The End

Ash and Russ needed to leave after lunch, so we quickly put together a surprise we'd planned for the kids.  Ash needed to stop by the Mormon Bookstore to grab some stuff for Easter, so the Women quickly went for a shopping trip.  We grabbed the candy and then filled the eggs while Russ took all of the kids to fly kites.  Since it was so windy (perfect for kites, not for egg hunts) we decided to hide all 157 eggs in the house. It's funny, but I'm not sure why I have so many Easter eggs.  We used 157, but that was truly only half of my stash.  I'm a hoarder of Easter eggs, I guess.  The Butterfingers wouldn't fit in each egg, so we used some massive eggs that I have and hid three Super eggs full of 6 Butterfingers, to be shared with everyone.  We asked Caden and Keilie to help Everly and Aria, before they could collect their own.  Each got to find 15, with a few extra and the Supers, of course.

 Above: *Notice Shelby's hair.  It comes as a reference later in the post.

 Above, I am checking to see if the kids had found the ones I'd hidden.

 Above, notice the bright ornace egg directly next to Keilie's head.  She passed over that egg THREE times.  I laughed as she walked away from it each time.  It's not as if we hid it IN the egg carton!!!

 By the end, all were desperate to find the Super eggs.  Tyson found one, Caden found two. 

Everly found all of three eggs and then cared more about what was in them than trying to find more.  She took a rest next to Papa.  Look how cute her little arm is, resting on his shoulder.  Love that we get to see our kids with their Grandparents!!  I seriously wish we lived closer.  And by that, I mean that all of my family would move to Richland, naturally.

After the Wilsterman's left, we decided to sit down and have Caden teach us a game: BS.  It was fun to watch everyone try to lie, but especially the younger three.  Tyson was the WORST at it, but it made it so that we laughed and laughed and laughed.  But we never laughed as much as we did every time my Dad would call BS on Randy.  It just so happened that every time my Dad called it, he was telling the truth.  He collected himself a few cards...

The ones on the table are his, as well.  Needless to say, my Dad never won.  Most times, left with almost the whole two decks in his own hands. 

That night, after the younger kids went to bed, we stayed up until 11:00pm playing cards-- even allowing Caden and Keilie to stay up late.  It was super fun!  They taught us a game that we ended up playing as a family the whole weekend.  Keilie said, "I love that whenever we get together with Grandpa and Grandma, they teach us a new game that we play over and over."  I love that she has these memories of her Grandparents.  I hope that one day they will mean as much to her as my own mean to me.

*Saturday we decided to get haircuts for everyone, but Keilie and me.  Shelby has been asking for weeks months if she could cut her hair.  She is sick of all of the brushing needed to keep it from being a rat's nest.  I was getting sick of all of the protesting she always gave when I told her to go brush it.  So, when she asked in the saddest tone how many inches her hair needed to be before she could donate it, I felt bad that she felt that that was the only time I would allow her to have her hair how she wanted.  We let her choose how she wanted it, even though it broke my heart to see how much hair was being cut off.  9.5 inches to be precise.

She has both the perfect bone structure and hair thickness to pull this cut off.  I love it!  She loves that she got to choose what she wanted, without having to beg one more time to get it cut.  It was adorable to hear her exclaim, "This is the first time I have worn my glasses and these capris!"  She said something similar this morning, making me wonder if she'll comment on her haircut for the next few days, she loves it so much.  "I can't wait for my friends to see that I got to cut my hair."  I'm happy, because she's happy.

It's nice to have visitors, but it's nice to have our home be our own again.  I love that we can once again give all of our attention to our kids, making everything we do for them.  I love that the week that Randy took off work was not so that the parents could get away, but so that we could do fun stuff together.  Randy and I have a perfect marriage that is only made stronger as we unify our family.  Truly, the best place to be is together.

Spring Break 2017

The End

Oh, Dam, that's Coulee

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Lenore Lake Caves

Grand Coulee Dam

Thursday's weather had me concerned for our chosen activity.  Caden purchased a book from Seattle Children's gift shop on the 17th of February of Useless Facts.  In it, he found that a dam here in Washington, The Grand Coulee Dam, was the world's largest concrete structure for a while.  Because we had just found another tumor, and because we're scared that he may not be able to see all that he wants to see in his lifetime, or childhood even, we told him that we'd go during Spring Break... so we did.  On the way, Randy found some caves that had a 1.5 mile round-trip hike.  I'm glad we didn't know what kind of hike it was, I would have tried to talk us out of it, since we didn't have a backpack carrier for both Everly and Aria.  Even 6-year old Austen kind of struggled.  But it turned out all right in the end, you'll see.  (Still can't get Beauty and the Beast out of my head.  I loved it!)

 Panoramic from our first ledge. 

 The group (minus me, of course) at the first cave.  I thought this was the one, excited that it was a mere walk.  Nope.  We had more hiking, with two more caves before we finished.

 Wayne and Rachelle Burrell.  Don't I have the cutest parents?!

It's hard to see, but Russ is the one in the turquoise shirt on the bottom right.  He's holding both Aria and Everly.  That was the last cave, but to get to it was quite the climb and drop.  He was Superman, in my eyes.

 I love us!

 The weather could not have been more perfect.  By the time we made it to the parking lot of Lenore Lake Caves, the wind had died down, the rain had stopped, and the clouds gave us the perfect amount of shade to make the hike bearable.  Especially since Russ had at least one child on him at all times.  It was a fun adventure.

Before we went to Grand Coulee visitor's center, we stopped off at the only eatery that looked family friendly and not packed.  It was a Mom and Pop kind of shop that served both burgers and pizza.  It was quite spendy, but the food was excellent-- it made it a little less difficult to hand her the credit card to sign away a second mortgage.  Just kidding, it wasn't that expensive.  But kind of.

I love the cool little facts that they had.  Read them-- you'll be as amazed as I was.

 It's difficult to read, but this box structure shows a Cubic Yard.  There are TWELVE MILLION of these very Cubic Yards that make up the Grand Coulee Dam.

 Because we live near the Columbia River, we are considered the Columbia Basin.  It makes it even neater knowing that this dam is 3 hours from our home.  The Dam that we went to because of it's "world renown" status, actually helps keep us above water.

Looking at the pictures above, seeing the great expanse of concrete, it stunned me that FORTY PERCENT is UNDERWATER!!!  Since some of us needed to stop off for gas, we all split up after touring the visitor's center, planning to meet back for dinner.  While driving up, we saw many cool waterfalls off the side of the road.  We all commented that it would be fun if we could hike to one of them.  On a whim, we did.

 There was a side road off of the street that eventually lead to a little 4x4 hill that basically took us right to the waterfall.  We were pleasantly surprised by how easy it was for us to get where we wanted to go, especially since it was a whim decision.

It's hard to see in the picture, but the design of the rocks was so incredible.  Nature is so magnificent!

 I captured this one one-second too late.  He was directly next to the waterfall when a big gust of wind pushed the wind over to drench Randy.  Look how close McKaylee got!!  We didn't know how her parents would feel about her driving home wet, so this was as close as we allowed her to get.

It's hard to see, since the sun made Mira basically glow, but she is soaked.  Our initial plan was to let her come, but not get wet.  Then we thought it would be ok for her to get her paws wet.  Then she was just swimming.  Love that she never left Caden's side.  Where he went, she went.  At one point, she was even ready to start climbing rocks, just to be near him.

 My Tyson making his strong arms!  He would have gone further into the falls, but we were all headed back.  He still got sprinkled from the over spray. 

This boy was SOAKED!!!  Even more than Randy was.  *Swoon* Look at that smile!

Because of this little detour, and the actual one we had because of a flooded road, we got home basically just as dinner was being served.  The rest of the night was spent just as all others had: resting, but having fun.  Fun fact: not only was Beauty and the Beast a first for my parents, but so was Moana.  Aria asked to watch the rest of it (we'd started it earlier in the week, but never finished it) but we ended up watching it from the first, since Grandma said she'd only seen bits and pieces.

The weather was good to us, the food was delicious, and the sites were breathtaking.  Day 4- doing things in nature- was another success.  This week is shaping up to be the best Spring Break ever!