Sunday at Freeman Park

Today, after church we went to Freeman Park with Mom and Bob, Grandma and Leah. We had a picnic and some played Frisbee Golf while others watched the kids play in the stream by the picnic tables. After the Frisbee Golf the kids played touch football, while others tossed frisbees back and forth. Here is my handsome man playing touch football. :)Touch football...
Some of the group resting in the shade.

Mom playing frisbee.
More of the group playing football.
My sweet Julie.

Noah picking up the finer points of frisbee throwing from Gram and Papa.
Leah getting in on the frisbee action.
Belle being her little independent self, making noise with the toy.
Crystal going in for the attack.

She was going around the table, popping people with an empty pop can.
Here she is getting Tim.
Can they get any cuter?
Noah climbing in a big tree.
It was a wonderful Sunday with the family! I thank the Lord to live so close to so much family! I thank the Lord that I get along with my family! I couldn't have chosen a better way to spend Sunday afternoon.

Iona Fun Run

So, on Thursday I saw the Iona Fun Run in the newspaper. It is a 5k run/walk. I called Mom and Bob up and said we ought to do it. Everyone agreed with me. We decided that Mom would push Noah and Belle in the jogger (thanks Leah) and walk with Gabe and Julie. The rest of us would run. Thursday was a really rough bootcamp and boy my legs were feeling it Saturday morning. We didn't register Noah or Belle and when Noah saw everyone putting on their numbers he was so upset he didn't have one. They gave us a coupon for a dental office, so I pinned it on him. He was very proud of his number! This picture is all of us that were in it! This is before the race, hence all of us look fresh and not red in the face. :)Dave leading the kids in pre-race stretches.




Getting ready for the race to start. For those of you that don't know 5k is 3.1 miles. Doesn't sound very long, but.....

Toby ran with me...glad he did....he kept me going at some kind of a pace. :P Finished in 32:15. Not great, but not bad. Here is Desi finishing the race. She helped mom....they had an interesting time with all 4 little guys. No they didn't finish last, my mom would have NONE of that!
Here is my Gabe finishing up his first 5k.

And Julie....

And our Comfort Dental Care boy, Noah!
Mom and Belle, I think Mom and Desi did more work than those of us who ran it!
My children drooling over the "stropy's" Julie got second place for her division and went up and tried to take a stropy, but they were only for 1st place. She got a fancy backpack!

We all got a free movie pass, free dinner at Fazioli's, and a prize. The kids got huge bags of candy and the rest of us got dinners or baseball tickets. It was great fun! Bob won 1st in his division, Mom won 1st in hers, and Davy 1st in his. When they walked back with their strophy's, Julie offered to "keep" them in her backpack! We are definetly doing this again next year!

We thank the Lord for keeping us all safe and letting us finish with no injuries! Thanking Him for the opportunities to make such wonderful family memories!

Beautiful!

I took this picture when we were driving home from our camping trip. I looked ahead and caught my breath! I held my camera out the window hoping that it would turn out okay. I think it did! We are so fortunate that God allows us to enjoy His beautiful creation! He is amazing!

Kids

This was yesterday....nothing special.....just at home.Today we went swimming at Mrs. Young's house. She is their new Sunday School teacher. We all had such a good time! Julie wore the swimsuit that my mom crocheted for her when she was 1. It looked so cute!
The only problem was when it got wet it drooped at little! It looked like she should be in some Norman Rockwell picture! :)

I forgot the camera when we were actually swimming. Belle was actually the biggest fan of the water and even it being cool at first didn't phase her. I am so thankful to the Lord for giving me these children!

Yellowstone

Yellowstone was fast and furious. We got a late start at it, but bought a year pass so will be back! I think I am going to make Toby take me there instead of Lagoon for our anniversary! :) We hit Old Faithful, because you just have to everytime you go....Of course when we got there it had just gone off so we had an hour to kill.
So we went to the Old Faithful Inn. It is such a gorgeous place! The wood work is amazing! All the wood is from Yellowstone! I won't go into the whole history, but I love this place. I have even stayed in one of the rooms that is the same as when it was first built!

I have seen it so many times and everytime I am just in awe. Isn't it wonderful that God gives us puny little humans the capability to build these sorts of things!After ice cream, thanks Papa, we headed back and watched Old Faithful.
Belle was so impressed and Gabe just kept asking when "Old Grateful" was going to explode again. :)
A picture of part of the outside of the lodge as we were driving away.
Momma and baby buffalo ( or bison to be technically correct! )

Even though they give you a paper when you go into the park that tells you to stay a safe distance away......there were people walking up to 10 feet of these guys taking pictures. We were in the car and heard a ranger tell someone to move away. Someone last week was charged and injured by one.

To end the Yellowstone day we stopped at Midway Geyser Basin. While we waited for people to get back from the bathroom, the kids made this a teeter toter and Micah had fun with them.
The vast array of colors is just spellbinding!
Noah decided Addey was his buddy and didn't even want to hold momma's hand. "No, my buddy Addey."

Julie was the leader here. Although some ruckus was had over that fact, the boys constantly trying to get ahead of her, she stayed the leader.
Gabe had blisters on his feet so Desi gave him a piggy back ride for a little bit. Notice in the background the boys right on Julie's tail waiting to get ahead of her! LOLJust think this looked cool!
Like I said, the colors!
The crew in our van.
On our way out.

Julie got the camera and took a picture of her feet. Not sure why, but I thought it was cute!

Upper and Lower Mesa Falls

Okay, so I realize there are alot of pictures here. I tried so hard to keep it just a few, but in all reality this is just a fraction of what I took. So.......here we are at Lower Mesa Falls.It sure is beautiful!!
Julie and Gabe hanging out.


This is at Lower Mesa, I love it! I think it used to be a little inn. It used to be really run down and has recently been taken care of.

Inside are all types of displays and of course a little store.

The kids favorite place is a room in the back that has all sorts of animal hides to touch, skulls, feet and legs of different animals.
Also, this collection of butterflies....Julie's personal favorite.

Noah, very tentatively, touching the bear hide.
This was draped over a couch, I don't know about you, but this is so how I think of cozy by a fire! :)


Daddy and Belle checking out a fishing book. Noah and I snuck back and got it for him.

Papa showing Noah the falls.
Belle is in the "follow my finger" stage....needless to say, dad did not follow this fingerpoint.

This is the upper falls. My kids all loved the rainbow!
Noah and his "buddy Addey"
Not all the kids, but a good portion of them!

The big kids were running and my Noah had to let go of my hand to run with them. They grow up so fast!
Julie posing.
Another picture of the falls.
Toby hiking along.
The last bench they rested upon.
Constantly amazed by God's beautiful creation and very thankful that He let's us enjoy it!