Family Campout

Thank you to my wonderful sister for a very fun family reunion this year.  The theme was, appropriately, the Olympics.  We had our own Olympics complete with the Eternal Flame, the running of the torch, the uniforms (see the awesome sweatshirts), activities (Canoe rubber ducky race...) and some great fun.  I love that we all get along so well.  More than anything, I am glad that none of the Ray boys died of drowning, burning at the fire, or being stabbed by their pocket knives. 

Our eternal flame was so awesome that the caretaker had to come and tell us "not so much happy juice on the fire."  The best part of this whole thing was the running of the torch to a bagpipe song.  Loved it.

Shiree and Kelly.  They are so stinkin' cute!!

Our "team uniforms",  Mister was a great camping buddy.

A view of our motorhome along with two of the cutest three-year olds you have ever seen.  

Jackson 2012

Some people may not believe in a person's soul being tied to a place, but I do.  This place.  This beautiful place where I spend much of my childhood.  I have felt many things here: excitement, peace, love, loss, grief.  All those things are the make up of my soul and when I come here, I feel complete.

We were lucky enough to be able to go on a "Jackson" trip this year again.  We actually don't spend much time in Jackson Hole, but we do focus on Grand Teton National Park - the most beautiful place on earth, in my opinion.  Here are some highlights of our trip.

Shopping with crack in Jackson Hole

We found a toy store and Aiden was in heaven.

We did the Alpine Slide and Aunt Lisa, my beautiful sister, was gracious enough to take Little Man down the slide.  

He had so much fun

We slept in this little, wonderful tent both nights we were there.  

The first night, we stayed at Gros Ventre... it was no Colter Bay, but it was wonderful...

We went to the lake while it was still gorgeous and warm.

Everyone in my family has a picture like this from when they were young.  And my mother has a picture of this when she was young.  And her parents have pictures there, too.  Our family has had six generations of pictures against this breathtaking backdrop.  It is a legacy that I am honored to pass on to my son and one that I hope he will pass on to his children.  

introducing...

The first of (hopefully) many wedding video/blackmail/ "look - your daddy wasn't perfect either" pictures.

We call this skinny underwear nerd.

The Aquarium

I love this age.  A three year old who has seen all of our fun outings before, but he acts like these are always new.   He gets so excited!!  We are studying fish in preschool and I thought a fun outing to the aquarium would be super dee-duper awesome.

I will let the pics speak for themselves.

The Radio, um... I mean rodeo

We went to Nana Charlee's house for a party, then to the Oakley Rodeo.  We had so much fun.  Aiden had never been to a rodeo and I thought it would be too much and boring, but he really enjoyed it.  I can't believe how much he loved it.

Holy moly, I love the small town feel and it makes me miss living in Eden.  I can see why Charlee and her hubby, Gary, love being up in the mountains.

Charlee and Gary are so wonderful.  They had such great toys and other kids that Aiden can play with.  

See why I chose Charlee to be best buddies with?  She is so awesome with the kiddos and she has so much energy that it nearly kills me.

Aiden kept saying that he was going to the RADIO instead of the RODEO.  It was pretty funny, but he understood what was going on and that was pretty awesome.

I tried to get a good pic with the two of them together, but someone gave Aiden the last 1/16th of a Slurpee. See the girl that is behind Charlee?  The one that is too pretty?  Her name is McCall and she is too pretty to be in my pictures.  CURSE YOU, PRETTY MCCALL...

Love it!!

Check it out!  These guys hang on to a little handle and nearly die for eight seconds.  NOT WORTH IT!  

Fun night out!  Hanging out at the radio with my cowboy buddy.

4th of July

Happy 4th of July, Ya'all!!  I LOVE the 4th.  One of my favorite holidays.  We have an annual tradition as a family that we have a great barbecue at Rays house and we have so much fun!!!

This year did not disappoint.  We went to Ray's new house and went swimming.  It was a hot day and the pool was awesome.  Aiden really did great and started swimming a little on his own.  

Lisa's pool!

Aiden hanging out with his best buddy, Marshall.  They are so fun together.

Rays had a cotton candy machine.  Well, let's just say many many cotton candy bags were consumed by my own little man.

After all this, we watched a movie outside and had a BALL!  

This year, they are in a new house that is in the restricted section for fireworks, so we just hung out.  

Party Hard!!

I know it has been a while, but we did have a great rocking birthday party for Aiden with friends and family.  

Our "theme" was the great movie Despicable Me.  Right now it is Aiden's favorite movie and it is pretty hilarious.  

The Minion cupcakes were a hit!  

Steph, Haili, and cute little Caden man came to play with us.  Caden will be moving soon (sniff, sniff) but it was so fun to have them here.

We had a BBQ with a whole lot of family and it was STINKING hot, but Mikey volunteered to man the grill.  He was awesome and the food was decent.  The watermelon was the best!

Aiden and some of his cousins

Our wonderful neighbors let us borrow their screen and we watched Despicable Me outside.  WHAT FUN!!! It was one of the funnest nights ever!