Gem Mining..

On Thursday took the kids gem mining while we waited on Grandma Jo and Uncle Zach to get into town. They really loved it. There are lots of places to do that around there. All the kids found some really good gems to take home. Maybe one day we will get them cut and turned into something. What a messy event though. Abby and Kayla wore the wrong color shorts and Alexis wore the wrong color shirt. I'm not sure if I will ever get the mud stains out of them. It was funny when Abby got her hands all dirty and then didn't know how to clean them, she ended up wiping them on Kayla's already dirty shorts. LOL Alexis and Jaden were doing a great job of sifting through there mud all on their own. Alexis even found a coin (not sure how that go in there, any idea's Uncle Jason). She was so excited. After we were done they had them look and see what gems were the really good ones. then back home to change. what a mess everyone was. Lots of fun.

oh, and these pictures were taken with my new Cannon D20. I love it. The pictures look amazing. Still learning how to use it though.







Wiping Hands on Kayla (what a nice cousin) LOL:




Look who found a coin:







Look what we got:

Bathtime and Campfire..

Grandma Jo and Uncle Zach arrived right before dinner. We had dinner and then a campfire to end the evening. First Kayla gave all the kids a bubble bath in Julie's tub. They had a blast. then once they all smelled good they got stinky again from the smoke from the fire. Well that's just how it goes. Uncle Zach was playing a trick on the kids and had them all wondering what was that green light that kept appearing (Zach's laser pointer). All Alexis would say is "there it is", "oh my gosh", "where did it go?". Zach had them all confused. LOL it was pretty funny. They never did figure it out.

Bubble bath time:






Campfire:



The light!



There it is again!

4th of July Celebration:

We started off the 4th with a parade in downtown Franklin (cute, but not nearly long enough). Then we took off to see some of the waterfalls up in the Gorge. Boy those were some winding roads. I thought I was going to get sick at one point my head was hurting so bad. Probably didn't help that I was sitting in the back seat. The sights were amazing. So beautiful. After driving up we stopped at a park that had a nice trail to hike and a swimming area. We didn't have the kids suits with us or they would have gone swimming. They were really sad that they couldn't go. But we did find a really neat stream for them to play in and boy was it cold. Abby fell in at the end and what a shock to have her dress and bottom all cold and wet. I was too busy comforting her or I would have taken pictures. LOL

Lastly we went to a park to see fireworks. The girls got to try bungie jumping and loved it until they bounced them really high. Then they decided they were done. We waited in line for a really long time and were actually one of the last people to go before they closed it down. Rodney waited in line forever to get the girls cotton candy and they ran out. Alexis had a small meltdown, but got over it pretty quick. It took forever to get home and the girls didn't get to bed until close to 11:30 pm. What a day!

Parade:









Waterfalls & Park:













Bungie & Fireworks: