Summer kick off

Hoorah for the good ol' summertime!

Summertime brings popsicles

and Ruby's birthday

{I can hardly believe she's 4!  She loves to make us laugh and smile and you're not at our house if you can't hear Ruby singing her heart out.  We love our Ruby!}

and Vacation.

~After two and a half years, we finally made the trek back west to see family.  We packed so much into our two weeks and had the most wonderful time!!  Here are some highlights:

Camping with the Griffiths clan, including a day spent at a beautiful mountain lake!

{it was wonderful to be in the mountains again}

Once the cousins warmed up to each other it was fun to watch the packs of kids roaming the campground, playing their various games.  And of course there was some card playing,

and splashing in the creek among all the other fun camping and campfire things.

And when we got back we all needed a nap.

{what you don't see in this picture--and neither did I until later--is Ruby just out of this shot in the computer chair, also fast asleep.}

Another highlight was meeting up with several of my long-time friends and meeting all the kiddos and catching up.  We were missing and thinking of several others who were not able to make it.  Oh, it was fun to get together!!

Grandma Griffiths arranged for us to ride ponies, and while we waited for them to eat their dinner my girls were all giggles and pure happiness to maul a few kittens for a while. Just look at these smiles:

The ponies!!

{Who, incidentally, are Welsh ponies named Merry and Pippin  :) }

So much fun!

We celebrated Lucy's 2nd birthday in the middle of our trip.

{Our Lucy is really getting personality and independence.  She thinks she is as big as the big sisters and that she can do anything.  We think she is funny and so sweet and loving}

The zoo is always a fun place, especially when you meet up with all your fun new cousin friends again!

After so much fun up north, we headed south to spend our second week with the Tovey cousins!

We again packed all we could into our days.  We went to a petting zoo where we saw and held so many cool animals.  Some we'd never heard of before.  It was so much fun.

Meet Spanky, the baby monkey.

Can't even remember what this was or his name, but it was obviously captivating.

The anteater.  Such a long wiggly tongue.  A lot skinnier that I thought it would be.

Paige and the Spankster:

Anne and Ruby both held the toucan!  {Can you tell it was about a thousand degrees in the desert?  We were so happy to come in and cool off for a bit}

Anne and Chase held the armadillo.

There was a baby bengal tiger.  They breed these with cats to get the bengal cat. { I think I'm remembering that correctly...?}

Here's the bearcat named Frito.  He loved cuddling and smelling all the kids.  Doesn't look like it, but he was really gentle and nice.  Also, if you pet him and smelled your hands he smelled like movie popcorn.  Hee!

They had us line up and put our hands on our knees to lean over a bit, then they let this guy run along our backs.  He has an amazing nose the bends all over the place.  He loves to smell all kinds of things and when he finds something he really loves the smell of, he rubs the smell into his tail with his hands so he can smell it again later.  Are these the ones related to raccoons?  Maybe. 

Gotta have some pics of The Chopper!!  Enough said.

Whoops, this one got put in at the end.  Nobody will forget how the camel tried to eat Eric's cowboy hat--especially Eric. 

We did so much more, but were too busy and preoccupied to take pictures.  Lots of cousins playing all over the house, lizard hunts, friendship bracelets, and on and on.  We had a fabulous vacation with family.  We love and miss them so much and have so many happy memories. 

~Stay tuned to see what became of our yard and bees when we got home...