Pleasant Valley Days

Hayley climbing a tree...what a good poser.

Paige in the same tree...wish we had trees like this at home.

Riley

All the kids hosing off after playing in the creek.

Paige, Riley and Andew with front row seats for the candy!

Papa taking Hayley, Riley and Aden back to the cabin after the parade.

Sadie hung out in the carrier pretty much all day, she was fussy!

All the kids minus Hayley

The kids now in the creek after a couple hours of rain...think they are getting muddy?

Riley and Casey sorting their treasures from the creek.

Paige and Casey playing playdoh.

Anyone for some ribs?

Waiting for the parade to start.

Casey got to be in the parade...you go girl!

Pleasant Valley Days is a little festival they have every year in Young! This was our first year to be at the cabin during this fun little small town festival and it was really fun...I think we will make it a tradition. They had a rodeo, arts and crafts shows, parade and cowboy church.

We spent four days at the cabin and the kids really enjoyed it. The kids hunted for treasures in the creek, rode quads, took long walks, bugged papa for ranger rides, played frisbe and baseball, made a playdoh volcano (thanks for that idea grandma suzanne) and a lot of eating...what is a vacation without lots of food.

"dirty lake trip"

Sunburned and tired but still smiling on the way home.

Funny faces!

Hayley, Mackenzie, Brynlie and uncle Brandon.

Ryan and I

You cant take a trip without dominos!

Hayley...always smiling and willing to let me take a picture.

Double tubbers...a little scary having that many kids in the water!

All the guys going out for an early morning ride while the water is still good.

Kids getting ready to go tubbing.

Ryan cooking breakfast burritos on the coleman stoves.

Dana and Dusty!

Kaelie and Paige

This is not exactly what it sounds like, for the past month or so uncle Brandon has been planning a "dirty lake trip". Dirty meaning taking it back to the days when they were kids and went to the lake without all the amenities we have today. We had planned to go to Roosevelt to camp but the water level is so high this year there was no primitive camping...and you cant have a dirty lake trip without sleeping in a tent! So Ryan and Brandon drove up to Apache Lake to scout out a spot. In the five years we have had our boat we have never been to Apache Lake (probably because it is a one lane dirt road, starting to realize where dirty lake trip is coming into play?). So we got up there Friday afternoon and it was great...there was not to many people and we could pull the boat right up on shore. The kids played in the water and tubed all weekend. We cooked on the old coleman green camp stoves, Brandon, Ryan and Dusty reminised all weeked about the old days with Ray and Kriss and drank Dr. Thunder (generic Dr. Pepper) like it was going out of style!

The funniest thing all weekend had to be Paige (sorry Pager, I love you anyway!). So she is not exactly the typical camper...she really does not like to be dirty and there were ants everywhere. Because the ants were in full force you had to walk quick or they would be all over your feet. When we went to bed she would not sleep on her bedding, she would only sleep on the air mattress, so Ryan traded places with her, so then all night and I mean all night long she was flaying around saying "they are all over me, turn on the light". She also said she is never sleeping in a tent again and that she wanted to drive home right that second. She even wanted to lay directly on top of me so that the ants wouldn't get on her (there was not actually any ants in our tent but I she sure thought there was). A few of her famous quotes for the weekend: "Not a chance" and "I don't think so" both said in perfect Paige attitude, I had told her to put on her clothes that she wore the day before so she didnt get her pj dirty before bed and she says "not a chance,I already wore those"! There were some public bathrooms close to our camp spot so I took Paige up there a few times to go to the bathroom. She sat down to go to the bathroom one of the times and there were little were bugs crawling on the ground and she started screaming like someone was after her and went running out of the bathroom with her clothes at her ankles with huge alligator tears (it was hysterical because they were only little stink bugs but so sad because she was really terrified). I guess camping is not going to be Paige's favorte vacation:-(!

All in all it was a great trip and our kids had a good time!

Fun with our cousins!

We had a sleep over and had our cousins hang out for the day....and it was so fun. We sent up a tent in the living room and slept in (actually everyone was in it when I went to bed but when I got up only Hayley and Shelby were left). Everyone got to make their own pancakes, we played out back, we made our own pizzas for lunch (we rolled out the dough, the kids thought it was pretty cool), we had an apple cider toast and went swimming at our friends house! It is so great to have cousins the same ages as our kids to play and hang out with. Families are forever!

Sadie was a trooper, she just hung out with all the madness!

Brynlie and Sadie were napping while we rolled our own pizza dough, Hayley, Kaelie, Paige, Riley, Braden, Tanner (Riley's friend) and Mackenzie.

This was the topping bar...black olives, peperoni, two kinds of cheese and what is pizza without sauce and a bunch of it (side note, pizza sauce kind of makes a mess :-)).

Apple sider toast!

Riley, Mackenzie and Hallie swiming

Even if they didn't sleep in it, they still had fun hanging out in it.

Riley and Mackenzie, can't tell you guys are cousins!

Baby Brynlie eating pancakes.

Hayley, Mackenzie, Brynlie and Kaelie on the playground.

We even made a few messes :-)...9 kids will ocassionally make a mess!

The jammer!

Looking good!

For the summer the kids have been able to go somewhere, do something or buy something instead of getting allowance. The girls got there nails done and Riley bought the "jammer". This tight speedo looking swim team suit is called a jammer and cost $38 ( I know ridiculous, right). Although we have been teasing him a bit about it, he absolutely loves it! He begged me every day for a week to take him to buy it and then wanted to wear it everywhere not just to swim team (golfland, friends to swim, etc.). I am sure it has made him a faster swimmer :-). I hope you are always this comfortable in your skin!

Swim Team

Nice goggles!

She usually goes straight from bed to the pool, so the hair gets a little matted but its worth it!

Helmet and backpack to ride his pick to the pool, it is about 4 miles total.

Seth, Riley, Nate and Tanner, WOW big muscles!

Paige stretching before she starts.

Riley getting geared up to jump in.

Paige on the block...you go girl!

Is that Riley? Can't tell with all the gear :-).

I can't believe 8 weeks has gone by this fast...Riley, Paige and Hayley signed up for swim team this summer and it has been great! Its Monday through Thursday from 8:15 to 9:05. Great for there friendships, exercise, summer schedule and there self esteem. None of the kids wanted to compete in a meet but they still had a blast.

Hayley never actually got in the water, I take that back, I made her do it a few times but she cried the entire time. Not sure why she would never get in the water because she swims laps at the gym all the time, maybe next year hayhay :-).

Riley gets up at 6:45 a.m. every day so he can ride his bike with friends and then just hangs out at the pool for an hour or so until I drop Paige off at 8:15 when it starts. What a crazy kid, who would get up that early every day if you didn't have to...Wish I had your motivation rybug.

Paige wasn't to sure about it the first week or so...but after that she couldn't wait to go. Her stroke looks great and she has made some new friends! She is really good at her dive off the block.

Hayley lost her first tooth!

My kids are funny...no one even knew she had a loose tooth...not even her! She called from aunt Stephanie's house yesterday to tell me that her tooth fell out. She realized it was loose, wiggled it a bit and out it came! All night she kept asking is it time for bed....she could hardly wait for the tooth fairy to come.


Ryan falls asleep on the couch almost every night but last night as Hayley was waiting to go to bed for the tooth fairy she fell asleep on Ryan's back with tooth fairy pillow in hand.

Going to be hard for the tooth fairy to sneak the money under that tight grip!

WOW! $1 from the tooth fairy.

I think the bed head might be taking away from how cute her little smile is with her first missing tooth!