California Part 2

 Sunday night, after the birthday party, we stayed at Jay and Kelley's house for the next several nights. We took the dogs for a walk in the orchard, the girls rode in the golf cart, played croquet, and spent more time with Reed and Kieran. On Wednesday we headed up to King's Canyon and hiked to Weaver Lake. 

Reed and Annaliese playing Cribbage

The moon was so beautiful!

Haleigh and Lydia following the cats through the garden.

Grandpa playing croquet.

Trying out some fun sling-shot type of 'toy' of Grandpas!

The day we hiked Weaver Lake was a gorgeous day; it was a little smoky at the start of the hike from a controlled burn, but it wasn't long before the smoke blew away and we had clear skies. It's amazing how dry and dusty hiking in a forest in California is compared to hiking in Washington where everything is covered in ferns and moss!

California

 We started off our summer with a trip to California. Kyle and I picked the girls up from school and headed right to my parent's house; we picked them up and drove to Sea-Tac, arriving exactly one hour before our flight was scheduled to depart. We didn't plan on the traffic starting in Lynden, getting stuck behind school buses, and heavier than normal rain on our drive! Thankfully, there was no line to check our bags and it took about three minutes to make it through security. When I texted my mom to let her know we had made it to our gate, they had barely made it off airport property! It wasn't exactly how we wanted to start our vacation, but we didn't miss our flight so it was all okay!

California bound!

We spent the first three nights at Jon and Sarah's house. Friday was 105 degrees outside, which was a bit of a shock for our Pacific Northwestern selves! We didn't quite know what to do with such heat, and decided the best thing was to spend the day in the pool! Reed and Kieran are both on a swim team and have spent significantly more time in a pool that our girls, but everyone had fun and despite lots of sunscreen, we all still burned our poor white skin.

When we weren't swimming, we were busy playing games and relaxing inside in the air conditioning!

Movie time!

Momma Joan turned 90 on Sunday, so the plan was to do a birthday dinner for her on Saturday and to spend the afternoon together. However, Kyle and I both got rather congested/hoarse Friday evening so we decided to postpone the party until Sunday. Before heading over to Jay and Kelley's house, we were able to watch Reed's piano recital. 

Aunt Laurie was also here from Arizona to help celebrate. We had a delicious dinner of hamburgers, salads, and fresh fruit, finished off with ice cream and caramel sauce for dessert. Before dinner, the kids made paper airplanes and tried to get them up onto the walkway/bridge! We were also able to get some nice family pictures.