Over the 4th of July we ALL got together. It was the first time in over seven years that all of my siblings, our spouses and all of our children had been together. The last family photo we took was right before Jared and I got engaged. It had been awhile! It was a lot of work trying to get the 14 grandkids to hold still and be happy for a couple of minutes but I think overall the pictures turned out well :)
Funny faces...
And after us parents left, several children had a meltdown. The rest added to the drama by pretending to be sad. Brig did not want his picture taken and Benson fell asleep during the commotion. I love Papa and Grandma's faces in this picture.
We had a fun-filled week playing with all of the cousins. We went boating at Willow Creek a couple of times, took a 4-wheeling trip around Cobb's ranch, fished, played in the bounce house, played volleyball and bad-mitten, enjoyed the 4th of July parade in Choteau and the fireworks put on by Uncle Perry and Uncle Duke, and of course, ate lots of Grandma's delicious cooking! The pictures are a little out of order, due to the face that I borrowed a lot of them from everyone else's blogs! :)
The view from our 4 wheelers on our ride around the ranch. It was gorgeous but a little hot for the babies. We all got a little sun that day.
Dylan and Brig had fun playing in the pool together.
I believe this is a picture of Bens at the parade. It was the only picture I managed to take because he didn't care for the loud noises and I was busy trying to keep all the little boys from running out in the middle of the street for the candy. Brig especially enjoyed seeing the fire engines. He loved picking up the candy, but he was often a little bit slower than his cousins. It's tough being the smallest sometimes. Good thing he has nice cousins who shared their candy with him!
4 wheeling behind the house looking for gophers.
Grandpa Haynes and Shirley came out on the 4th for a visit. Not sure who's idea it was for us to stand looking into the sun, oh well.
Benson got lots of attention from his cousins.
Redneck slip-n-slide time!
I don't think Brig enjoyed it half as much as Dylan did.
Jared and I were the only adults brave enough to go down.
While we were in FF we got a special visit from my closest childhood friend, Amanda. We hadn't seen each other for about 13 years! She and her groom made a stop on their honeymoon to tour around the Sunny slope. It was so fun to catch up with her and to meet Josh. Amanda was just like I remembered; she was her happy, bubbly self.
Brig was determined to ride the big boy bike with the training wheels. He did it on his first try! And he managed to steer clear of baby Jett, most of the time :)
Brig got up early one morning and wanted to feed the heifers.
 |
| Eat that grass cow!! |
Benson was a chill monkey at the lake.
Brigham learned to "surf" on the knee board.
Benson getting in some lovin' from grandma!
Brigham was finally convinced to go for a boat ride by the end of the week. He loved it and still talks about it.
We had a couple good games of volleyball.
Grandpa Haynes and some grandkids.
One evening we had a visit with Papa's cousin, Butch. He told us some WWII stories about his Dad, (uncle) Harry Van De Riet. We got to hold the Samurai sword and pistol he captured.
Good eats and good peeps on the 4th. Brig preferred to eat on the 4 wheeler with Jared.
Watching the firecracker snakes with Papa.
Sparklers!
Floating on Jake and Rachel's sweet tube.
