Camping and Fourth of July

We've been busy again, attending Knights games, camping, and taking an impromptu trip to Boise...here are the highlights...

The girls got invited to sing "Take me out to the ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. Avery is the little one in front and Finley you can barely see being held by the blonde girl in the back. They had so much fun hanging out with the crew before going out, and mom and dad got to watch the game for a bit in peace;)

At the end of every game they invite the kids to run the bases. We usually don't make it to the end, cause it is pretty late, but this night we bagged 7:00 bedtime and let them have some fun...They loved it. This is the line up and then I have a little video of them running...

You have to look really close...Finley has a huge white t-shirt on and is the littlest and dead last...It was so cute...she just ran so fast to keep up with the big kids. Avery takes off and ends up in the middle somewhere...you can hardly see her, but she has a dark blue shirt on...she ran twice with some of the other kids...They both had a blast!!

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For cousin Ella's birthday at the end of June, we headed over the the coast and camped for the weekend. It was really fun. The beach was a little windy, but we had a great time!

Playing some frisbee with dad...

Finley and cousin Arlo have become great little friends. They were so cute holding hands on our way to the beach...

This way Arlo...

The beach was quite windy, but Finley stops at nothing at the ocean...she fell in when her and daddy went to "dip their feet." She was freezing so Aunt Adriane let her wear her special bear hat:)

Adriane took Avery down to the water to look for treasures for their sand castle...

Hard at work on the castle...

Finley worked on hers in the shade of the wind tent.

On our walk back to the campground you could see all the way over to Newport and the bridge...it was really pretty...

On our way home from camping we stopped at a little inlet to let the girls get out and play some more in the sand...This beach is in Lincoln City...

It was a great weekend!! We love the ocean. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: So last weekend we decided that if we were going to see Aaron and Mallorie before they left for school in Iowa, this would be our only weekend to do it...so Friday we made up our minds around noon, booked the hotel, and headed out. It takes about 8 hours from here and we had never done a long road trip with the girls before. When we went over to Bend last year (3 hours) it didn't go so well, so we were apprehensive. Needless to say the girls did AWESOME!!! We were so impressed at the little travelers. Course it helps that we now have a van instead of a small little sedan, and they watched movies the whole way, and we didn't care to much about junk food...all pluses on a road trip with kids.

Finley thourally enjoyed some redvines on the way... AHH the peace that candy can sometimes bring;)

We crashed late Friday night at the hotel, and then got up and met Aunt Mallorie and sweet baby Isabel and went to a little 4th of July celebration in a small town outside of Boise called Melba...It was really fun...The girls got little airbrushed tatoos...Finley got a little ladybug...

And Avery got a fairy.

Finley was so excited to ride on this tractor train...It just went around in circles, but she loved every minute of it.

Avery opted for a bouncy slide in which you land in water...a great way to cool off on a hot day!

Finley made her way on the water slide too...They were thrilled!

We got to the hotel and the girls were so anxious to hold their newest cousin, Isabel. She is just a month old, and they were surprising good with her...

Help me mom...their mauling me!!!

Ok...now it's getting old...isn't that baby just super cute!

That night we put the girls in their pjs and headed down the street to watch some fireworks. I thought they would be more fascinated...Finley was more than Avery. I remember Avery's first year of fireworks...she was about Finley's age and she too was a little less than impressed (see here.)

The next day we spent with Aunt Mallorie and Uncle Aaron (and baby of course,) feeding the ducks, swimming, and ligting off the fireworks that we couldn't the night before (no one had matches:)

Finley was frighteningly pretty brave with them...

And Avery was suprisingly the one a little nervous about them...I guess that's what more understanding about the danger of fire does for ya...that is actually good! We had a lot of fun on our quick little trip...Aaron and Mallorie, thanks for such a great spur of the moment weekend...we had a lot of fun! We headed out the next morning and made it home before dark. The only bad part was hitting a dog on the way there...that was sad...sad for the dog and sad for our new van...it cracked the bumper. But we wish we had done the trip sooner and spent more time with Aaron and Mallorie...we will miss them. They have been the only members of my side of the family this far west (not counting Drew and Stormi in Hawaii)...maybe I should say accessible members of my side:)