Cousins!

Then we made it to my brothers, and the kid's cousins house in Washington. Finally.

My kids love their cousins and have been begging to go up there for years.

We went on a hike at Manchester State park.

Avery grabbed Alex's hand and said, "you can be my camping buddy". She did not let go of his hand the rest of the hike. She kept saying "camping buddy", but sometimes accidently said "camping bunny". That would crack her up. She is the cutest 5 year old I have ever met.

Then we headed over to the beach and found lots and lots of crabs. I also saw jellyfish!

Tanner and Alisa are great buddies. They are both full of fun and love to trick their siblings.

There is something about Chase and Emily. They have always loved each other.

Chase spent a long time throwing rocks at this piece of metal. I don't know why, and I didn't even ask.

 This is how you see the jelly fish- get on the rock and look in the water.

At one point Alex had like 21 crabs in his hand.

The cousin's house is super fun. They have a forest in their yard. They have chickens, and there were lots of snakes!   I liked being there because I love this amazing family, I needed rest, the food was beyond amazing (they really spoiled us), they let us do our laundry, and we just have fun together.

They spent hours catching and playing with the snakes. Tanner and Alisa loved pranking the other kids.

John was telling Jaxon all about his job at the naval base.

Games are always fun- and we had yummy home-made ice cream.

 Chickens!

 More games.

The next day we had a lazy morning because  we were tired. The kids played together

 We went on a hike at Banner park.

We got our first family picture of the trip!

 More snakes

After a fabulous dinner, we celebrated Andre's birthday with John and family.

 Our traditional ice cream party.

Oh, did I tell you that this was the fourth of July? It was. We went to a pier near John and Laura's house and saved our place to watch fire works.

The kids played on the beach, looking for more creatures.

 The adults hung out on the pier and enjoyed the sunset over the Olympic mountains

Alex had made up a new game and we played it on the pier.

Then we got the glow sticks out. This was a perfect activity to wait until 10:30 when it was dark enough for fireworks.

I didn't get pictures, but the entire time we were on the pier, we were surrounded by people doing tons and tons of fireworks (small one behind Tanner). There were so many fireworks all around us. I have never seen anything like it. People were burning millions of dollars all around us and we got to enjoy it!

The fireworks were awesome- and cool to see reflected in the water.

What a great 4th of July!