My Squishy

I could just squish that cute little face


















Enough said.

California Dreamin'

Wednesday afternoon we all loaded into the car and headed to LA for Jordan's wedding. We got there late thursday night and stayed in the temple apartments. The next morning we all got dolled up and walked to the LA temple.

Our self portrait by the beautiful LA temple!

The gorgeous couple- Mr and Mrs Parson. Anna looked so stunning! I've yet to see anyone else pull of a short dress like she does. and we're super excited that she's part of our family now.

The bride and bridesmaids

The groom and groomsmen (Daniel, Aaron, Troy and Brett, we sure missed Justin but we'll see him soon for the other reception)

That night after the luncheon we HAD to make a Trader Joe's run. I've never been there. It was pretty fun and I got some peanut butter filled chocolate covered pretzels which are so perfect for us, so it was totally worth the trip and the scary picture of all of us

Saturday morning (late) we wanted to go to the beach. We were all planning on sitting on the sand doing some body surfing, but Anna's parents were so awesome and loaded us up with boogie boards, towels, chairs, shovels, and pails, and our cousins the Barkers packed us some sandwiches and we were SET for the beach! and it was FREEZING! and windy but we had fun nonetheless.

The crew: Holly, Franci, Laura Barker, Tiffany Barker, Aaron, Brett, Troy, me

Every beach we go to (actually quite a few considering we live in Idaho), Troy and I have to get a picture in front of the waves. Its tradition ever since our Disneyland trip with the high school (hmmm, I think I just got a blog post idea...) So, Here's to tradition...

The fun thing about the Parson family is that they are artsy-fartsy wherever they go. One of their traditions is making mermaid tails in the sand

And of course an amazing sand castle (Troy actually had nothing to do with this, he was busy boogie boarding in the icy water)

Then we rushed home to get ready for the reception and what a reception it was! everything was beautiful and every detail seen to and OH THE FOOD was incredible! and I didn't get ANY pictures from it!!! how lame am I? My camera was in a car that had been parked far away by the time I remembered I needed it. Hopefully I can steal some from someone else soon.

I titled this photo The Reception: The Morning After. I really do feel bad because it was magical.

So sunday afternoon we got to have lunch with Niels and Loraine before we headed to Cedar City where we stayed the night at Del and Lynette's, woke up early and came the rest of the way today.

I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to Lisa and Richard, Aaron and Camile, The Barkers, Niels and Loraine, and Del and Lynette for giving us a bed to sleep in and real (really good) food in our bellies. It was much appreciated especially after eating all that junk food and sitting in a car for so long.

and a HUGE GINORMOUS thank you to my Mom, Dad, Lindsay, Heidi, and i'm sure Tyler and Rachel for watching Rockwell because he would have been scarred for LIFE traveling more than 30 hours in less than a week. Really, trust me, it would have been a nightmare for all involved, so thank you!

Trailriding Adventure

Leon needed some photos for a painting so his neighbor Mel Griffith took him up into Alaska Basin on his horses and was kind enough to let us and Jordan and his fiance Anna (who we love) tag along. It was BEAUTIFUL. Though we couldn't make it to the top due to snow we had an amazing time.

Jordan and Anna (in the orange hat, though you can't see her face) and Mel. Mel was a biology teacher and so we'd stop every so often and have a mini biology lesson, which was really cool.

Troy and I. And YES I wore my cowboy hat because I love it.

Jordan, Anna, Troy, Me, Kathy, and Leon when we stopped for lunch. Notice all the beautiful black horses? They're the Americana horses and BOY did they have a lot more energy going up and down that rocky trail than any trail horse I've ever been on. It was such a blast! P.S. Thank you SO much mom for watching Rockwell the whole day!

What a Busy Summer

So it seems like you either have time to blog and nothing to write about or a ton to write about and no time to blog. This summer has been the latter. We've been boating, camping, hiking, gardening, riding horses, sewing, and swimming and then some. Below are a few posts about some of the fun things we've been up to in the last month

A Long Overdue Post About our Camping Trip

We went camping one weekend with Fred and Nita, Brennan and Grace, and Charles and Nancy to the calderas. It was quite an adventure hiking all our gear down in there but well worth it because it was beautiful and out of the wind. Most of the photos aren't too exciting but we sure had fun just hanging out in the great outdoors. We had some food issues but we now know better what to pack next time.

It was Rockwell's first camping trip and he had a lot of fun playing in the dirt. He slept in the sleeping bag with Troy and I and did pretty well.

Rockwell's Favorite Things

Our little guy is growing up and keeping us on our toes! He is always moving and always into something.

One night I was cooking and he was whining so I handed him leftover green onion I was chopping. He LOVED it and gnawed on it for the next half hour.

He loves playing in water unless we want him to. One night we taught him to drink from the sprinkler.

It takes about 60 seconds for my house to go from clean to disaster. Just look at that mischievous face!

I still can't believe my sister's cat let him do this. Like most babies he loves animals. He chases our cats around and has his own word/noise for them that kind of sounds like a meow.

Most of all Rocky LOVES his daddy. I'm nothing when Troy is around and I try not to get jealous ;) I just wish this picture turned out better.

Family Photos

A while back my sister Sarah took family photos of us. Here are a few of our favorites: