A Few More Fun Times

There are a few more things we did on our vacation that had I been home living my normal not so exciting life, probably would have gotten their own post, but since we have had two very full weeks, I have decided to do one big post.

Bethany was happy to see that Baby Valerie had come to see her at her house. She loves her and made sure Valerie got lots of love and attention. Valerie seemed to love it. Bethany also decided that because Emily was now at her house, Emily could be promoted to Bethany's Big Sister.

Gabriella

In 7th grade my family moved to Washington for about 6 months. While I was there I met Stephanie. We have stayed in touch all of these years, so while I was in town I went to visit her. She had her first baby in January and it was so fun to meet Gabriella. She is a cutie. It was great to be able to go visit, play with her new baby, and see Stephanie as a happy mom.

Salmon Creek

On Sunday, after church, the kids needed to burn off some energy, so Grandma suggested a walk. There is a creek by their house that has a great path that we have visited often. It was the perfect place for our walk.It was beautiful, and there was lots to see, including turtles camped out in the pond. We even stopped at a spot where the kids could throw rocks.

Kalama High School
(if you don't recognise this school from the picture, then you might want to skip this next part)
Our leaving on this trip was such a last minute decision that I did not tell some of my friends I would be gone. Thursday I received a text from a couple of my friends after discovering where I went, accusing me of using my family as a cover. They asked if I was really in Forks looking for Edward. Of course I told them I was.

The Ape caves were only 5 minutes down the freeway from Kalama High where the Twilight movies are filmed, so my mom and I decided to go and get a picture for my friends. We got there about 20 minutes after school let out, so there were still students hanging around. I told Emily she had to get out with me and act like she was really excited to be there. Joe and Josh gladly accepted the invitation to get out of the car.

When my mom was taking the picture I heard one of the students in the background say "Dude they're taking a picture." I guess there are not many people who do this........At least not when the students are around. Unfortunately the sun had come out so Edward was not there.

The Fort

If you go beyond the shrubs in my parent's back yard you will discover a whole different world. At least my kids did.

My nephews have carved out the black berry bushes behind my parents yard to make a fort. The bushes go back quite far so the fort is actually very big. (The part they have cut out was not an area good for berry picking) The kids loved going in there and playing their imaginary games. Whenever Emily walked out the door to the back yard she quickly disappeared into this world.


It was a little muddy, but that just added to the fun. It was very hard to go out into Grandma's yard without getting a little muddy anyway.

The Kitchen
Valerie had not paid much attention to the stairs at our house. I had been trying to teach her how to do stairs, but she would always just cry. But at the top of the stairs at my moms house is a little girls dream.

Valerie quickly developed the talent of crawling up stairs and when she would disappear from the main room I would often find her up playing in the play kitchen, and sometimes Bethany would be there with her having just as much fun. Valerie still had no interest at all in going down the stairs, when she was done she would just cry until someone brought her back down.


Helping in the real kitchen is something Josh loves to do. Grandma had the kids help her make bread sticks one night. It was really fun for Josh and the bread sticks were yummy.

We had a really great time visiting. Thanks for all of the fun adventures!