De-Bearding the Lion...er... something like that

Dad had been working a lovely beard.  And while it was a delightful novelty, he was ready to be baby-faced again.  Silly man waited until AFTER family photos before deciding it was time.  

Here is the "Before"

The half-trimmed.

Ooooh, we can see some cheeks under there!

And the oh-so-handsome "After" photo!

Family Photo Fun

We got the whole family.... almost.  Andy and his family are missing from the mix.  And they were missed.

Another family group shot, this time at the beach, by Bear Lake.

Dad with all but 5 of his Grandees.

Dad with 5 of his 6 kids.

Yeah, I'm a little teary because Adam had to go and mention that Mom is missing. I was okay till then.  And then I wasn't okay. 

Me and Dan.

The whole family plus one.  Josh brought his lovely lady, McKenna and we made her join the picture.

And we took a picture without her too.

5 kids and their spices.

Nathan was feeling left out, since he was the only representative from his family.  So Adam showed him the love.

And I do love all these people!

Family makes everything better!

I was quite dreadful about taking photos.  But here are some from the first few days: 

Poor Rachel crashed hard after a little too much fun.

Hailey was always fun to chat with.

Rylee was adorbs on picture day!

All the kids were adorbs!  And they did great for photos. Adam's little cuties were especially fun.

Its an Adam Sandwich!

These two.... trouble I tell ya!  But Rylee does love hanging out with Emily.

The sun was super bright, but Rylee still posed for me.

It was fun to have Nathan there, and I'm glad he came.

There was an exceedingly amusing evening of fun lawn games, to include this hysterical relay race.

Much laughter and giggling was heard.

And the kids were very good sports.

I snuck a picture of Steven before he noticed.

The little kids thought Josh was just the best.  He did have a good time with them.  He and Miley hung out this evening. 

And I snuck in this photo of Delaney and Sarah.  I do love that the kids have cousins around their ages to hang out with.  And I love that all the kids are pretty awesome!

Travelling

Saturday July 18 was goodbye day.  We split up.  I took Marian and Delaney, while Rylee and Callie stayed one more day and then drove out with their Grandfather. 

Traditional selfie before we separate. I love this kid and this cute face!

And my selfie with Rylee.

All our possessions, loaded into the van and ready to go!

First important stop of the day for lunch!

If you recognized Five Guys, you were right!  Yum!!!

We spent Saturday and Sunday nights at my friend April's house.  This is her sweet backyard.  It was perfect for archery practice and for lobbing golf balls into the trees.

Monday night was spent in Wyoming.  We got checked in early enough that Marian and I could go out for a 5 mile run.  I thought we did pretty good with the 6,000ft elevation!  This is my happy-to-be-done face. 

The hotel had hot breakfast, but you had to stand in line and they made it for you.  Delaney was still thrilled to have biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

We found a fun rest stop and had to stretch the legs.

Can you spot Marian?

It was a pretty great climbing tree!

And after the tree.... the rock was there to climb.

Oh yeah.  We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for dinner one night.  And it was just the thing.

Together again!!  We met up with Dad Tuesday night in Logan, UT.  And stayed at the same hotel, where I got my girls back.  We hit up Sam's club and you can see they had some fun there!  And after that.... it was REUNION time!!

Oh. One last thing.  I saw this jeep and it was super fun, and then the bumper sticker made me giggle.

 

Last Days of Arkansas

We drove down to Cotter one Saturday morning to run along the river. It was pretty great!  And just plain pretty.

We had a lot of fun trolling the thrift stores and finding awesome things like this.

Marian got a lesson on driving the tractor.

The the cucumber patch in the garden needed to be watched for these guys.

 The turtles really loved to nibble on the cucumbers.  And Marian was delighted to nab them and relocate them.

Of course there was one last bonfire.

Much fun was had.

And many Smores were eaten.

And a plethora of selfies were discovered on my phone.

 Courtesy of this adorable face!