4th of July (and a day trip to Grand Coulee)

Story told by: Henry

We have had a fun couple days this week! Daddy took Tuesday off so we could visit friends in Grand Coulee, and got Wednesday off for the 4th of July.

These are Mommy’s good friends, Erica and April, who both used to live in Pullman. The Winzers are visiting from South Dakota, so we all met them in Grand Coulee for a fun day together.

The whole group of kids (minus Mabel, who was sleeping).

The water was COLD, but we still enjoyed ourselves!

We had to take a break from the water and warm up with some sand play.

This was the highlight of my day.

I had sand in every crevice from this activity.

Lainey built a raft that kept her entertained for quite awhile.

Before we got out of the water, Mya’s Daddy, Robbie, convinced the moms to jump in to the freezing water.

After showering off and changing into dry clothes, we found this odd contraption. When Daddy asked us what it was, I told him that it was clearly a “cell phone.”

We went back to Todd’s parents’ house for the next few hours. It had this amazing view. We picked raspberries, played games, and had a yummy BBQ. Such a fun day with the Winzers and Cowgills!

After getting in late the night before, we were up early for a festive 4th of July breakfast.

I had three of these waffles. Delicious!

After breakfast we left for Johnson to get seats for the parade. We met our new friend, Rowan, and her family at the parade. Rowan’s mommy, Alison, was in the Cougar Marching Band in college with Mommy and Daddy. They moved to Colton from Olympia a couple of weeks ago for her daddy’s job. Rowan is going to be in preschool with me this fall, and then in kindergarten with me next fall. (Rowan also has two younger siblings, Brinley and Otto.)

Before the parade started, Brody found his favorite mascot – Butch!

Family picture!

Rowan has not even an ounce of shyness in her! She warms up quickly to people.

We’re also convinced she wants to be in our family. (I’m sure Mommy wouldn’t notice one more kid at this point.)

For this sibling picture, I found it appropriate to squeeze as hard as I could while Brody attempted to bite my arm. Seems like a good 4th of July picture.

Okay, slightly less squeezing and biting in this picture.

As usual, the Evanoffs came decked out in the perfect outfits!

Almost parade time! We’re ready with our bags for candy.

Mommy and Daddy have NEVER seen Brody move as quickly as he did when there was candy in the road.

They’ll save this bit of information for future coaches trying to get Brody to run.

We ate tons of candy during the parade.

We even got otter pops.

While Brody and I took naps, Lainey, Mommy, and Daddy worked on painting her new desk.

Daddy did the sanding and taping. Mommy and Lainey did the painting.

Lainey chose lavender for her desk. It matches the lavender in her comforter.

After the first coat was on, Mommy and Daddy sat down for a drink.

And then Daddy took a good nap.

After naps, we headed to the Gulseth’s house for a 4th of July party. While we played, Mommy and Sarah played cornhole against Liz and Carla. Liz and Carla were the winners.

The whole crew of kids!

Just this morning I had decided that I wanted to build a robot. And then I found a new friend who has robot diagrams. IT WAS MEANT TO BE! He and I sat here for at least 30 minutes talking robots.

Before leaving the Gulseth’s house, the adults got in a couple games of Kubb.

Unfortunately, the men won both games. However, everyone clearly knows that in Kubb the wins are only official when you’re camping, so the women still happily claim their official camping wins.

After the Gulseth’s house, we went to the Evanoff’s house to end the night.

They just got a new trampoline, which was quite entertaining.

Check out my amazing flip.

We got to roast marshmallows.

Yum!

Mommy enjoyed getting to spend time with Kindel and Marcie.

Kindel bought glowsticks for us, and it made for fun nighttime trampoline time.

The Evanoffs live right by Sunnyside Park, which is where the fireworks display is located. As it neared 10:00, we got our blankets ready to watch our FIRST EVER fireworks show.

Lainey and Hazel got to watch the show together.

A final blurry picture of the night before the fireworks started. I LOVED them!! So did Lainey! Brody was a little nervous, but did okay once he snuggled up with Mommy. Such a fun day filled with wonderful friends!