Fun with Cousins

This summer has been filled with lots of fun! We've had lots of outings and parties with the cousins. We always have a good time hanging out with them! We're lucky to have family that is so close to us!
We went to the zoo with Grandma Turville and my sister Amy and her family. We checked out all the animals and plugged our nose when we went to see the reptiles and birds...it wreaked! We shared some kettle corn and ate soggy peanut butter and jam sandwiches!
We had our annual van Uitert Carnival and had a blast! Grandma van has lots of fun games to play, they get their face painted and they have to earn tickets if they want eat! We have hot dogs, popcorn and little bags of chips. The kids love the bouncy house, they can go crazy and get all their energy out! Thanks to Grandma van for all the planning and hard work that goes into this. We have so much fun! This is a picture of Max and Hadley looking their best! They love to dress up in Grandmas play clothes. They look like two darling little girls! (or maybe their going visiting teaching....that's for Brad)My whole family went to Lagoon. The kids had fun riding the rides together. I think the most fun they had, though, was running through the water fountains. We spent a good portion of the day there. It was so stinkin' hot the day we went! Amy went in to get one of the kids, expecting to get sprikled on, and she got clobbered right in the face! It was hilarious! It was a long day but a lot of fun!

Cousin sleepover! My Mom had Amy's kids for a week while she was at Girl's Camp, so we had a lot of fun hanging out with Briggs and Averi. They ran through the sprinklers , we went to the park for lunch one day and Grandma invited Max to sleepover one of the nights. I went to drop Max off and my Mom is so cute, she just sat down with those kids and read about 10 stories. It was so sweet, I had to take a picture! She is such a good Grandma!

Cabin weekend

A few weekends ago we went to the Cabin with the Brad's parents, his Grandparents and His Aunt and Uncle. We had fun, as usual. It's my parent's cabin up in Idaho. My Dad has been building it on weekends for the last 15 years. It is a great place to escape to for a weekend away. It only takes a couple of hours and its well worth it for a relaxing weekend! Brad has wanted his grandparents to see it for a long time, we finally planned a time to make that happen. His grandparents were hilarious. They couldn't believe this place!

We had some awesome food and just hung around and played games. Max learned how to play "Trouble" and played all day out on the deck with Grandpa(when he was awake for his turn).
We took up a video camera and interviewed Brads grandparents to get their life history on video. Karen and Linda had some great questions written up. It was neat to hear stories about their life and get to know them better. They are such a cute couple! I asked them how they've managed to get along all these years....they said its a lot of give and take. I think that's great advice. Hope I can be there someday!
We had Max take our picture in the backyard of the cabin...I think it turned out great!
Another fun weekend come and gone....

Camping at Yuba Lake

Over Memorial Day weekend, last minute, we decided it might be a great idea to go camping, its been too many years. We went with my brother Jeff and his wife Ashlee and my cousin Tim, his wife Andrea and their little boy Bridger. We had a great time! We went down to Yuba Lake. None of us had ever been there, and it was a nice place to camp. The sites had a lot of grass and a nice covered picnic table. You'd think we were packing to stay a week! Our car was packed full and the kids were excited! What was going to be a three night camping trip ended up only being one night, because of the weather. We had some great food and took the kids fishing. Jeff and Ashlee went out on the float tubes and Ashlee out fished Jeff....she caught three that day! Max and Bridger both caught their first fish too! I think most the time they were more interested in picking up rocks and filling up their bucket.

I think the funnest part about camping is sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows and hanging out. We had to tie Sadie up because she kept running all over the place! (is that child abuse?) I was worried about her getting into the fire. Max and Bridger became little buds. Jeff was giving them pointers on how to roast the perfect marshmallow. What a fun trip!