Idaho: Part 3 - Water Fight, Archery, Carving, and More

All the cousins got together at the Hicken's house for a big water fight on the one truly hot day we had in Idaho that week.  I was hopeful we could have gone swimming at a hot springs since our kids had never experienced that, but the weather didn't cooperate.  The water fight was an acceptable alternative.

Lydia tried to stay out of the heaviest of the action and I can't say I blame her.  The hammock was declared a safe space.

Refilling the pool that served as the filling area for the reusable water balloons during a relative break in the action.

Russell and Miles were the team captains on what was the much smaller team - they both got drenched, but they got the other cousins wet too.

 Derek stalking with his squirt gun.

I'm pretty sure Allison didn't need to water her grass for a few days after this fight.

Karina got Russell wet, though I think Russell won with his retaliation chasing Karina back.

Lydia and Brenna collected the water balloon balls (a cool reusable design I had never seen before) and passed them in for refilling (and occasionally throwing into a crowd to try to attack) while still staying mostly dry.

 

 

Karina and Brenna sunning and drying themselves afterward on the beach towels.

This inflatable slide was fun too once the fight was over.  The younger kids went down a few times like Derek,

 

 

Maxwell,

 

and Courtney - ok, maybe some of the older cousins had fun going down too ;-)

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's, Derek decided he was going to start a business selling sharpened sticks.  First, he needed to build up some of his inventory.  He got Grandpa to teach him on the finer points of carving with pocketknives and how to keep his fingers safe.

Derek demonstrating his inventory.

 

Then it was time for the kids to practice their archery skills.  Lydia wanted to replicate her bulls-eye she got the last time we went to Idaho.  I don't think she got any perfect bulls-eyes this time, but she was consistently hitting the target, so I was impressed.

Derek's turn.

Courtney:

Karina did better once she moved to a bow with a longer draw length since the other bow was too small for her.

While archery was going on in one part of the yard, Kellie had brought the huge bubble equipment, so the rest of the cousins were chasing bubbles around and having a hard time keeping the younger ones from popping the bubbles before they had been fully formed.

Meanwhile, Russell took his turn using the long bow instead of the compound bows everyone else was using.

Tessa got her turn.

Miles:

They started shooting off these stomp rockets and playing 500 with them too to see if cousins could catch the rockets on the way down.

Kellie brought Kuub over to play in the front yard.  The goal is to knock over all of your opponent's wood blocks by tossing a large dowel at them before your opponent knocks over your blocks.  The kids had fun with this game.

Derek swung on the tree swing for most of the Kuub game with one of his sharpened sticks.

Since we had all the cousins together, we had to line them up oldest to youngest for a picture.  Grant convinced Russell he had to squat down so he wasn't so much taller since Grant is the oldest.  From left to right, Grant Hicken, Russell Webber, Karina Webber, Miles Hicken, Courtney Webber, Lydia Webber, Logan Bell, Dallin Bell, Tessa Hicken, Maxwell Webber, Derek Webber, Brenna Hicken, Ethan Bell.

After, they had fun with sidewalk chalk in the driveway - they made cool designs by using painters tape to make different shapes.

Karina had diligently kept up with practicing piano during the time we were in Idaho, and I snagged this picture of her and Courtney taking turns at the piano before we left for the long drive back to the airport.

Overall, it was a good trip visiting everyone and the kids loved playing with their cousins and getting reacquainted.