About a week ago, fun started arriving at the Joneses' house in waves. First came Nora (how adorable is that little face?)
as well as Brinlee in her favorite Minnie Mouse pajamas.
Brinlee was happy to rearrange Grandma's doll house,
do her usual OCD toy line-ups on the steps with Grandma's pony collection
catch up on her reading,
and show off her cutting-edge fashion sense with the baggiest of baggy jeans.
Brinlee even agreed to come to the water park with Hailey, Makayla, and Grandma.
Hailey is especially fond of taking on the role of big sister to Brinlee.
Occasionally Makayla feels the need to remind Hailey who her REAL little sister is.
After we played at the spray park and playground, I somehow managed to talk the girls into
ice cream. It was really a hard sell.
Eat fast, Hailey. We don't want to have to explain the lack of supper appetite to your Mom.
I'm sure Ashley will believe those blue lips are from the cold 98 degree day we were enduring.
Hailey, reading stories while the ice cream breath wears off.
A few days later, we headed to the cabin where more cute people started arriving.
Friendships were re-established,
and kids did their traditional dancing to the singing fish.
There was lots of baby-holding,
and lots of babies to hold.
As Kelsey says, "Every baby should come with an eleven year-old."
(Or a very competent nine year old.)
We have Aunts to do our hair.
cousins to eat with,
good food to eat,
girls to pull silly faces when you ask them to smile,
cute cooks making mysterious cakes,
pretty artists showing us their sketches,
cousins to hang out with while staying out of reach of the
scary dog.
Otis did come in handy when we needed to keep the boogie man away from the front door. Or not.
We have Moms to teach us correct pool technique,
and cousins to go look for the owls with.
For years we've been making the hot and barren hike up to Mystic Lake.
This year, though the magic of internet, we found a much better place to try.
We came across a place called "Lake Fork".
It's just a few miles from the cabin,
it's not terribly steep,
it's much, much shadier,
it has waterfalls,
and the most gorgeous scenery.
No more Mystic Lake. Lots more Lake Fork. You can hike as far as 19 miles one way,
but we didn't hike quite that far.
Hoards of happy hikers.
By the way, did you notice Hailey got some new specs?
Originally, we didn't think the Bassetts would be able to join us. They had an already planned reunion with the extended Bassett family, but they managed to sneak away for a couple of days. Ken was at Trek, so Shelly drove herself and kids to join us and Ken came later.
Have you ever noticed how being outside just makes you want to climb mountains
throw rocks,
and ford streams?
The trailhead warned us about bears, but all we saw were
what "Tall Tale Grandpa" identified as petrified snakes.
Naturally, after all that hiking, we made a stop for ice cream. As I watched Scott feed Koen his first ice cream, I knew for sure Scott was going to be a fabulous dad. You can never start them too young.
How I love to have the family all together.
Even the weird family members.
As a completely unbiased person, I can safely identify this group as the World's Best and Cutest Grandchildren
and my absolute favorite family
and children.
Naturally, we cooked some s'mores,
and early-celebrated someone's birthday with a delicious cake, made from scratch by Kailyn and Jordan.
Yep. That's my age, give or take 30 years.
Grandpa pulled out the sparklers
that were so old
they didn't have much spark,
with the exception of one over-achieving boxful.
Eventually the time came for some family members to move on.
The rest of us headed to the Carbon County Fair in Red Lodge.
This is small city living at it's best. We saw the chicken-judging contest,
checked out the bunnies,
admired the poultry,
the parrot,
and the horses.
There were also sheep, pigs, and cows.
Of course, no day is complete without taking all the kids here.
Yep, we hit the pig races.
With all these great names, it's hard to know who to root for.
Life doesn't get much more exciting than this.
We came home from the cabin on Saturday for a special event.
Hailey was baptized on Saturday, July 26.
Grandpa did the honors.
Lots of people were there to lend support.
Eventually all good things must end, and more family headed home. It's been so much fun to be together, enjoy the new babies, stay up to late, eat too much, and make great memories. Thanks, family for making the effort to be together!
