Settled in...

Our  drive to Washington was fairly easy.  The kids were amazing in the car, but we hit some traffic in Portland, Fort Lewis and Olympia which really slowed down our time and made Ryan and I nuts!  We were all very happy to arrive around 9 o'clock, but it is always hard because the kids are so excited and they pretty much have to go right to bed.

The Rinehardt's arrived the next day and the kids played and played.  The volume of 5 kids (2 especially) is a lot.  Mom and Dad sure lost their peace and quiet!  We were at the table the other night and Wade was commenting how K had his brother's loud gene.  K thought about that and about 5 minutes later asked Uncle Wade what his jeans looked like!  Instead of confusing him more, he went with it and they were blue jeans of course!
The kids decorated their scooters for the 4th of July and we went over to the fire hall for the parade.  The kids got to explore the fire truck and K and Spencer ran through the spray from the fire hose!  I decided to run home from the firehall and the amount of cars headed to parties was ridiculous!  We had our usual party and it was a really nice group of people, small enough that it was easy to visit with everyone.  Lacey was about to pop, so it was good Eloisa (the midwife) was there, but Marley decided not to make an appearance!  The lake was as alive as I have ever seen it.  We went for a party boat ride and I think there were close to 20 of us piled in!  My good friend Jill even made it for the festivities :o).  Dad and Ryan usually get some fireworks, but they went to the warehouse and 1/2 of it was filled with those Indian blankets, so we pretty much only had kid stuff.  They were sure happy with the sparklers, smoke bombs and bees.  The s'mores made them even more content.  Not too many hung around for the big fireworks....how the party has changed since most everyone is either really old or has small children!  It gets dark here so late, but there were a handful of us went out on the party boat to enjoy everyone else's fireworks.  We didn't get back until close to 11, so Reggie and K were toast.

That weekend the kids stayed over at Grandma Peggy's while we did our walk through with our past tenant, did a little shopping and then went to see The Heat (very funny and I would recommend it!).  The kids had a great time playing pool, watching a movie and going to the park!  They were very excited about the sleeping arrangements, K and Reggie had a sleepover and Ainsley got to sleep with Grandma.  We picked them up on Sunday and Dustin and his family came up right after lunch.  We got to meet baby Easton....he sure is a cutie and a happy guy.  Both the kids were enjoying holding him and K still talks about what a cute baby he is.  They want me to have one and that is NOT going to happen!  It was a really nice visit and the kids enjoyed the party boat ride, jumping on the trampoline and playing in the water.
The kids loved playing with Aunt Holly's dog....now they want one (glad they can visit grandma and get a dog fix because we aren't getting one anytime soon)!

 Ainsley in heaven with Easton

 Reggie's not quite sure....

 Dustin driving the steam boat...

That night Ainsley completely melted down!  She and K had a rough day on Friday, lots of grumpy behavior and poor listening.  Reggie had his day on Monday and he also completely freaked out.  I was short, Ryan was toast and we've discovered that we need to plan for more down time, with just our family.  Our schedule was shot and everything was a bit out of sorts.  I think we've finally settled in to a new normal here and have found a nice mix of cousin time and family time.