Playing with fire

John added an awesome fire pit this summer, and we put it to good use.  The kids liked playing around it.

and also loved making and eating s'mores.  Kate and Liam just liked eating the marshmallows and graham crackers.  Liam probably ate 5 s'mores worth of stuff.

Jared LOVES s'mores, too, and needed to make sure he got his fill, which he did, eating 5 on Friday and 3 more on Saturday.  I guess that's where Liam gets it from.

On Saturday night, we made tinfoil dinners.  They were absolutely delicious and cooked perfectly!!!  There were a few of the dinners that were very, very spicy!  

We had some nice, relaxing evenings around the campfire.

until the kitten came the last day.  We weren't sure where it came from, but it was quite comfortable around all the kids and it was quite comfortable.  Fortunately, John and Vicki's neighbor Cheryl (who Vicki works for as well) came to the rescue and brought it to find a home.

We were pretty fortunate with our weather.  Thursday through Saturday we ended up either grilling or using the fire pit.  Each day, right about the time we started, a storm rolled in.  On the 4th, we were flipping burgers and hot dogs in the rain.  On the 5th, right after the fire was started, the rain came through, but we were dry for s'mores.  And on the 6th, a huge storm rolled by, just missing, and we only got a little wet.  It was nice, though, to get the cool temperatures that followed.

Playing in the lake(s)

Down the road from the Streeters is a little pond with a paddleboat, canoe, some fish and a zipline.  We had some fun paddling around the lake with the babies.  Kate really wanted to be on the boat... until she didn't (which happened very quickly).

She was a little bit happier with the boat pulled onto the shore.

Liam liked driving the paddle boat.

Dani took the kids on a canoe ride.  With the little bit of wind that was going, a canoe full of people, and an erratic at best front paddler, Dani and the kids spent a bit more time than planned exploring the edges of the pond.

Grandma took the kids fishing for their first times.  Almost immediately, Claire felt a fish on her hook and reeled it in.  Once on the dock, Vicki realized the fish had swallowed the hook and decided to put it out of its misery by bashing it against the corner of the dock (while Claire watched).  She then put the fish on the dock, and Claire watched the fish in tears.  Meanwhile, Jacob continued his fishing (with more success with the release part of the catch and release).  We wound up taking the fish home and Vicki cooked it for Jacob.  Claire took a long time to recover ("but he was just so beautiful"), finally receiving comfort in that Jesus and the apostles ate fish, too.

The pond was fun to jump into from the dock.  The 7-year-olds were pretty tentative about jumping in. Liam LOVED it!  He walked right off the edge into Jared's arms, then as soon as he was in the water, he wanted out (it was, admittedly, a little chilly).  As soon as he was on the dock, he turned around and was back in the water, calling to get out.  He probably jumped in 15 times in a row!

Dani and Jared took a few turns on the zipline, and we stayed about as long as our babies would let us. It was a lot of fun!

We also got to have 2 lake days with the boat.  The first day, we did some water skiing at Big Horn Reservoir.  Dani and Jared took turns skiing for a little while until the water got too choppy.

Claire wanted a few turns on the skis, so Dani hopped in the water with her.  She is so light that she got up on the water a few times, but just wasn't able to keep upright.  We were proud of her willingness to give it multiple tries, until she just got too cold.

Jacob wanted to drive the boat, and after Jacob took a turn on the tube, Grandpa let him on the way back to the dock, which basically made Jacob's day.

The next day, we took the boat out to Buffalo Bill Reservior.  The water was cold and pretty choppy, so the waterskiing was pretty short, but we got out the tube and Jacob and Claire took a turn in it.

Liam also took a turn in the tube and loved it!  He had a big smile on his face basically the entire time.

 

Kate also had a turn in the tube.  In the tube, she was pretty happy... until the boat got going.  She definitely didn't want to be in the tube at that point!

Our kids love to go in the boat!

Playing in the dirt

Liam found a play construction helmet that he wore around for a few hours one evening as he drove around his little electric jeep.

He spent a long time digging around with his tractor and eating some of the the dirt.  He seemed completely in his element!

Liam also followed the big boys' example doing some dirt biking, going over the little gravel piles near the fire pit.

Playing in Cody on the 4th of July

On the 4th of July, we went to see the parade.  It was the first time we've been to the 4th of July parade in Cody.  It was a fun parade, full of horses (including John Winter and a team of mules).

Afterward, we got some food at the Cody city park.  Kate and Liam shared one of kiddos' big corn dogs... at the same time.  We connected with some of Dani's friends (apparently the 4th is the time to come back to town!).

Ashley and James and their family came over for the 4th of July barbecue.  It was great seeing them and their kids and catching up.

We went to see the fireworks.  We followed Vicki to the 'perfect place,' which was in the very lighted parking lot of the correctional facility.  There was a concrete factory between us and the fireworks, but we were able to see all of the high fireworks.  The fireworks show seemed to end suddenly, and we found out that the grand finale was destroyed because of the heavy rain that was received earlier that evening!

Playing in the yard

The cousins spent a LOT of time playing together in the yard.  Heath and Bri brought over a little picnic table, and that's where many of their meals were eaten.  Surprisingly, eating actually happened, even with this crowd of little ones!

The 2-year-olds had lots of snacks at the picnic table.  We also realized the Liam and Bentley have very similar smiles and that their eyes are quite similar shapes, too.

Vicki got a pool and a slip and slide that were used a couple of days.  The big kids spent a lot of time running and diving.

 

The kids also had fun playing in the pool.  At one point, Jared had the kids all jumping in and doing tricks.  Brighton's belly flops were hilarious!  The kids would run all the way over to the other side of the yard, run around the house, and then jump in.

Claire doubled as the pool cleaner.  She spent a lot of her time pulling grass clippings out of the pool and making sure people were cleaning their feet before getting into the pool.

 

Also, she is full of sass. And has really skinny arms and legs.

The kids spent a lot of time on various types of bikes.  Kate and Liam spent a lot of time on their new bikes.  A couple times, we looked out and found them going out toward the end of the driveway and had to carry them back to the house!

Fortunately, Grandma has lots of different bikes so the kids could all have turns on a variety of them.

 

The boys liked driving around the jeep.  Claire and Jacob needed some driving lessons early on (it was pretty funny to watch), but they got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Claire hit her head pretty hard on the corner of the kitchen counter.  We knew she had hit it pretty good, but when she turned around and there was blood running down her head onto her face and dripping on the floor, we moved a little quicker.  Fortunately, it was a smallish puncture wound that didn't need any stitches.  She was really tough and got back to playing outside pretty quickly.

The 2 year olds spent quite a bit of time one morning sitting against the house watching the tractor in the field behind John and Vicki's house as he baled hay.  Liam was a little concerned the majority of the time ("uh oh, tractor!").

The kids all had noodle fights in the yard at various times... which Jared and Liam, of course, had to participate in.

It is fun to have kids get to experience things they don't do here in Oregon.