Warm Weather + Water = FUN!

As part of our lesson for church last week we dicussed our ability to influence other's moods. We tried to keep straight faces while making the other person smile

It was lots of fun

 The kids then worked on drawing how they can make others feel happy

 They did a pretty good job

That evening we set off the fireworks we had left over from the 4th

The kids had lots of fun playing in the sprinklers

 On Monday we drove out to Rathdrum mountain to do a new book walk and we ran into one of my distant relatives

 We found a birds nest

 There was a book to read along the path

 The path followed and crossed a stream a couple of times and Kim ended out getting her feet wet

Henry was a maniac and was falling all over the place

 Mason examining another statue

 This boy loves to pose in the forrest

 Banging a stick on a tree...must be Mason 

 Lyza was at one with nature

 Nixon squat-waddled all the way accross this log

 The best was his celebration at the end "I am Victory!"

After our hike we went to a new park

 Henry wanted to be like the big kids

 Look at that happy face 

 Sandbox volcano was on our bucket list and we got to cross it off this week

 Henry's reaction is so cute

Magic tricks have also been on the bucket list

And making friendship bracelts

 This guy just happened to be right outside me window while I had the camera ready

 I got some inexpensive macro extension tubes that allow me to use any lens like a macro lens. It opens up a whole new photographic world

Here is a portion of a raspberry

 A wasp

 Ants and a moth

With no advanced notice or planning Kim decided she would take all four kids to Silverwood for the day with a friend. She left at 11am and didn't get home until after 9:30pm 😮

 They had SO...MUCH...FUN

 This little guy LOVED the water. He would run out into the waves until he got knocked over or couldn't touch any more. He would also run back to Kim and babble in excitement

 So cute

 After the waterpark they went on a bunch of rides and everyone did pretty well. Lyza built up her courage from the last time she was there and enjoyed the rides much more

 My favorite part of this video is in the middle where Henry is not enjoying the ride

Apparently Lyza loved this area

 JOY

And what kid doesn't love bumper cars

 Once all the snacks were gone and the kids were hungry after dinner time they got the next best thing...ice cream

 Kim and her friend ran 13 miles Saturday morning

 I was keeping the kids alive and taking pictures of early morning water droplets. I'll let you decide who had the more productive morning ;)

 After an exhausing morning of running and macro photography it was off to the lake to spend the day with friends

Henry spent lots of time in the water without any fear and he hated when we put a life jacket on him 

 These little birds were everywhere scavanging food

 The only time I could find our kids together is when they were stuffing their faces and refueling

Kim and the girls practiced their synchronized jumping

Then some mixture of Aqua Man and Iron Man showed up

We had lots of fun taking out the jet skis 

Nixon and I had lots of fun on the jet ski

 There was also some floating around

 And lots of digging

 Nixon and I jumped off the dock together. By together I mean we counted to three, I jumped, and he waited until I was back out of the water to jump. And he didn't just jump, he did a crazy roll

 Then we decided we would try it again, except I would try diving

 Nixon never told me that he was going to jump in my way and I almost hit him

 Nixon and Kim had fun together on the jet ski too

 

Henry was fearless in the water

 He loved getting to the point where he was floating and could kick his feet but then got mad when he started to roll over

Mason also enjoyed jumping off the dock

 Nixon loved the jet skis so much we sent him out with a friend for a little more adventure 

 

 Lyza also found some courage and took a ride

 It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun

Take care