Hanging Out in June

 After making it to Washington, we settled in for a full four weeks of hanging out and catching up. After the first fun weekend, Riley went to Moscow, Idaho to do a rotation at the local hospital. Thanks for letting him stay, Dustin and Natalie! The kids and I had a great time exploring the town and hitting up the Ritzville Pool. A Lot! It's totally overwhelming to try to put all these photos in order, so sorry for the photo dump.
The kids first time at Riverfront Park in Spokane. It's such a pretty city!

 Vyla latched on to this dolphin pillowpet and was determined to take it home with her. Thank goodness she forgot about it by the time we left.

 Ledger turned 9 months while we were there. So grown up, with 8 teeth, a perfect bear crawl, and a lot of expressive babbling.

 Ritzville Water Park. A pretty awesome facility for such a small town.

 Camp fire smores on Papa's fire pit.

 Meeting new friends and reacquainting with old ones at the park!

 My kids swimming skills improved so much in just a short month! They still use puddle jumpers and life jackets for safety's sake, but were much more confident, went down the slides, swam independently and even went off the diving board.

 I got in to the terrible habit of letting L sleep in bed with me. Being in the same room all together breeds bad habits, I decided! But, waking up to this happy face makes it oh, so tempting!

 Aunt Dakota is the best! She accompanies us to parks and playdates and was my best friend the whole time. Love her!!

 Lots of sunshine days! We were so lucky to have cousins come from Moscow and Richland just to play with us and spend the night at Nanas.

 Riley was able to come home on the weekends, and we always were so grateful to have him back, and tried to pack in a lot of fun before he had to head back to Idaho. Of course, for a guy like Riley, that means a trip to the skate park.

One weekend, we headed up to Palouse Falls to hike around and take in the views. I've never been, and only recently discovered that this place existed. It was pretty cool, even though it was blisteringly hot. The kids loved seeing the groundhog/rock chuck animals scurrying around the cliffs.

 Nana has a nice collection of tea pots, so the kids got the idea to do a tea party (with luke warm cocoa, of course). Hinder set up the places, and we got fancy with scarves. Papa even joined.

 Crawling everywhere! Ledger started to crawl just a few days after we arrived. It was fun to see him adjust from a one legged scoot, to full on bear crawl.

 Dalyn graduated from high school while we were there. I'm so glad it worked out that we could celebrate with her. She was a scholarship all-star! Way to go Dalyn. She's a beauty inside and out. So lucky to have her as my sister.

 Cousin time. Thanks Drew and Lara for coming to visit so much and bringing your sweeties. Same to you, Dustin and Natalie! I love these kids!

 Our staples to burn energy were hitting up the three local playgrounds, and checking things out from the local library. The kids enjoyed a few dates to McDonalds with their Nana.

 We had such, such, such a GREAT time! I'm so blessed to have these supportive and wonderful people to call family. It's wonderful. After 4 weeks, you would like we'd be ready to move on, but we still shed tears and it was hard to say goodbye. Never enough time! Sometimes living far away from your mom is just hard. Especially when your mom is this wonderful lady.

 Missing them all so much already, but I'm so grateful for the time we had and the memories we made. Thanks again! We love you!!