Fireworks

Fireworks are Jer's favorite time of the family reunion every year.  He reminds me of his Uncle Alan and his Grandpa Robertson plotting bigger and bigger shows.  This year we chose not to have any aerials and just do some fountains.  And even though we cut back on how much we bought it ended up being the same price as past years.... everything is getting so expensive. I loved to see Jer playing with all the nieces and nephews as well as our own kids.  It makes me happy to see his young joy. There are a lot of Ada pictures here... I was experimenting with portriats with firework lighting.  Ada and Evelyn both posed for me.... But I think Ada knew what I was trying to get and Evelyn kept dancing (which was cute, but didn't really help with the portrait part).

Grandpa's ice cream

Evelyn and Maisy

Ada teaching Sam how to long board. They kept running over the snaps.  It was funny.

Sam, Hal, Evelyn, Eli

Seth and Ellie

My wonderful Jeremy

Sam

Seth

Hal and Evelyn casting spells at each other

Millie, Eli, Sam

Ada and Seth

Chariots of fire running

I was showing Sam how to do pictures with dark light and this one is Sam's picture of Seth.

Sam's picture of Maisy and Evelyn

The mastermind corner... Ada, Jonathan, and Jer

Seth and Ellie said that they were wizards and were directing the fireworks to explode.  I loved it.  They were so cute!

Wizard masters

My Evelyn

Ada and Jonathan helped a lot.

I think this is one of my favorites.  We got some fun lighting from the garage.

Evelyn with her acro pose

Ada setting off flowers

I LOVED these!  These sparklers were extra smokey which was not so much fun for some of the spectators, but I loved the pictures that I got with them.  So much fun movement!  This one's Hal.

Ada liked this one.

I like the green in this one.

Jonathan and Sam's pure joy in this one was so fun.

Cy, Evelyn and Seth playing a "knock people off the slackline" game.

The "Mother" tattoo that I gave Ada as a joke after she gave me a wrist tattoo that was spelled wrong.  This girl is so funny.

 

4th of July

4th of July swimming

helping in the playhouse

Getting the decorations up

My favorite picture of the day

Jonathan, Sam and Ada figured out that they could use the leaf blower to make themselves move. Pretty much everyone tried it out, including Jeremy.  

Jer put up the slack line

nerts

 

Emily's visit

 

We got to see Emily's family twice while they were here.  I hope that we get to see the kids again soon.  I'm really glad that we got to say hi. It was unexpected. Saturday Jer got a call to see if we wanted to come celebrate Walter's birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's. So we came down and Emily was there. The kids swam for a bit, played the bucket game, threw logs like the scottish highland games and ate cake. (Ada and Sam both threw the log....It was fun).

I think this was a steal the flag game.

Seth and the birthday boy.

Steamroller game chosen by LucyJayne.

The bucket game.... A big favorite with the big kids.  They laugh so hard.

Hot dogs for dinner.

Handsome, "big" cousins.  Can you believe that two are finished with high school and two will be soon.

Seth sinks.... he just does.  2 years of swimming lessons and he almost drowned twice.  He finally figured out how to float without anyone's help.  He's so proud of himself and I am too.  So cute!

I asked these guys to smile.... they ended up posing like an 80's friend's photoshoot.

These three on the tramp were playing kitty games.  It was cute.

They managed to get a 4 person pyramid.  Fun and I'm glad that they were strong enough to not get hurt.

Bike ride

This year, they decided to try to schedule the Robertson family reunion for people... It half worked. Because of work schedules and Jay's temple sealing people are coming this summer, but not all at the same time.  Emily and her kids were out here for a little bit and we got to jump in and see some cousins that we haven't seen in 5 years.  I love these kids.  James is working at Fedex and it sounds like he's doing really well with it.  He's got great hours and I think that's a great job. Sage is super smart and so fun to talk to.  Harrison still has his fun sense of humor, but he now looks like an adult. He's so tall and funny. Little Lu is so cute.  She was picking veggies out of the garden and asking me to try all of them.  The snap peas were especially delicious.  The older people went on a bike ride to Utah lake and back.  It was fun.  It was about 13 miles... which I think is the longest that my kids have done since they were little.  We used to ride bikes with them alot.... including the Hiawatha trail.  With my 2 surgeries, physical therapy and Jer's year this year getting back on his feet, it's been a while since they've done more than a couple miles.  Ada, Evelyn and I did just get new bikes, so this was a fun way to break them in.  Ada, Sam, Jer and I went with Jim, Margaret, Amy, Emily, Joe, Jonathan, Eli, Harrison and Sage.  There was so much cotton everywhere it was really cool. Harrison was awesome on that ride.... he wanted to push hard and go from the back of the group to the front on the uphill.  And he did.

 

Sam's YM's encampment

Sam went to FSY, came home, packed, went biking and hiking with the Morrisse, Tarkington and Hansen cousins and then sent him straight off to YM's camp.  He's been tired and grumpy, but he loved every minute of it and he said it was very spirit building. 

Sam went to FSY, came back for two days and then off to YM's encampment with our ward.  He loved both.  He said that FSY was so amazing and spiritual.  At camp, he fished, played games, whittled, hung out with friends, etc... There was a little bit of drama, but luckily it didn't involve him.   He was happy to come home, shower and relax by the time he was done with these 2 weeks.

 

18th anniversary

This amazing man has been mine for 18 years now.  He's never made me feel lesser.  He's never made me feel guilty. He's always helped me with kids and made room for my callings. He didn't care that I was an art major instead of something profitable.  He loved that I wanted to be a stay at home mom. I loved being one too.  He supported me in opening the daycare in our home even though it caused him discomfort on where he could be during his lunch break or which bathroom he has access to. I love this man.  We had planned a date in Ephriam in a train Airbnb as our anniversary this year.  We got the flu and that didn't happen.  So this year we went to Texas Roadhouse and went fireworks shopping.