4th of July in Ephrata

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Ephrata

visiting Grandpa!

Josh was sick before we went and Alex

got it from him when we arrived, but overall

we had a great time. By Sunday afternoon

everyone was feeling well enough to

go swimming at the community pool

in town. We really enjoyed ourselves!

Who knows what these guys are up to?!?

We had pretty nice weather-sunshine most

days and some clouds, but very warm!

Grandpa is a big spoiler! He loves to take

us out to dinner when we visit.

We always have a good time in Ephrata!

A few sparklers and fireworks in the

back yard!

Father's Day Weekend Family Get-together!

Matt, Mindy and Jay came down for

Father's Day Weekend!

We celebrated birthdays for all the boys,

Alex 10 years old, Josh turning 7,

and Jay one year old, at Pop-pop and Nana's

house on Saturday!

It was a lot of fun to have everyone

together although we missed the rest

of our family in TX!

Jay enjoyed cutting up his cupcake with

the spatula he had but he didn't

seem to eat much of it!

Better for his waistline that way I guess!

He seemed a little frightened by our singing:)

Sorry Jay!

Here's a big smile for the cousins!

We had cupcakes and apple crisp to celebrate!

All the boys got great presents!
Josh and his Bionicles. (He assembled
them all in no time flat!)

We played Alex's new game and we

have been playing.......

every day?! It is great fun!

Jay got a great walking toy from

Pop-Pop and Nana. It has many

great buttons to push and dance with!

Such cute guys!

More cool TX attire!

Who teaches them to pose like this?

Sunday after church we had lunch at our

house and the Dads got to open

presents for Father's Day!

We have wonderful Dads in our family!

Yeah for Pop-Pop, Keith, Michael and Matt!

Keep up the good work; you're a

blessing to all of us!

Daddy always gets his favorite candy!

Greaaaaaaaaat anticipation!

A fishing shirt! for Pop-pop!

I wonder why?

Swimming in the pool!

Jump in the water's....cold!

We were blessed with a pool from friends

at church who had outgrown it. The boys

were very excited to get going, even

though our weather has been pretty

cool and cloudy/rainy the last

couple weeks.

(I am a fair weather swimmer only-It has to be

really hot for me to get in a pool!)

Daddy did a great job taking all these
action shots for us!


We love swimming!

Birthday Sleepover Party!

Alex invited 3 friends over to

spend the night for his birthday party.
They played pin the basketball sticker on the
backboard!

And, bite a donut as fast as you can!

Swimming at the Aquatic Park

10 candles on a maple bar

All tired out!

The new "pitcher" for the Riders

is on the right side!

Yeah! Thanks for the gifts from

the TX cousins!!!

Two Days off from Home School!

Tuesday we spent the day at OMSI with

our friends from church.

(Oregon Museum of Science & Industry)

These pictures of the air blowing the boys

hair were such a crack-up to me! Usually

they put a ball on top to show how it

floats up in the air.

Part of the time they played with

"Flubber" at the Science Playground area.

Here are the chipmunks with their acorns
in the eagles nest-confused animals
I guess!


Touching a corn snake!

Using a special microscope to explore.

Our second day off from school this week was
spent with Daddy for his birthday!

We got Daddy a new car stereo since his

other one didn't work!

We headed to the zoo for Daddy's birthday.

Daddy had the day off from work.

(Thanks to Grandpa Fred

for the membership he got us for Christmas!)

We found a different place to view the elephants

and the trainers came out at that moment

to have them do some tricks!

They check their teeth and feet etc. Too cool!

We shared an elephant ear after

seeing the elephants.

Alex is as tall as a sun bear!

We ended the day at Red Robin so that Daddy

could get a free ice cream sundae!

Alex and Josh had ice cream too!

A nice big bite of ice cream.

Daddy was a good sport when the wait staff

sang to him!

I guess we will have to crack the

books again next week . We

are all getting spring fever even

though we plan to do school

through the summer time. We

will take breaks, of course, like we

did this week! Two days off

was great!