Charette home make over

Road trip to Kelso to see the rest of the Charette clan! 

We arrived Friday evening.  J visiting in the kitchen with Cameron and Justin

Saturday we met the rest of the Charettes at Grandma and Grandpa's house for some home make over.

J, Cameron and Zach doing some clean up

tear down

C helping with the painting (pretending)

painting

 C and Steph going for a walk

 Sarah, Lauren and Brianna painting

 Jon on the BBQ

 J showing off the craftsmanship of the VCR holder he made for his parents in high school

 how many Charettes does it take to rebuild a front porch?

 I spent the day chasing C around

 after the home make over we had a birthday party for C.  opening presents

 

a new bike!

 singing happy birthday to C.  He loved it and sang along.

 Lauren and Cameron wrestling

 C and Jon playing baseball

 Sarah and Lauren

 Grandpa and Grandma

  C and Grandpa playing

Silverwood

C and I spent the day at Silverwood Theme park and Boulder Beach water park!  Located in beautiful North Idaho, Silverwood Theme Park has over 65 rides, slides, shows and attractions, including four roller coasters, Boulder Beach Water Park, a steam engine train, live entertainment, restaurants, and more.

C's favorite ride... the carousel.  He loves riding the horses.  We rode the carousel 4 or 5 times... I lost count!

 C got to meet Odie and Garfield too!

 The always fun Red Baron ride.  He went on this ride a few times too. 

 Tiny Toot Rollercoaster.  A mini train rollercoaster ride, which C picked the very front seat.

I love this picture.  C was so excited and happy all day.  He would randomly give me big hugs and kisses and say "I love you, Thank you mommy."  I'm so glad we got the chance to spend the day having fun.  There is nothing in the world I like to do more than watch my little guy smile from ear to ear!

 

 Frog Hopper.  This ride climbs straight up to the top and then drops and bounces (hops) up and down.  C really wanted to try this ride so I went with him the first time.  It's a low intense ride.  C loved it and wanted to go again.  After some debating the attendant convinced me that it was safe for him to ride alone.  C was thrilled to go a second time.

 Corkscrew rollercoaster.  We didn't go on any rollercoasters of course, well other than the tiny toot rollercoaster, but we did watch other people go screaming by.  Silverwood has 4 rollercoasters: Corkscrew, Tremors, Aftershock and Timber Terror.  I know at least one of the rollercoasters goes under ground too.

 They have several carnival games to win prizes.  A few are designed for the younger kids, so they get to keep playing until they win a prize.  C chose to throw darts at a wall of balloons.  He got to pick any prize he wanted from the left and he chose a purple spiky ball.  His favorite color is still brown, but closely followed by purple.

 After we grabbed a pulled pork sandwich and hot dog for lunch it was off to Boulder Beach water park.  But first we had to get a soft serve ice cream cone for desert and scope out the Polliwog Kids park.

 A quick photo before we changed into our swim suits

 And then it was off to play in the water.  I didn't get very many pictures since I was playing in the water with C.  I couldn't convince him to go down any of the slides.  It was 70 degree's with a slight breeze, which felt perfect walking around, but as soon as you got wet that breeze felt pretty chilly.  C got wet up to his chest, but in order to get up to the slides you have to walk under a waterfall of water spray and he wouldn't do it.  But we had fun playing with everything else.  We spent some time in one of the wave pools too.  He really liked jumping the waves.  The Elkhorn Creek Lazy River looked like fun too.  We'll have to try that next time.  They have tons of huge adult slides too... maybe someday C will enjoy racing down those. 

After Boulder Beach we raced to the Train Depot.  C really wanted to go on the 30 minute train ride through the woods, with a train robbery.  But we got there just as the train was pulling away.  This was the 2nd time we missed the train that day.  The first time we got all the way up to the gate and they ran out of seats.  We tried to wait for the next train, but after 6+ hours of nonstop fun in the sun... we were both beat.  We barely pulled out of the parking lot before I heard some serious snoring coming from the back seat.  When we got home all C could talk about was "we couldn't ride the train because there was too many people."  J's never been to Silverwood, so I'm sure we'll be back... and next time we'll make sure to catch the train!

Car's 2

We took C to see his first movie at a theater... Car's 2!

 Sharing some popcorn with dad.  C did pretty good, although the movie is more of a James Bond type plot.  He got restless in the beginning since they brought in all new characters that we didn't know.  Plus the new characters (spies) were racing all over and it was a bit much for a 3 year old to understand and follow.  At one point he actually requested to go home and watch Diego instead.  But once they brought in the familiar Car's characters it was good.

 Sheriff C

 

C's 3rd Birthday party! (part 1)

Uncle John and his family came over for some pre-birthday party fun.  They couldn't stay for the party, but the kids got some time to play together.  Ryan, Alivia and C putting some puzzles together.

 Ryan loved playing on C's rocking Mickey Mouse.  C showed Ryan how Mickey plays music if you push on his ears.

 Ryan, Alivia, C, Nana and Madison.  Checking out the toys in C's play room.

 C, Alivia and Madison relaxing on the couch while C opened his present

 saying good bye.  C, Ryan and uncle John.

 C's party this year was of course the Toy Story theme.  He's a huge Buzz Lightyear fan.  Each guest received a party bag with: (to represent Sheriff Woody) a cowboy bandana, sheriff badge, squirt gun, Happy Birthday butter mints, candy, army soldiers (which they had to find as one of the games) and a mini dinosaur (to represent Rex) that grows 600 times it's original size when put in water. 

 I really wanted to find some cowboy hats the kids could decorate to make their own, but I had to settle for colorful visors instead.  I found some cowboy foam stickers and letter the kids could use to decorate the visors with.  Peyton and Matt were our first guests to arrive.  They came early in hopes of spending some time with John, but unfortunately missed them.  Peyton picked a yellow visor and her dad, Matt helped her decorate it.  Once the party got started we were so busy and the kids were having so much fun that we never got time to make visors for the other kids. 

 C took his nap between his pre-party with uncle John's family and his birthday party.  I woke him up shortly after Peyton and Matt arrived and about 30 minutes before his party at 4pm.  Nana was excited to get in some cuddle time.  He's still waking up in this picture.

 Aunt Staci to the left.   Nana cuddling C and Peyton

Our party guests arrived at 4pm with swim suits on and ready to go!  We had several water activities going on at the same time so the kids could move around and have fun.  The forecast was calling for thunder showers right around the time our party started so I wanted to get as much of the outdoor water activities in as we could.  As it turns out either the forecast was wrong or we just lucked out before it was beautiful and hot for the entire party!

the slip-n-slide was a huge hit

Jakob on the slide, Severin and Peyton racing him to the end

 Zach

 Jakob

 Peyton

The younger kids didn't quiet know how to slide on their bellies so they either walked/ran across like Severin (below) or inched their way across like Peyton above.  Either way all the kids loved the slip-n-slide though!

 of course my child is the only one dry... again.  He's not fond of cold water and stays just out of reach.

Well, at least until it comes to the pool.  He loves the pool.  And the water in the pool is actually somewhat warm.  Although I think Zach might love the pool even more.  I'm surprised that kid doesn't grow fins! 

 Zach and C playing in the pool.  Severin debating on if he wants to join them.

 the fish Zach, Jakob and C

 Peyton, Skylar, Zach, Severin and Brady

 Jakob on the slide, Peyton and Severin in the sandbox

 Peyton and Severin

 C in the sandbox

the adults all relaxing in the shade

 Jakob with his bandana on his head and squirt gun ready to fire

 Brady said he was a bad guy Sheriff.  I guess you need some good guys and some bad guys to even it out.  Well, you make a pretty darn cute bad guy Sheriff Brady!

 Aunt Staci and Uncle Tony had to leave early for a wedding