2nd try at the camping thing

After the last time camping can you believe that we tried it again? Well we did. It was sooo much easier this time. We were a lot more prepared, had a MUCH bigger tent, my kids slept better, it was warmer, and biggest thing of all...there was no river. This time my dad drove over in his 5th wheel and we camped at Anderson's cove with my side of the family. We were a quick walk away from the Pineview Resevoir. We had a blast in the lake, we blew up all the innertubes and floated for hours, set up a volleyball net on our site and had a couple of mean, VERY competitive games, and just had an overall good time hanging out. Rylee and Parker were so good and I had lots of help with them. We stayed both nights and slept relatively well! If camping is this easy now..sign me up! This is Ry in her very own personalized tube
First time having s'mores! Can you guess what she thought of them?


Love love love these girls!

Even though I have my "camping do" I thought this was a beautiful background

Today they loved eachother.

Sister-in-law romance shot

Chillin round the campfire

Are these kids related?

The kids had way too good of a time jumping on the tubes. Please excuse my poor little orphan looking daughter. We WERE just camping y'know.

Parker and Granddad on his last day here

Finally the 4th of July

Okay, I've been really slow to update, kinda lame- I know. So if you care, I think I last left off on the 4th- so here's a little of what we did. We had a good time with our friends at the West Point parade. Rylee is finally getting the hang of scrambling to get candy. She had a really good time and actually got a lot of candy for her mom to eat. We then went to a little festival type thing where we watched the kids play games and get face paintings. It was a fun day, but we ended up not seeing a single professional firework for the third year in a row. Why? Because Rylee has exhausted parents. By the time 9:30 rolls around there is no way I'm delaying bedtime ANY longer. Sorry kids, maybe next year. However...we did do some in our backyard and Parker is going to a pyromaniac I fear. That kid couldn't contain himself at the sight of fire. It was a good 4th!
Eatin corn at the bbq!

Cheesin it with my hottie

Rylee waving to get candy

Rylee not getting any candy

Rylee and our good friend's little boy, Carter at the parade

Sacked out

Camping fun, or not....

Well....I knew it was going to be a challenge taking a 7 month old and a 2 1/2 year old on an overnight camping trip so don't get on my case okay? Jared's family organized a funfilled weekend up in the mountains for us all. His whole fam was there. First of all, let me clarify-we did have a good time, but it was a really really really hard first night. It rained for about two hours after we arrived and set up camp. My mom, Rylee, Parker and I were in one tent while everyone else sat in theirs. Jared ran around being a man and making sure everyone had a dry tent. We huddled together while it thundered around us. So, that night was a damp and extremely cold night. We slept-all four of us- on an air mattress. Parker was so cold that I had to hold him the entire night and Rylee loves to sleep with her knee in my back I discovered. I layed in bed begging for the night to end and the morning sun to peek through. Eventually it ended and the sun brought high hopes for a better day.....Until we had the great idea to go tubing down the river that was close to our campsite. We saw small children floating down this river on dinosaur tubes. It looked to be a piece of cake---yeah. Jared scoped out a place for us to start down the river 3 MILES up! To make a long story short, the river was WILD and we were no match for it. There were rocks and logs and branches that killed us! Tabby, Kara- Jesse's girlfriend, my mom, and I had enough and got out while Tabby's hubby, Jared, Jesse, and Shy stayed on.We hiked through some people's private property, their horses, all the way up to the road where we started on our hike home-soaking wet holding onto tubes might I add. Finally after a mile or so we decided that we were not even close to our camp-I flagged a truck down and we jumped in the back. Crazy? Maybe, but we were beat up and needed the ride. So, this was the first time ever for me hitchhiking, I don't recommend it, but it got us where we needed to go. We all made it home in one piece-just a little banged up. All in all, we had a good adventure that we lived to tell about! I don't think Jared was ready for this pic.

This is Rylee and her cute cousins Eden, and Preston playing on the hammock

Yea for the tent, it was fun..at first!

See that wild river behind us?

Tinkerbell??

So Tinkerbell is Rylee's hero. We went to our friend's Jan and Spencer's little girl's birthday party. It was a Tinkerbell party. I was armed with my camera ready to watch Rylee jump up and down and look amazed because they hired an actress to come and "be" Tink. Well...as you can see in this picture below she isn't so um..excited. I couldn't get a smile out of this girl. I think she was a little frightened to be honest, or maybe she was like, "what the crap? That isn't Tinkerbell!" Who knows!

In Loving Memory

In loving memory of our fallen goat Lilo. She was a wonderful companion and so sweet. She was timid, but really loved to eat sweet cob and sneak through the fence to nibble our rose bushes. Poor, poor Lilo. I won't go into detail of her death, but just know she will be missed. Love you Lilo! I'm sorry your stay with us was so short!

Little late Father's Day

So, I am a terrible blogger- I know it. But I had to post these cute pics of our wonderful Father's Day weekend. My dad came to visit to be with his kids for the first Father's Day in 16 years seeing as he lives in Colorado. We loved having him come and did a lot of fun stuff while he was here. Our Father's Day morning in our house started out with breakfast in bed which Rylee was eagerly partaking of. Jared said this was his very first breakfast in bed ever since he has been married to me. What an awful wife I am! Anyway...Jared is a great dad. He loves to play with Rylee and LOVES to throw her and come up with cool new flips to do. They have such a neat relationship. He does a great job with her when my patience is gone. He is patiently waiting for the time when Parker allows himself to be peeled from my chest can be more of a "daddy's boy" Evenso, he is so cute with him and always gets him to smile and laugh. We love our dad and are so blessed to have him as our own!

I love this picture of everyone with "crazy" hair in the morning.

LOVE this man!

These adorable boys are my nephews-ready for the pool!

This is my brother who is a wonderful dad to his two girls. He is also crazy about his nieces and nephews and is such a good uncle to them.

On the Farm

Last week while Jared's sister Misty was visiting, we went to a farm that allows you to hold, pet and feed all the animals. It was so much fun #1 because it was Baby week, so all the newborns were out for us to see, and #2 Rylee has a slight obsession with holding all living animals. She reminds me of that character on Looney Toons that loves to hold and pet animals, but is really inadvertantly abusing them. I thought this would be a good experience for her. We had a good time even though the turkey's gave me nightmares for many nights afterward-those of you who know about my bird phobia know what I'm talking about! I can't believe I got a picture of everyone looking in the same general direction!

At the end of the visit, everyone got a short ride on the horse. Rylee is such an independant little one, she hated that I insisted on walking alongside of her.

I had to supervise on this hold to make sure this bunny wasn't smothered to death.

She especially has a thing for kitties- warning all kittens!

I have a thing for donkeys for some reason- they are soooo cute!

She is so fearless when it comes to animals! She didn't seem to mind this sheep leaning in for a kiss.

Grandma and Parker chilling out Parker Style.

This goat was only 2 days old! He was soo teeny!

This floppy eared goat was 2 weeks old.

I love Goats!!!

Goats, Kids, and Family

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We had such a busy Mother's Day weekend! We kicked it off by welcoming our two new kids to the family- Lilo and Stitch (2 month old Pygmy goats)! Yes, this was really my Mother's Day present from Jared. I was so excited because I have been wanting some goats ever since we moved into this house with a pasture in our backyard. This picture is my entire family-minus my dad, but nonetheless every grandkid and brother and sister- Almost never happens! And I think everyone is actually looking! Oh wait- Parker is looking down, oh well. We had a wonderful barbeque on Mother's Day in our backyard with my family, Tabby and her family, and our friends BoJ and Jen Cheney. It was so nice to have everyone come and celebrate all the moms.

This is Stitch the brother goat. He likes to butt our dog Beasley when he gets too close.

And this is Lilo, the little sister goat. Isn't she adorable?

Shout out to my beautiful mom on Mother's Day! She is the sweetest, most loving, caring, unselfish person in the world and I love her more than anything. I have the greatest mom and mother-in-law ever! We are so lucky and blessed to have them in our lives. Thanks Grandma Debs (they are both named Debbie).

My awesome dad came for a visit from Colorado this weekend too! He drove his new prized possession- a brand new 5th wheel that is beautiful. We had such a good time just hanging out. I love this man so much and he just cannot get enough of all of his grandkids. Thanks dad for driving 500 miles to see us!

This is Ryker, Parker's cousin. We were on our toes wondering which one was going to grab the other's face, hair, nose, etc. first.

Love this kid! This was too cute of Rylee digging into some watermelon on the table.

This is Parker's hairdo after sleeping in his carseat- Jared picked him up and said, "Cool baby" thinking that I had deliberately combed his hair like this. We had a good laugh because it was a perfect as can be mohawk. We liked it so much we decided to comb his hair like that for church. He got lots of attention from the ladies.