7.6-day 7

On this day (July 6th) we all met up at the church for lunch and a family talent show. Along with basketball and crafts.

After lunch we took pictures.
Here are pictures of everyone with Grandma and Grandpa. Emily and Zack had to head back to Utah so they got their pictures taken earlier (middle right). This isn't even everyone. I love being a part of a big family!

Then came the
Talent ShowJJ showed off his violin talent by playing "Shortenin' Bread" and "Star Wars"Sherri's family did a comedy skitMy mother-in-law played a piano piece (she is amazing)Thad's family sang a song out of the hymn book (I can't remember which song).Melissa and James sang a song from Juno
"we sure are cute for two ugly people"
Cathie's family showed off their guitar hero talent!Sue, Braden, Nicole, Pauline (on piano) sang "Follow the Prophet." Braden even through in some of his own rendition which was very cute.Steve and Garret did the skit of the "ugliest man"Grandpa played his saxophone. 81 years old and plays in a band!

After the talent show we all played "Minute to Win it" (have you seen that show on t.v.?)

(1) The first thing we had to do was get an Oreo from our forehead to our mouth only using our face muscles. That was fun. And crumbly. (2) Then those who won split up into groups and we had to stack apples on top of one another (left side lost, right side won).(3) The next round the players had to transfer the cotton balls from one plate to the other using only their nose. They made the cotton balls stick using Vaseline. Watching them try to get the balls off was hysterical. *(4) They also played a round where they had to try and get all the tissues out of a box in one minute using only one hand at a time. (Pictures are lost-hopefully I can find them soon).
*(5) In another game they had to use the tissue boxes tied on their back, filled with ping-pong balls, and figure out a way to get them out (Pictures are funny, but also lost).
*(6) Last round was trying to keep a feather in the air for a whole minute by blowing on it. (Again, lost pictures).

After the game was over the boys played basketball and the girls did a craft. This is the craft we made. Isn't it so cute?! Amy was kind enough to get the wood cut for all of us.
(I had pictures of us crafting as well, but guess what, yup, they are lost).

7.5 day 6

**The 4th of July was a Sunday. We went to church at the crack of dawn (8 0'clock am). Grandma and Grandpa weren't able to make it to church, but since it was fast Sunday the family all met up later for their own fast and testimony meeting. It was so special. Everyone sitting in the family room filling every open space, taking turns sharing their thoughts, feelings, and love for the gospel. I feel so honored to be a part of this family now and I will always remember that special day. Then we took a nice afternoon nap. Had dinner. And went to watch fireworks. It was so COLD and windy so us big people all stuffed in the car and watched them out the window. Sadly, no pictures to document this day.**

Day 6 (Monday) we went to Moses Lake. A friend of someone in the family was kind enough to let us use their boat. Everyone took turns either tubing or wake boarding. You should have saw me on the wake board. I rocked it.
What?
You don't believe me?
Fine.
Guess I didn't even try.
I would have went tubing though.
I swear. But the tube wasn't hooked on when it was our turn to go.
Oh well. *Smile*
We also had the pleasure of using a friends backyard. The family lives right on the lake. The cousins had fun playing volleyball
and the babies (and James) enjoyed the trampoline.

That night we had a family BBQ.
Yum-Yum.
My cousin Amy (James' cousin's wife...you know how it is)
was taking pictures of 'her' brother and his wife and son
& I wanted to have some fun too.
I thought these turned out good.
Amy took some great ones too. But she just had a baby so I don't expect to see those any time soon?
Do I Amy?

name change and no friends

Have you been on my blog in the past few hours?! If so I am sorry. I have been trying to figure things out regarding this so called blog of mine.

I have changed my blog address to http://aperfectpairsblog.blogspot.com

Why?
Well glad you asked.
1) I am getting more traffic on my blog (hallelujah!!! so to protect my family I am getting rid of last names)
2) I have another blog. Did you know that? It is called aperfectpairscollection.blogspot.com so the two names just go well together don't you think?

I guess I can only come up with two reasons for now.
So anyways. I have set it up so if you go to my old "address" you'll be rerouted to my new one.

So go ahead. Change your friends lists to now read http://aperfectpairsblog.blogspot.com

Questions?

Thanks,
Melissa

p.s. I have just realized in all my confusion I have lost my friend list. DARN IT! I am so ticked. Please leave me a comment so I can add you back in! (I'm going to go cry now.)

7.3-day 4 evening

We arrived in Moses Lake in the evening. Although it was still daylight outside.
We stayed with James' second cousins.
There were 1,2,3,4,5 houses
that every one at the reunion split up against.
We lucked out in a king size bed!

Have I mentioned this was a family reunion? James grandparents are getting older and all their children {they had 10 kids} wanted to get everyone together for a reunion over the 4th of July. This was my first time meeting some of the aunts and uncles and many of the cousins. Unfortuanatly, some couldn't make it. But they were still remembered.

It was amazing. I feel so blessed to be apart of this new family! More on that later.

But first...
After we arrived we unloaded all our things and went over to one of the other houses to say hi.
James reunited with a cousin who now has two beautiful girls. We walked around the farm for a little bit and as the sun was going down I took some pictures of the surroundings.
"James took this picture"

We ended up doing family fireworks that evening.
They are legal in Washington.

It was fun seeing the boys run back and forth setting off the endless kinds of fireworks.

We really wanted to try to do the sparklers/camera shutter trick. James orchestrated the whole thing. All the cousins did so well. It was a lot of fun and turned out amazing!

new watermark

I made a watermark for my pictures.
I may start putting these on my photographs to protect their designer (me)

{isn't it just so cute}

7.3- day 4

We were driving to our final destination when I said, "babe I really want to go to Seattle."
It wasn't planned.
It would cost more money.
But why not.

We stayed in a Travelodge. Went to the coolest indoor, two-story, Safeway.
Bought T.V. dinners again.
And this time, microwave worked great!

The next morning we went to the Space Needle.
We illegally parked at McDonalds (shhh...) and walked over to the Space Needle.
We aren't into spending money for things that only give us minimal satisfaction so we didn't spend the money for the 360 view.
-cute little cotton candy stand-

Seattle started out slightly cloudy, but as it became later in the morning, it cleared up. We got very lucky with such great weather.
After the Space Needle we went to the Pikes Peak Public Market.
Lots of shops.
Lots of venders.
Lots of fun.
I loved all the fresh flowers. Here is the original StarbucksJames and I are changing our name. Not really. But it may eventually evolve if my blogs takes off. (in my dreams. maybe?)Fresh Fruit Stands.Fresh Fish.Fresh Locals. (just kidding). Interesting locals. This was my favorite store.
Vintage.
French.
Expensive.
We ate the Ivans.
White Clam Chowder.Loved this Antique Store. Wish I could have bought something.
Sadly, nothing called my name.(so many old black an white pictures)
I wanted to get all the ones with names and dates on the back
but they were $1 each.
Few hours in Seattle and we were off to Moses Lake, finally.Beautiful green trees. I took this picture for the low clouds. (James says we were just high up, but the clouds sure looked low).

7.2 day 3 continued

We drove too far North and missed where you could drive through the tree like this...
...but oh well. The nice tourist travel help center lady said, "we have nice Redwood trees here too." Phewf! (or fewf. I never know which).

We didn't have A LOT of time so we took the dirt road and drove through the forest.
It took about an hour.
It was quite beautiful.
Whimsical really.
The only radio station that came in clear was classical music.
We even saw a fairy!
There were places to park so you could walk the trails. We didn't do that. Once you've seen one Redwood tree you've seen them all. Then what happened? Well, we made a spur of the moment decision to go to...