Yellowstone

 Last year, Cole and I were the only ones to make it to Yellowstone {when we hiked Bechler}. Everyone was pretty excited to head back there this year. We stayed in a cabin in Island Park for a few days and had a great time. We left on Annie's birthday and had a late night birthday party for her. That's not her first Yellowstone birthday and likely won't be her last.

The next day, we went to Firehole. It was a good day for swimming and we all had a good time there.

Ben got a little cold (he's always the first to be cold - must take after me), but he soldiered through and still splashed up a storm.

Sometime, I should go through my pictures and see how many I have in front of this rock. It's a lot, beginning when I am just teeny.

This is my favorite picture of the trip. As I snapped it, Ben said, "Josh, you're gonna wanna see this," and then proceeded to run out of the picture frame whilst laughing hysterically at himself. Luckily, I caught the picture with his mischief face. It makes me smile.

He and Josh were really on one for pictures that day...

We brought along the twins, Nike and Reebok. Lookin' good, fellas.

After Firehole, we took a quick hike to this lake. I have forgotten its name, a peril of blogging two months posthumously. But, it had a lot of snakes and lily pads, so I can remember some things.

The weather was a little cold and drizzly the next day. We drove up to Mammoth.

Then, we went on to the Roosevelt Arch in Gardiner. I had never been there before, so that was a fun stop.

Grandma Donna tried to give us all heart failure traipsing all over the uneven terrain. She fell at our house on Christmas and I am completely nervous she'll fall again.

We had another birthday girl. She loved the attention.

The next day, we went rafting down Box Canyon. It was a little dull for a few members of the rafting party, but just right for the majority.

 Bet you wish you were on that raft, huh?

That evening, we took a drive up Sawtelle Peak. It had incredible views of the Tetons and into Montana. It was gorgeous.

But you see what I mean about Grandma Donna traipsing all over the mountains?

On the way home, we drove back through the park (cause Floyd just HAD to see Old Faithful:)

And mom just HAD to see the Tetons. It seems I can't go a summer without this view.

Oh look, a photobomber. Nope, it's just Floyd awkwardly leaning into our picture. Heaven help us we need a real photographer giving us pointers.

So, to sum it up, we had a great time. Until we hit Star Valley.

It was Wednesday.

June

So summer. It happened in a big way around these parts. So big that I hardly turned on a computer, let alone took the time to blog about anything.  Which means that now our summer will be blogged as a rather boring travelogue, an unfortunate turn of events since summertime really was pretty great around here.

So June.

The kids didn't get out of school until June this year, which is a first for our family. Cole received the Great American award at the 5th grade assembly. Only one other student received it. I think that I should have also received one since I memorized everything with him, but I got nothing except a blurry picture and the fact that I convinced him to wear a button-down shirt to school.

 Annie and Claire had a dance recital to finish off the year. Pretty girls, those two.

Grandma Donna was delighted to get to come watch them dance.

Here's something unsurprising. We celebrated my birthday at the ranch. Also unsurprising, it was beautiful. Such a little slice of heaven on earth.

Annie picks me a wildflower bouquet every year. Sometimes they make me sneeze a little bit, but they are still my favorite.

Grandpa Clair got a bunch of tickets for the Cherry Peak summer concerts, which was lucky for us. The first concert nearly hospitalized Cole with severe allergies (Floyd and I were not in much better shape), but aside from that we had a great time at them.

Ben has discovered a love of baking this summer and every Sunday, he pulls out a brownie mix or a cake mix and makes us something yummy. He got a little fancy {and a little help from Dad} on Kaden's birthday cake.

Molly got to come fishing with Dad and the Young Women. She loved it and caught a couple big ones.

 Ben lost his first tooth this summer. Hooray! He pulled it right out of there all by himself.

We went hiking up High Creek a couple of times this summer. It is one of my favorite places and I can't believe how lucky we are to live right here by it.

Can you tell they are brothers?

One Saturday night, we decided last minute to drive up Cub River and try to have a cookout. I was sure that we wouldn't find a spot, but we got the only empty spot in the entire campground and had a nice little evening. The kids tried to kill me making me hike all over the mountain, but otherwise, things were perfect.

And of course, no June would be complete without our annual pilgrimage to Lagoon. It was pretty fun and incredibly hot. Going to Lagoon reminds me of how grown up our kids are. I hardly even saw the oldest two cause they were off on the crazy rides with their cousins the whole day.

Good news! After fifteen years, Floyd finally got me to catch a fish on a fly rod. I was pretty excited...

...and then I dropped the fish. Those suckers are slippery!

 And then Cole decided to be a show-off and caught one too. I don't think he even dropped his. 

 

June is such a beautiful month. I love it when you finally get to be outside and when the days are full of daylight. I say it every year - I chose a beautiful time to be born.

Life Lately

Spring is such a fun and busy time of year. We pretty much live in our car going from event to event these days, but they are lots of fun, so no complaints here.

Here are a few things we've been up to lately:

Ben got in his first farm work of the season. Wintertime is a long time when all you want to do is farm. He was a happy b

Molly has discovered fashion and changes her clothes 10+ times a day, which makes for a lot of laundry.

Cole, Annie, and Ben played soccer...but apparently I didn't take any pictures of Cole's team.

Annie qualified for the elementary track meet at Sky View, so the whole family {minus dad} got in on the training action.

Landon qualified from his school, so the whole family came and watched these two cuties run.

Cole was Teddy Roosevelt for the fifth grade history fair. Teddy's kid took over 50 pets to the White House! Oh my...

Annie qualified for the 3rd grade Spelling Bee. 

Ben got cowboy boots for Park Elementary Cowboy Day. He has hardly taken them off since.

Molly and I go on lots of walks and bike rides in between rainstorms. It's been a pretty wet spring this year,

including yesterday which was a very wet Black and White Days. Cole and Annie and I braved the rain in the Cowabunga Race. Annie ran the mile and Cole and I ran the 5K.

We also made it to the parade and the horse pulls. It started to rain during the horse pulls, but it was worth it because then a full double rainbow appeared. I was sitting too close to it to get a very good 

picture of it, but it was incredible.

 Soccer's over now, but baseball season has already started, so I don't things will be slowing down anytime soon.