With the Smiths in Snoqualmie... July (yikes)

Before I can even attempt to catch up with any cute and amazing and downright ordinary stuff from the nowaday time period, I've gotta churn out these summer babies... 

After Texas, we went to Seattle, of course.  The kids and I stayed with my sis, Erin, and her kids, Liam, Brigit, Colin, Aoife, and new lil' Deirdre, while Zachariah and Rob (her hubby) went on the Man Trek, with a whole gaggle of relatives -- including Gary, finally!  It was great getting to hang out with little bro before and after their trip. It was a cool trip, as usual, and there's a post up on Z's Man Trek blog, right here, as in click this entire phrase... if you want to... which you should... Anyway.

With the men gone, we took the kiddos to a lake. It was fun, and warm enough to swim! Yes! Even in Washington! haha. I got to drive Rob's little tiny car around. It's a standard, and was super fun! I had kinda forgotten how involved you have to be with a standard. I loved it. It was a bit strange... not only driving a standard again, but driving on the opposite side of the road... luckily we all survived.

Aoife and Maeve.  Maeve occasionally thinks Aoife is her twin, because, you know... everyone needs a twin.

Erin and me! Don't correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe we are both better looking in real life.

Maeve and the main attraction. Deirdre. Kidding! Everyone was equally attractive to us! Deirdre was just well... you know... the most attractive...

I got to hold little D a ton. She's such a happy, thigh-y baby! I looooovvvve her! But these are the only pictures I have of me holding her, and only b/c I said to Maeve: "hey! no one takes pictures of ME with Deirdre! Here!"  She more-than-willingly accepted the photog assignmend, and she did decently. I mean, tops of heads are greatly overrated.

I take that back... the tops of our heads are pretty noteworthy...

Ahhhhh!! The CUTEness!!!

And the three cute boys: Bran, Liam, and Colin. Somehow I get way more pics of the girls. They're just posier.

Maeve and her preferred way of getting a quick drink lately. I put full responsibility on Bran and his teeth-brushing habits of the last few months. Oh well... saves on cups on the counters...

The AMAZing castle that lives in the Smith living room. Though they just moved to Colorado, so we will never visit this absolutely gorgeous house again... sadness... but eh... it's just a house, right? It's who's inside the house that matters (awww...).  Oh, but this house! It was awesome.

Post-library. This was a very quiet moment.

We went on a tour of a chocolate factory in Issaquah... shoot! I can't remember the name of the guy! He was from Austria... came over during WWII to escape the Nazis. Okay, gotta Google... Got it!  Julius Boehm... here's the website.

The factory tour was fun (and tasty), but then we got to go inside his house! It was awesome! It was the first authentic Alpine chalet built in the area, and it was full of stained glass, and lovely artwork, and reproductions, and very quaint, Alps-y stuff. THAT was worth the tour, even without the factory (which was also cool)!

He even had a little chapel built on the grounds. It was beautiful. Haha... While the kids were sitting in the front pew, the nice young tour guide was telling them all about all the different lovely accents in the chapel, and she said, "People can still get married here!  Would you like to get married here one day?" Obviously little kids are supposed to automatically say "yes!" due to the cute-ness, and fairy-tale-ness (I'm sure there are better words for this, but you get the drift) of their surroundings, but all 6 kids (it would've been 7, I'm sure, but D can't talk yet...) chorused: "No!"  Then there was an awkward silence. We expected one of them to slightly explain... you know... "we're getting married in the temple!" But no one felt the need, and before Erin and I jumped in the girl said," well... it IS kind of small..." and moved on.  It was pretty funny. But we were glad that they all were not swayed from the goal of a temple marriage by a cute little building.

The golf course behind Erin and Rob's house. I'll miss that lovely green expanse! Erin will probably miss saying semi-snarky-yet-hilarious things about snooty golfers while forgetting that her window is open until they look over at her... sadness and disbelief in their eyes... 

July 4th! I love our overseas experiences, but I love and am grateful for America. Even if she's not perfect, she is a blessed land, I truly believe. After somewhat-uncomfortably-warm days for the Seattle area (okay, they were lovely! But I was expecting NORMAL Seattle weather as a reprieve from Texas and Okinawa!), the Fourth was chilly.  The rascals got all red-white-and-blued up, including totally cute patriotic hair clips from Zac's sister, Sari... Seriously, she makes the most adorable and fun barrettes! She was extra nice and made some for Erin's girls, too!

We went to the local celebration... inflatable play-things, games, snow cones (see Nuala in her fleece below), etc.  It was fun! I like the pic of Maeve and Aoife above... they look like they're absolutely fed up with each other, but really they're just checking out the fun.

See? Buds.

Bran ready to scale the rock wall.

He was good!

Brigit and Nuala. These hair clips look like firecrackers. I love them!

Ahhh... we did a mini patriotic photo shoot... yeah. Here's one where we're bumming a flag off one of the neighbors... 

Here was a great idea: Stretching M across their laps. I think she was the only one that (somewhat) enjoyed that.

See? Girls pose.

We did fireworks in Erin's backyard. Maeve commandeered Deirdre AND the little jeep.

It was quite the par-tay.  There's Uncle Gary -- front and center, lounging in that chair.

Oooooh! Fireworks! Deirdre didn't care.

She didn't care about looking at me for a pic, either, but notice how Maeve gently encouraged her? 

Run, Nuala and Rob, run!!!

Gary! Wow, you can see how sunburnt his legs are from the rafting trip the guys went on... I've gotta admit, I'm laughing again thinking about it...

Here, Z is likely retelling some of the Gary escapades from the trip. Again.

I made this picture huge just because Bran is so dang cute. I love him! I LOVE his laugh, when it's just full-on and uncontrolled! Best sound ever.

Uncle Gary helping Maeve blow something up.  What a team.  And then, the next day, we moved on... sniff, sniff... it was time to say goodbye to my fam, and hellllooooooo to the Z clan!