Cousin Time II

 Baby boy P. who was born at 10 lbs.  Poor mommy!  Isn't he adorably chubby?  It was his birth, a baptism and family together in one place that brought us to Walla Walla.

 The girls came up with this: "Do you like waffles?  Yah, we like waffles.  Do you like pancakes?  Yah, we like pancakes.  Do you like french toast?  Yah, we like french toast.  Doot, Doota doot can't wait to get a mouthful!"  I think they found it on utube.  They would yell it as loud as they could!  Then they would laugh hysterically!  They thought they were so funny as you can tell!

 We had a "fire" to roast marshmallows in and birthday cake for Aunt K.

 My sister M. took us to their property.  It is beautiful!  They have only cleared the land and will build a cabin soon.  It was so quiet and peaceful, but deadly!  This is where I was stung by a bee.  Man, that hurt!  Read earlier post regarding the stung hand.

 While we were in town, the Sweets baseball team had a playoff game.  They lost 13-3, sad to watch, but the hometown showed up with pride!  Here is cousin T., cousin J. and Bryant waiting to get the pitcher to sign cousin T's baseball that another player had handed to him earlier. They waited so patiently while he talked to those guys. The team was comprised of community college players just getting some more play time before school started.  They even had groupies!  You should have seen the ladies and how they were dressed to kill.  Too funny as these guys won't likely make it to the MLB, since they are already playing at the community college level.  But hush, they obviously don't know that!  he he!  Go Walla Walla Sweets!

Cousin time

 Leave it to my kids to introduce younger cousins to UTube... sorry.

 We went to one of my favorite parks in Walla Walla, Pioneer Park.  After we ate our picnic some of the kids played soccer.  Bryant actually kicked his own eye!  How does one do that????  I don't know, but he did and boy did he cry for awhile!  Poor baby.  Rolling down the hill was so much fun, and they rolled and rolled for a long time! 

 Here is cousin E. getting plowed by cousin M... ouch!  He rolled right over her.

 Cousin L. kept wanting me to take his photo while he rolled down the hill, over and over again!

 Grandpa with all 15 grandkids, minus ten pound new baby cousin P, who was at home with his momma and Grandma.  I love my family! 

Stupid Bee!

I was in eastern Washington this past week and was stung by a bee on my left hand pinkie.  It hurt so bad, more than I ever thought it would for about two hours!  Then slowly my hand began to swell and itch!  I went to the doctor's office once my whole hand puffed up and he put me on steroids to help with the swelling.  My hand is finally back to normal four days later!  Good thing I took my ring off right away!

Ross Lake, Washington

Ross Lake is so beautiful!  You actually cross the Canadian boarder and head east then back south into Washington state.  The lake was clear and gorgeous, surrounded by these huge mountain peaks!    They are all looking at a waterfall in this photo.  There is a campground at the top of the lake, but we boated down the lake to our campsite.  Some people canoed to their sites, crazy!

Everyone caught fish!

Sydney in the boat bored or cold or tired...not sure which, but look at those eyes!  Below she is on the suspension bridge we hiked to, it was less than a mile from our site.  We checked out a lot of sites around the lake and decided we need a boat dock and found some with great swimming areas for next year.

This was at the edge of the lake and in the morning time it was swarming with these tiny black bugs that ate Syd and I up!  We didn't sit by the water after that.  This was our camp site looking towards the lake.  Notice the bear box in the center... we saw three black bears and had a deer come almost into our site, then heard some loud rustling while hiking (I didn't look to see what it was because I really didn't want to see a bear at all, and we just walked really fast then ran back to camp!).

There was wood everywhere and it was dry and perfect for firewood.  It was also the perfect bouncy toy for the kids!

Winthrop, Washington

Last week we met up with our friends to camp near Winthrop, Washington.  Winthrop, itself is a super cute little town.  Like an old western movie town, with the wooden boardwalk in front of the store fronts.  This was a waterfall that was a short hike from our camp site.

Taylor and her friend R. floated the Methow river with their fathers and even caught some fish.  They had a great time.  Todd only brought one pontoon boat and so Tay just sat on the back of his boat, which was just fine with her... he did all the work.

While the men were off fishing we found this really nice spot on the river where a smaller river joined the Methow.  We played in the smaller one where the girls made a pool and dunked themselves into the icy water.  I think Sydney and A. are about to go under and R. is already under the water.  CrAzY!!!

On our last day while the Dads were fishing, we took the kids to the lake.  The kids had fun playing in the water, sunning and playing in the dirt.  I later talked to a local guy and he said that this lake we went to was where all the tourists went, as it was near a campground.  Next time we'll be going to Patterson Lake, it is way cleaner and a natural lake.  The lake we went to was man made from a diverted creek, it was really dirty and I did not go in. 

Fort Casey

 On our way to Fort Casey, near Oak Harbor, Washington we stopped and passed over Deception Pass.  It was so cool and so high up! 

 After arriving and getting our parking passes all taken care of, it started to rain a bit... great!  So we set up the umbrellas and ate our lunch first to see if it was going to blow over, it did!  That is part of the fort behind us.  The kids loved being able to run and climb to their hearts content!

 Underneath the fort are all these super cool tunnels to explore.  We had so much fun.  As the kids were entering a really dark, bring your flashlights I mean pitch dark room, my friend Janae knew there was a group of teens in there.  She said to the kids as they were creeping in, "What if there is something in there?  What if there were people in there?" Then she shined the flashlight onto the teens and said "BOO".  They all screamed and ran out of the room super fast!  It was pretty funny to witness!  Then we could hear the teens laughing for quite a while after that!  Another group of teens were playing hide and seek throughout the fort, so fun!  Below:  Bryant, A. and Sydney.

 After exploring the forts and tunnels we found our way down to the beach, the hard way.  If you look at the fort from the parking area the trail is on the right, to get to the beach.  And see, we did find a patch of sand for the little boys to play in!

 Taylor and R made a raft.  "Wilson"!!!!!!