Seattle 2014

In July, Grayson, the boys, and the extended Blackham Bunch headed out to Bellevue to go visit the Seattle Blackhams. I have a "bit" of anxiety in the car, being out of my routine, so I had a "staycation" alone at home ... Grayson did quite well keeping me updated with pictures and emails along the way. 

My boys stopped along the way ...

When they got to their destination, they spent a day seeing the city sights, 

including the Space Needle of course.

They spent some time hanging at Kolby and Jami's house.
Uncle Clay made donuts.

Gray took up the waverunners, and the crew spent a few days at Lake Sammamich.

That's Keaton flipping off the board on the dock.

Then everyone boarded the ferry and headed to Orcas Island

On the Island ...

 Seeing the sights

 "the tree"

capturing crabs

Ana throwing Amare off a cliff

All the kid cousins!

 Group Shot!

A visit to Seattle wouldn't be complete without eating out 

at Lunchbox Laboratory.

So yes, I missed out on the fun by not going. The 12+ hour drive was just too much, plus all the other waiting and eating issues (and TOM) ... and in truth? A week home alone can be heaven as well! I cleaned the house and it STAYED clean. Also, whereas Washington is known for rainy weather, it was beautiful there while the Utah Blackhams visited.

Back at home however, we were hit with a HUGE rainstorm. One of the raingutters was clogged and water was pouring into one of the window wells. I had to jump down and bail it out before we flooded.  So, maybe it was good I was home to keep watch around here ...

There are a TON more photos, and video too. Gray took the GoPro and another waterproof video camera. I wonder if I'll get through them all to put them in an online album, or make family muvees. At least I FINALLY got this blog post up! I'm backdating to July though, so you'll never know just how late I really was ... 

Flags, Fireworks, Floats

For many years when the kids were young, we would grab the flag shirts at Old Navy and take pictures. We hadn't done it in a while, but Landon brought it up, and was even willing to go to the store and make it happen! The kids weren't as happy about posing for a picture ... I had said the last person out would have to unload the dishwasher ... can you tell Cooper wasn't happy about that? Landon even picked up shirts for Gray and I ... although Grayson never wore his!

We didn't do too much for the Fourth of July. Grayson, Landon and Keaton were at Lake Powell. I took the three remaining boys and we went swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's pool (why didn't I take pictures?) and then out to eat at Red Robin. We picked up some simple fireworks on the way home (snaps, sparklers, parachutes, and some new ones you activate with your feet that Cooper really liked). As usual, the neighbors put on a really nice show!

Every year before the Days of 47 parade, there is a parade preview at the South Towne Expo center. I've hit it with Cooper, we tried one year as a family. This year, Grayson and I went as a date. Our ward had created a float this year, and the young men had spent quite a bit of time working on it. We probably should have brought the boys, but it was a bit of an "anniversary date" for us.

We grabbed a few more fireworks for the 24th, and again, the neighbors put on a great show. Grayson was working a bit on some firestarting with the boys (flint and steel) ... a poor man's fireworks! But they seemed entertained. 

Twenty-Two

Twenty-two years! Grayson was cute, all day he was changing his Facebook profile picture to different "22" images (the center image above was one of them). I updated our J&G Album and made this collage. We'd gone out to the Parade Preview before our anniversary, and on our anniversary we went out to Texas Roadhouse (a favorite!)

What will the next year bring?