Family....So this is why we bought a 5 bedroom house

I have decided to divide the families into a 2 part series even though they ran together and there was seemingly no division between the two. First Dan and Sarah came with their two girls Maggie and Abby. They were here for 2 days and then headed out to see Brenda parents.

We went for a hike around Tubbs hill with Dan and Sarah and the girls. This is a great hike and not all that far so it is great for kids
Then they taught James to play some sort of patty cake (not sure if this is right). He has a what the heck look on his face here, but he looked like he liked it.

Here are the girls at the park in Coeur d'Alene.

Then it was home for a swim in the pool and a swing on the swing. I am very glad I put that up. There were no injuries the whole time family was here which is amazing to me.

Here are the cousins.

4 days after Dan and Sarah left, Paula and Kevin (Lindsey and Landon as well) came in and then Dan and Sarah came back up along with Jim and Sandra. If you are keeping track of numbers....that is 13 bodies staying at our house (ourselves included). I guess that is why we bought a big house and it was a great time.

Here are the cousins loving the pool. I convinced them to do belly flops and still...no one got hurt.

Dinner on the table with the family was well worth the effort of building the table.

Here is a pick of all the cousins. Kids nowadays have got to get tired of taking pictures. With digital photos there is so much more freedom to take bad pics that we generally took 3-4 pics at every location. Maybe they like it, but I know I got 736 pics from the past two weeks and that is more than I will ever need.

Then we went to the beach in Coeur d'Alene on the 5th. It was kind of cool in the water, but a lot of fun and very relaxing.

Here are the kids eating some pop-ice. Big hit after water balloons.

Our neighbor brought his horse over to give the kids a ride on.

Then Landon got a chance. halfway through his ride the horse started to neigh and echo the one back in the stall. Not a good sign. Then Rocky jumped to the side and leaped ...but Landon held on tight. Kevin ran over and got him off with lots of crying and all of us were thankful no one got hurt. Needless to say that was the end of the horse rides...maybe not my best idea as an afterthought.

James looks happy here, but with women giving you a sponge bath....who wouldn't be.

We also had a chance to got to downtown Spokane and rode on the Carousel. It may seem lame, but it actually goes fast and you can grab rings if you are on the outer horses and throw them into a hole to ring the bell. Still does not sound cool, but I assure you it is fun.

Jim and Sandra along with James at the falls.

James did not like the ride as much as we did.

This was a scene repeated throughout the vacation and Paula really liked hanging out with a baby again. It was kind of nice to have family out and hand off the duties of holding James.

So that was the Elenbaas Family...the day they left, my family arrived....to be continued.