Girls Take Over

The boys are going through this "no girls" phase currently.

They don't want to play with girls or be near girls...

Good thing the girls headed our way included grandma and Aunt Bonnie and her girls.

You can't really count grandma and Aunt Bonnie as "girls."

I was happy to not be so outnumbered by boys last week.

 Bonnie is in town for Lauren's wedding next week and was brave enough to make the drive over to our new house with her girls after flying across the country with them by herself.

I was happy she and the girls made it and even convinced grandma to come along.

The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful week--in the 80's-90's.

Me and the boys tried to show the girls a good time and took them to our favorite places.

We went to Liberty Lake and the kids found long sticks that they went fishing for seaweed.

The older kids made quite a pile of seaweed while Ryan and Piper stayed close to grandma. 

We went over to Coeur d'Alene and discovered a new awesome playground and beach! 

It was a beautiful lake and beach that we pretty much had to ourselves. 

The boys wanted to see if girls could hike, so we went to the Centennial Trail and hiked down to the Spokane River.  We didn't intend for the clothes to come off, but it happened.

And then peeing happened.

And pooping.

Good thing no one was around to see all those bare bottoms! 

Grandma gave the boys some Boy Scout lessons on poisonous plants, algae, and the difference between wasps, bees, and hornets. 

Our house is a bit bigger then the old house, but even still, five little kids and four adults was a lot under one roof.  We loved being able to spend the days outside where everyone could run and be free!

Even though there were a lot of us together, we loved having The Girls over.

We had a great time....it was mixed with some typical 2-5 year old not pleasant behavior, but I love that my boys got a chance to spend time with their cousins. 

Even if they did make big messes together, we'd have them over anytime again!

With every seat in the van full...John was convinced we needed a new, bigger vehicle.

It was a tight fit with lots of unhappy kids at times because they had to sit in the back or she was touching me or I don't want to get back in, etc. etc. 

Since a new car isn't in the budget, so we just went to taking two cars when we went out:)

A much easier fix to crabby kids in the car.

It was such a nice four days to have family stay with us to remind us we're not alone out here in Eastern Washington.