Family Closeness: Part 2

We got to spend some time, too short an amount!, with Ray's family in Minnesota. We visited his mom, dad, and brother in Lake Crystal for 2 days, and his other 2 brothers in Minneapolis for 2 days. I was terrible at taking pictures and am kicking myself for all the pictures I didn't get (like one of all the cousins together, and one of the kids with their grandma and grandpa). But I did get some fun ones.

We needed to make this a budget friendly trip so we camped at several KOA's along the way (and we only went out to eat twice, we totally rocked the PBJ's and cereal!!). This one in Billings is the first KOA ever! Not the best picture, but I was standing in the middle of the road and Ray was yelling at me about all the cars coming!

The kids FINALLY got to miniature golf at the Billings KOA when we stayed there for the second time on our way home.

At the park in Lake Crystal with Morgan!

Seth and Maggie had such a good time together, he helped her so much!

Anyone who watches Wipeout as religiously as we do knows what a dizzy dummy is. For those of you who don't know, it is an adult size contraption like the one above that the contestants get strapped to, spun around very fast, then they are released to complete the course. When we got to the park, Elliot stands up and says, "YES! DIZZY DUMMIES!!!!"

I *heart* swings, big trees and evening light.

Ray with his dad and grandma

Ray with his aunt Cheryl. These two are on completely separate ends of the political spectrum and have gotten in many heated facebook discussions (imagine that). It's good to see them getting along!

Naomi loved this piano in the common room at great grandma's apartment!

Great-grandma with the grand kids :)

Grandma talking to Naomi. I just love the expression on grandma's face :)

Grace and Morgan

Ray and his mom and dad

In Minneapolis, the girls played barbies.

Elliot played on the Wii

The only picture I got of Jade

And I didn't get any pictures of Jez and Trina's 4 other kids, or them. I know, I'm lame. We had such a good time visiting them, though! I only wish it could've been for longer!

Family Closeness: Part 1

As I previously mentioned, we recently took a semi-impromptu road trip to Minnesota to visit Ray's family and pick up a piece of equipment for Ray. So we all hopped in Ray's truck. It is a 4 door vehicle, but one of the older kids had to sit in the middle-front the.entire.trip. We were all about the family closeness.

So we were in the car for a LONG time, like around 48 hours total. It was about 5 total days. In the car. Wow. Anyhow, I didn't have a whole lot of time to take pictures so I took a bunch of shots out the window. Here you go, my passenger seat photo essay!

So it was a really long drive, but the whole time I just thought about how amazing the sky was. It was so big and blue and beautiful. Here is a shot of the beautiful clouds of eastern Wyoming.

Grace hanging out in the front seat. You get creative when you are in the car for a long time and do stuff like draw on your feet ;)

Does she look like she is in a stupor? You would be too if you had been strapped in a car seat for that long!

Eastern Montana

Somewhere in eastern Wyoming, just us and the cows.

Grace did a little bit of this, too.

Pit stop in Wyoming, you improvise when you are out in the middle of nowhere and besides, there were no construction workers in sight!

I loved this old truck.

We saw lots of corn!

Not Maggie's shining moment, but can you blame her?

Some cool tee pee structure at a rest area in South Dakota

Um, what can I say?

We saw lots of these.

I'm thinking Shasta ad! It was so windy in North Dakota. We got about 6 mpg, yikes!, pulling that trailer in the wind.

We saw lots of hay bales.

Quaint little barn in North Dakota.

North Dakota, who knew?

And holy cow, we saw a whole lot of these orange construction poles. Miles.and.miles. of them. Ugh.

Part 2 coming soon! Promise the next pics will actually have people in them!

The Crazy (emphasis on crazy) Good Life

So, the last few weeks have been crazy busy for us. We have all the regular business start up duties to attend to (and that list grows more every.single.day. I had no idea, for reals). We went down to Cascade for the 4th of July weekend, got back on Monday the 5th, and left for a semi-impromptu road trip to Minnesota on Thursday the 8th. That road trip was business related, we went to pick up a large piece of equipment that required towing. Soooo, all 6 of us drove to the land of 10,000 lakes in Ray's truck. We were all about the family closeness, literally. It was a whirlwind of a trip that we ALL took so we could visit Ray's family that we don't get to see very often. I will thoroughly document as soon as I have time (has anyone seen my time?!). Anyway, in between the time we got back from Cascade and left for Minnesota we took a trip to Silverwood Amusement Park to celebrate my friend Misty's birthday (we let the kids tag along ;) ). Naomi had been throwing up the night before we went so Ray stayed home with her while I took the 3 olders. We had such a great time!! We stayed until the park closed. The kids really had the time of their lives!

I just had my little point and shoot camera, but here you go!

Gabe and Elliot in the airplanes

The carousel, last ride of the day!

I just wish you could see Gabe and Elliot's faces in this shot! (they are in the front) They could not get enough of the mini-roller coaster! Elliot still talks about it!

Gabe and Elliot

Clara and Maggie

Grace and some random girl :)

Maggie's picture of Gabe :)

Misty, me and Lee after our ride on Thunder Canyon. You can't really tell but Misty and I were completely SOAKED!! Lee somehow managed to stay dry (??)

Awwww...

Aria, Grace, Elliot and Maggie

Crazy Maggie :)

We had a great time!! We also went to the awesome water park but I didn't get any pictures because I spent the whole time frantically trying to keep my eyes on all of my kids!! We only lost Elliot a few times (I wish I was kidding), but the weather was great and we had some great company. Can't wait to do it again next year!!