We spent a week in Monroe Washington with my family. It was so fun being together!
The house was right on a river. The river was freezing, about 44 degrees.
The backyard and house. (and Jackson)
Michelle (and the rest of us) thought the kitchen lacked organization and decided to organize it.
The kids were excited to watch some tv on the big screen.
Doug roasting a marshmallow.
Coleman, Doug, and Kenna
Jordan, Kenzie, Sam, Nati, Coleman, Camryn
Kids pile up.
Coleman set up an obstacle course. The end was throwing the ball in between some cones in the middle of the yard.
We saw and heard some eagles. They sounded a bit like monkeys, which was surprising.
Coleman sorted the UNO cards.
Playing baseball. This is how Coleman wanted to spend his days.
These girls (and Jackson helped I think) decided to freeze a fly to make it fall asleep. And then they tied a string around it. Then they had a pet fly. I don't remember if it ended up living through it. I think it might have escaped from the string. But they also thought they strangled it accidentally. So I don't know.
Coleman had to get the ball out from under the deck.
We went to Eagle Falls one morning.
It was beautiful there.
Alli, Kenzie, Nati, Jordan, Konrad, Kenna, Sam, and Doug
Kenzie, Nati, Jordan, Sam, Kenna, Alli
Michelle was the first to jump in the swimming hole. The water was freezing!
He's like me and avoids cold water as much as possible so there was no way he was going in :)
Sam helping Kenzie out. On Kenzie's second jump she tried to jump closer to the exit spot, and we all were worried she was going to land on the rocks and break her legs. Luckily she didn't, but it was a bit scary.
Nati (I'm pretty sure it's not Kenzie...)
Konrad paid Richard $8 to jump in :)
These two liked playing in the sand and river. Luckily the river was slow moving and shallow for a long time so we didn't need to worry that they'd be swept away.
Mickey Mouse sand sculpture
Ashlee, Michelle, Konrad, and Richard floated the river. When they got close to the house, Konrad saw Cam and was calling to her to have someone get a phone so they could take pictures. Cam was so confused though and kept saying things like "where are you?" and "when did you leave?" and "is Mom with you?" Luckily I was outside too and had my phone ready to take pictures :)
Konrad had gotten out his tube when he was trying to talk to Cam, and when he sat back down for the picture he fell backwards. Haha I'm glad I got a picture of it :) I guess he did it when he first got in at the beginning too. And they had a tube that was too small and hard to balance on. Richard tried to use it for awhile while laying on it since it wouldn't balance if he was sitting on it. But then he started to go all numb since the water was freezing. They got out on shore along the way so he could warm up a bit. Afterwards he was able to blow it up so it was a good size and could hold people up better.
Skipping rocks
Making sand cones
Then running through the sand cones. There were able to do it once, and then the sand cones were smashed. It had taken them a long time to make it and said it ended up being a waste of time since they were destroyed so quickly. I reminded they had fun making them though :)
They each had a big collection of rocks and wanted to show me them. They washed them off before showing me.
Doug did lots of golfing while were there. He golfed 3 times, plus once on Monday before we left to go to Monroe.
After getting back, Ashlee and Michelle floated the river again with Jordan and me. I was worried it would be too cold to be fun, but they said it wasn't too bad. And it wasn't. My feet were so cold and my hands when I put them in the water, but other than that I was fine. Jordan loved it and wished there were more fast spots. It was a pretty slow float, with a couple fast spots. The whole thing took about 45 minutes.
We saw the comet Neowise.
Lots and lots of chess games happened. Doug even was into it.
Jordan played some huge solitaire games.
One day we hike Wallace Falls.
Coleman complained a lot in the beginning. I kept him entertained though my playing alphabet games with him. He excited to do a Harry Potter version.
Jordan, Alli, Ashlee, Kenna, and Richard
Doug was in a posing mood...
Coleman wouldn't smile.
Then everyone wanted to take a picture of how they really felt. Jackson still smiled :) I think he was happy to get away from the house and the dance practicing that was happening.
The hike was beautiful!
Jordan and Ashlee
Doug posing again...
Coleman refusing to smile again and Doug being extra happy.
me and Doug
Richard took the girls closer to the river. Most of the rest of us came down later too.
Konrad paid Richard again to jump in the water.
Alli
Ash and Cam
Kenzie
Coleman was finally happy when exploring around there.
Konrad and Richard helping Alli cross the river.
Doug doing pull ups.
This was the middle falls. There were lower, middle, and upper falls.The kids weren't excited about going to the middle falls after the lower ones. But we didn't make them go to the upper ones. The upper ones were a lot harder to get to than one we'd done already.
I told him to smile how he felt about me and that's the only way I could get him to smile:) He really wasn't complaining or miserable the whole time. Only when he decided to think about how he was feeling :)
The 14 year olds
The following are pictures my sisters sent me...
At the end of the hike, Michelle, Jackson, Jordan, and Alli (I don't think Kenna was with them) ran the last mile and half. Michelle decided she really enjoys trail running. I think Jackson liked it too.
These guys were playing flag football when the neighbor goats came over. They just played around the goats. Cam was trying to feed one of them when it turned and hit her in the head. One of the goats was mean so they tried to avoid him.
Michelle got some fun pictures of Cam and Coleman:
After flag football, Doug was in the backyard getting ready for some baseball and I looked at him and saw he had a hole in his shorts. :)
Jackson, Alli, Jordan, Kenna, Doug, and Coleman floated the river. I was glad we convinced Jackson to go. He knows how much I hate cold water and that I also wouldn't go on it if it was at all dangerous so he figured it would be fine for him too :)
Jackson did say that he was telling Alli he wasn't sure if he'd go because he was hoping she'd offer to give him money to go. She didn't offer, but he still went :)
Richard, Michelle, Sam, Konrad, Nati, and Kenzie floated the river too. Kenzie almost didn't go, but I'm glad she decided to. She said it wasn't as boring as she thought it would be:)
Lots of games of Canasta was played too. It's fun to see them playing a game I played on family vacations when I was young :) And it's a game my great grandma, Nana, played with her sisters.
We went to Granite Falls:
When some of the family was crossing the street after the falls, they witnessed a car accident. It wasn't a big one. My dad tried to help the lady fix her car but wasn't successful. Michelle called the cops. And they also helped the guy who hit the lady calm down a bit. He was in shock a bit afterwards. But by the time everyone left, he was smiling again and calm and the police had showed up.
We drove by the Kenyon's old home.
The kids performed a few dances. These three had only been doing theirs for a day or so. They still did a great job and knew it so well.
These 6 worked all week long and practiced so much for theirs and it was amazing. They had lots of different songs in it and changed formation. It was so good. Kenzie is so sad they're not doing it anymore.
The performances were so good, we had the kids do them a second time.
They requested a parent performance, and so we did our cheer dance to Liberty's fight song.
Jackson and Coleman performed something too. They just made it up as they were going. The dads refused to do anything. So boring!
It was such a fun week! We were all disappointed to not be in Hawaii but were happy we were at least still together :)
