Friday morning

Friday morning we took some casual family picture on Mormon Row.  It was hard on Sophie, but I'm so glad to have her in the pictures. 

(Two of Seth because, look at this cute mug and his cute ears....)

This is my new favorite picture.

Rae was already in her car, but we got 3 of the 4 amigos.

 

2nd day afternoon

 After river rafting, my brother Mckay, took us to a fun rare/used/new book store.  We found some fun books then went to the center of Jackson Hole.  We looked around some shops and found very random things... Then we went back, showered, ate and slept well.

2nd day

 We woke up to deer and bunnies hopping around the yard.  It was a pretty warm night, but we figured out how to cool all the rooms down and everyone was happier about that afterwards.

We went river rafting on the snake river after that.  It was so much fun.  All the kids jumped in and out of the boats.  Sam liked swimming in the river and jumped out every opportunity that he could.  We got to see a baby bald eagle, a bald eagle in flight, ospreys, etc...

We wanted a picture with our whole group.  Vivien and Thea were too young, Sophie couldn't go and risk getting hurt again, and Dad who stayed to help all of them stay safe and watch McKay's puppies.

Starting on the left top and going around the boat:

Jordan, McKay, Evelyn, Sam, Ben our boat guide, Lance, Jer, Me, Devin, my Mom and Seth in the middle.

Seth love having Grandma hold the back of his vest.... he had a blast and felt extra secure at the same time.

I love Ada's face in this one.

Front left of the boat and going around:

Michelle, Isaiah, Rae, Sharon, Brad, Joe the boat guide, Janelle, Seth, Aubrey, Ada

Wilcox Family reunion

 We got to go up to Star Valley, WY for our family reunion this year.  It was a tough year for a lot of those involved just because of life going on.  It was nice to have a time to hug everyone and visit face to face.  The first day was Wed.  We drove up, got settled, played games... the boys did archery and alot of people got into the hot tub.

2 days

Because of a family reunion, Ada and I only could go to the first two days of a 5 day YW's Camp.  This is my 4th girls camp with Ada.  I love being able to share in these things with her.  This is her first time seeing Camp Mia Shalom. I love seeing the connections she's making and the spiritual steps she takes.  She wasn't happy about leaving her friends just when she was getting into the swing of things, but I'll try to help her love our reunion too.  This year, our Stake camp director was Jenny Yancey (who was our YW's President for years).  She hid a goat named Kenna around the camp for the girls to find, a barbie head and random boxes.... all of them came with different prizes.  At 30 girls attending, we were one of the two biggest wards there.  We had 4 cabins.  One of them was made into the food storage cabin.  That's where I slept with Sister Quibell.  Ada slept in cabin 3 with 11 other girls and a leader.  The first day was hot.  The second day was very wet.  Yet both days were great.

Alexx, Hannah and Ada

Paint by numbers

 

cousins

These kids of mine were so excited to see cousins that they haven't really seen in 2-3 years.  They soaked them in and loved every minute.

Evelyn, Hal, Seth and Walter were creative and used flashlights in order to play in the sandbox.

We took our laser tag guns.  That was fun.

 

4th of July

We took the opportunity this year to take the kids up to Harding's Haven for the Harding family reunion and fireworks at Bear Lake.  It did mean that after a long driving day, we slept and drove again.... but I think it was worth it.  I loved seeing fireworks at the lake as a kid.  I haven't been up for at least 17 years, so it was fun to do it again.  You bring your fireworks and you watch the entire 360* of the lake with their ariels.  It was fun.  We did forget to remind our kids to bring their jackets so they were all wrapped up in dry towels and Seth cuddled with me in my jacket.  He told me very sweetly, "Mom, I think I'll have firework dreams tonight."  Usually the Harding week is packed, so I didn't think there'd be room for us to camp so we rented a 'room'.  The only thing we found withing 20 mins were the covered wagons they rent out for glamping.  It was fun.  One wagon fit our whole family and it had a little heater in it.  We had it on right before bed, for a few minutes in the middle of the night and in the morning.  We woke up at 6:30 so that we could get Ada back home in time for her shift at lunchtime.  Ada took all these firework pictures.  I took the ones with the sparklers.

We got home, got Ada washed at to work, cleaned up from our trips, napped, grocery shopping done, dinner made and D&D played.