chris.reese.girls1.2.3.4

The girls and I took off the morning after our 4th of July celebration just after 9am to head to Portland (I was a little tired....). Our main event of the weekend was the baptism of my nephew, Ty, but we decided to make a summer roadtrip of the event to see our other family in the area and hit up some "attractions" that have been on our list.  First stop - The Oregon Zoo with my SIL, Kaelin and her super cutie son, Cole. Kaelin has a season pass so we got in at a major steal and with free parking. Wahoo! We got there a little before Kaelin, so the girls and I ate lunch and enjoyed our first temps in the 80s. We were lovin' the heat!  Mr. Cole is adorable. And just like Fin, he likes to be everywhere except his stroller.   These two little cousins are 2 1/2 months apart and very much alike. They wanted to just run, and most often run in the opposite direction we really needed to go.   The petting zoo was a hit with all ages.  Thes...

Our American flag was mounted and ready to go just in time! 4th of July on a Wednesday felt a little odd this year because it snuck up on me after our camping trip, and it felt like we needed a mid-week recovery after it was all over. We had a busy but awesome day. Best part? SUNSHINE! It was one of our warmest days so far and the weather has been nice ever since (can you say finally?!). Chris' parents decided last-minute to join us, so I had just enough time to wash all the campfire clothes before Tuesday afternoon rolled around and our guests arrived. The kids love when they are around and we tend to put them to work while they were here. Wednesday morning we were up early for our Ward Breakfast (no pics). Awesome food and great company. We came home to plan our projects for the day while the kids began playing outside with neighbor kids, which lasted the entire day!  I snapped a few pics of my girls in their red, white and blue. They would not cooperate for a group pic......

(June 29-July 1) Our summer started to fill up with reunions, trips and activities very quickly this year. As June arrived I realized we had ONE open weekend we could camp as a family. We wanted to go to the east side, and after some searching I was able to find one lone campsite at Lake Wenatchee State Park. We decided to give it a try. Camping prep is exhausting, and because I ended up doing jam the day before, my planning and prep began at 9pm the night before our camping trip. Friday was a crazy day getting ready, but we finally arrived at camp at 10pm and set up in the dark. We rocked it and had the kids snuggled in their sleeping bags within 40 minutes. The next morning we woke up to sunshine! The kids were so pumped about camping. It's so magical for them!  We had a lot to do! After yummy breakfast of biscuits and gravy, we were playing games. Fin was supposed to be napping until we heard the window of the tent unzip and this poking out... So we headed over t...