The Pyper Family

Monday, September 13, 2010

September 13, 2003

7 years ago today...

My how time flies...

Love you more and more every day! :)
Happy Anniversary!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Here are some pictures of the actual funeral. I wasn't sure if I should share, but it was so beautiful and a great celebration of life.
Here are Natalee's sisters. All in blue, Natalee's favorite color.

The Walton family...

Ben and my brothers and dad and some cousins and uncles were the pallbearers...

Kelli, Cassidy, Keyton and Tucker...

Natalee is in such a beautiful place, overlooking Portland...

My mom, her mom and my aunties...

And I found this cute picture I missed before of Tucker helping my grandma put in her curlers. I have many many memories of doing this with my grandma as a young girl. She puts her hair in curlers every night!!

Can't wait to see you again, Natalee!

Sweet Natalee...

Like I said in my last post, June was a month of good-byes. One of those good-bye's took us back to Portland. It was a hard good-bye. My sweet little 13 year old cousin, Natalee, passed away and was taken back to Heavenly Father. She died of cancer. And even though she was in pain and the last few months had been so hard for her, it was so hard to say good-bye. It was a hard visit, and a hard funeral to get through. I can't even imagine what my aunt and uncle and cousins are going through, but we tried to make the best of our trip despite the sadness in our hearts.
Tucker, is he a boy or what?

We carpooled with Nathan, Angie and Carter. Carter was going through this stage where he would feel everything with his thumbs and just rub them back and forth and back and forth to feel everything. It was very cute. I have soft seats in my car, and Carter loved them! :)

Tucker is a crazy sleeper and this trip was no exception, this is how he sleeps most of the time! I made the boys sleep together, so I could have a bed all to myself!:)

And little miss Taylor Rae is such a daddy's girl! She LOVES him! He can always make her laugh, but then again, Ben makes most people laugh! :)

Tucker eating a chocolate chip muffin in bed naked after his bath. Life doesn't get much better than this! :)

Just hanging out with Papa, Nathan and Carter:

I love this stage when babies are just discovering their hands and feet. Taylor would just stare at her hand for hours. :)

My two babies!

After the funeral we headed back over to visit my dad and the Arctic Lady again. Since Ben wasn't with us when we went down to Portland in April, and the boat was still there, he wanted to see it. Also, my dad's crew was down this time. I wanted to see Dennis and Pedro, the two guys I had worked with when I worked on the boat 8 years ago.
We had to wear hard hats because the boat was at a ship yard getting worked on.

Nathan and Carter in the wheel house...

Ben & Tucker in the wheel house...

My family with Dennis and Pedro. Love these guys! :)

Just the four of us:

Me and the little lady with the big lady! :) And yes that is a lot of cleavage you see on the Arctic Lady. You might want to make sure no boys are around when you read this.

The Tuck man and I:

Ben had fun climbing the highest points on the boat that he could find! :)

The kids on a pile of buoy's:

my mama and grandma came with us too.

Taylor wasn't all that impressed with the Arctic Lady:

On our way back to Spokane we had to stop at Multnoma Falls. It is so beautiful, and again, Ben was with us, and everything is more fun when Daddy's around. :)
Tucker & Ben:

The whole fam:

Our Tuck man:

And our little lady. What a little love nugget!

We love and miss you Natalee!

Friday, September 10, 2010

June...

June for us was filled with graduations, birthday parties and some sad good-byes. I have a ton of pictures from each, so I will start at the beginning; Kristin's graduation! My cute little cousin Kristin graduated from high-school and we went down to Milton-Freewater (Walla Walla) for the graduation. It was fun being with her on her big day. :) It's always exciting to be with someone as they pass from one phase in their life to the next. :) I just can't believe that she is graduating from high-school. I swear she is still like 6 years old!
(Elaine would hate me, I always use WAY too many exclamation points!!!) :)
Here are Kristin and Tucker on her big day. He always has to play hard to get at first, even though he loves Kristin. :)

Kristin and my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Scott:

Angie, Nathan and Carter also came down for the graduation party...

Kristin and her best friend:

da girls...

Cousins!
Lisa, Stormee and Trinidy...

At the actual graduation, Stormee had made her this very cool poster! :)

And I love this shot! We got her good with silly string as they walked by to go get their diplomas! Good times! :)

It was a quick trip, but well worth it! It is always fun to hang out with family that we love so much! And Tucker loves Aunt Kathy and Uncle Scott (and their many dogs) so I always want to make sure he has that connection with them.
This face pretty much sums up how we felt about leaving...

Since Memorial day had just passed, and I was feeling guilty for not visiting any graves on the actual Memorial day, I wanted to make sure I got in a visit to my family members who have passed on. Both of my dads parents, his brother and a cousin of mine (along with some other extended family members) are all buried in Milton-Freewater. It had been a long time since I had visited their graves, and it was so nice to visit them again and remember them.
Here are Tucker and I at the headstone of my Uncle Dan (dad's brother) and his daughter, my cousin, Summer. She passed away when I was 12, and she was 17 and my Uncle died my freshman year in college, in 1997.

And here are Tucker and Papa at the headstone of his parents, my grandparents, Barb & Howard Campbell:

It was a good Memorial day!
Milton-Freewater is a good 3 hour drive away, and it is oh SO nice when you get this the whole time:

Both were just passed out in their seats! :) Hallelujah! :)

models...

A friend of mine who is an aspiring photographer asked me if she could take some pictures of us for one of her photography class assignments. I brought some balls and we had fun just playing at the park for awhile while she shot some pictures. It was fun being on the other side of the lens! :) The theme of the assignment was 'healthy people' so we just got to play and act all healthy. These were the two she turned in of us for her assignment: