Family Reunion and City of Rocks

Our annual Jones Family Reunion is always the first weekend of August in Almo, Idaho (about 1 1/2 from where we live). It's a tiny little town on the outskirts of the City of Rocks where Chris' mom's family originates from. We woke to a dismal morning and left bright and early at 6:00 a.m. to get there in time to help with breakfast.

Chris was nice enought to pull off to the side of the road a few times so I could take a few pictures:


Although it was a gloomy, cloudy morning I was able to get a few nice pictures. Some of my favorite subjects for photography are old buildings and vintage objects. I love the barn boards below in this old shed.


At the reunion Brady had a blast riding the "train" and on the buggy pulled by the ponies. He went from one to the other for about 2 hours!!!

He was such a good big brother and let sissy have a ride with him too!!

Olivia and I went for a ride on the buggy as well, which she liked but thought was pretty cold! It was the coldest day of the summer!!!

When we weren't busy taking rides, Olivia played pass with her cousin, Ella.

It was a fun day with delicious ducth oven cooking, fun times mingling with family and watching the "young guys" get beat by the "old guys" AGAIN in a softball game!!!

On the way home we took the "picturesque" ride and went through the City of Rocks. I was able to take some great shots which I hope to frame!!!

What a beautiful ending to a nice family day!!!

"Minnie Mouse is so beautiful I could almost kiss her!" ~Brady Graf

Olivia got a belated birthday gift in the mail from Aunt Nickie, Uncle Nick and cousins Lexi and Chloe. She loves her new p.j.'s and puppy!!!!

My ONE year old...

Olivia suprises me every day with new things! This past week her new thing is to say "Me, me, me!" when she wants something (like a bite of what I'm eating!) She also now says "Mommy" but she says it like "mo-meee!" and she says it over and over again!



She no longer uses her binkie (except to play with, like in the picture below, she kept putting it in and taking it out thinking that it was so funny!) And she is down to 2 bottles a day and I'm slowly going to wean the morning one in the next coming month.



Here are a few other things she's been up to:





Playing with mommy's shoes any chance she gets! She's always trying to get her feet into them and she gets really frustrated when she can't do it right!

These two pictures crack me up! She was so funny one day and dumped out all of the toys in the livingroom and then climbed into the toybox! From the look on her face below you cna tell she thought she was pretty clever and having fun!

When we go to our playground she loves to play in the sand and loves that she is now "one of the big kids!" She runs around with them and has even discovered the stairs up to the slides so now I'm more on my toes than ever! She thinks going down the slides with mommy or big brother is the funnest thing ever!

This is her new Red Sox hat that she got from Grammie and Grandpa Morgan in Maine! She loves wearing it on her morning walks with mommy and it helps keep the sunshine out of her eyes! This is also her new baby doll, Sadie that she also got from Grammie and Grandpa. It's the perfect size to pack along where ever we go! Grammie and Grandpa Graf got her a bigger baby doll names Stella that we keep at home to play with. Currently she's been spending a lot of time "sleeping" in her bed until Olivia has a little more interest!

And this is my big girl all asleep in her bed! She sleeps just like her daddy with her hands above her head! I could never sleep like that!

Hebgen Lake, Montana

Last weekend we took a last-minute trip up to Montana to spend the afternoon with my family and some friends boating at Hebgen Lake. On the way to Montana we stopped at Register Rock along the highway just because we had no plans and I'd always wanted to stop there but we never made the time before.

Register Rock is on the Oregon/California Trail and is one of the rocks where early pioneers scratched their names and the dates of when they passed through onto the rock. This particular rock was a popular one for "registering" on because it was a popular camping spot along the Snake River with shade from large trees and plenty of fresh water from a nice creek.

I'm glad we stopped by to see this little piece of history!

From there we continued on to Idaho Falls where we stayed the night with our friends, Quinn and Natalie Thibodeau and their family. The next day we all set out to go up to Montana and meet my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Mike (it had been almost 3 years since we'd last seen them) and my Aunt Donna, Uncle Jim and cousin Megan (who we'd seen a few months ago, except for my Uncle who I hadn't seen in about 2 1/2 years).

The day started out beautiful and warm without a cloud in the sky! Perfect for boating, picknicking and playing on the beach!

We set up a nice spot on the beach and had TONS of delicious food!!!

I've always held a special place in my heart for my Auntie Don-Don ever since I was a little baby...I think Olivia does too because she was seldom ever out of Donna's arms! Aunt Donna kept her well-fed and gave her lots of kisses!

And when she wasn't being fed and cuddled Olivia had a blast playing in the sand and water. Her favorite part was just walking around holding the buckets in her hands!

Aunt Brenda and Uncle Mike showed us a great time on their boat, which Uncle Mike Captained most of the time:

I went on the tube with Aunt Brenda and Natalie (below) and we screamed our foolish heads off!!! It was so much fun- I don't know what it is about scaring yourself to death that is so fun!

I also got to waterski for like 2 minutes- It's been 8 years since I've waterskiied so it took me 4 tries to actually get up and then the water was choppy and head over heals I went! My skis flew off my feet and over my head...the clouds were also rolling in so I figured I'd get some more tubing in before the rain really hit! Maybe next summer I'll get more skiing in!

Aunty Donn-Donn

Megan loved having some new friends to play with! They were the first to "volunteer" to go tubing!

Kaytee, Megan and Annie

Annie and her mom, Nat

Chris was relaxing in the water when he got "pushed out to sea!" Before he knew it he was WAY out there! He didn't want to get his shirt wet so he tried to paddle himself back to shore...

Then he was rescued by a bunch of brave little girls!!!

(Oddly enough, he later fell in the water when he was trying to get on the boat and his shirt got soaked! He had to drive back home shirtless!!!)

Quinn tuckered out from wakeboarding!

These were some really cool pelicans on a sandy point on the other side of the lake. My Aunt Brenda took us "girls" for a ride around the lake on the boat and I got the best picture I could.

And then the clouds rolled in... (earlier in the day after we'd been at the lake for a few hours we had to hurry and pack everything up because a huge storm blew in. All 13 of us huddled under a little canopy during a 20 minute long freak Montana hailstorm!

When we saw these clouds coming in again we took the hint and packed up as fast as we could so we could make the two trips back to the marina. It was a crazy fun day!

My kids were pooped by the end of the day so they were acting pretty silly. As soon as we hit the road Livy fell right asleep! (Notice the BIG GIRL car seat!)