Nine.Five Years

 9.5 Years

• Fourth of July ended up being a lot of fun. We went to the Stayton Parade with Grandma, Papa, and Jacob (our friend from church with special needs). We got to see Maggie on the Cheer float, Brother Webb dressed up like an Eagle, and the horse dancing group. You got lots of candy and swag. For dinner that night, we had the Sterlings over (Piper's family), the Hand family (Emily's family), and Grandma and Papa. We had red (strawberry), white (apple) and blue (blueberries) pies and shot off our own fireworks (almost caught the house on fire because the explosion was way bigger than we thought). Then we headed over to the high school to watch their show.
• The Price cousins came into town from Utah. Josh and Calvin stayed with us and we got to see Amelia and Molly's family a lot. We took them to Turner Lake, celebrated June Birthday's at Annie's house, and had a family reunion day at the Forson Ranch. We played yard games, swam in the river (where you covered your whole body in mud and algae and scared me thinking you were a swamp monster), had yummy food, and even had a camp fire. We went to the beach with Josh and went crabbing and got Tillamook ice cream. It was fun having Josh and Calvin for a hole week.
• In general, we have been playing hard with the Berry Passes. We visited the Enchanted forest, been bowling, jumping at Get Air, eating way too much Chic-Fila, visiting the Gilbert House, trying out laser tag, and improving at mini golf. 
• Oh my word, I have to tell such a funny story. Eloise cam over to play with JoJo. You didn't have a friend over, which usually means that you sneaks into their play date by making up a game and being the leader of it. Well today, you wanted to do a spa. I was busy getting yard work done so when you asked me if we had stuff to make a face mask, I really didn't want to stop what I was doing to help you make a mess. I told you I didn't think so but if you found a recipe for one with ingredients that we had, you could make it. Well, 30 minutes later, JoJo and Eloise are laying on towels on the warm patio with face mask drying. I guess you found stuff. I had the girls wash up before her mom picked Eloise up. That night, JoJo took a shower. Lately, I have been checking her hair in the shower to make sure she has been washing well. There was still the face mask in her hair. When I started scrubbing it, it wouldn't come out. Come to find out, you asked Alexa for a face mask recipe and Alexa told you to mix flour and water. That makes a paste (glue) to make a face mask, like a paper mache mask. JoJo had paste all in her hair. Oh my word.
• We went on our July Family trip to Yosemite. On the way down, we stayed at Lassen Volcanic National Park where we kayaked on the lake and got to see the hot pots. Yosemite was really beautiful. We camped in the park and rode our bikes all over the place. Some highlights were kayaking down the river and swimming on along the shore, walking along the boardwalk at dusk to watch the stars come out, and eating ice cream at the lodge. We took a nine mile hike from the top of the canyon all the way back to our campsite. It was hard, but you had the best attitude out of all the kids. At the end, we all jumped in the river in our clothes to cool off. It was a great trip.