Summer of the Smoky Skies

Wow. What a summer, I'm glad it's over. We have been going non-stop since that first moment school let out last June! Our Summer started with Grandpa and Abuela visiting. We all piled in the car and went to spend a few days in Leavenworth, WA- a Bavarian styled town located on the east side of the Cascades. We stayed in a little cabin right on the Wenatchee river and let me tell you, the water was C-O-L-D! 

Jada walking the streets of Leavenworth

Tiegan walking the streets of Leavenworth

Walking with Grandpa and Abuela 

The Bavarian version of a Mariachi band :)

Waiting on Grandpa to pick a restaurant

View of the Cascades

Lake Wenatchee

Another view minus Daniel and co

 a few weeks after Grandpa and Abuela left, we headed to Chester ID for our annual Bowman gathering. A nine hour drive from Moses Lake to Chester. I'm just going to say that I LOVE that we have a DVD player in the car :)

Jamba Juice stop, cause it makes me happy :) and the kids too... but really it was for me ;)

We hiked around Mesa falls, I wish the picture did it justice, because wow!

I'm not sure you can even get the idea of the falls from these pics, 

Hiking down, down, down

beautiful.

We stopped on our way to Mesa Falls to feed the ducks on the Warm River

Playing in the "Warm River" which is just the opposite of warm... somebody had a sense of humor when they named this river.....

It's not a Bowman gathering if there isn't food involved in mass quantities, We went to eat at Winger's and here is Daniel, Carmen, Paul (rockin' the stash), Jessica, James....

Eric, Jada and Tiegan (not pictured; Me and Gabe)

They were having a special that day and if you spent 25$ you get a free dessert- we got 3.... Why? because food, people, FOOD!

This is Tiegan on the 4th of July after we spent the day playing in the splash park.

This is Daniel and James giving rides through the mosquito infested, itty-bitty pond that was next to the cabin in St Anthony ID

James is seeing if the stick will make it go faster.... It didn't.

Evin, Gabe, and Daniel

Uncle Paul wasn't sharing :)

Jada and her two cousins coming out of the water slide at the splash park

Playing in the smoke, let off at the awesome show that is known as "James' budget fireworks extraordinaire" (Daniel captioned that pic, can you tell?)

I was trying to get a picture of Jada and her favorite cousin, Adrien, but Tiegan couldn't stand to be left out of the picture, it turned out to be a gem :)

Gabe goofing off with Abuela

It was a very good, very busy trip

So, as if two big adventurous trips wasn't enough to make it an eventful summer WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! Yup. Daniel and I are legit home owners now! Hola!

We had LOTS of help moving. My parents came down with 4 of my 5 siblings, plus James and Jess were there helping! We also had the help of a friend from our old ward, bro Taylor and his son. It was incredible how fast we got everything moved! so thanks again guys! Pictured above we have from left to right, Logan, Weston, Caden and Daniel all shoved into the cab of the moving truck that really did make moving easier!

Such Macho men.Or..hmmm... nope, nope. Just a truck full of dorks....

On one of the trips to the NEW HOUSE! we shoved Weston in the back of the truck with all of the furniture. His only comment about how it was was "it was hot"

There she is, in all her beige glory! 5 bed, 2 1/2  bath, 3 car garage and a fully fenced back yard! And it's all mine, or at least my name is on the mortgage... and the bills.... wow. being an adult is not all that exciting when you get down to it :/

Of course the first thing I do is start planting!

Before I can even get one room completely unpacked we took the kids up to Colville, left them with my siblings, then my folks and Daniel and I went to spend a few days in Sandpoint, ID where we enjoyed hiking, biking, kayaking, antique shops, local Jazz bands, and of course FOOD!

Stopping along the way of our hike for a quick pic cause my Mom and I were talking about how we're both really bad about taking pictures during our adventures, so here you go. we took a picture during our adventure......

My Mom made me pose too..... not really my thing....

That ladies and gents is Sandpoint from across Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced ponderay, seriously stupid spelling, but what ev's 

Typical Daniel pose, whether there's a camera around or not ;)

Because it's green and rocks! I love green and rocks!

Then we were all home and wouldn't you know it, another adventure comes our way, Chelsea and Maggie came to visit from Texas!They popped on down here to ML and with them cam my Mom, Jaci and Chelsea (not to be confused with the aforementioned Chelsea, the two are separate) Logan's wife Chelsea came with my Mom and sisters, so we had a girls weekend! It involved swimming, crafting, using Chelsea's silhouette machine, painting walls, shopping, pie, ice cream and other delicious treats, cause like I said, food. 

We were attempting to enjoy a relaxing shopping trip to the vast downtown that is Moses Lake, but we had 4 kids that had other plans

So while my Mom and co went shop hoppin' I watched the kiddos at the fountain. It was the happiest those kids were that day

We went to the Grant County fair to see the animals, but we got distracted and didn't see many animals. We did see a magic show, a creepy man-sized turkey that followed Logan's Chelsea around and a show that claimed to be "the cutest little rodeo show something something something." the show lady had the kids dress up as the animals. But I don't know if she can claim that it was the cutest show, what if there are ugly kids in it? Good thing my kids are cute, not that they participated very well..... typical.... 

While we were eating, Daniel and Jada walked off to go check out the rides and came back shortly. Instead of the rides, Jada had opted for face paint, so of course Tiegan and Maggie had to get some too ;) this is the little girlies in the process...

Best friends

I could NOT get all three to look at the camera at the same time, this is the best I could get

Here's the magician and Chelsea (Logan's Chelsea) volunteered to be part of the act, I'm not sure how happy he was that I was taking pictures :/

Of course by this time, eastern WA was smoky and well, generally on fire.

This is us driving up to Colville, where the kids and I spent a week and some with the family. I wish this was the worst smoke we experienced, but it wasn't

All the kids playing with Uncle Caden, braving the smoky outdoors

More I-90 smoke

At this point you should be able to see the Cheney/ Four Lakes area, but you can't see anything!

The fires got so bad, they were shipping in firefighters from around the globe. There's a field next to the Colville LDS chapel that they had all the firefighters camping there, plus the coast guard that showed up to help. On top of that, church was canceled one of those Sundays near the end of August. because they were opening the building up to evacuee's from Republic. I don't think it was ever actually used, that very day the land was blessed with a good rain. Not enough to get rid of the fires, but it certainly helped.

We also got to go to my cousin Tasha's soccer game with the whole family. She plays for the Eastern Washington Eagles. It was allot of fun! and Tasha  had the loudest cheering section ;) I love our loud family and how supportive they are! I probably should have gotten a picture of all of our crew, but you guys are just going to have to use your imaginations

And of course we had to get autographs of the team, Tasha's our favorite ;) We heard a story of one of their away games that Tasha's teammates are still giggling about; One of the opposing team members was getting mad at Tasha and went in to shove her, but instead the girl bounced right of Tasha! hahaha Don't mess with Tasha! We Love #12! 

The girls discovered the extraordinary world of "under the bleachers" a couple of cuties playing around, we love cousin time!

These girls love their Grandma, she has her arms and hands full in this picture <3 p="">

And a few more pictures from our Summer of the Smoky Skies, but I don't feel like captioning them because this is getting to be a long post :/ So here you go, enjoy.