Fourth of July 2012

 It was sooo hot this year on Independence Day! The morning started out kind of cool, but by lunch time it was crazy hot. We started out at the Steilacoom street fair again. I love the view of the water and how beautiful it is there, but there is always something fun to buy too. We went with my mom and her dog, Missy, who was like a little celebrity in her little outfit.

My mom swears she's going to make some outfits like this for next year and sell them at the street fair. So many people wanted one for their own dogs!

Jack checking out the handmade birdhouses. My mom bought one, and I thought they were amazing!

Madelynn and Olivia checking out something. There were lots of booths with little toys or candies.

My cute, festive kids!

Maddy got tired of walking so Daddy obliged. Funny story, Adam went to put my mom's birdhouse in the car while Mom and I shopped a little more. I turned to her and asked where Madelynn was. She thought I had her, I thought she had her. Right when panic started to rise (it's crazy crowded down in Steilacoom!) and we went to look for her, I hear over the loud speaker through out the whole street fair "We have a lost little girl here. She says her name is Madelynn..." So yeah, I had to do the walk of shame to gather my sobbing child who was found alone by a nice lady. Oops.

The view from Steilacoom. Love!

After Steilacoom we went to get some lunch at Wendy's and then headed to University Place and let the kids play at Playground by the Sound. It's a newer park right by Puget Sound, with more beautiful scenery... and very little shade. Ugh.

Adam enjoying the view, and the shade.

Lots of things to do, slides, swings and lots of climbing things.

Adam had as much fun as the kids....

Until the sun got the best of him. And Jack. Poor kid. I should have put him in shorts. He was sooo hot!

One last swing before we head to Nana and Papa's house for a BBQ!

We love going to Nana and Papa's house for barbecues. Papa is a great BBQ master :) and the kids got to play with their cousins. And I got some much needed air conditioning!

After dinner we went to a house on Gravelly Lake that my dad is working on. It's a few houses down from another house my dad had done work on that does a huge fireworks show every year over the lake. We sat on the beach or the dock and had great seats. This is Madelynn's first year that I've let her stay up late enough to watch the fireworks too!

Celeste and her in-laws.

It made me so nervous that most of the kids wanted to be on the dock, but luckily no one fell in or anything. We just bundled up in our blankets, ate snacks and watched the show!

It's me! The kids and I waiting for the show to start!

 

2012 Hjelm Family Reunion

We got to spend a few days with my dad's side of the family up near Deception Pass and Cornet Bay in Washington. It's beautiful up there, and even though it rained quite a bit, we still had fun (and no one got sick this time. Yay!). A lot of my dad's siblings couldn't make it, but we were able to catch up with some aunts, uncles, cousins and my Grandma Hjelm. We don't get to see them all very often and some I hadn't seen in years!

You can see Madelynn's wet pants. It rained almost every day, but we had some moments of sunshine! This kind of shows the primitive living spaces :) They were cabins with electricity and heat. Not the Hampton Inn, but we survived and I never saw any bugs in our cabin so that was definitely a plus!

We started out by hanging out in the lodge. Lots of room to play, plus there was a ping pong table!

LOVE this picture of Jack. He loved ping pong :)

Mom and Aunt Jodi!

The kids played Twister. Celeste, Kelli and I played Twister too. But we're not going to share pictures of that. Lots of butt pictures... plus I lost. Badly.

Adam also played ping pong. It's like an addiction! Once you started playing, it was hard to stop!

Uncle Ron and Roman.

Olivia looooves having someone who can French braid. I "can" but it's terrible looking. Thanks Aunt Celeste!

Craft time! There's me!! We're helping the kids make dream catchers.

Beautiful, right?

My cousin Jonah stole my camera and took those last two pictures. He did a good job :)

Dad "injecting" the roast with marinade. It was fascinating, mostly because those roasts (he had two!) were huge!

Lots of the families with kids went on a hike before lunch on our second day. It was finally sunny and the kids had a great time. We ended up taking the "shorter" hike which basically meant it was all uphill. The kids were exhausted (so were the parents!). It was fun for the kids to have a scavenger hunt to do as well.

These two were fun to watch. They obviously missed each other!

Deception Pass. I'm sure there's a story that goes along with the name, I'm too lazy to figure it out though.

Another Jonah picture. There were lots of bald eagles!

Adam playing horse shoes (in the grey)

Jeremiah and Adam hitting golf balls. They kept hitting Bryan's cabin (on purpose... they thought they were being funny) while he and Jake were sleeping. Bryan didn't think they were very funny :)

Madelynn making friends with the older cousins.

Kory! I don't have a lot of pictures of him for some reason. Dad, Kory, Jage and Aubrey watching the kids play.

Jeremiah laying down the law when it comes to the rules of croquet. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to give the kids big mallets...

One of the best parts of the reunion... meeting this one for the first time! Anslee definitely stole my heart! Love her!

Just to prove to myself (and others) that my dad actually does take time off to do something for himself, even if it is just one game or two of croquet.

Scrunchy-face Jake is my fave.

Anslee's big eyes are beautiful. I just want to eat her (not literally, but she is just so chunky and cute that I can't help it!)

We had a movie night with the younger kids. They got to eat popcorn and sleep on the ground (until actual bed time when they had to lug all their stuff to their cabins).

Good morning! This is the last day I had with Adam before he had to leave to go back to work :(

Ana Lee had the patience to try and teach Rix and Hayden a new game.

Bath time! Aubrey and Madelynn in the big huge sink!

All the (Rick and Lynda) Hjelm grandkids. Aubrey, Roman, Hayden, Cole, Rix, Jacob, Olivia, Anslee, Jack, Madelynn, Bryce. Eleven in all!

Nana and Papa with all the kids. Have I told you how hard it is to take a picture of all eleven grandkids smiling (and not crying) at the same time?

Papa with his siblings (and Grandma Hjelm in the pink)

My whole immediate family!

Cutest family ever :)

No, I don't have voluminous hair. It's frizz. From the stupid humidity.

After this, Adam left to go back to work, so I had the rest of the day and the whole next day by myself. This includes packing, cleaning the whole cabin and helping clean the gross (gross gross gross) bathroom and driving home by myself. Adam owes me still.

We took the kids down the street to the public beach. It wasn't super warm but lots of fun! And gorgeous!

It was fun to watch Bryce. He was so particular about leveling his bucket and worked so hard on his castle! His concentration was amazing :)

Love this picture. He was so excited the water got him!

Perspective.

She is definitely the cutest thing ever.

And she is totally aware of this.

Celeste and Cole.

Olivia was such a good sport, seeing that she was still the only girl near her age (besides a few cousins that were there. She loooved hanging out with other girls for once at a family thing!)

Yeah, loved this. So cute getting buried. No fun getting sand out of places I didn't know sand could venture.

Rix was super proud of his castle and worked very hard on it!

The kids got to make "Mr Potato Head" cupcakes. It was fun and they loved eating their creations!

Suuuuper tired.

Jack's cupcake. Cute, right?

The kids with Grandma Hjelm.

It was lots of fun. Cold, damp, finally sunny, not enough time at all! We should do this again, but this time the whole freaking family has to come! We missed so many of them!