4th of July and our week long, lake vacation!

It was a full house this year for the 4th at the lake! Great to see everyone though and the only real down side was the weather, not so great! Kids don't really care however and were still in the lake wind, rain, or shine and had a ball playing together. Haylee started off her day with a little blue berry on the tooth to go with the theme of the day. ;)

We headed to the Coeur d'Alene parade that morning and this is Gavin still a little unsure of what's happening and why it's so loud. ;)



Cute girls!

These boys gotta stick together.

Getting a little more in to the action and "shakin' it" for all to see.......

The oldest cousins. :)

I think Whitney took this one, she did a good job! Oldest to youngest, Grace, Miley, Haylee, Addison, Jackson, Gavin, and Peyton.

The Smith family!

We've had better years but oh well, here we are. ;)

Sweet Jackson loves his momma. :)


We took the crowd afterward and headed off to find some lunch.....little did we know it would be an afternoon spent getting some lunch, sheesh!


Here's Grandpa entertaining kids already and I'm not sure we had even ordered yet?????

Ben and Wendy

Peyton was getting creative with her sundae.

It was time then to head to Grandpa's grave to bring some flowers and check in since it's been 2 years. The kids were very helpful in brushing away dead flowers and leaves and really trying not to step on the other graves. It was pretty funny to hear them chatter about what was going on and all the people that are "sad they have lost all these Grandpa's".......


Justin, Mike, and Paul

All the Ellersick boys! Gavin had been peacefully napping in the car until his Mom woke him up to get this picture.....(hence the scowl)

Back to the lake for more Independence Day swimming and fun!!!!

Granny with Kelley and Elle

Fireworks time!!!!

Excited???????
NAH!!! ;)

Giving them all a little "pre cigarette" warning........


The last day of all the family being there we took the kids over for ice cream and the annual ice cream photo in front of the store. Look at Gavin already putting on the moves. ;)

After ice cream though forget it. ha ha

Kisses for Granny

These two have seen each other so much the past few weeks they are going to go through withdrawals, they are such good little pals and are so cute together. :)


Daddy giving Grace an important s'more lesson I guess.......

We had lots of fires this year (mainly due to freezing temperatures) but it was so nice to sit around and laugh and talk.

Granny even came out with us to roast marshmallows and visit.



So the day everyone headed back home we took the family to Silverwood! We haven't been since Grace was little and were so looking forward to taking them. Their eyes when we pulled up and they could see where we were going was priceless. :) We had a ball and were there at opening and shut the place down that night!


She thought this was so great!

Only down side is waiting for everyone to get through lines and off the rides.......Gavin was a trooper though and it was the 1st day of really beautiful weather so that helped a lot.

Not sure what he's doing but thought this was cute.

Haylee was being lazy so she resorted to other methods of getting into the air. ;)

Gavin LOVED the train and could have done it over and over again.


It was well worth the trip but will wait until all the kids are old enough to ride everything before going back again. The water park was great for cooling off in the middle of the day then we went back to rides, it worked out perfect. The kids were on cloud nine and so thankful that we took them. (until we said "no" at the gift shop then the real feelings came out) oh well you can't win them all right? And the day was too great to let that ruin it. Now we're even more anxious for Disney World......some day! :)






The next day we had our friends Hannah, Tracy, and Maddie from Bellingham come stay a couple nights with us. It was so relaxing and fun to have them there, we have such a great time with them and they are so easy. It's fun to be able to show the lake to others and let them see for themselves why it is we love it so much.

The girls had a ball swimming, floating, dressing up, eating ice cream, watching movies, telling stories into the night and laughing. I'm glad they were able to make these memories.

We really didn't stray too far from this spot other than to eat and bath......okay really not even that. ;)


Gavin LOVED the water and wanted to jump to Daddy over and over again. My favorite is the pink floatie. ;) How long will we get away with that?????


All the kids were very sweet with Granny and were very good about sitting with her and visiting. Grace at one point went up to sit with her outside and Grandma asked if she was going to sit on her lap? Grace just looked at me confused, shrugged her shoulders and said "oh well" and hopped on. :) I think maybe Granny was not remembering how old Grace is now and was a little surprised, they sat there for about 20 min though just visiting away it was very sweet.

Kristen and Kelley came out again over the next weekend when the weather had gotten a little better, besides Grandma getting a little sick we had a very nice visit and the kids got another day to play with their cousins.


While unpacking the car after getting home this is what I came out to find in Daddy's car........."like Daddy" he tells me. :) Edible I tell you, totally!