Mason's 7th Birthday, Independence Day, and the Wolseys

 A couple weeks ago Nixon tried to sleep on the trampoline but it got cold so he came in at 1:30 am

It is amazing how much fun the kids have in the sand box when it has been cleaned

Kim and the kids did a hike with the relief society sisters one day

Mason turned 7 on the 29th! For breakfast he requested a smoothie and blueberry scones

He got to help decorate his cake

In the afternoon he got to play at the beach with friends

And eat ice cream treats

He got to open some gifts before dinner

This is Nixon's drone that he gifted Mason

Nixon got a big hug

A fitness tracker so he can now compete for daily steps

Nixon calls this gift the "Ghetto Gameboy"

After dinner we went to Chuck E Cheese

Then it was back home for cake

He has liked this little game machine

The next day Kim, Lyza, Nixon, and Mason went huckleberry picking

They found lots of berries

Impressive haul

On the morning of Canada Day our ward had an Independence Day breafast

Then it was home to get those berries in the freezer

Then we went to Spokane to REI so Kim could find some new hiking shoes

We then went to Riverfront Park to explore in the heat

It was nice cooling off next to the fountain

We played at several parks there

After that we went to a co-worker's house for her grandson's birthday party. Her grandson is Mason's age and they get along really well

We only took two photos because we were so tired

This picture was used as one of the promotional photos for the mud race that he and Kim did

Last Sunday the Wolseys arrived in Idaho and our kids were happy to see their cousins again

We had dinner then played in the backyard

We then went down to the beach park to play

Then we lit off a few fireworks

The kids got some pictures together

The next day we met in the afternoon to play at the beach

Henry liked wearing my hat

But he liked taking pictures with Kim's phone even more

For a boy that doesn't like being in photos, he sure was interested in the camera that afternoon

Great pose!

We had pizza for dinner at the beach

After that the kids played some retro video games together

On the 4th Kim, Nixon and I got up early to go for a hike and test out Kim's new shoes

We had a great hike together

Later that day it was our friends' annual 4th of July Party. This was the 5th year they have done it. Mason liked getting explosives from the Mandolorian

They had shaved ice too

We blew some things up

Nixon and Mason with some of their hooligan friends

Lyza playing a serious game of corn hole

Mason won this guessing jar full of marshmallows

There was a big slide

Look at those pretty girls

Mason was happy to get this thing

There was a great fireworks show

I recorded it with the drone and my camera and put the two together for a video. The finale begins at about 14:50

With the drone up in the air we could see fireworks everywhere

Here is a short video of the night sky and all the fireworks

After that we went down to our beach to see some more fireworks

They had some big ones but they didn't have them all set up with a timer or anything so it was no where as impressive

Mason put on a show dancing to the music

The next morning Lyza taught Henry how to play go fish

We had the Wolseys over for a huckleberry pancake breakfast

The boys helped Kim vacuum out the van

On Friday afternoon Kim and the kids met the Wolseys at Falls Park (I was working). They found a garter snake

There wasn't much water running through the dam

They had lots of fun playing at the park

They had a hard time containing Superman

How cute is this?

We sure had lots of fun with Sarah and Richard and their wonderful kids. We are all excited to spend some more time with them soon

After the park it was off to Super 1 for ice cream

Saturday morning we went to the Post Falls parade

The kids got a lot of candy. This is just Mason's!

That's it for now. We drive up to Canada this week and we are excited to spend time with family!