that time i pretended to be a photographer

  last saturday night we rushed down to logan so we could spend a little time with my family.  everybody was gathered so we could see sweet oakley get blessed on sunday.  it was as usual too fast, but of course so fun.

sunday morning i asked brikelle if i could follow her around and take pictures of them while they got oakley ready for her blessing.  it's kind of a secret how much i love my camera, but i'll take any chance i can get to play with it!  i am for sure not a photographer but i have to say it was sooooo much fun taking pictures of oakley.  she is seriously the happiest, sweetest baby i've ever met! which made every single picture of her turn out so perfect.  

seriously, are they not the cutest family ever?! i'm so proud of dustin and brik and what awesome 

parents they are.  sunday was such a special day and it was so neat to see oakley be blessed by her dad.  i live for days like this with my family.  

island park fun

 after yellowstone and some dinner we decided to head out and play a little more!

luckily these bikes are electric, that made me feel a little better with tacey on the back of one.

and that jack sure is a ladies man, look how cute he is.

 i'm wishing we would have gone swimming a little earlier in the day, because i think it would have made the water a little less shockingly cold.  rhett and some of the kids really didn't seem to mind too much though.

the boys

that pretty much wraps up our little getaway.  it of course went by way too quickly.  glad we were able to spend some time with these great friends and also get some quality family time in. 

yellowstone

friday evening our longtime friends showed up at the cabin! it had been over a year since we saw them last so we were all so happy and excited!

saturday morning we woke up bright and early (like 6:30am) to head to yellowstone.  did you know fourth graders can get their entire family in for free?!  not that yellowstone costs a ton of money but we were all happy about being able to get in for free!

 how cute are these girls?! kara and i decided they are definitely in the preteen stage.  it's pretty fun to watch these girls hang out.  especially since i can clearly remember them hanging out together as babies.

annie!!  i was tempted to steal her and bring her home with me.

the kids got sooo close to the elk.  i wasn't sure about it especially since i could hear some of the other tourist say how people were morons for getting that close.  but rhett and james assured us that the elk wouldn't harm anyone more than a horse would.  

we watched a little romance blossom throughout the weekend.  it was the cutest, funniest thing i've ever seen.

 old faithful was our last stop of the day.  apparently we showed up right after it had gone off and it was supposed to be 90 minutes before it went off again.  we ate some ice cream and kind of just let the kids run around and play.  finally old faithful went off and before it was even finished the men were rushing us out to the car so we wouldn't have to wait in traffic.  i was laughing so hard.  did we seriously just wait 90 minutes for old faithful and not even really watch it?  haha.  

yellowstone was so much.  being with the eatons made it even more fun!

mini family vacay

thursday night we loaded up the car and headed to island park for a little family getaway.  friday was such a fun day.  we rode the rzr all day long all over island park and the mountains.  

this was one of our first stops.  the fish were hiding under the bridge so riggins decided to lay on his stomach so he could get a better view of them.  pretty soon every single person on the bridge was copying him.  it was hilarious.

can you see how dirty we are.  we all had the thickest layer of dirt all over our entire bodies.

can you spot rhett?

 later that evening we pulled out some borrowed jet skis and took them out on the lake.  it was so super windy and the water was COLD!  the kids really hated jet skiing, until i let tacey drive at the very end.  now she is hooked and keeps begging for us to take her out again.  riggs and bry have no desire to go again.  haha.  

one feels like none

my girls are on their long drive back home right this very minute! i seriously can't even wait, i've missed them more than i thought possible.  

did you know only having one kid almost feels like having no kids.  riggs was super easy this week.  we realized he throws way less tantrums when his sisters aren't around.  haha.  i think i witnessed two tantrums this entire time and it was mostly my fault because it was way past his bedtime both times.  riggs enjoyed being an only child for a few days.

i kept really busy while the girls have been gone mostly because i honestly didn't know what to do with myself.  

i attempted potty training riggs one day......

that's so not happening right now.

i was feeling the pressure since he is two and a half, but honestly he is not ready at all.

he has to have surgery in the next month or two so i figure potty training might be a waste of time anyway for now, right?

i finally finished painting our deck.  that's was not fun.  but it looks a lot better! our yard needs a lot of work and i get really overwhelmed overtime i look at it.  so baby steps is what we are doing.  we have a little grass in the back and the deck is painted, small improvements.

i was able to take riggies on a date saturday night.  we picked up some chicken and went to the lake to play at the park there.  he laughed and laughed the whole time we swung.  he loved it.

some highlights from my weekend 

*i organized every single picture i own and put them into some nice picture containers that will keep my pictures safe.  that's a project i have been wanting to cross off for months.

*i was able to go do some massages with a friend.  i was so nervous because i hadn't given anyone a massage for a really, really long time.  turns out it's kind of like riding a bike.  it was good for me to be able to give some massages so i don't completely lose all my skills and i had so much fun with my friend that day. 

*i even read an entire book a couple days ago.  i can't tell you the last time i was able to do that! 

so all in all it turned out to be a fun little break for me.  but seriously, i'm counting down the minutes until my girls are home!!!

my girlies

these girls woke at 5:30am and took off this morning to go spend 5 days with their grandma and bumpa.  it's only 8:55am right now and i am already missing them terribly.  like i have a pit in my stomach feel sick kind of missing them.  i kept asking them over and over this morning, 'are you sure you want to go?'  tacey kept responding with 'mom, chill. it's not like we are going to be gone a month!'  they gave me some super tight hugs and kisses and hopped in the car with a ton of excitement.  i can count how many times i've been away from these girls and it hasn't been very much which is why it probably gives me awful anxiety sending them off.

i'm going to try and make the best of it and just soak in this time i have with my little riggie roo and rhett.  i'm also wondering if i am going to be able get a ton done these next few days because i'm down two kids or if it is going to make it harder to get things done because my two best helpers are missing.  hmm, we shall see i guess.