We have another teenager in the house. I can't believe it but our little Ailey is officially a teenager now. How did that happened?! Ailey's birthday hit the week after school got out. She planned a super fun day and we celebrated her all. day. long. (and the next day too.)
Ailey's first request was to go out for breakfast. Kameron had to work so he was unable to join us until later that night.
Ailey loves to go out for breakfast. It is her favorite meal to eat out. We were happy to oblige. We had an enormous breakfast of crepes, waffles, aebelskivers, pancakes, hashbrowns, and hot chocolate!! Delish.
Then it was time to work off some of that food!! We went hiking in two different areas. First up was the Little Spokane River area. We hiked the Indian Painted Rocks trail.
We stopped to look at the pictographs...Indian paintings on stone. Bryn studied all about the Spokane Indians last year and she loved seeing some of the places that she learned about.
We also checked out some spots to launch our kayak and paddleboard. So pretty.
We went across the suspension bridge. This bridge is NOTHING in comparison to the one at Kootenai Falls in Montana but Ailey still wasn't a fan. She has a serious phobia of bridges. But she persevered and crossed it twice. So proud of her.
Not loving this part but doing it anyway!!
Smiling now that she was safely on the other side.
I really admire that Ailey, despite her fears of bridges and heights, she never lets her fears stop her. That is awesome!! She is our only child that has some intense phobias. But she doesn't let them stop her from participating and having fun. She might be teary while doing it but she does it anyway. She is building such great character and confidence in herself. I love it!
 |
| Brynnie teaching us all kinds of facts about the Spokane Indians and this area. |
Then it was time to cool off!! It was so hot and in the high 90s that day. Ailey's next stop was the MAC museum. We have a membership there and we love going to see all of the new exhibits. This time the exhibit was about ZNation which is a TV show about zombies that is filmed in Spokane. Tyler said that it is terrible but the museum exhibit was still kind of fun.
After that we walked over to the Campbell House which we absolutely love! It is so fun to go there and walk through it and imagine what life was like in the early 1900s.
 |
| The Campbell parents bedroom |
 |
| Guest bedroom |
 |
| Another guest bedroom. I love this room!! |
The Campbell's daughter's bedroom
We did a little ghost hunting down in the basement to no avail. Ha ha!!
No orbs to be found. Ailey and Bryn went back upstairs to perfect their zombie impressions. :)
Later that afternoon Kameron got off of work and was able to join in the fun. Another thing that Ailey wanted to do was to go on a family bike ride. Done.
We biked on one of our favorite trails...the Fish Lake Trail. We like this trail because we always see interesting wildlife. The last time we biked it we caught frogs, saw marmots, and picked watercress. We also like that part of it is in shade which was nice because it was super hot on Ailey's birthday. It also goes past a little lake and runs alongside a creek. It's great!
The first thing that we saw was a big old turtle which peed all over Ailey. Ha ha!!
Then several baby turtles. They were so cute!!
Next up was this bad boy:
We also saw another snake and several marmots...but no frogs this time. :( All in all, it was a pretty exciting bike ride.
The scenery wasn't too bad either!!
We had so much fun!!
Then it was party time:
Ailey chose to have fondue for her birthday dinner with fruit punch to drink and dirt and worms as her birthday cake. :)
Ailey got so many cute things for her birthday but the gift that Bryn gave her was my very favorite.
Ailey REALLY wanted a *real* mermaid tail for her birthday that she could swim in. More on that later. It is awesome!! Reilly and Bryn both want one too. Ha Ha!! It is pretty cool.
Happy Birthday Ailey!!
We love you very much!!
