Camping Trip

My sister in law has family who owns property near Lava Hot Springs. W were lucky enough to camp at this awesome site, with lots of room, covered pavilion and lots of picnic tables. We had a blast, which is saying a lot for someone (me) who HATES camping!

Dawson's favorite part of camping was eating, and trying to eat everyone's food. When I took this picture, he realized he was busted!

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Dave spent lots of time at this cute pond fishing with the boys. Landon loves fishing, it's one of his passions in life.

While fishing we stumbled upon this fun rope swing. Dave even tried it, but got nervous when he could literally hear the rope breaking... Didn't stop the rest of us!

Dave

Me

Joseph (my bro)

Cecily (niece)

Jaycee (niece)

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The kids taking a whack at the Uncle Robert Pinata! I swear my brother will climb anything!


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Landon had tons and tons of fun playing with all his cousins. They were constantly inventing games and creating masterpieces. This rock (or as Landon calls it, an ancient dinosaur skull) was so heavy! They had to collect it for their "Paleontology Museum."

The museum. He wanted to charge people to walk through it, but we nixed that idea pretty quick!

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Dawson spent most of his time harrassing my mom and my sisters puppies. Poor dogs.

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Moose we found on one of our nature drives.

My family is crazy, and I love it most the time. Except when I try to get a nice picture and I have not one, but three brothers in law try to ruin it. So many ruined pictures because of them!

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While we were in town at Lava shopping, my dad found some fake gold bubblegum. He thought it would be funny to bury it and have the kids find it. Once they started finding it, they were so excited!!! Landon was even throwing out all the things he was going to buy. To say he was ticked off when he found out it was fake is an understatement.

Thanks, Kari for a fun time! We're excited for next year!

Landon Goes Mutton Bustin!

Every year we like to hit up the Rodeo. Landon has been anticipating the day when he would be old enough to go Mutton Bustin. This year was the year! Unfortunately, our camera broke right before this special event. I wasn't able to get pictures of him on the actual Sheep :( I did get it recorded though. Phew, if I was tech savvy, I would upload the footage, but I'm not, so I wont.

I think the temp was well into the high 90's. Landon did not appreciate that they made him wear long sleeves and pants.

After the race they had a special ceremony where they gave each kid a special bandana and hat. Landon had to wear both of his at the same time.

Yellowstone Vacation

We had such a fun trip to Yellowstone in June. We went with Dave's parents, his Brother, Jeff and his family, and his brother, Ryan, and his wife. This year we decided that rather than stay in West Yellowstone, we would stay in Gardiner Montana. Staying here gets you further back into the park and closer to all the cool wildlife. Dave and I decided we will always stay in Gardiner! It's not the most picturesque town there ever was, but super convenient!


If Dave had his way, we would sit in the car and drive all over Yellowstone for hours on end and see just how many Bears, Moose, etc. we could find. I was fine with it in years past, but this time with TWO kids, we weren't gonna let that fly. We stopped at every spot we could and let the kids get out and explore. They had a ball! We went on lots of hikes and saw lot's of really neat things.

The above picture was of a hike we went on, the waterfall is kind of hard to see in the picture. If you remember from this post I realized I have an intense fear of heights/cliffs. When we got to this waterfall, it was a really steep drop off. I was so scared for my kids' lives that I almost couldn't breathe. I made Dave hold Landon and Dave's dad held on tight to Dawson.








The house we stayed at was the really pretty Victorian that was built in the early 1900's. The house was beautiful! The kids loved having grandma so close all the time.






There was plenty of wildlife to see! We saw more bears than we could count.

Landon's first bear sighting of the trip! He was just a little excited.

Hard to see, but there is a bear behind us. We had to hurry and snap this picture before one of the rangers saw that we had found a bear and make us get in our cars. Landon is a little nervous to be so close. :)

Morning Surprise!

Landon went outside to play this morning and came running inside screaming "There is a raccoon in our cherry tree!!" Dave was doubtful but went out to check anyway. Sure enough, raccoon!

After Dave and Landon came running inside I snapped this (poor quality) photo with my camera. It tried to come inside too!

Nightime Surprise!

You can imagine how surprised (and a little freaked out) I was when I walked into Landon's room to check on him and found this: (and yes, he is asleep!)

Recent Happenings

Most exciting news is... We got our basement finished!!! We had lots of family help, which we appreciate tons!

So, I had an unexpected, yet delightful "accident" happen in the process of finishing our basement. See this deer head in the family room? Well, this is the last time you will see it there! While Dave was carrying in some drywall he accidentally smacked into the deer head making a huge hole in the wall and knocking it unstable. Aw, shucks, so sad! It has since found a new home in the garage.

Hardest part for me was trying to cram all our junk into one small storage space, which still looks a MESS! I need some organization tips, if you have any.. send them my way!

My dad and brothers in law did so much to help us out! It's nice having family members with skill! Dawson was always downstairs helping "gumpa."



FINISHED PRODUCT!!!

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This is a favorite for the boys! Pizza parties downstairs while watching the Jazz game/movies!
Landon really got into watching the Jazz games this season. It was convenient for him to quickly become a Lakers fan when they were winning though.


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We've been lucky to have my brother's baby, Eliza on Tuesdays. She is the worlds best baby, I kid you not. She never cries and is just content to be wherever you put her. Both my boys are smitten with her! Landon, as you can see is in love. I've never seen him take to a baby like this before. (Please refrain from the "You need another one now" comments. )

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My Uncle Josh taught my family how to go Geo caching. It has now become an obsession with Landon! He can't get enough. Dave's brother gave him a GPS a few years back.. it's not near as nice as the one my uncle had, but it serves it's purpose, for now. We really want to get a new one!

Dave was looking at the GPS and trying to figure out if we were in the right location while Landon went off searching.. sure enough he found it, and he couldn't have been more proud! They are camouflage little boxes, can you spot it in the picture?

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Dawson Ross- sports enthusiast!

Baseball Guy

Football Guy

Basketball Guy


This guy cracks me up!