Fourth of July Hike

 Our cousins took us to the neatest place on the 4th.  It's not a marked trail, so only locals know about it.  You take off through a marsh, walking through mud and across long grass and reeds floating in a few inches of water.  This is most pleasantly done barefoot.  After hiking through the meadow/marsh, barefoot, for a mile, then you come to a rocky knoll covered in tall pines that falls down a steep hill to the ocean. (Puget Sound)  The beach is sandy, and the sand bar goes out forever, so you can go a hundred yards and still only have water to your knees (if that!).  Of course this is during high tide.  During low tide you can walk out the length of the sand bar before reaching the water.

 The kids loved it.

 Here Roma is rescuing Hyrum from the cold water. The ocean was numbing, despite the warm day.

 Hyrum and Brendon in the sand.

"It's so fluffy I'm going to die!!!"

 We might be the teensiest bit obsessed at our house.

 But with a face like that, how can you not adore them!??!

4th of July!

 On the 4th of July we went to our Ward Breakfast, which was delicious.  The Young Women's presidency, called and sustained 3 days before on Sunday, made frittata, and muffins, fruit, orange juice, and all sorts of decadent breakfast items!  The children were supposed to create a festive hat to wear in a parade, which my children loved, since they are big fans of both head-gear, and prancing around for a crowd.  =0)

 My Mom had found the perfect dress for Brielle!

 Here's our Flag Cake.  It's a raspberry jello-poke cake.

 Clara "helping" me.

I was going to arrange the fruit in another flag shape, but decided to be lazy and support whichever country has a flag like this instead.  ; )

We went north to spend the day with Russell's cousins, Spencer and Roma.  Those pictures will be in the next post.

Berry Picking

I took the kids to a berry picking farm on the 2nd of July.  Our friend Amy met us, with her daughters Jordyn and Sophia.  The kids had a great time picking, and eating, strawberries and raspberries.  I've decided that's the way to get strawberries, since trying to keep mine alive is proving too difficult.  I'm not a devoted gardener, and so our strawberry patch has succumbed to weeds and slugs.  Pity.  ; )

However I have not yet managed to kill our raspberry or blueberry bushes.  We have black raspberries and red raspberries in our yard, as well as a few varieties of blueberries.  

More bunny pictures

 This is our first litter of bunnies, so they all get "A" names.  

The orange one is named Acorn, and the cream one is named Aspen.

They are about 9 days old in the first two pictures.

 Aspen likes to snuggle.

 Here the bunnies are 2 weeks old.

 Acorn prefers to explore.

 Trying to prevent Clara from smothering them is a full time job.  She LOVES the baby bunnies and is always begging to hold them.  But I spend a great amount of time trying to prevent an Of Mice And Men incident!!

Whoa there, Lennie!  ; )