Summer Vacation

This year we took our first summer vacation!  We met Andy's parents, Lynn and Martha, and his brother, Rob, and family, Cathy, Chloe and Elijah in Yellowstone National Park.

We stayed in West Yellowstone, Montana.  The RV park we stayed at was only about a mile from the west enterance to Yellowstone.  Andy's parents stayed in their travel trailer. Rob & family along with us rented cabins that were close to the site where Andy's parents stayed!

 Andy and I in front of the Grand Teton's!

 The whole family in front of the Grand Teton's.

 We saw quite a few different animals while driving through Yellowstone!

 The hot springs and mineral pools were Awwmazing!!!  So crystal clear!!! They looked so inviting!!!

 Darn computer...This picture was rotated the right way before I uploaded it!!!  Oh well...Bryce and his cousin Chloe!

 Our family in front of one of the mineral pools!

 Andy's brother and family...Cathy, Rob, Chloe and Elijah

 This pool was the most amazing one...it had yellow, orange, green and blue in it!!  As you walk around you're on a walkway with no hand rails.  The steam is sooooo hot when it blows across you!

Pictures don't do the colors justice!!

 We over heard a man saying that this pool used to be a gyser like Old Faithful!  However, it just kept going off and ended up exploading! It created a hole...the water is so clear you can see it bubbling from the heat inside of it!!

 Here's another crazy sideways picture...of this one is of Old Faithful!  It was amazing to see all the water erupt from the hole in the ground!!

 It's a play date!!

 Darn it!  Here are the cousins together...Elijah, Tristan, Bryce and Chloe

 The water falls were so awesome!  There was a winding pathway down the brink of the falls!  Talk about power...you realize how much power the water has when you're standing right next to it!!!  The walkway was 3/8 of a mile (one way) and you drop 600 feet!

 Here we are at the brink of the waterfall...Rob, Cathy, me and Andy!

 The boys and I found a spot that we could get in one of the rivers in Yellowstone!  Boy that water was C.O.L.D!!!

 Bryce in front of the upper falls!

 Tristan in front of the upper falls!

 All of us at the upper falls next to the brink!

 Andy and I at Yellowstone lake!

 Family picture in front of the Yellowstone sign!!

We had an amazing time exploring Yellowstone together and spending the rest of the time with Andy's family!  We're so blessed that we could all make it to share this amazing time and vacation together!!!

Once we left Yellowstone we drove across WY to see my mom and Kirk.  It was a more blessed trip because we got to see them as well!!

 The boys with Papa and Rocky...watch out Bryce is driving!!!!

 My mom has an amazing garden going...Tristan got to help pick red potatoes!  He was in his element...dirt!!!

Papa and Nana needed a new firepit so that we could roast marshmellows for S'mores!  The boys dug the firepit in the rock solid ground and then used the ATV and the trailer to go get BIG rocks to put around the ring!  Boy they were in heaven with that ATV.  Bryce learned that it's not easy to back up a trailer...he got some instruction from dad and was able to make it work!!! 

 We took this picture of all of us up in the Big Horn Mountains.  They live at the base of the mountains!  Andy amazed me with his creative idea to get the flowers in the foreground!  AWESOME JOB BABE!!!

 I couldn't take enough pictures with my honey!  We don't get these pictures very often so we took advantage of the scenery!!

 Here is a view from the mountains!!

 Our last full day there was spent in the mountains shooting guns...Papa's favorite pass time and hobby!  I shot a 9mm, 2- 40 cal, 12 guage shot gun and a 50 cal rifle!  It's been a long time since I shot a gun...we all had an amazing day!!!

 I even hit the target a few times!!!

The boys enjoyed themselves too!  They love shooting and are looking forward to being old enough to go to WY for hunting season!!

We had the most amazing time with our family...we look forward to many more years of exploring new destinations with our loved ones!!!

He made it to 10 before his first broken bone(s)...

On Saturday February 13th Bryce went to our local skate park, for skateboarding...it has half-pipes, ramps etc...with a friend!

He sends me a text (yes my son has a cell phone) saying that he is at the skate park...I told him to be careful and be good!

A little while later I hear the garage door open and look up to see Bryce coming in holding his left wrist crying saying, "I broke my wrist"...these words come out of his mouth EVERY TIME he hurts himself!! ;-)

I told him to let me see it...I look at it and can tell that it's swollen so I have him sit down in the chair and we put ice under and on top of it! While he is sitting there I ask him how he is doing and he starts crying..."What's wrong?", I ask "I know you're mad at me!" "What?" "You told me to be careful and I went and broke my wrist!" "Honey, accidents happen and I am not mad at you...at all! Don't cry...We'll get it fixed and it will be fine!" Too cute the way kids think about things!!

He sits in the chair for about a 1/2 hour. We lift up his arm to look at it and he starts crying, "it hurts". We look at the under side of his wrist and it has a bump and it is turning black and blue so off to urgent care I go with Bryce and his pillow and ice packs and a blanket because he's cold!

After sitting in urgent care for 2 hours they x-ray his wrist...sure enough he broke BOTH bones in his wrist! WOW when he does it, he does it good!

This picture you can see the bone on the right is broken...the bone on the left is "mushroomed" at the top...that is a break also. That bone should be more straight at the top!

This x-ray you can REALLY see the break of the bone on the right! And you can see why his wrist was "bumped" out on the under side!

This is another view of the bone under his thumb that is broken!

So on Monday I took him to an Orthopedic surgeon...yep it's definitely broken and both bones! His wrist is slightly bent to one side...We need to straighten it! So off to the hospital we go!! They put Bryce out and straighten his wrist and re-splinted it! We had to wait for him to come out of the Anastasia and then we came home! He was in pain for most of the week but is doing much better now! We go in Monday (the 22nd) to get his cast on. He will have to wear it for at least 4 weeks!

Long time...

Wow how time flies when the holidays come around!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends, our Oklahoma family! We had Thanksgiving at our house with some of our friends who moved here from other states...just like us they're families aren't here! Andy brined a turkey and cooked it on the smoker...WONDERFUL!!! We also deep fried a turkey!

Table setting for the adults!

Our Oklahoma family at Thanksgiving!

We went to Cali for Christmas this year. What a wonderful time we had seeing family and friends! We left Oklahoma on the 19th and returned on the 31st.

We toured the USS Midway in San Diego!

We spent a few hours at the beach. Bryce is looking for rocks and shells!

Tristan had not been to the beach before our trip!

The cousins had fun together...boy how they have grown!

Halloween

We went to a friends house for a Halloween party. There was pumpkin carving, musical chairs, limbo and scavanger hunt trick or treating.

The boys and I dressed as punk rockers...of course, I had to EXPLAIN to them what a punk rocker is!!! I had to chase Bryce down so that I could get the eye liner and lipstick on him to complete the look...Tristan was ready to look crazy!!!

Bryce picking out his pumpkin to carve.

Tristan picking out his pumpkin

All the kids getting ready to go into a haunted maze that someone had in there backyard!

Bryce doing the limbo!

Tristan cheating at limbo...lean back!!!

Bryce and friends wrapping eachother up to be mummies!

Tristan and his friends were the youngest in the group. They teamed together for the mummy wrapping contest and won. They had all three of them wrapped before the other teams!

It's family picture time!

It the time of year that we try to take family pictures to send out with Christmas cards. The last few years we have taken our own pictures...timers on camera's are GREAT!

This year we didn't want to miss the beautiful trees as they are changing colors. So we took our pictures a little earlier than usual.

We went to a park/pond near our house to take our pictures this year. I am VERY happy with them!

This is my favorite picture of the boys!

They came up with the idea of laying on the ground in the leaves!

Bryce...almost 10

These pictures where we all look like we're in black and white is called color accent.

It is a special feature on my camera. They came out okay.

Tristan and his "gansta" look!

Both boys!

Another one of Bryce...He wasn't looking at the camera!

Andy & me...14 years and counting!

Boys...in color!

Our family picture!

Me & my boys!

Andy & the boys!