Uncle Mike's House!

Mike and Jackie had all of us over for a wonderful bbq. Mike smoked the meat in his smoker and Jackie made some excellent salads and desserts. It was a wonderful time and everyone was there. Again, his yard and pond look so great!

Yum-O

Audriana and Natalie Wells-Dutton

It is this look that gets us to melt everytime.

From left to right: Natalie, Jamie, Audriana, and Sofia

Todd, Brook, Rick, Rachel and Karen

Uncle Todd with his nieces!

A bon-fire completed the night with some good old fashioned smores! Yummy!

Garnet Mining in Idaho!

We drove 2 1/2 hours to arrive to the woods of Northern Idaho (near St. Maries, ID) -- all in an effort to strike it rich! After paying $10 for a permit (per person), we were given buckets and headed over to the big pile of dirt to start digging. Once the buckets were full, you took it down to the sifting area. Once all the excess dirt was sifted out, we took the big pieces down to the water area to clean them off and check for garnets! I don't know - they all looked like rocks to me, but everyone found at least a couple. It was fun! Dirty, but fun. When I got home I put all of our dirty mining clothes in the washer - to no avail! That dirt stained!!!

Oh, Sofia....

Nice pink hat, Martin!

Look at Lily's dirty hands! She spent quite a bit of time with Grandma helping her distinguish the rocks from the garnets!

Here's Todd sifting all the dirt out! What fun!

Mom, Lily and Jay -- what a team!

You're adorable, Brook!

The Schurra's hit the Spokane Indians game!

Go Indians! Yah...this was our first baseball game and we had a blast. Martin could not make it because he had his radio program (The Latin Lounge, Monday nights from 6-8pm on our community radio station, KYRS). Lily joined him for the show and had a good time being a guest in the studio. Mom, Jay, Aunt Tonn, Me and the girls, Todd, Pam and their girls, Kim, Jared and Natalie and Sandra and Bill braved the 95 degree weather. We decided to sit way out in right field where it was shaded -- good move.

Natalie and Jamie

Brook and Audriana
The girls were excited to have a ball park hot dog - they both ate every bite!
Sofia was (and still is) totally infatuated with Otto the Spokane Indians mascot. Kim bought her a little stuffed toy of Otto that she adores. She didn't let it out of her sight and I'm sure she will sleep with it, too.
The Indians ended up winning the game, but we left before it ended because the kids wanted to go back to the hotel to go swimming. As usual, they were all smiles and all had fun together. All the big guys (Uncle Mike, Uncle Todd and Jared) also got in the water for some fun!

Day 5 of the Schurra Family Visit!

Today we took a rode trip to Idaho, where we stopped at the Cataldo Mission, Kellogg, and Wallace. Mom wasn't feeling good, so she stayed home (too many cherries yesterday?). Pam's family decided to pass, too, so it was just Todd and his family, Martin and I and the girls, and Kristi. It was a very hot day (mid 90's), so we packed a bunch of water and started off at about 9am. Our first stop was the very old and beautiful Cataldo Mission. It has an amazing set of historical facts and we all really enjoyed walking the grounds and touring the mission.Can you believe this view?! We took a lot of pictures of all of us. The weather was perfect!

Our next stop was Wallace, ID, where we took the Sierra Mine Tour. We bought our tickets, then walked a block or two for some lunch before our scheduled tour at 1pm. We dined on pizza and salad bar -- oh yah, and some candy that Brook and Uncle Todd helped Audriana and Sofia win at an arcade game. That was fun.
We all look so funny wearing our miners hard hats (although Sofia couldn't keep hers on her head and she kept wanting to trade hats with me!). Here we all are in front of the entrance to the mine. Our tour guide was Wade who worked the mines in this area in the 1950's. Great man with a lot of knowledge. He was the kind of guy that you would want to invite to your house for dinner just to hear him talk about his experiences. I took some pictures inside the mine, but they didn't turn out too good (too dark). Oh yah, Sofia fell asleep in there and Martin and I had to carry her for the last half (30 pounds of sweet)!

Cherry Picking at Greenbluff

We love love love our annual trips up to Greenbluff. We were sitting around the breakfast table this morning wondering what to do when I remembered the Cherry Festival this weekend. We all got ready very quickly, called Mom to invite her and we were on our way. It was great -- the trees were just full of cherries. The man at Roening Farms said that it was a great crop this year because of all the moisture we had early on in the growing season. Whatever the case, the girls had a ball filling up their buckets. Bing cherries sold at $1.25 per pound and Rainier cherries sold for $1.50 per pound. Sofia's face was purple from all the cherries she ate by the end of the morning.....

Day 3 of the Schurra Family Visit!

Tonight we all met up at Kim and Jared's house for another multi-family get together (boy there are a lot of us!). It was a lot of fun. The kids especially loved the very super cool battery powered bubble makers that Kim got them! It was fun to have Rick and Karen Giddings, and their 12 year old daughter, Rachel, join us as well. Todd and Rick have been best friends since high school.

Day 2 of the Schurra Family Visit!

Just a few fun pictures of the gang at Chucky Cheese Pizza! It may have been a big loud and noisy for some of the adults, but the kids loved it (of course).

Day 1 of the Schurra Family Visit!

Todd, Pam and the girls rolled into town Wednesday night and we celebrated by getting us all together for a steak and baked potato bbq! They will be in town for about 10 days, so I will try to update our blog with news and pictures from our outings!

Here is a great shot of "The Cousins" together on Grandma's porch swing. My girls were so excited to see them! Natalie is missing from the picture because they had not arrived yet. Lily is 17, Brook is 12, Jamie is 6, Audriana is 5 and Sofia is 2.

Here is Mom with her "baby", Todd. He will also be celebrating his 20 year High School Reunion while they are in town. (West Valley High School, Spokane, WA)

Here is Brook and Uncle Mike just chillin'.

Jamie and Audriana are only 7 months apart. Look at her big blue eyes!!!!!Lily is now 17 and is so beautiful! Her passions are speaking Spanish, working, her family (especially Aunt Kristi), and her boyfriend Danny (Oh, except when she's on Facebook talking to Jesse)!

Sweet Jamie! What more can I say?!Here is Natalie with the other little ones! She is Kim's daughter (Kim is Pam's sister) and was born 1 day before Audriana. She just got glasses (like Audriana) and looks so cute in them.Sorry, Todd, I had to put this one up! Sofia got a hold of my camera and took a picture of her Uncle Todd. She thought this was so funny -- actually, we all got a good laugh from it!