Eusterzelischror: Springtime Edition

For the past five years we've spent a week or so over the summer with two of our closest friend-families, the Eustermans and the Stamschrors. It's always a highlight of our summer, especially since the Eustermans have only lived in the same state as the rest of us for two of the five years we've been doing this. Next month they will be moving on to Texas, so we decided to get together before they leave. On our sixth "Eusterzelischror Vacation" we headed east of the mountains to Zillah, where the Stamschrors let us take over their home for the weekend. It was a lovely time, as usual, though shorter than in the past, and we didn't take nearly as many pictures.

 The three littlest boys playing the fishing game.

 Daniel and Noah were a great match for each other at checkers. (And, it was really interesting for us to see them play, as they are both the oldest and not used to a game being a real competition...there was some real tension there for awhile. They ended up each winning one game, though Daniel said he wished one of them had won both games because that way there would've been a clear winner.)

 Mr. Casey keeps the rest of the kiddos happy with their own game.

 One day we packed up after breakfast and headed into Yakima to play at a park.

 Cecilia and Matthew loved the tire swing.

 All nine kids, oldest to youngest.

And, the parents, too. :)

 We had a lot of fun inside with obstacle courses and pillow fights.

And the dads tried to lower the population of sage rats on the property.

This year we tried a new way of getting some quality adult-conversation time in (without it being really late at night). We fed the kids dinner, then put on a movie for them in the other room while we sat and enjoyed a [mostly] kid-free dinner. It was really nice to be able to eat leisurely and enjoy the company of these wonderful friends. We're not sure when we'll all get a chance to spend significant time together again, but we're already scheming ways to make it work!