4th of July Fun on Lake Oroville!

As soon as we got to the lake the girls were ready for some tubing!

They loved it and even got brave enough to ride on their knees or standing after a bit!

The men went out for a "man ride" and it was wild and crazy!  We were going fast and they were each jumping from tube to tube. 

Trent and Justin took the little girls on a paddleboat.

Bree and Kendra loved playing in the sand!

Mikayla was brave and rode with no hands a lot, such a funny girl!

Proof that I went on a tube ride too!

Both times we took Kendra on the boat she fell asleep in my arms.  The 2 naps helped her stay awake through the fireworks though.

Megan and Gracie, boating buddies

Sweet girl on a beach

All-American cutie watching a movie on the big houseboat

Me and my friend Trina.

Kendra and Bree, acting silly in their jammies

Here's the annual family picture.  Totally mismatched outfits, kinda kills me, but we'll take what we can get this year!

I loved this moment!  All the kids were waving their glowsticks from side to side while we all sang, "Proud To Be An American.

Megan and Daddy watching the fireworks.

And, 10 minutes later, sound asleep on the boat ride back to the dock to go home.  What a fun and exhausting day we had!  The girls all slept in the next day till 9:30 when Mom woke them up for swim team practice.  They just loved tubing, boating, swimming with friends, going off the slide on the houseboat into the lake and eating all the yummy food.  There were 47 people on the big houseboat and it was a packed boat full of fun, friends, family, and a great way to spend the 4th.

Canada Day!

To show some love for Dad, we surprised him with a Canaidan maple leaf tie and I made shirts for the girls with maple leaves to wear to church.

And yes, I wore red and white too, can't clash with my Canadian husband and half-Canadian children!

That evening we had friends over, some happened to be half-Canadian or a quarter-Canadian too.

I made red cupcakes with maple leaves on them and we had maple donut bars for dessert too.  Let me tell you, the kids were pretty dang excited to get donuts and cupcakes for dessert!

We made pizzas with canadian bacon and various other toppings.

The adults had a contest to see who could make a pizza that most resembled a maple leaf.  Trina won by a longshot!  She used a knife to cut out her intricate design and kicked all our trash in this contest.

The adults with our pizzas.  We had a great time celebrating Canada Day and love these fun family traditions.

Allergic much?

Kendra got bit by a bunch of mosquitoes last night and it looks like the queen feasted on her face.  This is what she looked like when she woke up from her nap this afternoon.

And after dinner this evening, she looks even worse.  She's been on an antihistamine all day with cortizone cream applied topically.  Poor little thing!   

The next morning, she woke up and it was swollen shut as well as the rest of her face being puffy too.  We rushed right in to the Dr. and got an oral steroid, an eye drop antihistamine and she'll continue to be on Benadryl round the clock.  Poor little girl keeps saying, "Mom, I can' see owwa my eye!"

This same thing happened to Mikayla a year and a half ago and her face progressively looked worse before it got better too.

She would die if she saw I posted this picture of her!  Imagine this face, about 20 yrs older and that's what I looked like last summer as well.  So, I'm pretty sure we're all allergic to mosquitoes in this family.  Sorry, no pictures of the freak show that was my face though! 

First Swim Meet!

Megan and Mikayla are on the Gridley Gators swim team.  Mikayla had one year of swim team in Sacramento last year and we were so glad to see they also have a team here.  Even for such a small town, there are over 160 kids on the team!  Megan started swimming about 10 ft on her own, now she can swim the whole length of the pool with only holding onto the side once!  Pretty impressive for this new 5 yr old!

Mikayla and Riley doing the Gator chomp!

On your marks...

Megan ready for her first take-off

And look at that dive! lol

Her little body struggled so much to make it down the lane!  She did such an amazing job and swam her little heart out!

She was ravenous when she got out of the pool and all she wanted was a hot dog!

I swear Mikayla could get a better time if she didn't look up and smile after each breastroke she took!  She still took 2nd place, but the silly girl kept smiling and listening for us cheering her on.

Megan, ready for the backstroke.

We are so proud of them and how strong they're getting at swimming.  They practice Monday through Friday and just love swimming.

Time for some bowling!

 We took the kids in bowling in Yuba City for a fun family outing.  We went with our friends, the Leishman's, and had a blast!  Mikayla came in first, beating all of the adults as well!!

 Cole lugging the big ball around.

 Kendra had SO much fun rolling her balls down this little ramp.

 Trina and baby Grey.

 Me and my girl

 Such silly kids!

 LOVE Kendra's face here!  Can you tell I made her get in the picture?!  Let's just say she does NOT like to be made to do things she doesn't want to.

Rylee and Mikayla.  We had fun bowling, then went to the mall where the dads watched the kids at the playplace and the moms went shopping!  Then we went to our favorite restaurant, Costa Vida, for some fabulous sweet pork burritos and horchata.  Sun a fun day!