Hayden's party with friends

 

Hayden had his friends birthday party on Thursday July 30th!  We rented this giant inflatable bounce house.  It almost didn't fit in our backyard.  We also added water to it to keep the boys cool on a hot day.

It kept them entertained for hours! 

Hayden had fun going down head first. 

We filled up hundred of water balloons for the boys.  They were gone in minutes.  I had to go up on the deck so I didn't get soaked. 

Halle helped them fill up more balloons with the hose when they ran out. 

They created two teams and started a stash of water balloons at the top of both slides.  They were getting ready to have a war later. 

We made the boys snow cones. We even found some sugar free flavors that Hayden could have.

They were a big hit! I think some of them had three snow cones each. 

Hayden had fun opening up presents from his friends.  Brody wrapped his present with a pineapple picture on top.  It is an inside joke of theirs. 

His favorite gifts were classic lego sets and a remote control dinosaur.

 I let the other kids come play on it after the party was over.

We had the rental for the whole day.

Parker made quite the splash at the end.  It was a memorable party for Hayden. 

Hayden's birthday

Hayden turned 11 years old on Friday July 17th!  He chose out some Star Wars balloons.

I took Hayden to get his birthday waffle.  He looks forward to having a sugar cheat day every year!

We had a party for him that night.  All 12 of his cousins from both sides of the family were there!

He had fun opening up all of his presents.

Mike and Amy's family gave him a new camping chair.  He also got lots of Lego's and a new beach towel he had been wanting.  

I made him a BB8 cake.  I found a similar design on Pinterest and then made this one my own.  I looked everywhere for gray frosting and found out that they just don't sell it. I made my own by mixing black and blue. 

One of Hayden's favorite gifts was the Nerf vest, bullets, and glasses kit we gave him.

We got out the go cart so everywhere could have a ride.  

We ended the party with pop-its and sparklers. We are so proud of Hayden and all that he has accomplished this last year. I'm always impressed by his creativity. He loves to build forts, design things with Legos, and make things out of wood. The other day he put our old mattress on wheels and went riding down the street with his friends.  We have an engineer in the making! We love our Hayden!

Bear Lake!

We went to Bear Lake with friends July 12-15th.  There were over a hundred of us in our group.  We stayed at a KOA close to the lake. It was our first time staying in a KOA.  We enjoyed having neighbors right next to us.  The kids loved having all their friends close-by. I loved that they had flushing toilets and showers!

Our first night we had dutch oven pasta, Texas toast, and Caesar salad.  We made enough to share with the neighbors.

The next day we went to the Idaho side of the lake.  It was fun having our kayaks this year.  Addy and Paige went out exploring.

I was happy that Kristen and her kids were able to come. We had a good time talking while our kids played. 

A shout out to Kolter for putting this all together and wearing that awesome beach hat!

Hayden had fun building sandcastles with Brody, Mason, and Tom. 

It was Mckenna's first time going to Bear Lake.  She was working at the Ranch when we went a year ago.  She and Emily had fun hanging out together. 

Most of the neighbors played water frisbee. 

Halle got to try out this SUP board. 

Halle had the best time with her friends Maddi and Sienna.

Eric took all these cute kids out in the canoe. 

I also enjoyed hanging out with Janice and Tessa.  I'm glad we have been neighbors and friends all these years.  Janice even gave me one of her ice cold Dr. Peppers with cream soda.  That is true friendship right there!

We went and got raspberry shakes at the end of the day.  They were just as good as I remembered.

Kenna braided some of Addy's hair and put beads in it.  Addy loved it and wore it all summer.  She would get compliments everywhere she went. 

One of the highlights of the trip was hanging out around the campfire each night.  There was always laughing and story telling going on. They had a strict rule at the KOA that you had to be quiet at 10:30.  They even had hosts that walked around and enforced that.  We had a hard time keeping quiet!

A few of us went back again to the lake the next day.  Addy and Paige found lots of beach balls that had blown away the night before. 

Parker and Ryker are not too old to enjoy playing in the sand.

Kev was able to take our kayak out for awhile.  He was a good sport about pulling all the neighbor kids around on the tube most of the day. 

Mckenna and Emily rented this awesome bike for an hour. The kids drove through the campground laughing and singing. 

There were also camp crafts for the kids to do each day.  Addy was busy making her sandcastle.

We took the kids to play at the campground park that night.

The next day we went and got more shakes.  I tried a peach one this time.

We signed up and bought tickets to take a tour of the Minnetonka Cave.

They would only allow a certain amount of people in the cave at one time so we divided up our group.  Kev and I felt like we were on a school field trip with all these kids.

We were able to meet up with the rest of our group for a quick picture.  I have never seen so many stalactites and stalagmites before.  It was even bigger than Timp cave.  Another difference was all the stairs.  There were around 400 going up and then we came back down those same steps. I definitely reached my step goal that day.

We took a family picture in front of the cave.  It was a fun trip but I was exhausted by the time we got home.

Grant family reunion

We were happy that we still got to have our annual reunion at Reid Ranch.  There were some new rules about wearing masks to get our food and social distancing guidelines but it was worth it.

Kenna was looking forward to hanging out with cousin Liz.  I can't believe how grown up they are.

I was telling Aunt Karen about how my kids don't like to wear sunscreen.  She decided to put Halle's on for her!

We referred to this as our own RS meeting.  I love hanging out and talking with these awesome women!

Grandpa bought Addy a popsicle and she had a blue smile for the rest of the day.

Kev had fun playing frisbee golf with some of his cousins.

I'm grateful that Parker had Kail to hang out with.  Parker actually went up to the Ranch the first week in June to help get it ready for the season.  He had fun making the mountain biking trails. Cousin Haley told me how much she enjoyed having him up there with her for the week.  She said he was a hard worker and got along well with everyone. 

Kev and the kids had fun playing volleyball at night.

I had a good laugh watching the younger kids perform skits each night.  It was Addy and Alice's turn in the spotlight.

The highlight of the ranch was hanging out at night in the hot tub.  There is always another family staying at the Red Creek lodge and so we hadn't been able to use it in years. We had so many of us in there that the water level kept rising.

Aunt Janet told us she bought a new cowgirl outfit just for the ranch.  She was riding in style.

Hayden got to lead the group of horses this time.

The kids always enjoy swimming at the pool with their cousins.  Halle saved the day again!  We were busy getting the kids out of the pool and helping them dry off.  There were four of us adults helping them.  We turned around and saw that Cassie had jumped back in the pool without her life vest on. Halle immediately jumped in and pulled her out. I'm so proud of her! I keep saying she needs to be a lifeguard someday. 

We had fun at the canoes and paddleboats.

The highlight was when one of the workers, Michael, wrestled Spence and threw him in the lake.

Grandma Sue bought these cute ranch shirts for the cousins. Addy thought it was fun to match Cassie.

There were lots of treats to eat.  Hayden was relaxing in a pile of Laffy Taffy.

Little Cooper is definitely a ladies man!  He was cracking us up with all the things he was saying to Kenna.

We were smaller in numbers this year which you can't really tell from this picture.  There were several family members that didn't come since they are in the high risk category.  Even though we were smaller in numbers we still had a great time.