Fun Times with the Hanna Family

Kara and kids (minus Nathan) came to visit, from Blackfoot, for 2 weeks. During the first week, we had numerous appointments to get to, but the rest of the time, we mostly hung out and played. Days consisted of long walks down the street (a feeble attempt to wear David out), numerous games (Spades was a favorite), Guitar Hero, late movie nights - EVERY night, eating LOTS of food and chasing David around (his new nickname - Tazmanian Devil!) The cousins sure love getting together - and even after 2 weeks of non-stop fun, they/we were sad to see it end. Here is a small sampling of the fun had. The first two pics, Sarah drew on the driveway:

A favorite yard game was Bocce Ball - here's a game played by Jon, Chris, Brianna and Kenzie on afternoon:

Playing through the trees:

Figuring out who won - it's a close call:

Closest one to the yellow ball wins:

My view from the back porch - Aaron wishing someone would play with him a bit:

The warm days found the kids out in the yard in the sprinkler. This view is from the back deck looking down at the kids swinging with the volcano sprinkler spraying them. Aaron, David and Carly: Sarah and Carly this time:

Making Fruit Pizza and Taffy Apple Pizza one night:

Apparently it takes ALL hands on deck. Chris, Kenzie, Brianna, Aaron, Jon and Carly:

Finished Product. They did manage to leave a couple samples to try after I got home from Enrichment Meeting that night:

On July 2nd, we took a field trip to Deception Pass. It's a tall bridge connecting Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands. Amazing views! View from the top. Lots of boats...

...out crabbing today:

This is the some of us walking across the VERY HIGH bridge:

Chris, David and Jon going "Wweeee!"

The big truck RIGHT there makes me a bit anxious...

From the back - Chris, Jon, Brianna, Kenzie, Carly, Aaron, Sarah and David:

PERSPECTIVE:

Looking back at what we just walked across - it's a LONG way down!

Pouty faces: Carly, Aaron, Sarah, Brianna, Jon, David and Chris

The Hanna family: Kara, Jon, Chris, Sarah and David (missing James, who's in Bahrain with the Navy and Nathan, who's at BYU) Wish they were here with us.

Us - Paul, Amy, Brianna, Kenzie, Carly and Aaron

Very pretty picture of my girls - Carly, Kenzie and Brianna (wished she'd lost the sunglasses though!)

Then we went down to the beach to have lunch and play a bit. This is the Puget Sound they're playing in:

It was a pretty contained place for David to play:

Carly being a big help with David:

The "Hangin and Just Watchin'" Crew - Amy, Kara, Brianna and Jon (laying down):

Carly still helping:

Out to sea - View from the back:

On the way home from Deception Pass, we stopped at a reservation to pick up fireworks for the 4th. Usually this is Matt Melton's job, but they weren't joining us this year - so we braved it ourselves. Quite the experience, I'll say. As we were leaving, Paul asked me, "So, do you feel DIRTY too?" We think we got good deals - we certainly got great fireworks as you'll see in the next post...