Family pictures

When we were in Boise in May Justin and his siblings and parents all had a meeting about what the up coming months were going to look like.  One of the things Bonnie requested was to have family pictures taken by a professional.  Wendy happened to have a friend back in Oregon who does a great job and had some credit with her so we scheduled for June and were once again on the road.

Paige is getting better in the car for sure and Frozen kept her entertained for a good long while this time.  Plus hair twirling and a binky. ;)

The weather was beautiful and the kids were all so well behaved it worked out great!  The pictures turned out really good we are so thankful to have them now.

It just melts my heart to think of how much these grand kids love their Grandma and Grandpa.  And the other way around for sure.

There is never a dull moment with this family and the laughing goes on and on.  Inappropriate or not it's fun. ;)

                                      

                                      

                                                    

Now let's get serious.........
                                      

I LOOOVE this one!!!!!

This one is super cute too.

Less hair as they go. ;)

The kids were released to play and get dirty and have some FUN!!!

And fun they had.

                                     

                                                                   Selfie attempts.

 Afterwards we went out to dinner and enjoyed some good fried comfort food.  I think this is the last time on record that we ate out as a family with Grandpa.  (With all of us together at least.)  What good memories we made.

The next day we took the kids to the Zoo in Portland.  Not many pictures taken by me this trip but it was fun.  The kids always love the zoo when we get to go.

 We brought Jackson home with us when we left to play for a week.  It was a tough good bye for everybody that day, Jennifer was off to plan a wedding, we were heading home to enjoy summer break and Mike and Bonnie to Seattle for a transplant.  It was bitter sweet for sure.  We later find out that Mike would take a 6 week break and be home for the wedding which was so great!  More to come......stay tuned!

Race time!!!

If you want time to speed up any time in your life just plan a race when you have never done one before,   for longer than you have ever run before and oh yeah....ALL NIGHT LONG!!!  Planning and training was a bit stressful.  It was the Sawtooth Relay in Stanley, ID with all of my sisters and both brother in laws.  My Mom was the original 6th person but she had knee surgery last year so no more running for her. :(  We ran in her honor though and ended up having such a great time!!!  It was a crazy rush doing it over 24 hrs and so much fun to see all the other teams and cheering everyone on.

My sister Sarah flew to me first and stayed with us for a few days then we drove down together,  It was a lot of laughing and wondering what the #@ll we had gotten ourselves into???

The scenery was beautiful along the way.

 This is the beginning of the Sawtooth mountain range where we would be running in T-minus 8 hours.

 At night remember so we had to get a picture while we could still see it. ;)

We arrived at the house last and just in time to fill up on lasagna, bread, and cheese and relax a little bit before checking in for the race.

This is the group with Rodney my brother in law who was our driver.  Bless his heart we are a LOUD bunch of women and cheering out the windows at race goers was our favorite thing to do.....all night!!!  Yikes!  Sorry Rodney. ;)

I managed to grab two different running shoes from home so that made it interesting.  Luckily I grabbed the right and left. whew!

 Runners at the start. Larry was the first runner.

 I was 2nd, Sarah 3rd, Gretchen 4th, Heidi 5th, Heather 6th then Larry again and we ran a second time.  Each leg was about 5 miles give or take and some routes were harder than others.  Heather is the marathon runner of the group so we gave her the hardest leg all up hill and she KILLED it!!!  We all made really good time and finished a lot better than we thought we would it was so much fun!

Hiding out in the back of the car getting ready for round 2.  Who needs sleep??? ;)

                                                   

 We all survived and had some fun at the after party then went back to the house to nap and eat!!

 We all met for breakfast with my Mom the next morning then headed our separate ways again.  Short and sweet was the weekend and I would do it again in a heart beat.

 I love my sisters so much!!

 We stopped here on our way home because neither of us had been here before.  It was pretty cool but seeing it once is enough for me. ;)

The race was very fun and a great motivator to keep me going through the winter months.  I would do it again for sure.