McDowell Family Fun!

For our last week of summer break, the girls and I headed to Walla Walla to my sister's house.  We got to hang out with all of my siblings and my mom.  Which meant, all of the cousins were together.  And what is a McDowell gathering with out a photo shoot?

Here they all are in age order:  Blake is the oldest at 11 and Kelci is the youngest at 11 months.

  

It was pretty interesting getting 10 kids to cooperate for the same picture.  There were lots of shots taken and we were able to get a few decent ones.

And since all of us siblings were there, Mom wanted a few shots of us.

Fun with Cousins

The kids had so much fun playing with cousins all weekend long.

Bailey, Ryleigh and Brynley found the coloring tools.

Kelci and Bailey enjoyed a tea part.

Several of my aunt and uncles were in town for my cousins wedding so they stopped by to see everyone.  Uncle Alvin took his turn being the time keeper so the little kids and older kids had equal jump time on the trampoline.  These kids played on the tramp for hours.  It didn't matter how hot it was outside, they were having a great time.

Good Morning!

Pendleton Aquatic Center

Saturday we all headed to the Aquatic Park.

The younger kids had tons of fun going down the frog and duck slide over and over and over again.

Uncle Nathan and Blake talked Zach into going down the really tall slide.

The older kids found big kid slides to entertain themselves for awhile.

Mariah and Ryleigh tried out the big kid slide.  Mariah was successful and Ryleigh, after lots of persuasion, chose to climb back down the stairs.

The big kids tried out the diving boards.  

and Uncle Nathan showed off his tricks.

The younger kids also enjoyed playing in all of the spray toys.

Uncle Rick took Ryleigh to the deeper part to play with the older girls.

Kelci enjoyed the water towards the end of the afternoon.

Ryleigh swimming on her tummy

Look at those silly 2 year olds.

There they all are!

What a fun afternoon in the sun!

BMX Track

We took turns on Blake and Nicole's bikes to ride the BMX track.  When I was there in October, we weren't brave enough to try the whole track starting from the top.

  Tana and Nathan had no problem right from the beginning.  This time I went all for it.  Nathan showed me how to start and it was so much more exciting doing the whole track. 

Once I did it, I convinced Blake and Nicole to try it.  Nicole took a lot more convincing than Blake.

Towards the end we decided we felt comfortable, or maybe confident enough to race each other.

Ryleigh and Ashlyn even took a turn riding on part of the track.

Berry Picking

Aunt Nicole had blackberries in her fridge that the kids were pounding so she thought they would have fun picking their own.  They had no fear of the thorns and enjoyed every minute of it.

Grandma found a great spot with lots of berries so she called the kids over.

Aunt Nicole giving Mason advice.

Another good spot.

Bailey just getting started.

There they all are with their goods.  My niece Mariah had 10 times as many berries in her belly as she did in her container.  She kept telling us she was hungry and they were yummy.  It was pretty funny to watch.