Me and my dad! What a great visit we had in Washington. We were at a small resort just a few miles from the Canadian boarder and it is spectacular up there. The tiny town of Northport put on a fantastic firework show for July 4th. They were out on an island on the Columbia River. You got the fireworks in the sky and the reflections off the water-awesome. 

 This was one of the many awesome scenes we saw on our 4.5 mile mountain hike. We hiked up and back down the  mountain and I was looking for fun "stuff" to bring home. We got back to the car and found this awesome chunk of granite. I put it in the trunk and it shortly disappeared. Randy said, "We're not hauling that thing back on the plane!" I was so mad and cold -shouldered him for awhile till he admitted he was teasing and dug it out of its hiding place in the spare tire section of the trunk. Well it did get seized for bit at airport security-TSA had to x-ray it twice before deciding I was just a crazy tourist and not a terrorist!

 Dad and Diane loved to snuggle in this oversized chair in the cabin. They're so cute together. Diane made us tons of yummy food even though she promised she wouldn't cook herself to death this year! She kept pulling delicious dishes out of her cooler-it was like watching Mary Poppins take stuff out of her carpet bag! We all stood with our toes pointing out singing-"Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down..." Well, Jason did-the rest of us just rolled our eyes at him! JK

A view of the stunning Columbia River from the cabin. It was a fantastic trip and so much fun to be with my family. We ate somores, sat around the campfire telling ghost stories (Jason's idea), hiked, drove through gorgeous country and ate way too much yummy food. How did Randy do on the plane-just fine and he flew med-free!! I was able to upgrade our seats to Economy Comfort which gave us more leg room and put us directly behind First Class. There was one intense moment when the plane backed away from the terminal and parked on the tarmac. It got hot and Randy had a mild freak-out, but we got cool air blowing on him and I gave him my eee-pad with games, I gave him my Shuffle with music and gave him a drink of water...good grief, it's worse than flying with a 3 year old! JK. He did great and I appreciate him going with me to see my family. 

Cute little granddaughters, Izzy, Abby and Nicole at our holiday celebration!
We all had a super time and brought in the New Year with a fun family party.
We really enjoyed getting to know Leesa and her kids, Wade and Mattie.

Happy Birthday(s) to a charming couple!

Look close in the center of this picture and you'll see 2 deer bedded down by the fence!

Thought I'd share a few of my Halloween decors. I made this little trick or treater guy years ago and have had a lot of fun with him. Once Chad and I got the bright idea to set him up on grandma B's front porch on Halloween night, rang her doorbell and hid around the corner. She fell for it and talked to him and tried to get him to come inside. It was hillarious. We finally were laughing so hard she heard us. No treats for us that night-but it was funny!I love this little witch. Gets me in the Halloween spirit.

I found some great Fall color leaves on the mountain and made up a couple of Fall vases.

We all went on a fun weekend camping trip on the mountain. After a yummy dinner Aaron regalled us with tales of Ghana around the campfire.
Grandma and Grandpa rode up from town on their 4 wheelers and visited our camp. Earlier Randy, Aaron and I had riden our 4 wheelers to the top of the mountain.

Aaron returns home after serving a 2 year mission in Ghana West Africa

It's so good to have Aaron home, if only for a short time. He'll pursue his military career, but for now we'll enjoy him while we have him with us!

We had a fun trip to Orem last weekend. Most of the gang went to State Wrestling. Me-I was armed with my plastic and hit the Mall! I swiped and shopped for 2 days-it was great!

Nate and Randy enjoy some 'guy talk' over breakfast. I believe Dad and his boys had a great time at the wrestles. We really enjoyed Shane and Kyle who came up from Las Cruces. They drove with us from Monticello to Orem and Kyle kept us in stitches most of the way. He and I watched videos while Papa and his dad visited in the front seat.
Kyle and Abby cheese it up for the camera. These kids played hard all weekend.

This is the Bracken smile I love most!

Brooke and I had a great visit. She's a special woman and I love her dearly.

What a fun weekend we had in Las Cruces! We had fun getting everyone together for this pose. We just wanted to play! Michelle has some cute pictures of the baby that'll go on her blog. I'm not the world's best picture taker-I get busy playing with kids and forget to click the camera. We did have a wonderful visit and were treated like royalty. Shane and Michelle took us out to lunch at a great Mexican restaurant. We played games all day and laughed and the kids got tickled by Papa, and they put puzzles together and we loved and kissed and squeazed them all. Little Brett is much smaller than he looks in his pictures. He has the cutest, defined features and is such a peaceful little guy. How I loved holding him and staring at him. It was great to see Lisa, as well. She has been a tremendous help to Michelle. I must say Michelle was amazing. You'd think the baby was months old not just one week old the way she's up and around. I hope we didn't wear her out too much. Thanks to all of you for a wonderful weekend and sharing your special family with us. We love you all!
Braden and Kyle were so funny and cute. They kept us entertained with their antics.

Aleah enjoys her spaghetti dinner-we all enjoyed the yummy dinner Michelle made.

Addy loves salad! She's very adept at feeding herself and refused to eat if I tried to help.

We're grandparents again! Brett Shane Butler was born Jan. 5th. Can't wait to snuggle this newest family member. This makes 14 grandkids all together: 8 boys and 6 girls.

Shannon hosted a fun birthday party for me at her house. We had cake and ice cream and I received many nice gifts and BD wishes from everyone. Brad had a lovely fire going just for me so I'd be toasty warm. I love this picture with some of my grandkids.
Kelly, Shannon and I. I love these two women!

This year's Thanksgiving group included G/G Butler, Brad, Shannon and kids, Quinn and kids, Chad, Kelly, Nicole, Randy and I. We ate lots of yummy food that we all helped prepare, which made it easy for all. We missed those who weren't with us, but we should see most of them next year!

Gavin and his silly face, Avery and Nicole enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner!

This is the boy's table. Little Izzy was playing at this table when we set it up. As soon as we tried to move her to the bar for dinner she wouldn't have it, so she ate with the boys!

Randy's birthday was yesterday! We had a fun party with Grandma and Grandpa, Brad and Shannon and family and Kelly and Nicole--oh, yeah, I was there too! We had chocolate cake and ice cream and lots of laughs. Randy got jerky and Big Cherries (his favorite candy), Shannon made her dad chocolate chip cookies, I gave him warm jammies and chocolate from The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! Randy with Nicole and Avery

Shannon and her dad

Adam entered the MTC on Sept. 1st. We dropped him off at the curb where several missionaries were waiting to wisk him off. It used to be that I'd try not to cry (unsuccessfully) for the hour it took to go through orientation with our missionary. This time I burst into tears as we were pulling into the MTC, cried all the way to the drop-off point, unloaded his luggage and gave him a long hug amid tears and that was it. He walked off and we got back into the car-total time-15 min, maybe! It really is a better way to leave a missionary at the MTC.

It still hurts, just not as long!

Adam getting his missionary hair cut 2 hours before entering the MTC.

The dinner at Chilis was going great till "Napkin Man" showed up. Abby, Braken and Nicole took one look at him and burst into tears. The adults were laughing hysterically-I'm surpised managment didn't ask us to leave!
Dinner at Chilis with the "Up North Gang".

Papa gets sugar from Braken and Abby

Braken and Abby kept trying to go with Nana and Papa!

A few fun pics from Adam's farewell weekend. His nieces and nephews had fun playing "catch" at the BBQ.

Our soon-to-be-missionary was stung by a wasp on Monday. By Tuesday morning he was swollen up and by today both eyes were swelling. We took him to the doctor, got some meds and he's on the mend. Brad gave us a good cream to try and that should help too. The swelling was down a little tonight. The doctor told him he shouldn't sas his mom!

On July 14-19 we traveled to Durango Co. for our vacation. It's the first time we stayed away from home for this long-6 days and 5 nights to be exact. We camped at Junction Creek Campground-nice place just 3 miles west of Durango. We saw a movie and a melodrama. We enjoyed a cowboy supper and show. We brought our DVD player and watched an old western one night at camp. We played a couple of games of Five Crowns-I won't mention who won, but it wasn't Randy! Randy took a glider ride and we both had a thrilling jeep ride over Engineer, Yankee Boy, Imogene and Ophir Passes. We visited Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride. Randy made his dutch oven chicken dinner one night and I made a raspberry/blueberry cobbler another night. We grilled Kielbasa and ate fresh fruit and veggies. We made a point of stopping at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some of the best chocolate this side of the Great Divide! (Maybe even the other side too) On Sunday we found a Ward in Durango and ran into a Monticello lady who now lives there-small world. It was fun to get away and we ejoyed ourselves immensley. We hope to get more family to join us next year.

I brought my hammock and enjoyed relaxing. This is a self-portrait.
This is the view from my hammock-see why we love this place.