Colton is Three!

Colton turned 3 this year. He is definitely not a baby anymore. He definitely looks and acts more and more like a preschooler now. He loves to learn new things and so he asks a lot of questions now. His favorite things are still doing puzzles and playing/throwing ball. He especially loves to throw rocks in the river.

I made a horsey cake for Colton this year as his favorite animal is a horse and one of his favorite movies: "The Man From Snowy River"

He sure likes the cowboy hat he got for his birthday, but you can see he wasn't letting go of the m&ms Megan gave him.

My mom gave Jayce and Colton wonderful pop-up books for their birthdays. Jayce's is "Peter Pan" and Colton's is "The Hungry Caterpillar."I guarantee you have never seen a pop-up book like that Peter Pan book. It is the original version/story that the movie is based on. So many pop-ups to go with the story. We still haven't gotten through the entire book. It may take several days. The kids spent some time working on illuminating bags with Grandma Georgia that will be displayed at the cancer walk-athon in Gardnerville. I cannot think of the correct name for the event. Those participating will be walking around Lampe Park late into the night or starting early before dawn. The bags will light the path.

Jayce turns Fantastic Five!

Happy 5th birthday Jayce! The day before we headed back to Nevada, Jayce had a fantastic birthday party with his Idaho cousins and family. They all showed up for his birthday bearing gifts, but what he enjoyed the most was the time he got to spend with them. Not a bad way to end a fabulous vacation. Jayce wanted a school bus cake this year since he will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. He's excited and nervous to start school.

Looks like Jayce wants to give the cake a kiss. I'm glad he loved it.

Chelsey was such a good sport letting all the kids pound her with balloons and then mess her hair and watch it stand up with static.

Tuckyr Poole, one of the youngest cousins.

Colton got to open a present too since his birthday was coming up.

Avery and Charity. Avery is such a character.

Avery and Jayce were doing to birthday dance.

Grandma and Gramps being silly.

Tyler Clark

Charity and Megan Clark. Cute cousins. Logan is always good for horsey rides. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. For some reason I only got pictures of Bruce's kids at the party but Bonny and her family, Wayne and his, John, Kathy, Braden and Lee, and Nan and Willie and family were all there too.

Fireworks at home

John and Kathy came over to watch the fireworks we set off at home. It was many days past July 4th. We had a hard time fitting them into the schedule. It was a treat for us to be able to do our own because they are out-lawed in Nevada because it is so dry and such a fire danger. The kids loved the sparklers.

Shooting in Menan

We went shooting with Blake's brother Bruce and family, Kathy, and Blake's parents, Fay and Robert. It was fun and hot. No shade anywhere. Jayce got over-heated and threw up on the way home. We thought maybe he had the stomach flu since Megan and I had been sick with prior to that day but he seemed to recover quickly and was playing baseball with his cousins a while later.

Blake helped the kids shoot. A little bit of gun powder from the bullet/gun Jayce fired splattered on his neck and burned him a little. He was done shooting. I was glad.

Colton played in the dirt and looked for rocks to throw. Jayce found bullet casing and made them whistle. Kathy took the kids on a walk to look for cactus. Jayce started feeling sick so they headed back. We soaked Jayce down to cool him off before we headed home. However, in the truck near home, he got sick all over himself. Apparently, he missed the bag. He and Blake rode in the back of the pickup the rest of the way home.

The Bar-J

We went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to the Bar-J to have a chuck wagon dinner and watch a show by the Bar-J Wranglers. We were very entertained by the old cowboy music, funny songs and jokes. We all laughed a lot. Blake and Stephanie, Bruce and Lynette, Robert and Fay, and Nan and Willie all were able to go. The Bar-J Wranglers are very talented musicians and they all show cased their talents for us. I wish I could remember all their names. It started out as a family business/show but the dad is retired now. The 2nd and 4th guys in first picture above are brothers. The Wranglers do dinner and a show 7 nights a week for four months during summer and then travel during the winter performing. There were something like 700 people there that night. Reservations are on first come first serve basis. We got there early so we could get good seats for the show.

This wrangler was very funny, singing a silly song dressed up in this costume. He had all these one liners that put everyone in hysterics.

It was a very fun time. I would say if you go to Jackson Hole, go to the Bar-J. On the way home, on Jackson Pass, we saw 5 deer standing in different spots along the side of the road and then the car in front of us slammed on their brakes because a moose had decided to cross the road in front of them but then changed his mind and went back to the side he came from. The animal sightings on Jackson Pass were better than Yellowstone Park. Never did see a bear though. While we were at the Bar-J, the kids stayed and played with their Teuscher cousins, Mikayla, Jessica, Taylor and their nine puppies. Megan got to spend the night and have some girl time with her girl cousins the following day and then Aunt Nan took her out to lunch.

Yellowstone Park

While in Idaho, we took one day and made a day trip to Yellowstone Park. We left Menan at 9am and got home at midnight. There was a lot of driving to see the sites and of course search for animals. It was great having Blake's parents with us who go to Yellowstone often and know their way around the park and the best places to see animals. We heard lots of stories about bear sitings etc as for us...we saw bison.

This is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Park. The river runs through the canyon.

Old Faithful goes off about every hour. We got there just as it finished so waited around another hour for it to go off again. We ate lunch and went to the gift shops and then realized what time it was. I took the kids and ran to where Old Faithful was and watched it it going off as we were running up to it. At least we were able to see it just not get a picture of it at its highest. This is a minute or so after Old Faithful was done going off.

The top of that tree is a bald eagle's nest. We could see the eagle in it but the park ranger wouldn't let people stop and look.

We did see quite a few bison in one section of the park anyway. Thank goodness for that because we didn't see many other animals. The kids were amazed about the size of these animals.

This heard of bison had many babies which were fun to watch.

We also saw elk at Yellowstone. However, this heard of elk wasn't at Yellowstone but at an elk farm in Menan. We had fun driving around Menan Butte to look at the elk.

On the way home from Yellowstone and almost home to Menan, Blake hit a dead deer lying in the middle of the road on the white line between the lanes. There was a big bump but no real damage to the car. Just some blood and a scratch on the side of the car.