4th of July

For the 3rd year in a row we headed up to Portland for 4th of July weekend. We got smart this year and flew to avoid the long drive and got to stay for a long weekend. My whole family was able to come for the weekend. So of course that means family picture time!

Here's the whole gang. Maddy broke her arm the week before on her razor scooter. Fortunately for the family picture, she didn't get her purple cast until the next week.


Just our little family.


Here is a rare picture of Owen actually posing for the camera. He usually refuses to join in any serious pictures.


Jack, on the other hand, has no problems with the camera. He loves to ham it up and yell, "cheese!"

The whole weekend was crazy! With 11 adults and 10 kids it was nuts. Luckily, my parents live down the street from my brother Jeff and my other brother Scott lives about a mile away so at least everyone didn't have to sleep in the same house. We stayed at Jeff's house, so every night and morning we would walk back and forth to my parents house.


Owen discovered he could pull Jack on the back of the tricycle and couldn't wait to do it every night and morning.

And of course it wouldn't be 4th of July without a parade. We went the afternoon before and staked out a great spot to watch the Hillsboro parade. We were lucky enough to have a nice shady spot. The kids had a blast filling their bags with all of the candy that the people threw from the floats. I think they enjoyed collecting all the candy more than actually eating it.


Here's everyone watching the parade from our awesome spot.


I made all of the grandkids matching shirts to wear to the parade. We numbered them from oldest to youngest. It made it easy to figure out who was missing at times.


Front view of the kids in their matching shirts.


The kids spent most of their time playing in my parents backyard with water balloons, water guns, buckets and hoses.

My nephew Zack told my sister he couldn't wait to get to my parents' house so he could feed the ducks with them. We have no idea where he got this idea but of course we had to go feed the ducks as a result.


Okay, so we actually fed geese not ducks but I don't think the kids realized. And no one fell in so it was a good day.


Here is Jack saying "two." This is his word that means whatever he wants it to. Either he wants to do something too or he wants more of something.


My dad had a fabulous idea to take a picture of the kids on this bridge. It looks pleasant enough but I think it took 30 minutes and 100 pictures before we actually got all the kids to stay still and face the camera. (This is the kids minus 1. Poor Harrison missed the photo shoot.)

All in all it was a fun, but crazy weekend. We had fun and it was great to see everyone but is nice to be back home in our relatively quiet house.

Eppies Great Race

Robby competed in the Eppies for the third year today. Two years ago he participated with a team and just did the bike part. Last year and this year he did the whole race by himself. Eppies consists of a 6-mile run, a 13-mile bike, and 6-mile kayak. Last year he finished in 2 hours and 16 minutes and his unofficial time for this year is 2 hours 8 minutes. Robby's parents took me and the boys to go watch him finish. We didn't get to see him run or bike but we got to see him finish up in the kayak.


Robby coming into the finish. Owen and Robby's parents found a great spot on the bank of the river and watched all the kayakers as they came in (and played in the water).



Robby right after he finished.



Owen and Grandpa watching the kayakers as they came into the finish.



The whole family after the race. The boys had a lot of fun after the race because there was a bounce house, cotton candy, hot dogs and popcorn. Luckily, there was a lot of shade since it was almost 100° by the time we left.

We are so proud of Robby. He worked really hard for this race and did really well. I am so grateful for a husband that likes to be active and that keeps me active as well.