Seattle trip

This last week Dan had a conference up in Seattle and since he has 2 brothers that live there we decided to take the whole family down for a vacation. After the 8 hour drive and arriving in Seattle I thought we must be crazy to attempt this trip with such small children, however they traveled very well and truly loved it. They are still talking about how much fun they had. We just loved visiting with family and seeing some of the area sites. We were able to go to the zoo, aquarium, see Snoqualmie Falls, and go swim and picnic at Rattlesnake Lake. After looking at my pictures, I realized I just didn't take very many (I felt like I was taking lots).

This was one of the few pictures I took at the zoo. I didn't even take a picture with a single live animal. Oh well...

This picture is of Savannah, my sister in-law Leisel, and niece Louisa at the aquarium by the jellyfish.

After Lydia was continuously running away at the zoo my sister in-law NaRee picked this little "back pack" (leash) up for me. It definitely helped me keep her closer.

Another shot of the girls playing at the Seattle aquarium.

Here is Paige with my little niece Elizabeth swimming at Rattlesnake Lake. Paige insisted on wearing the goggles- but never got her hair wet :)

Lydia and Elizabeth splashing in the lake.

Blue Lake

This last Saturday Savannah, Paige, Dan, & Grandpa Malan went on a day hike up to Blue Lake. The girls had such a great time picking wildflowers and fishing. Here are few pictures to highlight their trip.

This is Savannah's fish- the biggest one of the trip. She was so excited!

The girls wanted to go swimming in the lake, but they didn't bring swimsuits. So they settled for dipping their toes instead.

Here is the fish Paige caught. Her first one ever!

And here the girls are with their Grandpa Malan. When they got home they were talking a mile a minute- They are already talking about the next time they can go up to Blue Lake.

Camping on the 4th

Every year the Dana family does at least one camp out. This year we went to Sage hen reservoir over the fourth of July weekend. It was probably the smallest family camping trip to date. We really missed Rilieanne's family, Kelsi's family, and Jordan but were glad Hailey came up (even though she checked out Sat. morning) and that Julee and Breanna stuck around for the trip. While the numbers were fewer we still had a great time and enjoyed the outdoors (mostly). The only problem was with our little boy. Let's just say he was not a"happy camper"- therefore instead of staying 2 nights we skipped out Saturday night (we didn't feel like continuing to torture everyone in the campsite with our cry baby). Even with our shortened trip we still enjoyed swimming, hiking, and fishing. When we got home we realized how few pictures we had taken, and relied too much on Hailey's camera, so here are a few pictures. I'll post more as soon as I can get some from my little sister.

Here's my mom and dad, they spent a lot of time holding this little boy.

Dan and Lydia with their smore's. It looks kind of like it is balancing on his fingernail.

This is the first time I've seen Paige pull this face. What a funny girl!

This picture of the whole fam is right before we went on our hike. Dan and I hiked only to the dam because little Paige was getting tired (me too for that matter), but my parents, Julee, Breanna, and Savannah hiked around the whole reservoir. It was longer than Savannah realized, but she did well. It was also longer than my mom realized- she was wearing sandals the crazy lady.

Savannah turns 7!

Savannah is now a big 7 year old! I can't believe it has been 7 years since she was born- it seems like yesterday. We ended up having 3 parties for her. One with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, another one with just our family, and a friend party. This year she planned her own birthday party and she chose a Math theme (don't ask me I tried to persuade her otherwise). She made her own invitations and planned most of the games. It kept her entertained, and made it easier for me :) I was skeptical, but it turned out to be pretty fun. We played a math cake walk, math bingo, broke a pinata, decorated number gift bags, etc. As fun as it was- I'm glad the partying is over. She is already talking about her next birthday!