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!

Visiting Kera

We realized that we were running out of time to spend with family as we ran out of summer.  So we took a trip down to visit Andy and Kera. Except Andy and the three older kids were off on a canoe trip that week.  The girls were disappointed, but we still had fun with Kera and Emma and Charlotte.

I hadn't heard Kera say anything about her garden so I assumed she would like some zucchini.  I brought her the little one there.  When she saw it she laughed and bought out the giant shnozzcumber there.  We ate plenty of zucchini!  Which was great- I like it!

The kids were thrilled to play with all the animals.  The chickens are cute and have the best names. 

And Emma is just plain cute!

Cobb the snake is always a hit.

He is a very cool snek!

The bunnies were adorable and I had to field many questions of "Why don't we have bunnies?"

This guy made me really want a bunny!

I mean, just look at those lovely locks!  I NEED a rabbit with hair this cool!

But we do not have bunnies.  Just Levi the dog. So the girls had to be content to get all the bunny snuggles in while we were there.

And they did enjoy their time with cousins.

And they had a great time in the amazing backyard there as well.

Dad's Annual Pie Party

Dad's Annual Pie Party was held on July 4th, to maximize potential attendance.  Invites went out, and the yard was set up.  We put up several  canopies, to create shade, or as was the case, keep the rain off.  The weather was questionable all day, but the rain held off till half way through the event.

The line up of this years pies.  We made 25, plus the 2 mini gluten free Oreo Caramel pies for Steven.

The pre-party cutting of the pies.

The kids did a nice job on the signs again this year!

Here is the set up.  It worked really well.  I thought it was clever to put the cold pies in another pie pan filled with ice.  Unfortunately..... if you cut through the bottom of the pie tin whilst cutting the pie, as the ice melts, you get a soggy pie.  Oops. Fortunately, the pies were well received and devoured.

I even tried a fancy crust on the Cherry Pie!  I know.  I don't do fruit pies.  Dad made this one.  I just did the crust!

 Here are the grandkids who helped eat all that pie!

The Pre-Party Party

We had a Pie Party planned and 4th of July seemed to the the most convenient day to hold it, since it was a Saturday.  That meant family started collecting at the house in preparation for this exciting event.  This was a good thing because I stink at celebrating Independence Day in the traditional sense, and some family members excellent at it.  So a good time was had!

Callie helped Dad pull up some of the decking.  Dad has been working on replacing it a bit at a time, and he wanted it a little nicer before the hordes arrived.

There was fun and games and cute nephews.

There were fun fireworks, thanks to Uncle Dan.

There were fun kids and a good time.

Even the ones that didn't want to hold fireworks wanted to watch them.

I mean, who doesn't love a good Roman Candle?!!

We have a lot of cute kids!

Here we are, after the festivities, trying to have scriptures and prayer before bed.

And I think we had 27 people stuffed in the house that Friday night!  It was insanity.  But the good kind.