I'll Follow The Sun

"One day you'll look to see I've gone.

For tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun."

 -Lyrics by Paul McCartney and John Lennon

Based on the weather forecast that pretty much guaranteed that it would rain the weekend before the 4th of July so the kids and I did follow the sun.  Our path led us across the Cascade mountains to Grandma and  Grandpa C's house in Chelan where we spent a fun filled sunny weekend.

We made it over on Friday night in time for First Friday, which in Chelan means everyone heads downtown for family friendly activities.  The theme was "Celebrating the Red, White and Blue with Rodeo Round-Up" so I dressed the kids up in their 4th of July outfits and we headed out to have some fun.  The first activity we came to was lassoing.  


Ben was more into trying to drag off the steer head and bale of hay that he caught with his rope.  

McKenzie listen very patiently and got a lesson from a cowboy on how to work the lasso.  She was able loop the rope around those cow horns.

The second activity was making sock horses.  Ben's horse was half finished when he jumped on and rode away.  His horse reminded me a lot of him... it just kept going and going.

Saturday we spent the day down at the beach where the kids played in the water, built sand castles and just enjoyed the sun!  Kenzie and cousin Kayla building sand castles.  

Friend Claire, Kenzie, and cousin Kayla having a group hug.  Too cute!

Grandpa and Uncle Eric also dug a giant piece of driftwood out of the beach area and everyone had fun floating on it.  I would have loved to see the tree that this piece of wood came from.  

My two little monkeys in the tree before dinner at the Lakeview Drive In.  

After dinner we went up to Tsillan Cellars Winery to hear one of my favorite bands, The Paperboys, as they put on a fantastic concert.  They always have a great family friendly show and the kids love to dance to their music.  The winery has an amazing setting with outdoor waterfalls and a small river around their stage area.  The kids were amazed by the koi fish that they had swimming in the water.  They were so cute looking over the edge of the bridges at the fish swimming by.  I love in the first picture how Ben has is leg over Kenzie's like it's keeping him from falling in.  Lucky for the fish the owner of the winery made an announcement about how there were three piranhas in with the koi so the kids kept their fingers and toes out of the water for the most part.  

Once the show started Ben was up and dancing after the first three beats of the music.  He desperately wanted to dance with the crowd right in front of the stage but every time we danced our way up there he would say "Too loud" and hold his ears then he'd crash down on the blanket once we got back to our spot and take small break and then be up again ready to go.  We also got to see a firework show after the concert so it was a day to remember for these kiddos!

Life must be nice when you have a Grandpa who will cart you around on his shoulders when you get tired!

Sunday was another sunny day and we got out the new slip-n-slide that Kenzie got for her birthday.  The kids loved it and had no problem posing for action shots for my camera!  It's so funny to see how small the slip-n-slide is.  Thinking back to my childhood it was twice as wide and maybe three times as long.  

Extreme sports seem to be in this groups future!  McKenzie diving in for a long run, cousin Nathan blasting his way down the slide, friend Micah fighting to stay on the track and Ben most likely just slipped on the slide and fell into this position.  

Overall, it was a great weekend and one I look forward to repeating throughout the summer.  And yes, the song lyrics at the start of this entry were a threat to the Northwest, let's get the sun shining around here or else we know where we can find it!