The cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Cow's House

Everything is more fun with cousins around! We all stayed at the house and carried out plans Grandma had made for the wedding reception. For the kids, this meant hours of mostly uninterrupted play time. 

 Train-building. They cooperated most of the time. And then 10 month old Devon would come along to dismantle it. 

 Ev and Kaden trying to swing together. 

 My mom was working on this flower bed - here it is unfinished. It provided the perfect digging pile for the kids. They built a system of canals and filled them up a few times over the course of a couple days. 

 Digging potatoes out of the raised beds. I wish I could get my garden plants to look this good!

 It was hot, so out came the sprinkler. 

 Burying Gordon. He came out covered in dirt, and then muddied the small pool in the backyard. 

Hoping for four-wheeler rides. 

 They were playing nicely, and then not-so-nicely. Ben made them all hug. It was funny watching them do it so begrudgingly, except for Clayton. He was more than happy to squish all together. 

 Watching Uncle Ryan blow up things up or race during the hot part of the day. 

The pasture at sunset. I love how quiet and dark it gets at night. Summer is definitely the best time to visit. 

The cursed fishing trip

Way before we were ever in Washington, Tyler asked Ben if he wanted to go fishing. Ben was game, and we just had to figure out when it would happen. After the wedding, we headed north, and picked up a fishing license at Cabela's along the way. We did not get a catch record card with the license, due to some employee oversight (we didn't even know that he was supposed to have one). It wasn't until about 10:30 pm that Tyler realized Ben didn't have a catch card, which put the fishing trip in jeopardy. Ben headed to the only open retailer who would sell fishing licenses at that hour, Wal-Mart. They couldn't  do anything. Ben gets pulled over for a headlight being out on the van on the way back to the house (no ticket). The guys resolved to hit up a gas station on the way to the fishing destination, a drive of two hours. It's midnight by this point, and we all turn in for the night, Ben and Tyler getting two hours of sleep before getting up to leave at 3 am. Nicole and I hoped they'd be able to stay awake on their drive. They left for fishing around 3:30am (?), and this time Tyler gets pulled over on the way south (he gets a ticket, boo). They were able to get the catch card though, after buying another fishing license. 

 Elk herd

 They got there after 5 am, got rigged up, and waited. 

 And waited. 

 Finally, Ben nabs a nice steelhead trout. It would prove to be the only catch made that trip. 

 Poor Tyler, so much trouble gone through for this trip, and no fish to show for it. All in all, we had a good laugh about the money spent - the ticket fine, three fishing licenses, and the gas, for one fish. Ben summarized the experience by saying, "You don't go fishing to catch fish, you go so you can have a good story to tell."  

The lone fish on the grill for dinner the next day. It's creepy how the eyeballs turn white. 

While the mens were off fishing, the kids continued to run wild, happy to play together, while the moms packed to head to Grandma's house. As soon as the mens returned, we left. It was eight hours of driving that day for Ben and Tyler. Ben was pretty sick of driving by this point, we'd been doing it for five days up til then.

The kids took turns swapping vehicles as we made stops, entertaining each other for the 4 hour drive. Fun times for them. 

Bryson and Pam's wedding

It was the place where the cousins had crazy-fun being together. 

Eating breakfast in the hotel, trying to keep them all under some semblance of control so we didn't get a noise complaint lodged against us. 

 If all wedding pictures could look like this, then we wouldn't have any trouble at all. 

 I had high expectations of getting a picture as good as the one we got two summers ago, but Gordon just was not in the mood for it. This one is pretty good thought. 

 Gordon secretly hopes to be adopted by his cousins so he can live in a house full of boys. 

 Eww. Kissing. 

 Gordon, the picture evader, wouldn't get in this shot with all the kids. 

 Jilly looks like she's off on some secret-evil mission or something. 

 Gordon is the one turned backwards on the right. Such a stinker. I think wedding pictures and kids under the age of six don't mix well. 

The weather stayed really nice throughout the picture shoot, and didn't start raining until the very end of all the pictures, when all the kids were back in the cars eating lunch. It was a fun and eventful day, one that my girls will hopefully remember. 

June was crazy and fun

 Our next door neighbor is from Florida, and a Gators fan. One Sunday, Gordon saw our neighbor and his girlfriend leaving their apartment with a big kite in hand. He interrogated them briefly about this fancy alligator  kite, and then they left. Next Sunday, unbeknownst to Ben or I, he marches over to our neighbors, and asked if he could borrow the kite. And they just handed it over! Gordon runs upstairs with this big kite container and asks when we can leave to go fly it. I was flabbergasted he had the gall to go and ask for it. Our neighbors are really nice, but they don't have kids and aren't best friends with our kids or anything, so I was very surprised. We went to our favorite kite-flying spot and had fun with it. Thankfully it didn't break the one time Evelyn brought it down into the brush. :/ We put it away after that. 

 One day we headed over to Newport Beach (not our usual spot) to meet up with some friends. My kids watched the other kids running into and riding the waves back into the beach, and thought they'd try it too. Evelyn was most successful, she being the designated "daredevil" of the kids. 

We spent Father's Day at Uncle Dan's, where Grandpa Chickens happened to be staying while in town for some business. The kids had fun and I made some really good banana bread. That week was super crazy, as I started training for my new part-time job, we were supposed to be moving, I was still babysitting, we were supposed to leave for a road trip by the weekend, etc. Thankfully it all worked out and we were able to leave on time for Seattle. 

I love road trips; I drive away from nearly all responsibility outside my family. It feels great! We were headed to my brother's wedding in Seattle. We drove straight up I-5, enjoying the sights of the central valley and trying to identify the different crops and orchards we saw. 

 This was a sign in a restaurant we ate at on the road. Seriously California, you are super-ridiculous sometimes. 

Northern California was really beautiful, especially once we headed into the Cascade mountain range. We spent one night of our three-day car trip in Oregon, visiting some long-time friends. 

 Captain America and Knight Gordon. 

 Their little girl was so cute, and not afraid of us! My girls loved holding and playing with her. 

The line-up. It's fun to see how they've changed since we last saw each other. Our stay here never seems long enough!

May was lots of fun!

 We attended a ward camp out the first weekend in May. We shared our campsite with our friends, the Whites. 

 "Jilly"

 Later we hiked the dry riverbed in the area, saw some horses, and played with the river rock. A two year old friend of ours thought Evelyn was a good way to get around. 

 Some friends who moved out of the area a couple years ago came back to visit for an afternoon and the kids had fun playing together again. 

 On Mother's Day, we got out this sailor suit that Ben's mom had given us. Ben and wore it when he was about the same age. I've received many compliments on the suit and Gordon loves it. It's too bad that it's already getting too short. 

We shared a Sunday afternoon meal with some friends from the ward. The kids always have fun together.

  We had movie night with them a few weeks later, and the kids opted to watch "Neverending Story." 

 Another friend gave us a tag-along bike, and now Gordon can keep right up when we all go riding together. Ben and I have taken him on some excursions since the girls have returned to school. 

These three are great buddies; they fight, but they get along really well too.  

 Another beach day where they were all feeling brave enough to enter the surf a few inches. 

 On May 1st, we attended a Killer's concert with the Whites. Great concert! 

 Jilly was a "dancing flower" in her kindergarten play, "The Garden." It's the same play every year, but the kids absolutely love it. The flowers dance, the weeds rap, and then there is the gardener and animal pests. It's very cute. 

 One of the moms in our pre-school group organized a tour of the nearby firehouse for the kids, and they very much enjoyed it. Gordon is growing ever less-shy, and bombarded the firemen with lots of questions and requests. 

These are two of the three floral containers I attempted this year, and they were quite gorgeous for a while, until the mildew and snails found them. The begonia is making a come-back after dying back for a few months. The calla lilies never really stood a chance. The coleus grew and grew, and as a result became a snail feast. The only thing that kept thriving were the impatiens. I also had a birthday (turned 31), and I honestly can't remember what I did for it. I also started training for my part-time job that kept me super-busy through the summer.