Black Butte

Last weekend the forest service was ready to evacuate Black Butte due to forest fires burning about a mile away from the homes. Lucky for us we were their the previous weekend & spent a leisurely weekend playing with the puppies and hanging out in the pool, without any fire threat!

Above is Wickett with his new summer haircut (a little late this year) and below is Harley. Harley is a Lhasa Apso also. He is the reason we have Wickett, actually. Brad fell in love with Harley, who belongs to our friends Travis & Rachel, and when Brad picked out a puppy for my birthday 4 years ago he wanted one just like Harley. So, that's how we ended up with Wickett. They are super good buddies now & love to wrestle around.
Harley sits like this when he is asking "please" for something, it's hilarious, all the way down on his bottom, I've never seen another dog do this before!


Travis' family has a house in Black Butte and they were nice enough to invite us along to their weekend getaway. They have the cutest new little baby, Jacob.


Travis, Rachel & Jacob enjoying the pool.

Kaden jumping in the pool to Brad.

He just loves to swim on his own!

After we got out the wind picked up, we bundled him up as best we could & I thought he looked just like Ariel the Mermaid in this shot!

We took some long walks around the golf courses.

Stopping to chase lots of bushy tailed squirrels along the way. Fourtunatly they were way to fast for Kaden or Wickett!

Playing on the playground...

What a cute kid, huh!?

Weekend in Central Oregon

We recently spent the weekend in Central Oregon. While staying in Bend with Grama Pickles we got to enjoy Munch & Music at Drake Park, complete with a bouncey kingdom. Kaden was in heaven!!
He was accompanied by Erica on this bouncey adventure.
We mosied over to Prineville to enjoy the Crook County Fair & Rodeo. Alexis, Anna, Erica, and Kaden (& my mom) got up close to the action. The most exiting event was the Mutton Busting, little kids trying to hold on & ride a sheep for 8 seconds. It was hilarious, I gotta get Kaden signed up for that next year!
We got to see Uncle Dave in action. He is working as a volunteer for the Prineville Police Dept.

Action (that just means blurry) shot of Kaden trying to kiss a sheep.

Hangin' near the cows with Auntie Brittnee.
Grama & the piggies.

Kaden got to take a ride on my Dad's elk mount while it was off the wall.

I suppose this is what Kaden would look like if he was monted on the wall!

Benton County Fair

Kaden got to go on some big kid rides at the fair. He takes his flight skills very seriously & kept his hands on the wheel the whole time.

He even rode a roller coaster all by himself! He was pretty startled when it first started moving, but was soon smiling!

We got to see lots of horses...

A baby pygmy goat...

( I think we will have to become goat farmers some day & have a whole herd of these little pygmies, they are too cute!)

Kaden trying his hardest to fall in the goat pen.

There were even some cool reptiles, this turtle was huge!

"Future" FFA!

Kids Corral...

Wouldn't we make lovely pioneers!

Bzzz.....

How scary is this!! We found this on our evening walk around the neighborhood the other night. We couldn't quite tell was living in it... and didn't want to stick around to find out! Yellow jackets, wasps, hornets, giant alien stingers? Any ideas?

July Road trip- On the way home

Brad flew home after the reunion, so the rest of the trip was just Kaden & us girls. We drove home through Yellowstone saw lots of animals, buffalo & elk mostly & stopped by Old Faithful Geyser. Our timing was perfect it went off about 10 minutes after we got there. It goes off regularly about every 90-120 minutes.
We went through the super cool Old Faithful Lodge.


We stayed in Cody, Wy. & got to go to the Night Rodeo. It is runs every night during the summer months.
Anna, Erica & Alexis are in this crowd of kids. It was basically a "capture the flag" contest, with the flag being attached to a calf. It was pretty funny to watch them running around in flip-flops trying to avoid the leftover land mines!

The last stop on our trip was in Meridian, ID. at my Uncle Dan's house. They just built an amazing pool in their backyard. Complete with jumping platforms. The top platform has water that cascades off into the pool. Very cool!

July Road Trip - Reunion in Montana

This is my Great Grama Cecelia, the reunion was in her honor as she turns 94 this year. She had 14 children, one died as a child, one passed just recently, and one wasn't feeling well last month. Other than that, 11 of her children and most of their families were there to spend some good family time together!
Cecelia's daughter, my Grama Pickles. Pickles daughter, my mom Donna. (And my cousin Paula's pup.)
Me & my Grama.
Kaden with my cousins Anna & Alexis, he likes to call her Ali.

Kaden playing with "Uncle" Buster, he is my Grama Cecelia's only kid at home these days!
My sister & her husband, Brittnee & Dave Halbleib.
My sister Amy...
... & her husband Dave Kramer.

While at the reunion we played alot of games. Brad & my aunt Anita are fierce Scrabble competitors, they are always trying to prove they are smarter than each other. No room for the casual Scrabble player here, so....

we played a matching game instead!
Lots of fun with stickers. A bunch of the Gramas and Moms worked on this quilt while the rest of us played, it was auctioned off at the end of the reunion. My sister Amy was the highest bidder!

It was lots of fun....

We can't wait to see everybody again next summer!