On the fourth of July our family gathered at Grandma Carson's house in Vancouver, WA. Tyler and Rachel flew in from Colorado Springs that morning; Garrett and Krystal's family arrived after a three-day drive from Minot, ND; Lissa and Jason's family flew in from Houston; and we arrived with Adri and Sophia after our two-day trip from San Francisco. Russ flew in that afternoon. It was wonderful to have everyone together!
All of the lovely ladies in the photo below have July birthdays, so Grandma Carson had a birthday cake for them.
This is about the only picture of Kent and me with all the grandchildren where none of them is crying. I guess the secret to happy grandchildren is bubbles!!
It was so delightful to see the grandchildren playing together.
Here's Kent with his mother and four of his six siblings.
That night everyone went their separate ways to different homes and hotels to stay in. We're too large a family now to fit all in one place. I went over to Hillsboro, OR, with Garrett's family to watch the fireworks display at my brother Reed's house.
Daniel really had good time with the sparklers.
Our camera has a "fireworks" setting, which took some pretty cool pictures.
I loved the sight of three of my granddaughters at the piano!
During the reunion my mom hosted a baby shower for Rachel.
I volunteered to make the invitations and provide the decorations, and went with a lime green and peacock blue color scheme.
I changed out the pink for blue on the pennants I'd made for the Primary Mother's day, and used them again for the baby shower. The paper lanterns collapse flat, so were easy to transport in my suitcase. The glass plates we used were my mom's almost 60-year-old hostess sets she received as wedding gifts.
It was a lovely summer day in Oregon (not too hot) to have an outdoor baby shower.
Reed and Myra have a little toy horse (I don't think it's a pony) and all our grandchildren except Makayla took a turn riding the horse.
Myra graciously led the horse for all the little children. (I think it's sweet that in the background of the picture below you can see Tyler helping Rachel to come down the hill.)
Kiera seemed almost too big for the toy horse!
Sunday after church we tried to get an updated family picture. The shot below wasn't one of our best, but I thought it was fun in it's own way.
I thought everyone looked especially awesome in this picture of the "original six" of our family.
Here's one of our favorite family photos from 1990, just for comparison.
Here's what I mean about getting pictures with the grandchildren....
After 30 minutes of stressful picture taking, the kids needed a swinging break!
We also took pictures of the families with children so we could have pictures of them with their great-grandparents. Adri and Russ's family.
Lissa and Jason's family.
Garrett and Krystal's family.
On Sunday evening everyone went their separate ways. Kent and I spent the next two days with Garrett and Krystal's family, and Kent's mom, sister and brother, at a cabin on an US Army recreation area on the Oregon coast.
On Monday went to a National Historic site where Lewis and Clark made their fort at the end of their cross-country explorations two hundred years ago.
The park had a scooter for Grandma Carson to use.
Makayla got worn out while Grandpa was carrying her around.
That night we went to the beach and Garrett built us a lovely bonfire with driftwood we'd collected.
I think it was Makayla's first time at the ocean and learning about sand.
We cooked hot dogs and s'mores over the fire, and they tasted especially yummy! You can see we're wearing our jackets and there was a brisk wind blowing.
Daniel enjoying his s'more...
and Makayla enjoying a muffin and her baby food the next morning.
On Tuesday morning we went to the cheese factory in Tillamook, Oregon.
Daniel LOVED pretending to drive this cheese van.
He loved it so much that he didn't want to get out and let other children have a turn.
This was Daniel's reaction when we pulled him out of the van and tried to get a picture of him with his Great-grandma Carson.
Kent and I stocked up on Tillamook cheese to take back to Virginia with us.
Whew! What a fun-filled and action-packed eleven days we spent on the West coast!
1 comment:
Sometimes with these long posts filled with cute pictures, it's hard for me to remember all of my comments. But I'll try.
First of all, I liked seeing the pictures from after we left. Poor Daniel didn't want to share the car, and Makayla certainly DID enjoy that muffin.
Secondly, I didn't know that shade of blue was "peacock blue". haha But the decorations were, as always, very cute.
So, you like that family picture because all the girls are attending to my sad daughter, but her own father is checkin' his phone? haha...yeah...candids are always fun.
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