Panning for Gold

Later Saturday a few of us went up into the hills to pan for some gold.  Sophie, Marcus and Emma all decided to come along.  They all pulled their weight as we hiked in to find the creek.

We even had to cross...thanks Poppi and Daddy for helping us.

The boys set up the panning tools while the kids played in the creek.

Uncle Carl was there too. 

Marcus thought this was the coolest place ever.

A little pose for Mommy.

Emma is telling me how all of this panning stuff is supposed to work.

Poppi looking for gold.

Carl and Marc digging deep to fill the buckets.

Marcus continued to play and play.

Does this look like fun or what?

The girls pretending to save Marcus from the current.

Yep...I was there too.

 
Did you find any?  Actually this what was really said was "Smile, this one's for Grami".

Marcus found a stick shaped like a gun...he kept us safe from the bears.

They did find some...I think...they said they did anyways.

The girls found a rock buried in the sand.

What a great adventure.

Saturday Morning

Marcus got to go scouting for bears up in the hills with the boys first thing Saturday morning.  He had to bring his bow and arrows just in case he saw something.  He promised Gia he'd bring her back some rabbits.  He came back empty handed though.

Then Grami showed the kids how to play Mexican Train. 

Then Grami, Beth, Tracy and I went to the Omak Stampede events.  We saw a great art exhibit...Grami bought an amazing painting.  We also stopped by and saw the Native Americans dance and walked through all of their cool booths...it was a great afternoon.

Concunully

We hit the road on Friday and headed to Concunully.  Carl and Beth arranged a great beach area for the kids to get away from the heat...fun!

It was a very nice place to play...lots of rocks for Marcus to climb.

Olivia had a blast swimming.  The currents were messing with her a little and she thought it was hilarious.

Emma had a blast swimming around too.

Gia, Sophie and Ceci were also there!  Always fun to have some cousin time...poor Gia really wasn't into the pictures by this point...too cute though.

Spike & Dig Results

I played a total of 18 matches (7 games but a couple went to 3 matches) and ended up in the middle of the pack in my bracket...not to bad.

Marc's team did really well!  Here they are in action...jump Marc jump!

Nice hit Marc!

Here are the champs..they played a total of 16 matches (8 games...all in 2 matches) and came in 2nd place in their bracket!!!  Awesome Job "5 Jerks and a Squirt" (team name) :-)

Spike & Dig

This weekend is a big volleyball tournament called Spike & Dig.  I reconnected with one of my college friends, Karen, to play in the tournament.  Karen has never met the twins...they loved her!

We were roomies at Gonzaga!  Go Zags!!!

Emma was being quite the photographer today; she set this picture up and everything.

This is Jill...I work with her.  We basically put our team together; neither one of us has played in years.

Marc also played.  He played with a co-worker and his family.  Nice Hit Marc!

The kids were so good.  We started at 9am and finished at 6:30pm...it was a long day.

Emma took a lot of pictures...here's me playing.

Even Marcus got into the volleyball action.

Emma did too, here she's playing with one of Marc's teammates.

Olivia also played for a while...they do love this sport :-)

There was a 3 hour break for us in the afternoon so I took the kids to play in the splash pad at the sports complex...this was so cool!

Nice teamwork!

We didn't bring swim suits so their clothes were wet.  However no big deal; it was pretty hot and sunny today; quite a change from the rainy yesterday.

Marcus warmed up on the concrete.

More water play.

Then more games.  Another nice hit Marc.

This is Marc's team.  They were called "5 Jerks and a Squirt".  As you can see Marc was the Squirt :-)  They are all related except Marc...he felt pretty honored to be a part of this team.  They won every game they played today.

This is my team...our name is "I'd hit that"...which didn't turn out to be so original; there were 7 other teams with the same name.  We are having lots of fun!  The tournament continues tomorrow...more games to be played! 

Spirit Lake

Yesterday I took the day off with Marcus and the kids.  The idea was we were going to meet some old friends and spend a day on the lake...unfortunately it rained all day!  We were there for quite a while but Olivia couldn't stand it any longer...she didn't care about the rain...she wanted in the lake!

I stayed under the covered porch and took pictures from afar.  I love zoom on the camera :-)

Emma decided to join her sister in the exploration.

And also getting into the water...they were pretty wet.

The boys decided to join in too.  Tanner is our friend's son, Marcus is in the green.

So out came the swim suits...the kids had a blast.  Tanner and Marcus stuck together.

The girls took turns jumping off the dock...go Olivia.

Jump Emma Jump!

This is the beautiful house.  Our friends came over from Washougal WA with their neighbors who own this house on Spirit Lake.  It was amazing!

We had a great dinner and lots of visiting time.  It was great to catch up with Cindy and Leon...it's been a while.  Thanks for inviting us up for the day!