This week has been a bit slower.  Cade is done with preschool and keeps asking me who he can play with.  He really likes being with his friends.

Tuesday we went to Goethals park with Lauren.  That park has several small man-made streams that the kids had fun playing in.  After Lauren left, we went over and played on the swings for a while.  Ellie thinks swings are the best!

Wednesday Cade got to play with his friend Duke.  They brought us a bag of fresh cherries and Cade and Cami thought that was the best thing ever.  Thursday Kirk was off work.  He and Cade went to the driving range in the morning and had a good time.  As soon as they left, Cami wanted me to paint her toenail and fingernails.  She loves to do that.  Friday we were supposed to go swimming at a friend's house and the kids were looking forward to it all week.  They had to cancel, though, because they got sick.  I could tell Cade was really disappointed and we tried to think of other fun things to do.  We ended up making muffins and going to the park.  They also helped me clean the house so we could go out and have some more fun on Saturday.

Kirk got up really early and went fishing Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and he had a great time catching a bunch of bass.  Cade, Cami, Ellie, Melissa and I went for a hike.  We tried a new place.  It was ok, but I think will be better in the fall or spring.  There wasn't any shade and it was hot.  Cade and Cami like dinosaurs right now.  They have been watching "Land Before Time" and I showed them a few clips from Jurassic Park.  They like to build dinos out of their duplo blocks and have them fight and run around.

One day they were playing with duplos and I was upstairs.  I heard Cami start yelling at Cade for stealing some of her "two-pieces".  It turns out, they were both trying to build the same thing and there just wasn't enough two-pieces.  I was explaining to Cade that he can't steal her blocks and she found a different way to build her thing.  He was upset because he needed more and I tried to show him a few different things to do, but he didn't like any of them.  Cami told Cade that he could have more of her blocks.  It was the sweetest thing.  They really like to take care of each other and make each other happy.

Cade took a shower one night.  After he was explaining to me that he wants to start taking a shower every morning because that is what adults do.  He is getting big enough that he can start doing that too.  Whatever kid.  Stay four for longer!

I like the stage Cade and Cami are in right now.  They are slowing getting more independent.  They are so excited about everything and ask so many questions.  They love to show off what they have and what they can do.  They are so sincere in everything they say and quick to show love.

Cade gave a "missionary moment" in primary on Sunday.  He is brave.  He wanted me to stand by him, but he walked right up to the microphone and said his part nice and loud.

Ellie likes to sit on the floor and taste everything within reach.  She is pretty good at leaning over and getting something and then popping right back up.  She can lay on her stomach and rotate around to get new things.  She will often push up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth.  One of these days she is going to figure out that she can move and I bet she will be all over.  She is a wiggly girl.  Ellie also loves eating.  When I put her in a high chair, she starts yelling and grunting until I feed her.  If I am not fast enough, she keeps yelling.  She is a funny little thing.  She also get really excited when Kirk or Melissa come home or come downstairs in the morning.  She watches them, kicks her legs and smiles until they acknowledge her and come over to say hi.

Lisa drove up here on Saturday.  Tom, Connor and Arvid (Tom's dad) rode the train from Minnesota here and arrived Monday morning.  We're ready for an exciting week!

Ellie is getting so big!  Here are some of the things she has been up to.

• She likes to grab everything she can see and put it in her mouth
• She loves to sit up.  She just moving from laying on her stomach to sitting.  
• She rolls from her back to front and always sleeps on her stomach.  She rarely rolls from her stomach to her back
• She loves to sit and watch Cade and Cami play, as long as she has a couple of toys too.  She also loves to watch from her jumperoo.
• She loves her bottle.  She will start grunting and reaching for it as soon as she sees it
• She also loves eating solid food.  She has had rice cereal, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, bread, graham crackers avocado and grated cheese.  She can't pick up little pieces yet, but loves to eat!
• She has 2 teeth that popped through about June 15th
• At the doctor appointment last week (June 13) she weighed 17 lb 14 oz (75th percentile) and was 28 inches tall (97th percentile).  She wears 6-9 month clothes and is done with size 2 diapers.  
• When we were hiking in the Gorge last week, I put her in the hiking backpack and she kept making happy noises.  I think she liked being up high and seeing lots of stuff.  She loves being in the stroller and going for walks too.  
• She still takes 3 naps most days.  She will sleep anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours at a time.  She goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:30 and wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30.  Some days it is way too early, but I'm working on it.  
• She is really easy going and loves to play and smile.  She loves it when you sing her songs like "Wheels on the bus" or "if you're happy and you know it."  However, if she starts crying or yelling, you know something is wrong and she needs help.  
• She loves to swing at the park.

Ensign Ranch

     We went camping up at Ensign Ranch last weekend.  Kirk had Friday off and we couldn't waste it!  Kirk wanted to fish the Yakima canyon on the way.  We dropped him off with his pontoon after driving up that morning.  The kids and I did a little hike, had lunch and rode bikes around a paved trail at one of the fishing spots.  We picked Kirk up and packed again.  When we saw him he had a fish to show the kids and they liked that.  We drove up to Ensign Ranch and found our cabin.  We stayed in the bunk house.  We had never been up there before.  It is a church-owned camp.  It has a lake, canoes, horses, hiking trails, a climbing wall, cabins and lots of stuff.  We had dinner and went for a walk around the camp.  The next day we let Cade and Cami go for a ride on the horses and a bike ride around the lake.  Then we packed up and went for a canoe ride.  Cami didn't want to go at first, but Cade thought it was awesome!  Cami joined them for the last 5 minutes before the place closed up and then we drove home.  Cami and Ellie slept most of the way home.  We had dinner at home and built a fire in our backyard.  I wanted to roast marshmallows on our trip, but it was way too windy.  It was fun.  Cade enjoyed roasting them but didn't like to eat them.  Cami liked them uncooked, but then at the end she tried a warm one and thought it was the best thing ever.  They are so fun right now.  They get excited about everything and kept saying how we had a fun trip and they wanted to go again and again.  Cade's favorite things were the canoe ride and when he spotted a deer at the parking lot.  Cami loved the horse ride.  She thought it was awesome to be up so high and kept asking if she was taller than Daddy or a polar bear or our house.







Cami's falls

     Cami has been tripping a lot lately.  In 4 days she bloodied herself 5 times.  2 from tripping while walking, a bike crash and something else.  I am constantly reminding her to be careful and go slow.  The bike crash was the worst one.  She fell and ended up crying while walking the rest of the way home.  I washed her knee and she just cried.  She was upset and ended up wetting her pants on the chair.  Then she fell asleep on the couch while I was cleaning it up.  Poor girl.

Columbia River Gorge

    Kirk had a conference in Seattle Thursday and Friday this week.  The office was closed which means Melissa had those days off.  We headed down to the gorge.  I thought she would love seeing something new and different.  The forest down there is so unique and beautiful.  It gets a lot of rain and is very green and beautiful.  We drove down Thursday morning and got there about 11:00.  Our first hike was Waclella Falls.  It is about 2.7 miles round trip.  The kids did great and didn't hardly complain.  It started raining just as we got to the falls so we didn't stay very long.  Our next stop was the fish hatchery to see giant sturgeon and have a snack.  Then we hit the old scenic highway to show Melissa some of the most popular waterfalls.  We saw Horsetail Falls, Multnomah falls (and hiked to the bridge) and then hiked to Wahkeena Falls.  Cami took a little nap in the car. Ellie slept off and on all day in the backpack, car and bjorn.  We hiked almost 4 miles all together.  We stayed at the KOA that night.  After dinner Melissa and I didn't want to build a fire and so we walked around the camp ground and Cade and Cami decided we should have a couple of talent shows on our porch.








 

 Friday morning we woke up, played a bit and packed up.  We hiked to upper horsetail falls which was a new one for me.  It was very pretty.  Cami had a hard time making it up all the switchbacks.  The trail was pretty and went behind the waterfall.  The other hike we did today was Elowah falls and it was my favorite.  It was tall and thin with an awesome rock wall around it.  The kids did great on the hike but Cami was getting pretty tired by then end.  It started raining as we got to the end.  Those 2 hikes were a total of 4 miles today.  We decided to drive home.  Cade would have loved to hike more, but the girls were done and the weather was getting worse.  It was a fun trip and we are so glad that Melissa could go with us.  I couldn't have done it without her.

Upper Horsetail Falls

Elowah Falls

We had a great end of May.  I have a hard time picking a few highlights so here is my summary of the Smith Reunion 2016.

It started a few days before everyone got here.  I got the bathrooms cleaned, the kitchen cleaned, the food bought, the beds organized, and the house vacuumed.  All that was a project by itself.

My parents and Melissa got here about 4:00 on Saturday afternoon.  We had dinner and Lindsey and her family pulled up a little after 7:00.  They had driven from Fort Collins that day and left their house at 4 a.m. (3 am in Washington).  All the kids went crazy and ran around yelling for a while until we put them to bed.  Alan and Kristi and Tyrell flew in and their flight landed about 8:45.  We were all under one roof by 9:30 p.m.

Sunday we had blueberry french toast for breakfast--one of my favorites.  We all went to church and had a great taco salad for dinner.  (The food for this week was important and I remember it well)  We had a great big birthday party that afternoon.  My mom planned some fun games and we did a pinata and gift exchange and ended with chocolate cake.  Yum!  WE had scones for a snack and had a family council that evening.

Monday we hiked badger mountain.  We all had a great time.  Cami was struggling on the way down and we found a "magic" rock.  If she squeezed it, then it helped her legs get more energy.  We also had maps for everyone and Melissa hid a few treasures along the way to keep us going.  It was cute.  We went shopping in the afternoon and I got a new swim suit.  Dar, Gary and Amber came over for dinner and we had a great time hanging out.  Our backyard is awesome in the evenings.  It is totally shaded and very comfortable.

Tuesday Kirk, Jason and Alan took the kayaks and went fishing.  The each caught at least 20 fish and floated 6 miles down the Yakima river.  It was one of the first times Alan had been fishing and I think he liked it.  The rest of us drove about an hour to see a little city park with lots of dinosaur statues in it.  The kids had fun climbing on the statues.  We were walking around a lake and the path had water over it.  The kids thought that walking through the water was really fun.  I took Cade to swimming lessons that afternoon and helped the guys with their shuttle back to the starting point on the river.  Alan, Kristi, Melissa, Kirk and I stayed up talking for a while that evening and that was fun.

Wednesday we started the day with a talent show.  Daniel taught us about dinosaurs, Josh taught us about tools, Luke sang I am a child of God, Cade sang Praise to the Man, Cami sang "Let it go" and Tyrell read a book.  My mom did a finger play and my dad told a story.  Then some of us went to Cade's final preschool concert.  We did family pictures in the backyard.  My neighbor friend came and took them.  We got some really good ones.  Nobody yelled, hit or ran away either.  We had grilled veggie sandwiches on foccacia bread for lunch.  Kirk, Lindsey, Jason and I took our kids fishing and left the babies home.  We went to one spot on the Yakima river (Chamna).  We all walked in the river a bit and Kirk, Jason and I all caught a fish and let the kids hold it.  The water was a bit higher and faster than we were hoping for and we decided to leave and try another spot.  We drove about 15 minutes to another spot.  Daniel wanted to try reeling in and so I was casting for him and then letting him reel it in.  After a few casts he caught a fish and he was so excited.  Jason caught one at the same time.  Kirk also caught a couple.  The kids all got to hold them and the day was a success.  We had a little poison ivy scare at the end, but everyone ended up ok.  Cami's highlight was when she fell in the river and I snatched her out.

Thursday we didn't have a ton going on.  Kirk and my dad put some shelves up in our shed.  We took the kids to Goethals park and everyone loved the zip line.  Lindsey, Jason, Kirk and I went to the temple in the afternoon.  We had lasagna for dinner so it was pretty simple (I made it ahead of time.).  That night we got out blankets, treats and popcorn and watched Hotel Transylvania II.

Friday morning we packed up the crew and drove about an hour to Scooteney Reservoir.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We played a little game of baseball.  Cade wanted to go swim in the lake.  He didn't want to do anything else, especially something I suggested.  When it was his turn to hit the ball, he just ran where ever he wanted.  We all went on a walk by the lake and he finally calmed down.  We had some lunch and then went and played in the lake.  Cami thought it was awesome that she could play with Alan out in the deep water.  Kirk and Alan swam out to a little raft and thought everyone else was crazy for not wanting to join them.  When we got home we had some quiet time and then several of the adults took the kids to a splash park nearby.  My mom, Melissa and I stayed home with the babies and cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed downstairs and made dinner.  It was nice to get some of that done before everyone left.

Lindsey's family and my parents left early Saturday morning (like 5:00 early).  Alan and Kristi left about 11:00 and we spent the day cleaning up, moving Melissa in, doing laundry, mowing the lawn and trying to fix the sprinklers.

We had a great trip.  It is fun to see family, and really fun to live with them for  a week.  I think we all had a great time,  We are really spread out and I wish we could be together more, but facetime and Skype are great things too!  It is always weird for me to say good bye to people I love and not know when I will see them again.  Totally worth all the effort for the week though!