Six.Four Years

 6.4 Years

• School ended. I am so excited to have you back at home with me. I was able to go to your end of the school year celebration. On the chart board was written what everyone was excited for about summer. You told your class that you were excited for our pond with leeches. Hahaha! You did get the bookworm award, which I think is fitting. That first weekend school got out, your kindle got so much use. You love being able to listen to your stories on there. 
• We finally got a shower enclosure put in your shower. It is nice now that you can take your own showers downstairs. 
• We got to go on our family vacation to Northern Idaho. We took the pop up trailer with us, loaded it up with all our bikes, and headed out the Hiwatha Trail first. It is a 15 mile bike ride along the old railroad tracks up in the mountains. You get to go through the old tunnels and over the trusses. We were able to borrow a tag-along bike for you to go on with dad's bike. You thought you were so cool to be able to ride along.  Afterwards, we picked up Panda Express for dinner and set up camp at Round Lake State Park. Dad went on a family vacation to Round Lake when he was a kid, so it was fun to do the same thing with you guys. The next day, we went to Tree to Tree Adventures and played at the beach at Farragut State Park. You were a bit nervous to the rope course, but I was so proud of you that you did the whole thing. Sunday was a camp day. We also celebrated Father's Day. We hiked around the lake, kayaked, fish, and rode bikes around the camp ground. The weather wasn't amazing, but we made the best of it. On Monday, it was Silverwood day. This was probably our best experience there. The weather was cooler so there weren't that many crowds. We hit up all the roller coasters first. You choose to go on the Timber Terror again which you didn't love, but you didn't hate this time. The raft ride got all our clothes soaked, so when we were at the water park, we landed out all our clothes to dry in the sun. No one was at the water park because it was colder so we didn't have to wait for any lines. When we got out, we hit up the train and Magic show. It started to pour during the magic show, so when we got out, most everyone had left the park. We ended the night just walking onto whatever ride we wanted. It was awesome, though the heater and hot chocolate felt really good when we got back. We spent out last day at Round Lake, playing until the last minute of check out. Then we headed down to CDA Resort for our beloved gooeys. It was such a fun trip. 
• We made a fast weekend trip to McCall with the Cowles.  We rented a lake house with its own dock, sandy beach, and hot tub. It was a blast with their kids. You played really well with Macie. We brought the little kayaks so you guys were all over on them. We rented a boat for a day. The water was freezing, but it was still fun, as long as we didn't fall off the tub. You got on the tube with me and were giggling the whole time. I love seeing you have fun. The real hit was the hot tub. That thing was covered in an inch of sand by the time we left. 
• Fourth of July!!! Seriously the best holiday in Grangeville. This year, we got to have Grandma and Papa Matthews and the Pavia family come join us. Grandma and Papa got their early, so we were able to do some fun activities with them before hand like getting ice cream from the stand and making tied dye shirts. Berries have been on sale, so we had fun making red, white, and blue breakfasts. When cousins arrived, the four wheeler was a big hit. The bigger kids just sandwiched you in between them and was riding all up and down the hill. We took a short hike up at fish creek. On Monday, we got to go jet boating up to the dam. You held on tight when we crashed into the big rapids on the way back. We lit off fireworks in the driveway, which the Pavis hardly ever get to do. On the actually fourth, we did the whole thing. Egg toss and foot races in the morning. We decorated bikes for the bike parade. We ate lunch at the stands. This year, you got to be in the parade with Dad on the Syringa float. I didn't think you would get a lot of candy because of it, but you made out like a bandit when walking back to where were sitting. I laugh because we turn around and both Grandma and Papa had fallen asleep during the parade. We ended the night with fireworks at the high school. It was a very full day.