4th of July

I have 4 pictures to share from the 4th of July. 4 is the lucky number.

First off, I thought this relish tray I built was picture worthy:

I got skillz.

Speaking of picture worthy food, but not related to the 4th of July, check this out:

Now that is jello. 12 layers if you can't count. My mom made it. So tasty too!

My Dad manning the barbeque. We had delicious hamburgers.

We pray, then eat. The day was a lot like last year but warmer and the fireworks were way better.

Here's a cool quote from John Adams about this fine holiday:

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.^[6]"

He was right!

Click over to trusty old wikipedia to know why he said the 2nd and not the 4th.

Some Wakeboarding, Some Skiing

A Coeur d'Alene favorite: boating activities. Today on DAM FAM, we are featuring wakeboarding and skiing. All done 4th of July weekend.

Dave:

My brother in law Brent:

My sister Ro. Or Rosemary as she is named:

Ta da!

Mom and Pops down South

Dave's parents are heading to Argentina for 18 months to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They are heading out next week and we're going to miss them but we're proud of them and wish them the best of luck!

You can follow their blog (when they figure out blogger) here. It doesn't say much at the moment but we're certain that during the 18 months of being in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, they'll have plenty to share with us.

Good luck Mom and Pops, we love you and we can't wait to hear about your adventures! We'll miss you but we know that time will fly and we'll be having another great family reunion before we know it.

Multnomah Falls

We headed out to Coeur d'Alene for the 4th of July and stopped off at Multnomah Falls on our way. It was remarkably crowded. Like super duper.

Pretty groovy to be sure, but we couldn't spend much time because of the crowds and the drive ahead. Maybe we'll hit it up again when we head out to MN.

To the Cat Lover: My Apologies

Well, the bunch of gross, disgusting, mangy looking fur in the picture in the previous post is indeed a cat. Some peeps knew it was a cat and I was shocked because I think it's so ugly and gross looking that it would be indecipherable. But I guess not everybody hates cats. Or maybe they do and they are just real good cat identifiers. I hate cats. Especially this gross mangy one. He lives indoors and outdoors and has open sores on his neck/chest and weeds in his tail and he is a part of my life this summer. Not much because I'm always out and about, but I'm not going to lie, I've totally put my foot on his head to keep him out of the house and I say mean things to him and sort of hope he dies. Or runs away. Or gets lost. I'm going to hell. Ladies and gentlemen, to be remembered always and forever, looking much better in pictures (all taken by Dave) than in person, I give you Albert:

Barf.

Guessing Game

Take a gander:

Now give me your best guess as to what this is. No worries, I won't leave you hanging. No, not at all. You'll see.

Talk About Bang for the Buck

Can you spend a whole day at a children's museum? How about a couple hours in the parking lot before it opens? We can. Nine hours of rip roarin' fun! We really enjoyed the children's museum in Salem. I sort of wish I would have got a pass so we could go every day. The museum is split up between three different historical houses (A.C. Gilbert) and each room/bedroom is a different play area. At first I thought it might be a little run down/hokey/ghetto, but by the end I thought it was pretty great. Miles was the only kid in any given room many a time and they had a pretty awesome outdoor play structure with lots of levels and ladders and slides. I kind of wanted to play in it.

Big ol' rocking chair on the front porch:

The bubble room had some pretty neat things in it and I quite liked this geometric bubble.

Miles drove these trains around for at least an hour:

Lucky for me, this particular room had all sorts of displays of the toys A.C. Gilbert invented and a time line and facts of his life. I was glad to have something to do/read/look at.

The biggest hit by far was the store. It was the one spot Miles wanted to go back to.

Miles loved it and could have stayed all day.