Edvalson Reunion Part 3...Sunday....

Sunday was spent just hanging out. In the morning, most of us went to church. After church and a change of clothes we headed to the park. We went to the local Milton-Freewater park, Yantis park. We had many a family gatherings there growing up, and it was fun being back with my cousins.

The last three Edvalson sisters:

This is more like it:

It was so cute, Jackson was just having some fun on his own, crawling around everywhere. All of the sudden he stops in front of my uncles, Uncle Brent and Uncle Kent. He looks at them...

He crawls over to them, sits in front of them with his arms up...

They picked him up and he sat up with the big boys. He was so happy with himself. And, in true man fashion, they kept on chatting while he just sat there as happy as a clam! :)

My cute cousins, Janna and Lindsay. I love these two ladies!

Lots of cousin play time; Charity and Janell:

The men folk playing an intense game of UNO:

My sweet boys:

Sweet Scarlett snuggling with her mama:

the 4 year old club house (and Tucker) They let big kids in every now and then.

The big girl cousins; Heather, Amarae and Sawyer:

I just love that round little face!

Baby Scarlett and Baby Eli getting a swing together:

More ultimate frisbee was played and then an intense game of Duck Duck goose. Tucker trying to get Aunt Lorraine:

And here, Jackson is hitching a ride with my cousin Todd:

Apparently Jackson found himself a surrogate father for the weekend! :) ha ha. He became good little buddies with my cousin Todd. Good thing, too Todd needed some practice, his wife is having their 4th in just a few weeks.

We came back to grandma and grandpa's house and hung out a bit. Taylor got a ride from Josh:

THEN...the real fun began. Super intense game of BINGO. And you haven't lived until you've played a game of BINGO with my Aunt Sherry. SO much fun! :)

Josh was our first winner!!! I somehow became the announcer, so I didn't even get to win! I had to work the whole time!!!

Grandma Kelly was a big winner that night!

Then the winners just started rolling in. Shastene, Tucker, Devon and Alex. All big winners in my book! :) (Also, I'm not sure why, but my two big kids are both in their swim suits in these pictures. And, I, for the life of me can't remember why they are the only two in their suits--my kids are crazy though, so it doesn't surprise me!)

Amarae and Sawyer...BFF cousins:

Poor Alicia had sprained her ankle the week before the reunion. Actually, maybe even longer...I think she had been injured for a while and it just wasn't healing. Poor thing on those crutches all weekend! Boo. :(

Taylor picking her prize. Aunt Sherry had gotten all sorts of prizes for people of every age, and the kids loved getting to pick out something when they won.

Brad was excited to win!

Janell's victory dance:

Tucker wrestling with my cousin, Ryan. He has two daughters, and grew up with 4 sisters, so I'm sure he loves being around boys as much as he can! :) Also, you'll notice the spoons game going on in the back. That was the kids game obsession all weekend. Anytime we were at the house, and there was some down time, Jackson, Tucker, Amarae, Sawyer and all the middle to older aged kids were playing. it. They played it that night after we ended our bingo game, and then we played some SUPER fun rounds of Murder. I love my family so much, we just had the best time together, laughing and playing.

This guy was happy as long as he was getting the attention of one of his lady friends!! :) I love this round little face, too! :)

Edvalson Reunion Part 2...Saturday Afternoon hike & shenanigans...

And when I say shenanigans, I mean shenanigans! But first, the hike! We went up to the Marie Dorian Park,  on the south side of town, along the Walla Walla river. There are some steps up to a warm memorial, and then just kind of an open area to hike around on top of a hill that overlooks the little river valley that Milton-Freewater is in. I had this HUGE dude strapped to me the whole time. Not the most comfortable hike I've ever been on, but...

Taylor and Jayden, little buddies. Them along with the twins, Micah and Savanah and my cousin Brad's son, Liam and my cousin, Alicia's daughter, Janell who are all 4 turning 5, started a little 4 year old club and had the best time together!

Yep, she's got some Edvalson in her. This is what she did when I told her to smile. This Jayden lady is a crack up!!!

Hiking to the top of the hill:

There was an abandoned water cistern (?) thing where we hung out for a bit...

The beautiful hills on the edges of the Blue Mountains...

Walla Walla River Valley...

And Milton-Freewater in all of her glory to the north...

I had my own personal tour guide! :) I sometimes forget that Uncle Brent grew up here, too. It was fun to hear his stories about this place! Here is telling me about the color of the mountains and how the color of the sky and clouds reflect and that's what gives them their color! :)

Shasteen and baby Scarlett..

Taking 19 little kiddies on a hike is a lot of work, so we all needed a little break in the river. So, back down we went. Playing in the river...

Liam up in a tree. This was before the hysteria when he realized he was stuck and had to get rescued by his daddy! :)

Savanah and Taylor in their own little world...

Super intense game of ultimate frisbee...

Oh man, I love this boy so much, I could just eat him!

Although he had a different love interest all weekend, my cousin Janna. These two became tight and she totally took care of him for me, and I totally appreciate it so much! It was nice having some help and knowing that when I didn't know where he was, that he was probably in good hands with Janna Banana!

Getting some help walking from his girlfriend...

We spent a few hours just hanging out and playing at the park. Aunt Lorraine brought some snacks. Mostly new ones, but some she just grabbed from grandma and grandpa's pantry. Like granola bars etc...I happened to grab a box from the pantry, I guess. I opened the granola bar and it was like dust. AND it was filled with maggots. Yea. That happened. Only from my grandma and grandpa's house. My mom said that there were things in their food storage, canned goods, from the 70's. Aren't you supposed to like rotate your food storage or something???!!! :)

Anyway, we came home tired and hungry. Dinner was on the agenda next, so we got to work preparing for that, and some of us got some little naps in while we could:

Cute little Janell at dinner:

It was nice to just have some down time and chate and enjoy each other:

His two favorite things over the weekend, Janna and that fly swatter!

Little by little after dinner people started filtering into the basement to go through things. These boys found some of grandpa's hats:

There was a huge box full of these beautiful purses. A Purse for everyone!!! :) These lucky ladies were the recipients. My mom had also invited the sister missionaries over to eat with us, and they each got to take home one of these lovely purses! :) Probably donated somehow to my grandpa by some company that couldn't sell them. Even baby Sawyer got one! :)

Then the fun really began when the box of suits got busted open. I'm sure all of the good suits were already picked over, but there were some beauties left over. I kid you not, my grandpa had at least 200 polyester suits and more than double that amount of ties. Brad even found himself a nice leather jacket!

While us adults and big kids were playing dress up, these little kids lost our attention and started doing their own thing. Can you tell they are related or what??? :)

Alex looking all dapper in his grandpa suit...

I'm not sure if dapper is the word I would use for this guy, but from here it got a little crazy!!! :)

This one is my favorite since Ryan is at least two times the size grandpa was! :)

These cute girls fit perfectly into grandma's dresses:

Oh man, you should have seen the shenanigans going on with this group of guys. The sister missionaries were blushing! :)

Tucker wouldn't get into a suit, not sure why, but definitely wanted to get in on the craziness and photo ops...

Once things settled down we got a pic of all the cousins with their significant others:

This is definitely more like it:

That night we had a little story telling time. Aunt Lorraine and Sherry and mom had put together some picture books for us, with old documents, and pictures and drawings my grandma had done, poems my grandpa had written, etc... They were really cool to have. I also made CD's for everyone of all the pictures. Well, not all of them, but all of the ones I got from Aunt Lorraine. It is so nice having them all together, and having so many pictures of them when they were younger. 

Jackson didn't want to be left out of the fun of trying on grandpa's old clothes:

Either did Scarlett, she got to try on a pair of grandma's old clip on earrings! :) I think she liked them! :) ha ha

After the babies went to bed, we put on a movie for the 5 year old club, and us and the older kids played a super fun game. Everyone puts a word into a hat. Two teams, five rounds. Each round is a different way of getting your team to guess what word you have chosen out of the hat. SO super fun. 

I love these guys so much. We had such a great time together. People asked me if there was any drama in the going through and dividing of everything, and not with these people. (Well, they're all kid of hippies anyway...) :) haha, but seriously, we all just got along so well and love each other and had such a great time.

It was a long day though, and even though it was a super fun game, not everyone made it! :)

Edvalson Reunion Part 1...Friday night and Saturday morning

Over Labor day weekend we had an Edvalson Family Reunion! It was so much fun. It was kind of a last hurrah of sorts at my grandparents house. My mom and her two sisters have been meeting there every now and then since my grandma died to go through things, and get rid of things. But, there were still some things that they wanted us cousins to go through and take if we wanted. If you know my grandparents, you know that they were major hoarders. Like, on the verge of qualifying for that horrible TV show, hoarders. So, there was a lot of junk and a lot of stuff to go through. Even though the big stuff had been gone through, the house was still pretty full. I was expecting it to be a lot more empty, but there was still a ton of stuff there. My wonderful Aunt Sherri organized it all, and we all had food to bring and jobs to do, and it was great.

I got there on Friday afternoon, and Rachel and Aunt Sherri and of course, my mom, who lives there were the only ones there so far. We had a great night of just settling in for the weekend and catching up a bit. I knew the house was going to be crammed, and that most of my cousins were planning on camping in the back yard, so I decided to stay at my Uncle Scott and Aunt Kathy's house. They are on my dads side, so I knew we wouldn't have to share our space! :) It was nice to have our own space and be able to sleep comfortably in a bed! :) 

Taylor, Mica and Savanah all got along so well, we had fun playing in the back yard:

Rachel had already claimed her spot, and had her tent up. She was also husbandless for the weekend, so it was nice to have someone in the same boat as me. These three sure do get along SO well! Taylor loves her cousins, Mica and Savanah!

Little by little the rest of my cousins started to trickle in that night. But out of 22 of us cousins, there were only 10 who were able to make it. :(  But we still had a great time. Those who came were: Todd Taylor, Alicia Taylor, Brad Taylor, Brian Taylor, Ryan Walton, Britanee Walton, Janna Walton, Nicole (Walton) Martin, Rachel (Maughan) Kanooth and me! All the Taylors still live here in WA state. Todd and Alicia came from Moses Lake, Brian from Sandpoint, ID,  And Brad from Port Townsend on the other side of the state. Rachel and her family just moved up to Clarkston, WA. I, of course, live here in Spokane. Ryan and his family and Janna Walton both came from Utah. Nicole and her hubby came up from Rexburg, and Britanee is living at home in Portland, OR right now. So there were 10 of us cousins (and of course, most had their spouses there, too), and between the 10 of us, we had 19 2nd cousins there, and one on the way! It did feel small for and Edvalson family get together, and of course, it felt weird not having grandma and grandpa there, but it was so nice being with family, and like Rachel said to me, it's just nice to be with 'your people'. They say cousins are your first friends growing up and that is truly the case. I love my cousins so much and we had such a wonderful time growing up in our unique and crazy family.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early, and I got over to my grandma and grandpa's house just as everyone was waking and hanging out in the backyard chatting and catching up and munching on breakfast.

Brian, baby Alicia, Rachel, baby Eli, and Shasteen:

Britanee, Jackson and Nicole:

While us adults were just catching up and enjoying our time together, these kids found this fun empty pool to play in. I feel like it wasn't that long ago I was playing in this fun empty pool!!

Taylor Rae in the pool:

Janelle Marie, named after her grandma, my aunt Janelle who died the year that Ben and I were married. She was wonderful!

 I love that Jackson and Tucker are such good buds. They always seem to be able to pick up right where they left off the last time and get along SO great!

Of course, the big kids had to play a little too... (and you know I love me a good cloud shot!)

Brian Taylor, Josh Mohs, Ryan Walton and Jared Martin:

Inside grandma and grandpa's house. Getting empty little by little:

Hanging out and playing games in our jammies:

Then the real work had to start. We went out to the garage, probably the worst of what's left to go through. The Taylor boys; Brian, Todd and Brad:

The old mint/teal phone outside. I always thought it was pretty cool that they had a phone outside. They also had a different mint/teal phone in their bedroom that I inherited a while ago. I can't wait to use it for decor, it's pretty rad looking. My grandparents were big garage salers, and flea marketers and between that and having inherited a lot of stuff when he was an insurance salesman, they had some pretty funky and cool stuff. They had a lot of JUNK, too, don't get me wrong. But there were some diamonds in the rough, and I loved to see the eclectic collection of stuff they had.

Aunt Sherri found a petrified frog on a shelf in the little shop over by the pool. The kids thought that was pretty cool. Since the pool has been out of order, a ton of frogs move in and make it their home every year. I guess this one decided to stay--and die!

Brad was pretty excited about this huge dictionary, and I thought it was pretty funny that he was carrying it around with him everywhere! :) It was funny to see the things that everyone connected with and had to take home from grandma and grandpas.

Janna and Sherri giving Tucker a tickle torture, which I'm sure he deserved!!! He told me recently that Aunt Sherri told him that she only had one tickle spot, but that he could never find it when we were down there for the reunion, but that next time he sees her, he WILL find it!!! :) Aunt Sherri is so wonderful! 

Like, I said, I just love being with my people. People who get me and understand me and love me, and I do them! LIndsay getting ready in the front yard before our hike. It may or may not have been the only shower she got all weekend, but hey, we're all family, right! :)

The two Jackson's. My Jackson looks like he just doesn't know what to think. He may have been a bit overwhelmed by all the loud, fast talking people around him, but I'm sure he loved it!

Me and my beautiful cousin-friend, Alicia. So many happy memories with her growing up!

Kent, Janna and Sherri--I love these people!

Josh and Jackson. Two more that I adore!

Alicia and Brian:

This is the ONE thing that Jackson wouldn't let go of. It was HIS and his only. Apparently, this is going to be Jackson's inheritance from grandma and grandpa's house! :)

It was a great morning to spend with loved ones. On to our next adventure, the family hike!

Shawnee and Andrew...Bridal Shower...

Actually, one last hurrah in August a bridal shower for this beauty...

Cute Shawnee came up to visit Andrew, and while she was here Becky threw her a bridal shower. Andrew came for the dinner part. You know guys, come for the food.

Kathryn, Alyssa (Shawnee's sister who lives in Spokane who is equally cute and sweet), Becky, Andrew and Shawnee...

Shawnee is just the sweetest, cutest little thing, and I'm so excite for her and Andrew. We instantly were friends, and I just love that. I guess she is my (step)sister in law now, so we should be friends! :) ha ha.

Becky threw such a cute little gathering for her. Delicious food and desserts...

Shawnee telling us how her and Andrew met...

I do love me these summer evenings just hanging outside! And I always love me a good reason to celebrate! I was kind of hoping that somehow I would end up going to the wedding with Kathryn, because I knew my dad wasn't able to make it, just so I could tell people that I was Andrew's step-sister! :) It has a ring to it!

River Front Park Passes...

River Front Park passes were hands down the best thing I purchased this summer. I was worried that I wasn't going to get my money out of them because we only had the end of July and August to use them. Luckily, we went enough times in August to make them well worth the money! :) We went by ourselves plenty AND we went a lot with friends. I loved that all my friends had passes, so we usually always had buddy's to go with.

This year, Tucker and Taylor tried the roller coaster, and I didn't even have to force it. They went on their own, and actually really liked it. I was a little shocked!

Even though you can't tell from these pictures, after, she was all smiles! :) She looks so calm! I know if that was me on that roller coaster, I wouldn't be looking so calm. I HATE roller coasters, even this kid one, I know because I've been on it many a times with Tucker and I hate every second of it!

Sweet big brother, had her in his arms the whole time...

And, I seriously don't understand the draw to these kinds of rides at all, but they spin and spin and spin and I don't know how they handle it!!! But they love these spinny strawberry's to!

Taylor and her friend, Lily...

One thing we discovered this summer is that this boy LOVES carousels. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. I would put him and on and he would just immediately start laughing even before the ride began. And once we were going, oh boy, he wouldn't stop laughing and looking all around, and straightening out those little legs with excitement. I, of course, would be standing right next to him the whole time, and usually I was in a state of being right on the edge of vomiting. My motion sickness detectors in me are SO very fragile, almost everything makes me feel like I'm going to vomit. Needless to say, carousels are NOT my favorite. Jackson better be grateful that I was willing to sacrifice for him, because we went time after time after time. And, it was actually worth every second because it made him so happy, and he was so cute about it.

My two big kids, they look SO big in this picture. Makes me sad! :(

So happy to be on again. Right when we would get off, he would point back at the front of the line telling us he wanted to go again. And he would do that over and over and over again. Luckily the big kids would appease him for a while.

The train ride is also a favorite. It's hard to do a lot of times when we're with our friends and in big groups, so we always did it when it was just the 4 of us.

One thing I always loved about going down town was that it always wore this guy out, and he would always sleep really well. Too much partying...

And, really, my one and only reason for wanting to go down so much was for this right here:

And, of course, we had to get it when Jackson was asleep so we didn't have to share!!! :) But shhhh....don't tell him!

Taylor, Ella, Jane and Grace:

I just love all of these cute girlys so much!

Taylor and Ethan on the water bumper cars. My friend, Laura was on bed rest in the hospital all summer pregnant. So, we tried to take her kids for her as much as we could. Poor thing, she was miserable, but she now has a beautiful, healthy baby girl here so I guess it was all worth it.

Cute Ethan. I was trying to get a picture to send her, and I think I got a pretty cute one!

Of course, we had to make a few rounds on the carousel.

And the take off, pure joy!!!

Our one last hurrah was the first weekend in September which also happened to be Pig out in the Park. Thinking back I think that I was pretty crazy to take them that weekend, but I really just wanted some good greasy food. So, off we went! The boys in the roller coaster:

One awesome thing is that inside at the food court they have slushy machines, like 10 different flavors, and I bought cups last year for the kids, and found out this year that those cups are good year to year, so we could come back and fill up anytime for free!!! I like free!

You can't go to Pig out in the park and NOT get a corn on the cob, for some reason at places like this, they are the BEST!

I think that it was at about this point RIGHT HERE that all the kids were DONE for the day. Even though we had gotten some delicious food, a root beer float, that GINORMOUS elephant ear, they were done and I was done!

It's a good thing that these two boys are so dang cute! I just love them both so much!

This has nothing to do with Riverfront park, well, maybe a little, but at the end of the summer, I finally got around to getting to the back of the van to clean it out, and this is what the side cubby hole back by Tucker looked like. From the looks of it, he had a pretty great summer.

And while I do love summer with all of my heart, we were all ready and I was counting down the days for school to start. There's nothing better than a little schedule and routine after a few months of craziness and going, going, going. So, farewell summer, you really treated us well this year. 

Kathryn & Papa's wedding...

So, when my dad and Kathryn got engaged last year, they always said that they would get married sometime in the fall or winter of this year. So, we waited and waited, and never heard much more about it. Then, Kathryn's son got engaged with their date to get married in October. Then we heard that they wanted to get married before he did, just something small and easy so it could be done and then she could focus on Andrew's wedding. Then we never heard anything, and never heard anything. Then one day mid August, on a Sunday my dad just casually asks me what I'm doing that Thursday, and I just kind of started rattling off, well, I have the post camp fireside, and this and that. And then he tells me, well, if you want to, you can come down to the Courthouse at 5 and Kathryn and I are getting married! WHAT???!!! This is how you're going to tell me and you're not going to even invite me, you're just going to tell me IF I want to come, I can. Well, thanks for the heads up, it was only like the most hectic day of August for me with the post camp fireside! Like, my whole job at camp was for this fireside, and now I have to fit in a wedding on the most hectic day in August for me!! :) But, of course, I was happy to be there with them on their big day, and so excited for them!

Once word got out, that the ONLY people they had invited were our family and her boys, there were some folks who wouldn't accept that! :) So, Chuck and Becky came, and my aunt Kathy and Uncle Scott came up from Milton-Freewater.

Chuck and Dad before the ceremony...

Papa and his little buddy, Jacksy...

Taylor and daddy waiting for the ceremony to begin...

Andrew, Courtney and John. I was so glad that Andrew was in town and got to be there for it, too!

Kathy and Scott...

The happy couple during the ceremony. My dad, of course, was making jokes the whole time and having a good time with it all...

It's a done deal!

Jackson clapping after the ceremony was over. He's not sure why he's doing it, but he saw everyone else doing it, so why not! :)

Uncle Scott and Andrew as the witnesses...

Tucker went up to her after and said, Hi Kathryn, or should I say, Hi GRANDMA!!! He thought he was so funny!!! :) 

The whole group. It was so fun to be with family and friends. It was just a nice, relaxing, casual, happy event. I couldn't be happier for them!

All the ladies...

And the men folk:

Kathryn and Becky outside of the courthouse. It is such a beautiful building, and some pretty beautiful ladies! 

All of us with the new couple:

Taylor giving her new Grandma Kathryn a good bye hug. They were off to a little weekend getaway and we were off to the post camp fireside!!! :) I wish we would have been able to celebrate more, but it was a fun, quick, happy wedding celebration. They keep on telling us that next year when they get sealed they will have a big party, and once they are all settled on where they're living, and get those things figured out, we'll party! :)

Max'n and Relax'n in August...

We had a lot of other fun adventures in August. A lot of hanging out at home, playing in the yard, hanging with friends.

You can definitely tell that we have a 1 year old in the house when I turn the corner and see this:

My life has drastically changed since he has become mobile. 

The day I finally got home from girls camp, I was so exhausted that I just let these guys eat cake for breakfast. It was my leftover ice cream cake from my birthday, and it had been in the freezer for so long, it needed to be gone, but I didn't want to do any cooking, so ice cream cake for breakfast it was! :) Plus, it was more like lunch, because it was so late, so it was an ice cream cake brunch! :)

They didn't seem to mind...

One thing Jackson's physical therapist told me was to practice going up and down the stairs with him, so we spent a lot of time on these steps! :) He liked it at first, but would quickly get sick of the 'work'! :) stinky boy!

It's a good think he's so cute! :)

This boy has started to pull himself up on EVERYTHING! I need to move this art easel. It's perfect for my Taylor artist but totally not worth the mess that this boy makes by pulling himself up and everything out! :)

My sweet young woman friend, Jenny from the branch moved down to Dayton, WA, which is right down by Walla Walla. So, she wanted to go down and say good bye to Hermana Taylor before she left. I loved Hermana Taylor so much, so I offered to take her down so I could say hi to her, too! She left our Valley branch and was serving at the Indiana Branch downtown, so it was good to see our old friends from that branch. It, was also the Lee's mission farewell that day, so it was fun to be there for that. They were leaving to their mission in Puerto Rico. So jealous! :) I do love that Hermana Taylor, but why oh why did no one tell me that I looked like this: 

ha ha!

Also, we had a ward activity and Jenny took a pic with Elder Vargas. One thing I love about being in such a tight nit branch is that we get so close with the missionaries, and the youth and I feel like these kids are my own and I just love them!

Then there's this guy! He is such a stinker! I love his little personality coming out, now that he's learning he can move his legs, it's like he is learning he has a say in things in his life, and opinions about things! :) His favorite place to be while I'm getting ready is right here next to me in my sink. He loves to play with our toothbrushes and with my makeup and really, with anything else he can get his grubby little hands on while he's up there!

All of these pictures below were taken within like 2 minutes. Dramatic, much???! :)

These two! I just don't know what to do with these two sometimes. They can be the best of friends sometimes, but then other days they are at each other all.day.long! So, I saw this idea of putting them in the same big shirt when they fight, and then they have to be in close proximity until they can be friends again. And, it is funny because one of Ben's friends works for UPS, and had given him a UPS shirt that says 'united as one' on the front. So, I put them in it for the first time, and they thought it was great. They started laughing and running around together and their issue seemed to be gone.

Then they got so excited that Tucker started to drag Taylor around and the crying started again. Maybe the shirt idea wasn't the greatest, but I will definitely be trying it again!!!

But then there are other days that they are the best of friends, and make club houses in the tree, and play outside all day together greatly!

This boy would spend all day on the trampoline if I let him!!

These two, the best of friends...

Ben and I went on a date and had to stop at Juan and Maria's house on the way home and this little lady answered the door. I love her so much and it looks like she has quite the crush on someone...

Cute little Odalis, love her so much!

Jackson got a present in the mail from his grandma and grandpa, and of course, his favorite part of the package was the box. I'm not even sure why I buy toys for him!

Somewhere in there, during the first few weeks of August, Collin and Chase came to stay with us for a few days while Tara and Dave went to Vancouver, Canada for a race. They're crazy like that and enjoying doing things like that together. It was fun having them here for a few days, and Jackson got a lot of snuggling time in with his Collin buddy. Collin loves him some Jackson.

Jackson trying on Papa's awesome Cinderella slippers...

And maybe this is TMI, but this is my view when I go to the bathroom. He doesn't ever leave my side, even when I go to the bathroom, this is the face I get.

Silly boy, is just wanting to get into everything these days, and won't leave my side, so this is what I get to hang out with most days:

He is mostly happy and easy going, so that makes it all good. I can't complain with this one!

my silly little boy...

It's been a good month with my babies, maxin' and relaxin' during these lazy days of summer.

Swimming lessons 2014...

We did another round of Swimming lessons with Coach Rhonda. Tucker has really loved her, and I thought that Taylor was ready to finally get in on the lesson action. She did SO great. After uploading these pictures, I realized I didn't take any of Tucker this year, but he did lessons, too. I think I took so many of Taylor because it was her first time. She was so proud of herself, and really did so so good! 

This girl cracks me up!

Her sessions are two weeks long, and we go every morning. And, my favorite part is that I get to chat with my friends for two hours every morning. This guy also had fun with his girlfriend, Emery. 

And she even started to swim with her head underwater! I swear, this girl, once she is determined to do something, she does it! I love that about her!

Jumping off the diving board for the first time, without her floaties...

Of course, since we were in lessons, I had to take them to the pool as often as we could. We got a pool pass at Chester hills pool. It was perfect. And nothing made me more happy than looking over one time and seeing Tucker actually practicing his strokes! He is old enough that this year he had started to learn actual swim strokes. I'm so excited for him! And it's nice because one of my best friends has a membership there, and a lot of people from our stake, so whenever we go, we know we'll have friends there! :) I already can't wait for next summer for our lazy pool days.

Without Rhonda by her side, this one was a little bit more hesitant, but definitely getting more brave without her floaties. She's already talking about next summer when she FOR SURE swims without her floaties, every time. Sure do love that smile, though and I love my little fishy babies!!

This guy! This guy on the other hand. This was not my year to just 'enjoy' the pool. :) He was just a needy little guy! He was happy in the water, floating around, but if we were out of the water, he wanted to be in it! We'll see how he does this upcoming summer! :) I hope he's a water baby like my other ones!

This is what I saw a lot if we were out of the water at the pool:

It was a good swimming summer for our family! I can't wait for the days where I feel comfortable enough to just let them go at it, and they are all comfortable enough in the pool on their own! We were just swimming at the Y, and I asked Tucker if he wanted to join the team at the Y, and he told me that he wanted to stick with coach Rhonda! I thought that was cute, I guess that's a good thing that he likes her enough! We'll see if swim team is his thing one day in his future!

Stormee's Wedding...

I love doing pictures for family and friends. This is exactly why I started doing pictures in the first place. Their wedding theme was kind of country chic. I thought it was gorgeous. Small and simple with lots of country touches. I was with Stormee all day that day. I went over to Jr.'s house that morning and spent the morning with Stormee and her bridesmaids getting ready. It was so fun. The actual wedding was at her grandparents property in the country, they have an orchard and land.

The wedding favors for the guests:

Jr. and Stormee showed up in Uncle Scotts old Ford. It's a pretty cool car!

The weather was perfect! Stormee was beautiful and it was a GREAT day!

It was officiated by one of Jr.'s best friends.

The bride and bridesmaids:

And, of course, the food was DIVINE! Some yummy fresh salmon:

Lots and lots of tri-tip. Also, crab, and pretty much anything you could want to eat was there! :) It was food heaven!

This girl was attached to my cousin, Kristin all day. I'm so glad that she had a buddy to play with all day! :) Kristin is so sweet with her.

Taylor being Taylor with her yummy food:

Kristin made me get in a picture with her, you know, to document that I really was there! :)

I love weddings and the happiness and joy that is always there. Besides one of the groomsmen getting so drunk that he was acting belligerent and getting kicked out of the party, it was a perfect day! :)