Our camper's maiden voyage

We found a weekend in July and decided to take our trailer out for a spin. We wanted to go camping for two nights (for the first time). We hoped to go to somewhere like Estes Park or Breckenridge, but were naive and thought we could just find a camp site in one of those places without making a reservation. Luckily, we decided to just check right as we were about to walk out the door and came to find out that almost EVERY camp site in the whole state was full. I don't exactly understand why, it wasn't a holiday weekend or anything. Regardless, I'm glad we checked before we drove 2+ hours just to find out later . We figured we'd go to Woodland Park (just 1/2 hr. away) instead and drive around and hope we could eventually find one spot. We did and it ended up being quite nice, right next to a little lake we didn't know existed. Here was our little set up.

Nate got the kids each a headlight (flashlight you wear on your head) and they were thrilled!

Our camper sleeps 6 snuggly, but we weren't sure where we'd put the baby since I was nervous sleeping with her with all the sleeping bags etc. So Nate with all his ingenuity whipped up a little cradle that could be attached to the little counter (as you see above). Despite it looking precariously perched there, it is actually quite stable because it's bolted with big brackets to the side and back. Nate also made it collapsable with hinges so we could lay it flat when the camper is collapsed. I was really quite impressed, then he painted it white no less so it would be prettier. We just put the mattress from her cradle in it and it worked lovely.

Here's Nate and Kinners enjoying the tin foil dinners we made on the first night. We had a few more "hiccups" the first night as we discovered that the battery in the trailer was dead and that our lantern batteries were dead as well, but with a couple trips back and forth into town, things worked out.

Tyler and (a tired) Colton hanging out by the fire waiting for daddy to come back.

The next day we took a little hike to the nearby lake. This is Colton towards the end of the hike, pouting and "putting his foot down" that he was DONE!

We also drove to the Rampart Resevoir and while the kids and Nate played a bit in the water, McKinley had other plans.......

The resevoir isn't really for swimming, but there were a lot of other people playing in the water so the older kids were anxious to join the fun as well.

Tyler with the lake we discovered in the background

I love Colorado, always such lovely scenery every where you look, like this beautiful meadow...and a cute girl :)

There was this little hut type thing with fire places in it by the lake

McKinley's face summarizes how the whole trip went overall. Everyone had fun and she was an angel! We're crossing our fingers that our next two camping trips go as well. I'll let you know....

Random July pics

Here's just a little of our July.... starting with McKinley's first 4th of July (hence the shirt - that her brothers have worn in the past).

We celebrated starting with our annual 4th of July breakfast at our church. Later in the afternoon we went to our friends the VanWagoners' home and cooked some foil dinners and had s'mores and had our own little version of a fireworks show. Here's Colton enjoying his first s'mores, I believe. This was before the mess! He enjoyed a few more after this:)

Tyler and his buddies Isaiah and Elijah also enjoying the gooey goodness.

Lex and Ty had their faces painted at the breakfast. Ferocious tigers aren't they?

OK, so one of Nate's new hobbies is to see just how "creative" he can make Tyler's hair as he cuts it. I told him he needs to find another outlet for this "creativity" - like play-doh or something and not our child's head! Anyway, his latest creation: devil horns, nice! This lasted an hour or so, then I could stand it no longer. Nate settled for making"sports stripes" on one side of Ty's hair instead (yeah, you know from the late 80's). Luckily, they just grew out right before he started kindergarten.

Here are some photos of Kinners as she turned 3 months...Colton was happy tp help with the celebration.

Isn't this the best expression?! Love it~

These were before her hair turned crazy wavy!

Like her hair here after a bath. Don't let the pictures fool you...she loved it!

Pretty baby, T-ball Tyler & Fun with Family

After we had McKinley's blessing in June, my parents and my niece statyed with us a little longer, like I mentioned earlier. It was so nice to spend time with them and for them to have some extra time with McKinley.

My dad spent a little time coaching Tyler a bit on his T-ball game.

We all attended two of Tyler's T-ball games that week. I think Ty really loved his big cheering section. Here's his St. Louis Cardinals team. They were all so cute to watch. As you can see Tyler was much taller than most of the kids.

Tyler really made a lot of improvement over the season. He ended up getting a REAL bat and baseball and glove and a sweet cardinals hat. He had a blast.

Ty at bat

Don't know if you can see his face in this above picture, but he's being goofy, which we could often find him being in the outfield. There were often times we'd have to yell "Tyler- RUN!" or "Stop lifting your shirt up" or "Stop filling your hat with dirt!" etc. He had a hard time focusing, but he did get better and had a lot of fun:)

Love this action shot (and the dimple)

While my family was here we also spent a lot of time taking countless pictures of the baby.

Kinners is OUT as my dad holds her. I love it when her mouth hangs open when she's sleeping. You can't tell here, but she was totally sleeping with one eye open too - so funnny.

McKinley loved when Alyxe held her too. My niece is really good with babies, it was so nice to have her here.

Having some daily chat time with my favorite baby girl as she tells me all her stories.

Colton is subtly telling us the baby is stinky in this picture. He holds his nose and yells with much enthusiasm..."YUCK!!! GROSS!!!"

Alyssa's B-day celebration

Right after McKinley's blessing, we celebrated my birthday with my parents and my niece who stayed with us for a few days after the blessing. It was such a nice day! It actually makes 2 year in a row that we were able to celebrate Father's Day and my birthday together with my parents.

I woke up to streamers and balloons around the house thanks to my wonderful kiddos. My parents got me this beautiful painting that was quite fitting to represent me, Lexi and McKinley in our three white dresses (Lexi will be getting baptized in February).

One of the best parts of the day was when we went to White Fence Farms in Denver. We'd heard it was a neat place so went to check it out. There were lots of fun things to see and do there. In the barn/ store there was this display of the constitution and the patriotic family that we are had to get the photo opp :)

Tyler lovin' the tire swing

Those are the cutest farm animals I've ever seen...my kids and my niece Alyxe and my dad.

Pretty little water garden

This one cracks me up... mis padres.

It also had a petting zoo, complete with stinky pigs and all

Maybe my family was meant for farm life after all.............maybe not!

Anyway if you're in Colorado and you haven't been to White Fence Farms, you might want to give it a try. They have family style dining with good ol' home cookin' and they also have a 2- story slide in the silo and a great playground and lots of other stuff.

It was such a nice day - thanks everyone!

(Sorry I posted this picture again by mistake and can't delete it)

McKinley's Blessing

On Father's Day we had McKinley Madison blessed at church and we were lucky to have almost all of our family there. McKinley had on a gorgeous dress my mother got her, almost as gorgeous as McKinley herself...but not quite :)!

Getting a picture of our little family (although not as little anymore) proved pretty tricky, but we ateast have something for posterity.

Here are a few pics of the little lady on her big day with some family...

with Gramma Suzie

with Grandma Lincoln (after Kinners got changed)

with almost all of the Lincoln side of the fam from Utah and Oregon

with some of the Butler side of the family from Arizona

with handsome big brother Tyler

with adoring sister Lexi

with Colton who can't help but steal kisses constantly



We had a lot of fun with everyone here. Although it was near impossible to go and do a lot with so many people, we enjoyed our time just hanging out.

You could find Jedi s fighting (Tyler and his Cuz Jonah, with matching jammies - by coincidence)

You could always find all the little kids climbing all over my dad - he was like the pied piper with kids! They barely ever let him sit down, they'd always come within a couple minutes and start pulling him outside again, saying "C'mon, you're our playground!"

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of great pictures of our "idle time", but there was a lot of eating, lounging and playing outside or downstairs where it was cooler, playing Wii or other games on iPads (new toys a couple people had), watching movies, playing dress-up and other games etc.

It has kind of become a tradition when our family gathers for one of children's blessings, that we have a big picnic at the park the day before and order a 6 ft. sub (man, those things can go a long way) and the kids all play etc. We've played disc-golf or flown kites and this time Nate launched some rockets. Luckily, the weather has cooperated everytime (but I can't say as much for the day of the blessing - hence the crazy blizzard in April for Tyler's blessing when church was actually cancelled!)

A few days before the blessing, my brother Aaron's family came and we were able to do a few fun things before everyone showed up. We went to the zoo with them and had a great time. Again, we weren't able to get very good pictures our our lil' trip, but here's a few...

The kids got to go on the sky ride for the first time.

Colton saw a gorilla for the first time. There was a big silverback sitting, crammed in a corner with a fierce look on his face, and Tyler said "That gorilla's giving himself a timeout!"

These alligators seem to have a smile that says "You look like a tasty treat!"

Lovin' the giraffes.

The whole week was wonderful! We sure love when family comes to visit! (hint, hint)