Cousins' Visit

Matthew's sister and her family came to visit for 10 days in August and we had so much fun with them! We were essentially on vacation, but still at home, the best of both worlds. Our girls had so much fun playing together and they had lots of time to!

Two Ashley's-aren't they both beautiful?

Chloe had her birthday party while here, a princess party. We were instructed to come "fancy", so we spent a lot of time getting ready at home. All the girls wanted their hair curled and make up done.

The primping continued at Nana's! Chloe got her wish of pink hair for her birthday.

All the girls

Ashley is an amazing cake decorator! She spent 3 days on this cake. She taught me how to make marshmallow fondant which was really fun and pretty easy. Maybe I'll try it myself sometime.

Children's Museum: Looking at this picture makes me realize how old Emily is, she had a great time there, but compared to the rest of the kids in the kitchen, she looks old!

The weather didn't get hot while they were here, but we finally got in the pool anyway. It was freezing! But the kids didn't seem to mind.

Ashley is really good at hair too and my girls were more than happy to let her do their hair. This was a pretty crazy hairdo, but the girls loved it!

We had a fun day at the beach, but it was much warmer back in Portland, so we didn't stay too long.

Wahclella Falls 2011

We did this hike 3 years ago and I'm glad we were able to do it again this summer, it's such a perfect hike for kids. It was fun to see how much easier it was for the older girls. They all did great except Ashley didn't want to be in the backpack and Matthew carried her a lot of the way. Fortunately it's not too long of a hike. We invited some new friends to go with us and it was so fun to have them with us!

Exploring the cave

The Hughes Family

Kevin was daring the kids to put their faces in the icy cold water, it was pretty funny.

Beach Trip

We went on an overnight trip to the beach in July and had a fun time together. We had great weather and played on the beach a lot.

It was so fun to have a campfire and roast marshmallows on the beach. We hadn't done that since Matthew and I were dating.

The next day was sunny and warm

I enjoyed some reading time!

Ashley wanted to eat at her own little table. I love her smile in this picture. It actually looks like my smile at that age.

Milkshakes at the park

Ashley is looking so much like Nicole at this age, it's scary. She is wearing Nicole's old clothes here and at first glance, I have to think about which kid I'm looking at.

Emily is getting so good (and creative) at doing hair. She did the girls' hair here. Pretty impressive huh! I'm so lucky she likes to do it, it's so helpful!

Boating

We only got out on the boat a couple of times this summer because of the cool weather, but had fun both times. These pictures are from early July.

 Nicole was so brave, I love her excited face in these pictures!

The memorable moment of the day was when Emily and Matthew were on the tube in some rough water and took a hard fall. My dad says it was an "accident", but I'm not too sure about that :). She has been a lot more timid on the tube since, but it had to happen sometime, falling off is part of tubing.

 Emily is the on the left and Matthew on the right, they are hard to see.

 Oreos on the boat

Ashley was kind of scared at first, but she tolerated her life jacket surprisingly well and got used to the boat after awhile.