Summertime Rewind: A few days in Snoqualmie

*Post 4 of 6, in the enchanting little Summertime Rewind series....

July 25 - July 29, 2012

After Texas we headed up to the great, green Pacific Northwest. Specifically the Seattle area, where Z's family calls home. Also, my sister has been there for 2 years, and will be for one more, so we stopped at her place for a few days before relocating to the Saunders' home base.  Z went and climbed another mountain, Erin's hubby had to go to Africa, so it was her, me, and the kiddos most of the time. We had fun! How could we not? ;)

Brigit and Nuala, pretty flower girls...

We had the awesome idea to go on a small hike with the seven children, one pregnant lady (Erin) and one not-pregnant lady (me).  The hike itself was a great idea... nice and cool, fun things to look at... unfortunately, there was a slight brain lapse that meant we allowed Maeve and Aoife to bring little strollers with their baby dolls along.  For real? What were we THINKING? Clearly, we weren't.  Erin IS pregnant, but I... I at least should have had the faculties about me to know better... ;)

We had fun and survived, though the hike back UP (yep, uphill) was full of impressive feats like...getting seven tired kids and two strollers UP the hill.  That covers it. Imagine it... piggyback rides, stroller pushing, much whining, kids falling down, more whining, muttered threats... you get the picture.

Aoife and Maeve had a fun habit of taking turns grabbing each others' necks for pictures. The grabber was always happy, the grabbee invariably would start squirming and complaining: "Do NOT grab my neck!!"

On Saturday we went to Erin's ward picnic celebration thing. It was fun! There was an informal game of softball going on for the kids, and here we have Nuala, informally trying to hit the ball.  I'm pretty excited to give these rascals pointers on doing the stuff I loved as a kid.  And there is plenty of need for pointers in the softball area.  For example, it kinda looks like Nuala just hit the ball. She didn't. She is swinging mightily, yet the ball has not actually made its way to her.  She did eventually hit it, and get on base. She's speedy, and that's a great start! There's Brigie, also speedy, waiting for her turn to whack the ball. I think she and Nuala were the only girls out there. Gooo, girls!

Then, Erin and I went shopping (ahem, Target... we love you.. and you love us, we know. The irresistibly good deals you always have waiting for us are proof.), and Rob and Zac, who had both returned the previous night, took the kiddos to Rattlesnake Lake, where they all had a shivery good time.  Did you know if you just set a bunch of kids adrift in a raft on a chilly lake you don't really have to deal with all the whining and watching? They are contained and juuuust cold enough to not want to exit the craft. Brilliant! ;)  

The after-church shot.  Beep, beep, beep... That's the "cute kids" alert.  Haha! I'm so clever...

Colin, Liam, and Bran... handsome dudes.

Doesn't it look like Aoife's singing a rousing pirate song or something? Yo ho ho! 

And now Aoife's about to yell, "don't grab my neck!"

hahaha! ... hahahaa!! Okay.  Here I had told them, "alright touch noses now!"  I was going for the cute Eskimo kiss, or kitty-cat kiss, or whatever.  After looks of slight confusion, they did what I asked and touched noses. Their own noses. Most likely I didn't have to spell all that out, since you can see that they did, indeed, touch their own noses. I thought it was pret-ty darn cute. Admittedly, most things they do fall in that category.

And...my SECOND birthday celebration! And it still wasn't even my birthday! Blonde brownies and ice cream, and my little sis! Good times.

Up next: Fun with the Rollins Clan, up Seattle way...