Monday, August 18, 2008

Grandma and Grandpa's House

Right after the reunion, we drove on through to my Mom and Dad's house to spend a few extra days there with Trisha and Travis and their families. We don't get to see Travis' family very often anymore and so it was great to spend some more time with them.

Here we are playing cards. I'm not sure why I'm making that face, either I just made a bad play, or Trisha was trying to cheat again. :)



The kids decorated T-shirts.







Allary and Bryson became quite good little buddies.



Allary "vacuuming" the stairs.



Bryson put on a little fashion show for us.


One night we roasted marshmallows in a fire pit in the backyard.


What a sticky, but very cute, face!





The three little girls were having a great time running around together. This is Allary, Allyson, and Paige.


One afternoon, we had a water party in the backyard. My mom got out the wading pool, a slip 'n' slide, a crazy sprinkler, and lots of water guns.


Bryson on the slip 'n' slide.

Jacob trying to squirt me. Luckily I have the excuse of holding a camera.







Family Reunion

I've posted all these photos on my parent's blog, but haven't gotten around to posting them here until now.
We headed to the beautiful Colorado mountains for my family reunion (my Dad's side of the family) a few weeks ago. It was rainy and overcast most of the time we were there which made for a lot of mud. Allary loved playing with her cousins down by the river. She's not a huge fan of being dirty and she did pretty good staying relatively clean. She would rather use some sort of tool like a shovel or a stick than have to stick her hands right in the mud.


Here she is making mud pies with her cousin Megan. I'm not sure how the mud splat got on Allary's forehead, but the leaves in Megan's hair, those were put there by Grandpa.




Trying to wash her hands off.






Her cousin Paige, on the other hand, loves to get dirty. I think this is such a cute photo and so characteristic of Paige.

This is Allary inside the lodge with some of her cousins. What a cute group!


Allary rode the zip line a few times with her cousin, Maddy.



She doesn't look too thrilled with the whole thing, but Maddy said that as soon as they stopped at the end, Allary wanted to do it again.

I am looking at these pictures and thinking, "What kind of crazy mom sends her two-year-old down a rickety old zip line on a tire that looks like it's been duct taped together?" Hmm, well, if it wasn't for the years and years of going down it myself growing up, I probably wouldn't have even considered it. Besides, it's duct tape right?



Grandma and Grandpa brought some little fishing poles for the kids. They didn't even have hooks or bait on them, but the kids spent a good deal of time "fishing" anyway.



Uh-oh, the fishing line is stuck on something! Send in Grandpa!!



What a dedicated Grandpa!


It is tradition to have a Talent Night (using the word "talent" very loosely) at our family reunion. This is the skit my family put on. The kids, along with Travis and Kevin, acted out and lip synced to a song called "Rita." I couldn't even tell you who it's by, but it's hilarious. It's about a Navajo Indian who meets the love of his life, "Rita" (played by Kevin) down by the graveyard. He asks her to marry him, but she tells him he has to steal a Big Hunk candy bar first. So he goes to the Trading Post to steal the candy bar, gets caught by the Trading Post Man, and hauled off to the Window Rock jail by the Navajo Police, to "never see Rita no more...just because of the crazy candy bar." Maybe it just sounds dumb, but you have to hear it. If nothing else, Kevin was a great sport and quite hilarious, and the kids were really cute.







I love this picture my Mom took of Allary and Jason.

It was fun to get to see Allary enjoy the same campground that I enjoyed so much when I was little.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Sweet Dreams

I have a great deal of catching up to do on here. I have tons of photos to post from our recent reunions. But, I wanted to post this before I forget about it.

I just tucked Allary into bed and at the end of her story, the book said, "Time to dream." So I asked her, "Do you have dreams when you sleep?"
Allary: "Yes."
Me: "What do you dream about?"
Allary: "I dream about Jesus."
Me: "Really? Does He talk to you in your dreams?"
Allary: "Yes."
Me: "What does He say to you?"
Allary: "Jesus says, 'I love you Allary, so so much.' "

It's moments like these where I can literally feel how much God loves her and how precious she is to Him. It's humbling to know that He has entrusted me with her care and makes me want to be the best mom I can possibly be.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Breaking Dawn

Hooray!!!
I went out and bought it this morning. You can guess what I will be doing every chance I get for the next little while.

I have some fun pictures to post from our family reunion last weekend, so I will do that later (some time when I am not doing necessary housework, entertaining Allary, or reading.)