding now, of course they needed new bikes.