These are pictures that the rafting company took for us while we were on our trip. We didn’t see all the animals pictured, I wish we had, but they were included in our picture package so I stuck them in here.
Maverick Hollow
Since Ryan and I got married we have been switching off Christmas’s between our families each year. When we all started having our own kids some of us wanted and/or thought it was easier to stay home for Christmas so a few years back my family decided to start having a biannual family reunion in the summer as our ‘Christmas’ get together. It is a little easier to travel in the summer, a less crazy time of year, and we all seem to be more summer activity people than winter. It has worked out pretty well I think. We get a VRBO cabin or home that is big enough for all of us and we all stay and play in it for the week. We have picked different locations each time too which is also very fun to travel and see new places.
The first year we did Castle Rock Colorado. It was a fun place. Tyler kept telling us there was a monster in his room one night and we kept telling him to go to bed, there was no monster. Then we found out there was a bat flying around in his room…basically a monster to a little kid. We then spent over an hour trying to eradicate the bat. I went on a hike with the Caziers and my kids and we almost got washed off the mountain in a flash rain storm. We also rode horses and did some target shooting.
Two years later we went to Orlando Florida. The house we stayed at had its own pool and a huge community pool with a lazy river. Matthew swam for seven hours one day and ended up getting swimmers ear. He said it was totally worth it though. We also went to Disney World, Sea World, and spent a day at the beach along with all the swimming.
The third reunion we picked Gatlinburg Tennessee. It was a unique place. The house we stayed at was not as big as advertised so we were a little cramped. We also ended up with about 50% of us getting a stomach bug so there was way to much throwing up going on. Emilee even dumped her puke bucket full of puke all over the van, that was fun to drive home in. We still squeezed in some fun though. We did a lot of sight seeing in Gatlinburg. We went on a helicopter ride. All of us played at the rec swimming pool, and some played racquetball. Some of us went to the Dolly Parton Country Stampede dinner show. The dinner of soup potatoes, a whole chicken, corn, and dessert was all served with no silverware. The kids thought it was great to eat everything with their hands. We also did hiking, zip lining, and white water rafting. Lots of fun new activities.
This year we ended up back in Colorado. This time we went a little more north to Oak Creek. It is pretty close to Steamboat Springs Colorado. The name of the cabin we stayed at was Maverick Hollow.
After last time we made sure we had a home with enough rooms and bathrooms for each family to have their own private area. We left Sunday morning from DeAnna’s house after my Grandpa’s birthday party the day before. The cabin was pretty remote. There were other cabins around but I didn’t really see anyone else while we were there. You couldn’t see any other homes from our cabin. We all arrived and got settled on Sunday by about six. We made a big breakfast dinner (kind of a tradition) to eat together that night. Pancakes, hash browns, eggs, and bacon. The cabin was 5900 square feet so there was lots of room. There was a big loft too that most of the older kids slept in each night. We finished the night off with a fire and smores.
Most of the days we started with a walk/hike around the cabin with anyone that wanted to go and explore a little. We did that on Monday. There were lots of beautiful wild flowers. We saw bear tracks, deer tracks, lots of chipmunks and ground hogs. We only got lost the first day too. After our hike and breakfast we played some games then everyone got ready to go to the Stagecoach Reservoir, about a 15 minute drive away. Matthew explained to me that he was excited to go to the reservoir and swim because usually they are man made so there is not any fish to worry about touching when you are swimming. I smiled and let him swim without fear of a slimy fish touching him. He also didn’t notice the “fishing areas” and “fishing license sold here” signs on the way to the swim area. We rented a paddle board, and the Caziers rented a canoe so we played on those and swam the afternoon away. After we got home, showered, and ate dinner, we had a Family Home Evening together. It is another tradition we have done each time. Grandma and Grandpa taught us a lesson about recognizing miracles in our lives and ways that Heavenly Father helps us daily. When the kids were put to bed that night the adults did a white elephant party. This is another tradition we do each time we get together. There is a nice blend of ridiculous, silly, and semi-usefulness with the gifts. Ryan and I found our gifts at the Limon Colorado gas station gift store. It was a gold mine.
Food shopping for the cabin 
Waking up from a nap on the way to the cabin. 
Coming into the Oak Creek area. 
Smores time! 
Flowers on our walk 
FHE Minute to Win it Game 
View from our room. 
Hiking. 
I used Matthew’s shirt as a hat…looks ridiculous but was effective. 
Hannah and Allison on the paddle board. 
Dad got a surprise re-gift from the previous year.Mom got a love your selfie cat mug. 
DeAnna got her big glasses and fancy suspenders. John got chocolate bacon and a cow pie frisbee. 
Matthew got popcorn and spam, Ryan got ugly teeth and funny glasses. I got a cherry pitter and a decorative basket. 
Kenny got a cat puzzle and twix, Sherri got a children’s book and toy.
Tuesday we went to Steamboat and tried out one of the Alpine slides. Everyone went down except my parents, my mom had fallen down the stairs the night before and hurt her knee. The first time I went down with Tyler. He was a little nervous at first but had a fun time once we got going. The second time I went down on my own and raced Matthew. We switched back and forth going down but he ended up winning by a smidge (a small smidge) at the end. After the slide we all ate lunch together at Qdoba. We ate at a Qdoba several times as we were traveling. It is now one of my favorite restaurants. Another great place we tried was Which Wich. One of the best sandwiches I have ever had. We wandered around Steamboat a little after lunch. We found a fun little stream to play in a little and cool our feet off. It was freezing cold but it felt wonderful. That night after dinner we all played games and hung out together. Ryan and John played a few of their more involved several hours long games. The rest of us played Bananas, Cobra Paw, Avalon, Bonanza, and a few other quicker games. We had smores again that night. My dad also heard something early that morning and when he looked out the window saw 5-6 deer just outside our cabin. He found a salt lick that someone had set out for them so every morning and evening the deer would come to get the salt lick. It was pretty awesome. We saw a lot of deer while we were there on walks, drives, and at our cabin. They were almost easy to find.
Playing Bananas. 
Deer coming for the salt lick 
Emi watching the deer. 
Sherri and I eating our smores and ignoring the deer. 
Matthew didn’t care about being wet in his clothes, the water felt to good. 
Cooling off in the stream. 
Driving back from one of the fun filled days in Colorado.
Wednesday the Caziers minus Hannah and Tyler, and my parents went on a hike. The rest of us went to Kremmling to go white water rafting. My mom was going to come with us but her knee was still hurting so she thought a hike would be better then bouncing around in a raft. It was about an hour and 10 minute drive. The first half was a dirt road with gorgeous views and steep drop offs. Two huge elk jumped across the road in front of Kenny and went straight down the almost sheer cliff on the other side. It was pretty cool to watch them. Once we got to Kremmling I went to check us in and found out we were not rafting that day. We were rafting the next day. Grrrr! It was pretty annoying. We decided to go back to Steamboat and go tubing down the river there. It was more driving but we were able to make it before they closed for the day. Kenny and Aubry didn’t go because they said Aubry was to little. We should have just brought her anyways though, it was not that bad. It was a lot faster than any other tubing adventure I had gone on. Tyler got stuck in a ‘washing machine’ which terrified him while he was in it but when Ryan bumped him out he thought it was pretty awesome. We did a little souvenir shopping after that. Matthew got giant bear paw slippers. Emilee got a backpack with a little peak hole for a fox, deer, bear, and moose to poke their heads out. Allison got a stuffed animal- a guinea pig, now named Snuggles. Ryan and I each got a t-shirt. That night we played more games and hung out at the cabin when everyone got home from their hike or long round about drive to go tubing instead of rafting.
Thursday the Caziers and my parents decided that they were going to the Hot Springs Pool in Steamboat. Hannah wanted to do that instead of try rafting again with us so she went with them. They had a great time. They had several different pools to swim in that ranged from a warm pool, to bath water, to nice and toasty. The Cazier’s are pretty thin people so I think the warm water helped them maintain their body heat better than a regular pool so they loved it and swam all day. There was also some fun slides. My dad had a fun time but prefers regular cold pool water to swim in instead of a hot springs. Our cabin was on a vault system so we had to be careful with our water usage so they all took advantage of a nice long shower at the pools too.
Allison woke up with a stomach bug early that morning so Ryan and her stayed home from rafting and the rest of us headed to Kremmling again. Since our numbers dropped from 10 to 7 we decided to switch cars around a bit so we could take one instead of two. My parents took Kenny’s car and we took their van. The weather was a little over cast that day so it was a little chilly but we still had a great time. We went down a stretch of the Colorado River with class II-III rapids. Our guide brought along a five gallon bucket and several water guns. He was very good at instigating water fights with other rafts and guides and getting us wet. Everyone had fun going down the rapids. After the first one Aubry decided to put her head down on the raft while we went through the rapids. She preferred the smoother parts of the river. She also had no problem yelling, “Stop it! I do not like that!” when people splashed her. Overall I think she had fun. A little past half way through the trip they stopped at a place called Jump Rock. If you were over 90 pounds you could jump off the 25 foot cliff. If you were under 90 pounds you could jump off a shorter 10 foot cliff. Matthew and Emilee both gave the shorter one a try. They said it was the coldest water they had ever been in. I wish we hadn’t had to drive over an hour to get their twice to go rafting but we had a fun time.
Bus ride to or from the river. 
Passing around water guns. Tyler loved squirting them. 
Climbing around a little at Jump Rock. 
Having fun together! 
Our guides name was Christian. He fit the profile of a river guide perfectly. 
Waiting to get in our raft. 
Emilee on ‘Little Jump Rock’ 
Matthew on ‘Little Jump Rock’ 
Emilee being the hood ornament for our raft. 
Aubry taking her position after seeing the next rapid coming. 
Heading over to jump.
On the drive home most of us dozed off while Kenny drove. About two minutes before we got home to our cabin a car passed us and stirred up some dust, as Kenny was driving through the dust a deer ran in front of him. He slammed on the brakes which locked them up and we started to slide/fishtail on the dirt road towards the edge. Sherri and I woke up when he hit the brakes in time to see the van heading off the road straight for a tree. Kenny turned the wheel and hit the gas to pull us out of the ditch before we slid completely off the road and to avoid hitting the tree straight on. The van turned enough that instead of hitting the tree it side swiped us and ripped off the side mirror and crunched the side of the car and shattered the back window that Matthew was sleeping on. This all happened in about three seconds. My first thought when I saw we were sliding was a prayer that we were not heading over a sheer cliff like most of the ride home was and if we were the trees would be strong enough to hold us. Once we settled and I realized we were still on the road and not seriously hurt we took stock of everyone. Sherri and I were fine, Kenny was shaken up a bit and in shock. Aubry was crying but not hurt. Matthew, Emilee and Tyler were all sitting in the back seat were the window had shattered so they had glass all over them. Tyler bit his lip and it was bleeding. Emilee was not hurt. Matthew was next to the window and probably hit his head on it. He had glass all over him head to toe. Luckily his eyes were closed (one of the first things he said was, “I think Heavenly Father made me fall asleep so my eyes didn’t get hurt.”) so none of the glass got in his eyes, he had a couple cuts on his forehead and elbow. The car still worked fine so once Kenny settled a little he drove the last two minutes to the cabin. When we got there Tyler and Aubry hopped out like nothing had happened. Emilee had to go shower to rinse all the glass off her. Matthew started to go into shock a little bit. He started to shake and cry. We helped him out and got him showered and fixed up and then he was already saying he had a cool story to tell his friends. It put a damper on our evening for sure. Kenny felt awful for the accident and the headache my parents now had to deal with since it was their rental car. We were all glad that everyone was safe and no one was hurt except the car. Being in an accident is scary, and if you are the driver it makes you feel even worse because you are responsible for everyone in the car. I told Kenny I was glad he was driving though because he stayed calm and new what to do to keep everyone as safe as possible. The van could have gone completely off the road, it could have rolled, it could have been a lot worse. We all said a prayer of thanks for our safety and I am sure there were many individual prayers said as well. My parents took the news pretty well. They were glad everyone was safe first off. My dad seemed to handle it well and said it would all work out when he saw the van. My mom looked like she switched from wanting to throw up, to wanting to cry several times before she processed it all.
After everyone was home and we settled down from the accident and had dinner and visited about the positive parts of our day, we decided to have one more fire and smores night. We took some group pictures too. We should have taken them the first day when we were clean and fresh but we went for a more natural, week in the woods look.
You can never have to many smores! 
Me and My Punkin! 
10 of 13 Grandkids. 
After a week in the woods we still look good! 
View from our other bedroom window. 
These two always find a place to play catch. 
The Jones Clan, minus John, Rachel, Kylie, and Aiden.
Friday was checkout day. My parents left first to get to the Denver airport early to turn in their now smashed passenger side van. Kenny and Sherri left next. Sherri and Aubry were flying on the same flight as my parents back to Florida. They got home about 11pm Friday. Kenny ended up driving their rental back because there was a mix up with the one way rental and they were going to charge them a ridiculous amount of money. He is extremely adverse to flying and usually finds one reason/excuse or another to not have to fly. Intentionally or not instead of flying, he drove from Colorado to Florida with only a brief stop to sleep for a few hours at our house. He got home at 4am Sunday morning. The Cazier’s left the same time we did. They got home about 7pm that night to Utah. We didn’t get home until almost 2 in the morning. Stopping to charge the Tesla adds a few hours. Allison was still sick on our way home so she was a trooper traveling 14 hours in a car with a stomach bug. Much to all of our delight after the first three hours she stopped throwing up and just wanted to sleep the rest of the time.
Emilee will create a little home for herself full of stuffed animals, anywhere she goes. 🙂 
Just told them we still have three hours to go.
Just like that we all go from being together in a remote Colorado cabin to being back to our homes in Utah, Florida and Kansas in a few short hours. (A few more hours for Kenny but crossing more than half the United States in less than 2 days is pretty crazy) It was a very nice week. I am already looking forward to the next reunion in two years, wherever it ends up being. I am glad that my family enjoys being together and we make the effort to see each other when we can since we live no where near each other. Hopefully next time John and Rachel will be able to make it and we will have everyone together.
Grandpa Jones’ 90th Birthday
My Grandpa Jones turned 90 this month! That is pretty awesome. There was a weekend celebration held in his honor. Friday night was a dinner with his kids and their spouses. Saturday was a party in his back yard with games, water, cotton candy, and snow cones. One of the games they had set up was called Nine Square In The Air. It is a really fun game. It is perfect for a large group too. Nine people play at a time, it is fast paced so you don’t have to wait long, and we had people age 5 to 65 playing. Saturday night there was a dinner with everyone and then we took pictures. It was fun to see everyone and visit. Almost all of my Aunts, Uncles, and cousins were there. My brother John and his family and my Uncle Jareds three kids were the only people not there.
My Grandma and Grandpa Jones 
Aubry isn’t quite ready for her picture. 
That’s better! 
Grandpa talking to us before we all ate dinner together. 
Nine Square in the Air, and other fun activities. 
Endless cotton candy and snow cones. 
Emilee ran into a bear on our way to Utah. 
They became friends though. 
Doing a word search with dad on our way across the midwest. 
We left our house Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Oakley Utah Friday night. We stayed at Sam and Tiana’s house. They were both in the same mission as Ryan. We try and stop and see them every couple years. They have a little boy named Charlie that Emilee quickly became buddies with. We visited and had pizza and the next morning they took us to ride horses before we left for DeAnna’s. We stopped at DeAnna’s for a few minutes before we all headed to the birthday party. We got to see Allison for the first time in three weeks! It was good to see her and everyone else. Afterwards DeAnna hosted all of us at her house for the evening and then we woke up and headed to Colorado for our bi-annual Jones get together.
My Aunt Kristin took pictures of everyone that was there after the dinner. She has a photography business that she does called Any Angle Photography. She is pretty good!
My dad’s parents and all seven of their children. 
Four generations of the Richard and Annie Jones Family
July Adventures
We had a really fun busy July this summer! We spent a lot of it traveling which is the best thing to do when you live in Kansas in July-visit somewhere else.
The few days we were here we filled with summer activities. Emilee’s friend Laney asked her to do the school basketball camp with her. This picture is right after we signed them in. From there, Laney went on to have a great time. Emilee was all down hill from there. She spent the first half huddled in the fetal position refusing to even look at anyone. Then she sat with her group. The last ten minutes she finally participated and had a good time but said she would not come back for the rest of the week. She stuck to her guns on the not coming back part and I decided I didn’t care. I think it was mostly because camp started at 8:15 and she was exhausted from being at Grandma Terry’s the whole week before. She has also decided that basketball is not her thing, at least for now. Ryan is highly concerned she is wasting her natural athleticism and height. I keep telling him she is only six and has plenty of time to decide to like playing sports.
Matthew had a bunch of his rained out baseball games to make up so we squeezed all those in July. Not the best time to play baseball but still had fun. This is a video I got of him getting jiggy to the music during warm ups.
We had another trip to Harvesters planned. Allison was going to go with a group of her friends but she was on her trip so Matthew invited some of his baseball buddies. Emilee requested to stay home with a babysitter. We repacked over 5000 pounds of sausage that was given by Pizza Hut.
After Harvester’s they all came back to our house and we had a sleepover. We were planning on going to the pool but the collection of four boys brains decided to put dish soap all over the trampoline and then add a sprinkler and bam! You have four boys thoroughly entertained for hours on end until I dragged them off to go to baseball practice.
The French’s stayed at our house for a day or so on their way to Utah. Emilee has always been enamored with her Uncle Kenny and usually has to be told to remember that he has a space bubble. She is often found lounging across his lap or wrapped around his neck. I took these pictures in a two minute time span shortly after they arrived. What a nice uncle he is to her. We reviewed space bubbles after I took these.
Allison’s Trip with Grandma and Grandpa
Allison’s summer was supposed to be full of gymnastics and cheerleading. When she broke her arm the first day of summer her main two activities were cancelled until further notice. Of course, she was a little bummed. Not having a water proof cast the first 6 weeks put a big damper on her main third summer activity-swimming-as well.
My parents were moving to Florida in June and between the move they decided to spend a month visiting us in Kansas, spending the 4th in Florida, then going to Utah to see DeAnna, my dad’s family, and Idaho to see my mom’s family. Then finishing their trip off with our bi-annual Jones Family reunion in Colorado. They invited Allison to come along with them when they left our house. She thought about it for about two seconds when I asked her and said she was in. She was thrilled to have her own thing to do for the summer. Right before she left she got a new cast that was below her elbow and water proof. She was pretty pumped.
My mom flew from my house to Florida and my dad drove with the last of their stuff in the car. Allison went with him to keep him company and they had a fun little road trip together. After the Fourth of July in Florida with the French’s they all flew out to Utah and drove to the rest of the places they went from there. Allison had a great time. She loved being the ‘only child’ for a change and having Grandma and Grandpa to herself a lot. She also loved getting to see her cousins and spend a little more time than usual with them. She became pretty good buddies with Hannah especially. She loved helping out with her little cousins too. She played with Aubry a lot in Florida and became pals with her. She got really good at carrying Joseph around and loved a chance to help out with a baby. She had a very fun time and was glad that she went with her Grandparents. She got a little home sick sometimes but snuggles with Grandma, or a hug from her Aunts helped fight it off. We called each other often as well. The amount of witty comments dropped drastically at our house with her gone. We missed her and were glad to get her back with us.
Swimming with Cazier’s 
On the plane from Florida to Utah. It was very early in the morning. 
Hannah and Allison 
Hannah, Peter, Allison, Tyler, and Michael. 
She lost a tooth while she was gone but saved it for the tooth fairy at her own house. 
Four wheeling with Grandma. 
Reading stories to cousins in Idaho. 
Four Generation Picture!! 
Hanging with cousins. 
Eating out for breakfast. Giant hot chocolate! 
Splash pad with Aubry. 
Playing with Hannah 
Blocking Grandpa in his room 
Shelling peas
Fourth of July in Lincoln 2019
We headed up to Lincoln for the Fourth of July as usual this year. Everyone was at the Terry Grandparents house, except for Allison. She gets to go on a three week adventure with Grandma and Grandpa Jones and visit Florida, Utah, and Idaho before meeting us in Colorado for the reunion later this month. For the 4th, she was in Florida and had a fun day swimming, grilling, having a bonfire and ending the day off with fireworks. Early the next morning she flew to Utah with them and will spend the next two weeks there playing with more cousins and family.
The rest of us were in Lincoln. The kids had a blast playing with cousins. Lauren, Leah and I got our toes done. We had yummy food, set off tons of fireworks, and watched even more. It was a fun holiday. July 4th is one of my favorite holidays. It is low key and doesn’t require a lot of fuss and it’s fun to do summer activities.
After the fourth we were in Lincoln a few more days. I had a stomach bug one of them. Everyone else went on a scavenger hunt at the Mall. Aunt Becky put together a list and divided everyone into teams and they raced to see who could find everything first. Everyone loved it and had a fun time. That night they had a firepit and roasted smores. Everyone was healthy the next day. We played games, got our fingernails painted, and watched a movie together.
On Sunday, after church we headed back home. Emilee and Ethan switched spots in our cars for the drive back. We stopped at their house and traded back kids. I decided to ride in the back with Emilee the last little bit to our house. Matthew was playing around with the Tesla computer and turned on the whoopee cushion feature. There are different options but he set it to go off anytime Ryan used the turn signal. About 30 seconds from our house Emilee says, “I think I’m hungry.” In my head I think, “That’s weird she said she thinks she is hungry. Wait…that is what I thought right before I got sick and threw…” I turn to check her just in time to see her puke all over herself and the car. The new car. The same car I was told I had to wait until I got out to eat my granola bar so I didn’t get crumbs on the floor. The same car we are asked to take our shoes off once we get in so they don’t accidently scuff something. The same care Ryan has cleaned more times then days we have had it so far. After she puked, everyone kind of held their breath for a second. Then Ryan let a little swear word out of his mouth. I guess I should say I think he did. By the look on his face, I’m guessing it was something along those lines. I didn’t actually hear it though because at the exact same time he said it he turned into our neighborhood and the whoopee cushion went off so all we heard was a loud farting noise. Then there are three more quick turns basically back to back to get to our house so the whoopee cushion sounds kept coming. By the time we got to the house we were all laughing…except for Ryan but he was smiling and not swearing so that is something. We got Emilee out and cleaned up and were happy to discover that the carpet in the car was treated with stain protector so it cleaned up pretty easily. Yay for road trips!!
Grandma Jana and Grandpa Jones Come For A Visit!
My parents are moving from South Dakota to Tampa Florida this summer. They finished selling the house and finalizing things and drove to our house and stayed for a week on their way to Florida. There are pros and cons for them moving to Tampa. I am not a huge fan of the general climate of South Dakota so I am not sad that I won’t have to go there anymore. It is a lot easier and quicker for us to get to South Dakota then Florida though, so we won’t get to see them as often. We can get some good flights to Florida if we watch, and it’s Florida so it is always a nice place to travel too. They will be living by my sister so I can see twice the family when we see them too.
We had a really nice week with them. I worked the first day they were here so they watched the kids for me. Ryan and I are really awesome parents and they love being around us and eating up our wisdom (heavy sarcasm there if you can’t tell) but one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa while Ryan and I aren’t around is pretty fun and doesn’t happen very often so they were looking forward to it. They had a fun day playing games, making cookies, competing with each other at Wii games, telling jokes, going swimming, and enjoying each others company.
The week went by really fast. Allison and Grandma kept us stocked in yummy cookies all week. We watched a couple movies together (some of us took naps while we did that-me and Grandpa). My mom and I went and did a little shopping together and went to lunch. She found some sandals and summer shirts to add to her ward robe for Florida. Matthew had regular, makeup, and state tournament baseball games throughout the week. My parents have never seen him play so it was a good week for them to be here. They got to watch 6 of his 7 games. They were troopers. The first two games had nice weather, after that is was ridiculously and miserably hot and humid. Yuck! One afternoon we made a trip to Sam’s Club so my dad could enjoy walking around and looking at everything. We also had a fun afternoon at the pool a few times.
Sunday morning my mom flew to Florida so her back and neck wouldn’t have problems. My dad left that morning in their car to drive it to Florida. They invited Allison to go with them for a few weeks until we see them later this month in Colorado. She was pretty excited. It will be a fun time for her and help redeem her summer a little bit so it’s not just remembered as the summer she couldn’t do anything because she broke her arm.
It was a really nice week having them here. I am glad they came to visit. They are great Grandparents for my kids. They have endless patience with my kids, especially the girls. They teach and correct them without them realize they are doing it. They have endless patience with them. Watching them reminded me to stop and take the time to talk with my kids more about what they want to talk about and less of what I want to tell them.
Wrapping up the month of June
Our first month of summer has buzzed by. It has been a fun month.
Emilee had a birthday party with Jovee and went to a birthday party with her friend from school Stella. They are two little peas in a pod. It was actually Stella’s older sisters birthday and her mom let Stella invite a friend so she would have someone to play with. Mission accomplished. They had a fun time together.
Allison got her full arm plaster cast off and switched it for a half arm water proof cast. She is loving having more use of her arm back and being able to swim and shower without a big plastic bag.
Matthew’s team played in the State Tournament for baseball. They played really well and ended up making it into the top 8. The game we lost they were fighting the whole time to win and never gave up. It was a great game. One of the games Matthew was nominated for the State All Star game. He was pretty pumped about that. We are going to be in Colorado during the tournament so he won’t make it this year though. Hopefully next.
It is about time for Ryan to get a new car. He has been working out how to get a Tesla for the past 6 months. The original plan wasn’t fast enough so he kept working on it and doing the math and got one a week ago. He loves it.
These pictures were sent to me from Emilee’s old preschool teacher. She was organizing her photos and found a bunch with Emilee in them from preschool. They are from 2 or 3 years ago but I’m putting them in here anyways because she is stinking cute.
Plaster project 
Playing in the leaves. 
Making volcanoes 
Painting her whale 
Princesses riding on their horse 
First day of 2nd year of preschool 
Bug catching 
Play time. 
Dress up time. 
Playtime. 
Emilee’s birthday cookies she brought for the class. 
Halloween. 
Playing at the park. 
All the girlies together. 
1st day of 1st year of preschool.
Omaha Slumpbusters Trip
We did a traveling baseball tournament for the first time this summer. We made a fun family trip out of it. We went up to Omaha Nebraska for the Slumpbuster Tournament, which is at the same time as the College World Series (CWS) for baseball.
We drove up on a Wednesday afternoon. There has been a lot of flooding between here and Omaha this summer. The freeway was actually closed until the day before we went up. It saved us a lot of time to not have to go around it. The flooding was really sad to see though. Lots of homes and farms and towns still underwater or damaged from being underwater. We checked into the hotel and the first item of business the kids wanted to do was go swimming. They thought it was a great kickoff for the long weekend. There were a few other families from the team that came up that night. A group of them went to watch a CWS game. The rest of us ordered pizza’s and spent a few more hours swimming in the pool.
On their way to CWS 
They found princesses at CWS!?! 
The next day everyone met at the Omaha Zoo. The kids loved walking around as a big group and looking at the animals together. We saw a lot of cute little baby animals-including a seal, giraffe, gorilla, and some other kind of monkey. When we finished exploring the zoo the kids decided to play a game of wiffle ball at the wiffle ball park in the zoo parking lot. Then is was back to the hotel to play card games and cool off in the pool. Coach Jimmy had a little meeting to kick of the weekend before we all headed over to the opening activities for the Slumpbuster Tournament the boys were playing in. At the Tournament Kick-off they had a lot of activities and baseball equipment to try or buy. The main attraction was giant bonfire with wooden bats and some fireworks.
Wiffle Ball at the Zoo 
Emi and Anna 
The Cheetah taking a picture with a cheetah. 
Emi, Lexi, and Anna 
They thought it looked like they were swimming with the fish! 
Jake and Matt 
Lunch at the zoo 
Bonfire 
Friday was the day we started playing games…but the weather didn’t cooperate. We had a lot of rain all night long and into the morning. We were supposed to play two games a day on Friday and Saturday. Friday our 8 am game was postponed until 10 then 11. Everyone started going their own way and exploring different shopping areas. At 12:15 we got a text saying we had to be in Lincoln (one hour away) because they had playable fields to start a game at 2. Everyone made it and we had our first game. Ryan’s parents came and watched and were glad they had to drive 10 minutes because they live in Lincoln, instead of an hour. The game did not go well. We tell Matthew all the time he can’t blame an umpire for loosing a game, it’s a poor excuse. However, this time it really was the umpire. Ugg, I won’t waste time explaining but, he was awful.
Playing spoons.
Our second game that day was cancelled so we went to Grandma and Grandpa Terry’s house. Grandma had made a spice cake for Ryan’s birthday so we had cake and ice cream together. The girls stayed at their house that night. Allison and Grandma went to the craft store together and made rainbow loom bracelets and slime. Emilee and grandpa played with the stuffed animals beanie baby collection all night. They were pretty happy.
Matthew, Ryan, and I went back to Omaha and went to the Omaha Storm Chasers (AAA Baseball) game that night with the rest of the team. Coach Jimmy arranged for the boys to go down on the field and meet the team and make a high five tunnel for them to run through. It was a fun experience for them.
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s 
Storm Chaser’s
Saturday we only ended up having one game as well in the morning. Grandma and Grandpa brought the girls back to us and watched us beat a team 20 to 0 in 2 innings. It took about 40 minutes from start to finish and was not a satisfying game obviously. We were done with baseball by 11 on Saturday. We went to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa before they headed home, then we joined the rest of the team in downtown Omaha for some sight seeing, shopping, and Ted and Wally’s Ice cream. It was very good ice cream but they were out of a lot of flavors we were willing to try (no one was willing to try banana/peanut butter/bacon flavor) when we ordered so we ended up with vanilla or a root beer freeze. The rest of the team continues to make fun of us for getting ‘just vanilla,’ the jokes on them though because we all liked our ice cream, everyone else couldn’t say that. After we finished in downtown there was another giant swimming party at the hotel for a few hours. Then we ate dinner and had another impromptu game of wiffle ball behind the hotel in a parking lot with anyone that wanted to play. We made it to bracket play on Sunday and had a game at 8am. We must have had too much fun all weekend while we killed time waiting for the rain to stop. The boys were not jiving. We ended up getting run ruled! I don’t think we have ever been run ruled in the two years we have played with this team. We packed up and were home by early afternoon.
Emi opted for a sucker instead of ice cream. 
Coach Jimmy coaching ‘Matty Baseball” 
Wiffle Ball 
This sign was up in the pool area. 
My two little boogers. 
Allison got her driver’s license
The baseball was a little disappointing with how things worked out with the weather. It was a fun weekend in every other aspect though. We got to know the baseball families a lot better. The kids loved the zoo and all the swimming. It was a different vacation then we have done before. It was a nice change of pace and all of us had a good time. Hopefully the next time we travel for a baseball tournament we get to play more baseball though.
Things that drive me crazy now, but someday I will miss.
As summer is getting started and we are all adjusting to being around each other for most of our day. I have had the thought cross my mind a couple times one thing or another just drives me crazy. As I have thought about these things, sometimes they legitimately drive me crazy and I want to pull my hair out. Somethings that drive me crazy though I think I will miss someday so I should quit my complaining and enjoy it while it lasts.
The first thing that came to my mind was our family seating arrangements for church on Sunday. This has changed a lot over the years as the kids go through different ages, we have had assigned seating, rotating seating, and occasionally ‘you pick’ seating. Currently ‘first come, first serve’ is the way seats are chosen unless people get rowdy then Ryan and I start making them play musical chairs. The whole thing is quite ridiculous. It is just sitting and listening for 45 minutes but they act like they are making a life altering choice.
Whatever the seating arrangement is, there seems to also be some unspoken rule that says everyone has to get as close to me as possible and take up as little space on the bench as possible. Every Sunday I feel like I am being smothered during Sacrament. I have one or two people trying to sit on my lap or lay their head on my lap, hold my arm or hand, lay on my shoulder, wedge their body underneath me for warmth. Aaahhh, sometimes I just want to sit by myself and stretch out. I know someday they will sit in their own space though or not be there at all and I will miss it, so I just try to enjoy if for now.
I’ve always had a rule that my kids can come get me at night if they need me or have a bad dream but they can not sleep in my bed. They can snuggle a minute, or sleep on our couch in our room, or I will even lay by them in their bed until they fall back asleep but they are not supposed to sleep in my bed because I like to sleep without being kicked or squished or wake up with a kink in my neck because someone wedged themselves underneath me. Matthew and Allison follow this rule very well. Matthew has already outgrown needing me at night for a few years now. Allison occasionally will come poke me for a hug but not very often. Emilee has been the hardest to enforce this rule with. Partly my fault because she has always been a little cuddler from day one so if she comes for a snuggle, before you know it I’m waking up and its morning time. She has also mastered crawling into my bed without waking me up when she crawls in so I wake up in the morning with a sore back and her mouth breathing in my face. It is getting better but Emilee’s approach to disobeying has always been ignore or act like you don’t hear and smile cute when you get caught. That is really hard to combat at two in the morning when you are not conscious and want nothing more than to stay that way for the rest of the night.