Family Pictures

My sister-in-law Becky took these family pictures in June.

She did a great job.

 

My kiddos…

  

and us…

Colton & Bryson with their cousin Ian.  Even when Bryson is told to look mean, he still smiles!

 

My brother Curt, wife Shae, baby London & dog Mickey

 

My brother Dave, wife Carli, kids Brooke, Lily & Ian

 

The whole family…getting larger by the year!

this next one adding to it…my baby brother Jake, wife Heather and their baby-to-be. 

 

Anna with her Nana

 

My beautiful, wonderful, amazing parents

 

My brother Nate, wife & photographer Becky, kids Adrey, Cru & Carter whose camera faces are always this GREAT!  I love them.

Back to us…with Anna barely from total meltdown.

 

It had been 3 years and 3 babies since the last family picture.  Glad we got it done finally.  Thanks Becky.

Newest Family Member

You may (or may not) recognize this dog…

as the same dog featured here in a post from a year ago…

Yes, she is a little bigger and gratefully, quite a bit calmer.

My brother wasn’t able to keep her anymore due to “no pet” rules at his new place, so we hesitantly, at first, agreed to bring her to our home where we have a lot of space for a big dog like this to run.

We said we’d do a three week trial and if it didn’t work out, we’d have to find her a home outside of our family…

And it has been three weeks.  Verdict?

She’s staying.  She is very calm, very trainable, and loves being by Ben’s side.  I think Ben likes having a “real” dog.  No offense, Atlas.  Really.  Ben moves water with her by his side and has already trained her to ignore the cows…it definitely wasn’t immediate, though. 

The first night, Ben and I took her out to move water and Ben thought, “we’ll see how she does.”  Well, she got curious and moved a little too close to the cows and they bolted.  The chase began and took us 10 minutes to stop.  After that, we knew she needed a little more restraint…and after 3 weeks and a couple more chases, she now KNOWS and we haven’t had a problem.

We also took her on our waterfall trail hike (picture above) and discovered she LOVES water.  She digs at it and bites the splashes for hours.   So, the lake is a hit AND she also loves to move pipe with Ben…she waits at the end of the pipe for the water to splash out then chases and bites at the moving pipe as if it is playing with her.  Whatever?  She seems happy and the boys love her.

Bryson was having a rough afternoon fighting with his brother, so he went out to the garage…I found him sitting on the step with the dog’s head in his lap happy as can be.  Nothing like a loving dog to make a little boy feel better.

Welcome to our family!

Waterfall Trail

Who knew this beautiful waterfall was such an easy hike and so close.  It took about an hour to get to the “wheelchair” accessible trail up in the Pioneer Mountains.

A perfect Saturday hike that even Anna could do on her own—the backpack was used a little of the way.

There were plenty of big boulders for the kids to climb                (nice distraction for hiking)

Anna decided jumping off rocks is just as much fun as jumping off the side of pool.

“Ready, Set, GO!” At least 4 times in a row.

Then she moved on to sliding down the rocks.  So easily entertained.  Love this age!

Time to stop for lunch, with Colton asking “Is that poison ivy?”

    And dad’s response, “Why don’t you just rub it all over yourself and find out.”    Fun day!

Summer at Nana’s

Nothin’ better than popsicles with cousins.

Cru, Carter, Adrey, Anna, Bryce & Colton enjoying Nana’s cool yard.

Anna crying because her blankie is in the washer. 

She is not patiently waiting. 

It is a really big deal to actually get that thing away from her long enough to wash it.

We always come to Nana’s for a week of swimming lessons.  The pool is walking distance away…

not to mention 10x more affordable than Hailey, Idaho…plus it gives us an excuse to spend time at Nana & Pops!

 

 

 

And let there be grass…

And there was.  There is always some good in the bad…and one of the good things that came with this recession was CHEAP sod!  Our yard—which has been rocks and dirt and more rocks for the last 3 years—has been an overwhelming task for us.  When we first built the house, there was no way we could have afforded sod, but now, 3 years later, sod is 1/2 the price and we knew there was no other way.

(the before—but with the rocks already removed, if you can believe that)

(the back patio before.  lovely, I know)

We live in farm country where the weeds are a constant battle.  I knew it would never happen any other way.  So, thanks to my amazingly hard working family (Dad, Mom, Nate, Curt, Becky, Shae & Ben) I now have 19,000 sf of beautiful green grass.  Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for them, I wasn’t even home to participate.  I did the estimating and searching and ordering for just the right sod.  That was my contribution.  I even found a sod farm that provided 100’ rolls that roll out with a machine.  Your welcome, Ben.

(the front yard)

(the back yard)

I was in Portland, Oregon in a certification class for some new construction software I am to start supporting.  I was on my way home when they started and called to see how things were going.  My mom said, “You have a big yard.  It’s a good thing Nate & Becky came…and Ben is frustrated with the large rolls, the machine they gave him must have been a loaner.”  I could hear the frustration in her voice and I felt HORRIBLE!  Little did I know that my husband put her up to that.  They were completely done by that afternoon…and when I drove up, it was a completely different house.

(the completely new house)

 

(where my daughter can actually run to me without tripping over a rock and falling face first in the dirt)

And no, that isn’t a moustache on Anna…it is chocolate frosting from one of my favorite childhood treats – frozen graham cracker frosting cookies that she likes to open up and lick the frosting off

 

My family doesn’t stop there, though.  They decided we needed the fire pit NOW, so off to work they went again…and look at the result!  I love it!

 

We don’t want to leave, now.  We didn’t even take the boat out this FIRST free weekend.  We stayed at home and played in the yard…and cleaned the boat out from winter.  I know, it is July 31st.  If we didn’t have Lake Powell coming up, we probably wouldn’t have even done it this year. :) 

We have used our back patio more in the last week than we have in 3 years.  We absolutely LOVE being out here.  The most perfect thing, to, is that its location puts it in the shade from 10 am on.  Now, I just need it bigger…but that will be next year. 

Family?  Are you up for more?

Thanks again for all your help!  We couldn’t have done it without you.