Waco, TX

Our first day in Texas was spent in Waco at Nate's uncle Larry's house. He has lots of beautiful land and took the boys on rides.

 It was pretty warm even in the evening. You can tell by how pink Ashlyn's face was.

She loved having Nate blow on her.

 

Grand Bobbie and Ashlyn. This is her great grandma.

 Dallin watching the cows.

More to come. We went to a spray park this evening.

A beautiful heirloom

Ashyln's great grandma, Bobbie, had this jacket and hat when she was a baby, and she is passing it around between granddaughters to get pictures taken in it. 
It is adorable, I wish I had one to keep.

Campbells family pictures

I took my friend Jenny's family pictures this week. There is a part of town that has lots of old brick buildings. I hope to take may more pictures in "Old Town" while we are here.

Aren't these girls adorable?

 Emma was obsessed with the trains that were behind me. If you see her gazing off into the distance, it is the trains she was looking at.

 Abby

Exploring

I have been on the look out for new spots to take pictures and found this place when my friend and I went for a jog last weekend. I am taking a friend's pictures tomorrow, and wanted to see how the lighting was this evening. These are just goofy pictures.

 Ok, maybe I shouldn't post this one, but it is too funny. Why do boys always feel the urge to pee when they are outdoors? And why do little boys think they have to drop their pants all the way around their ankles to get it done?

 Love Ashlyn's smirk.

 

 

Special delivery

Tanner is such a big kid.

He starts school this fall. We ordered his backpack and lunch box online, and he was SO excited when it showed up today. The backpack, lunch box, and thermos: $7 for it ALL. Score.

We also signed him up for soccer. His shin guards arrived with his backpack. You should have seen the giddiness. We totally scored again with the cleats. Found a barely used pair at the DI (a thrift store) for $3.

YES!!! (Exclamation point. With this font you can't tell.)

 Still wearing his shirt backwards. We've got to work out a few little quirks before he is totally ready to start school. :)

Bows and stuff

I have tons of flowers and bows already, but I keep seeing all these different styles that I want to try. So I keep on making them. I hope she will wear them for many years. I found these here if you are interested.

 

Then this is just Dallin being Dallin. He has a silly personality. He was pretending that the pineapple had a spout and he was pouring himself some juice.

Riding horses and pictures from Rexburg

 Here are some random pictures I took during our Rexburg trip.We hung out with Tracie and Kris and her roommates, who are all super cool.

And we went to Kung Fu Panda 2 which I surprisingly liked. It was a late afternoon showing and Dallin was tired. By the end he was sleeping and kind of folded up in his movie seat with his butt down, legs up, head rested against the seat back and hands folded in his lap, if you can picture it, it was pretty darn funny. We all kind of sat around after the movie giggling about it. I only got a junky picture on my phone.

 We also went to Kiwi Loco for yogurt. And played at good ole Porter Park, I have a few pictures of that I will post another time.

Before we left Oregon we went to my Uncles house to ride his horse. The kids enjoyed that, but it was HOT.

Sisters

The kids and I went to Rexburg this weekend since Nate has been in Iowa. He went for his cousins wedding and to shadow his uncle who is a physical therapist. We miss him a ton, so we visited my sisters to pass the time. They are heading to Oregon next week. Tracie graduated and Kris has a break. I took pictures of them and their roommates. That was a fun afternoon.

 I don't even know the last time we were in a picture together. Do we look related? For those who don't know, I am the oldest, then Tracie (on left) and then Kris (on right) is the baby. There are boys in the mix but that is how it goes for us girls anyway.

I took more pictures of our weekend and will post those soon. Here is one of the roomies pictures. See more here.

Stinker

The day before we left Oregon Tanner got a hold of a Sharpie and tatooed his body from his upper lip to the bottom of his feet and EVERYTHING in between; even, well I will just leave it at that. While he was at it he colored on the wall and the bed frame. When do kids out grow out of coloring on everything they aren't supposed to? I thought it would have been by now.

July birthdays

We celebrated all the July birthdays yesterday. My cousin Michelle had her 3rd baby (Maysa) on the 4th, and my sister-in-law Michaela had her 2nd (Holly Capri) on the 5th. I have family members with birthdays on July 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7th now. Sheesh! I am amazed that my grandma sends cards to all her kids, grand kids and great grand kids. I can't even keep track of my immediate family.

We went to the park again. Played with squirt guns.

 And played on the swings.

 Ashlyn played with her tongue a little more. She had her tongue out in about half the pictures I took!

 Toki loves Ashlyn, and pushed her around the park. Dallin did too and almost ran her right into a stream.

 Sorry, I just can't get enough of this girl.

We head back to Idaho tomorrow. Driving this time. We will split the trip up into two days for our sanity. Even though we aren't going back to much to do, we are excited to get back to Idaho. We've missed our friends and our own beds.

Special people

We went to see my grandparents today. I really want my kids to have pictures with their great grandparents. I don't have any with mine, I barely remember them.

Both grandma and grandpa use scooters to get around. She had polio and my grandpa had a stroke. The kids love hitching rides. Even Ashlyn.

4th of July weekend

I took pictures of my brother-in-law's family this weekend. They are a good looking bunch

 aren't they? See more here.

 

We did a little bit of running around and some swimming.

 Played with Ty, their cousin who just moved to Washington. We won't see them again til next spring probably. :(  The kids are eating tres leches cupcakes. It is our tradition on Nate's birthday.

Happy Birthday Nate

Nate is 29 today. Yep he is a younger than me. He will be about 30 when he starts his career. Wow, it has been a journey. A wonderful one. A lady he worked with at this last affiliation couldn't believe he was in school with 3 young kids. We wouldn't have it any other way. I already know we will look back on these years as some of our best. We've truly enjoyed the struggling student years.

 With the holidays I like to make stuff for the kids to wear. I made this pillow case dress for Ashlyn and the ties for the boys to show our patriotism. I thought it would be a good day to take a picture after church since we were all matchy.

Fun in the sun

We played in the pool today with Chawna's kids.

One of these days Ashlyn will rip out my earrings.

I don't have many pictures of myself with Ashlyn, so I handed the camera over to Chawna.

I could kiss these cheeks all day. But it gets old for her.

There is that tongue again.

Yummy!

Guess whose toes these are. Dallin's. I was painting my toenails and he REALLY wanted his done. Grandma painted Tanner's blue, so I went ahead and painted Dallin's. Tanner's polish came off within the hour after Nate told him toenail polish is for girls.

Here is Chawna's clan. The white girl is Carmalee, Chawna's sister. Funny, she is the same age as Chawna's her oldest daughter Aili who is almost 10, making Carmalee Aili's aunt.