our camping adventure

A few weeks ago, the 4 of us (plus Gunner) spent 4 great nights in the most beautiful place ever, the Greys River.  We had SO much fun spending time as a family, picking flowers, going on hikes, napping, exploring the mountians, fishing, eating s'mores and so on and so on! 

Here are a few photos from our trip.  We CANNOT wait to do this again!  The girls had so much fun and we really want to make it an annual family tradition!

a day for dad

We had a great Sunday spending time as a family and spending time WITH family! 

Emmy told Brian "Happy Dotter's Day" first thing in the morning. 

We enjoyed the fabulous weather after church by joining my fam for some delicious fall-off-the-bone ribs on the patio.

Then we spent time with Brian's fam and played softball with the WHOLE gang.  It's fun having ALL the cousins back in town now.  After the ball game, we sat out on the porch and had yummy strawberry shortcake.

We are so blessed to have family so close by and be able to get together so often.  

sunshine and popcicles

Oh boy to we love us a sunny day!  Emmy will look out the window in the morning and say, "Mom, its a nice sunny day!"  She wants to be out playing as soon as she's awake. 

The girls and I have been having most of our meals out on the deck these days and of the daily popcicle on the porch.



Since we don't have a yard yet, most of our time is spent on the porch, patio or driveway. Not the softest or most fun of places, but we get creative and always have fun!

Emmy and Bailey get along pretty darn good.  Emmy is quite the little mother, sometimes a bit overly motherly, but other than that they sure know how to make each other laugh...and me too. 

Brian seems to think Bailey learned the phone talking from me and I tend to disagree.  It seems that as soon as I go to pick up the phone and girls around, someone starts crying.  So, now most of my talk time is during nap time.  I'm pretty sure Bailey gets the phone talking from Emmy :)  Emmy loves to prentend to talk on the phone to anyone and she's great at really talking on the phone too.

Yes, Emmy is sitting on a potty, talking on the phone, in the driveway.  She found it in the garage and pulled it out.  She told me is was a good spot to sit.  haha.  Told you we have fun!

4 adults, 5 kids, 5 dogs and a kitten

 We've been itching to get the camper out and do a little camping...so we ventured out last weekend for a short and not-too-far-from home getaway. 

It was the girls first camping experience and they LOVED IT!  What little kid doesn't like to just play in the dirt and snack all day!  What adult doesn't?  haha

We invited our friends, The Johnson's to come along and we all had such a great time!  We have kids that are SUPER close in age so that made it fun too.  And the dogs all got along...even with the baby kitten (Gunner only tried to eat it once).  It was a full house of a camp spot and we wouldn't have had in any other way!

We only camped two nights, a good "starter trip" for the girls.  We have a 4 nighter planned next week so it was nice to get out, see what we forgot to stock in the camper and let the girls get used to sleeping somewhere other than their rooms.  We CANNOT wait to go to Wyoming next week for our big camping adventure.  More fun, good food, lots of laughing, beautiful scenery, camp snacks and tons of memory making await us...

our trip to wyoming

The Friday before Memorial Day we headed to Wyoming to spend time with family and attend a baptism.  It was a LONG drive and the weather was TERRIBLE but we sure had a great time!  All of Brian's family made the trip as well as others.  We were all on our own schedules and ended up at Brian's sisters for our nephew's baptism.

Brian and I went through Yellowstone on the way and attempted a walk to some hot pots but ended up in a snow storm!  We stayed in the car most of the drive and admired the animals from the windows.  We saw a bear!  That one we got out for (it was still pretty far away).

 When we arrived at Brian's sister's home in WY, we were greeted by six darling little puppies.  Emmy loved it!

We did some exploring while in WY and visited a few museums.  Of course the girls had to pick out a souvenir...

Like I said, lots of driving this trip...we'd pull over now and again and let the girls jump around and play in the car. 

 It was snowy and wet during our trip and this doesn't even show how bad our car got.  You could barely touch the door handles let alone any part of the vehicle when trying to get in .  We were all pretty dirty by the end of the little vacation.

We found some fun walls and interesting scenery while there.

It was still cold, but not snowy up a near by canyon.  We drove up it and went hiking around for flat rocks.  Brian has been collecting them during his travels so we can use them in our backyard landscaping.  He found some nice big ones and Emmy brought home this little one.

Most important was spending time with family.  We all came together for this guy, Ryker, so we could celebrate his baptism (I promise Brian wears a tie with his suit, just forgot to pack it). 

Like I said, we drove and drove to get there and drove and drove to get back.  But all the driving was well worth it because we got to make so many fun memories as a family, even if we were only gone a few days.  We are looking forward to more road trips this summer!  And better weather!