Labor Day Weekend

We decided at the last minute to go to my sister's house for Labor Day weekend. We picked Allen up from work at noon on Friday afternoon and drove to Vancouver. It's usually a 3 hour drive but it took us about 5 to get there due to the holiday weekend traffic.  We got there in time to BBQ and celebrate Brooklyn's birthday with her and some of her cute friends.

We planned to spend all day Saturday on their boat but we woke up to cloudy, chilly weather. We were really bummed but hoped it would burn off later in the day. We packed up right after lunch and headed to the Columbia river. It ended up being a gorgeous day and a perfect way to end the summer. 

I had to laugh when all the kids announced they had to use the  bathroom. This is how you do it in the river.

Emery liked the boat as long she experienced it from the safety of my arms. She did not let me put her down for most of the day.

The kids had the BEST time going on the huge tube behind the boat:

We docked off of a little island and let the kids play on the sand dunes for a couple hours. The sand was BEAUTIFUL (think Caribbean beach sand) and the kids had a grand time running up and down the dunes. I didn't bring a camera since we had to swim a ways to island but it was so beautiful.

Allen and Jon deflating the tube.

Emery loved holding the flag but was unhappy that I put her down to take this picture.

Cousin dog pile. I love that these guys love each other so much and especially love that we live close enough to see them often.

After we put the tube away some of the older kids/parents did a bit a wake-boarding. Allen hadn't been for about 10 years but he got right back into the swing of things quickly (and can you believe how beautiful the background is in these pics!?)

We had a late night dinner out where we were quite a spectacle with our 9 kiddos. It is always so funny to see people's reactions to our big families.

Sunday we went to church, played board games, had a huge and yummy dinner, watched movies and played at the park.

We left Monday morning in an attempt to miss the holiday traffic coming back into Seattle. We stopped for lunch at Red Robin where we traditionally have dinner on the first night of school. We had piano and scouts after the first day so we decided to do it the day before.

We got home in time to go to a BBQ with some new friends and got home in plenty of time for showers, back -to-school blessings and early bedtimes. We had a fabulous Labor Day weekend and it was a great way to bid farewell to summer!