Kaiya's First Birthday

Kaiya all cute in her little tutu

The cake that Jen made was so cute, it had monkeys all over it.

Eating the cake one sprinkle at a time

Roscoe and Paula with the monkeys off the cake

Horseshoes

The guys played horseshoes most of the time while we were at the park for Kaiya's birthday.

Trying to be cool

Paula's Haircut

Paula loved her haircut, she was excited to get bangs.

Tracy Aviary

August 7th

We took a trip down to Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake.

My adorable kids

Abby the Emu, and Michaela the Ostrich

Roscoe and the Flamingos

Hopping on logs

Pretty Paula

Paula loves to color, draw, and paint. So when Michaela and Abby left their paints down that was the first thing she got into. At least I can say that it matches her outfit.

Drive Home

Devil's Tower, Wyoming

The kids at Devil's Tower

Just outside Yellowstone

Broken Boot Gold Mine

The whole Family

Inside the mine

Panning for gold, each of the kids took a turn

This is our gold that we panned

Mike and the kids

Deadwood

There wasn't as much to do in Deadwood as we thought there would be. They had a lot of casinos, but not really anything for families. We walked around and looked at a few things, and then decided to walk to a resturaunt that was on the map we got. We thought was just at the end of town, but after we had walked for a long time and hadn't seen it the guys ran back to the cars and came to pick us up. We found out later that the resturaunt that was on the map was miles outside of town.

Roscoe wasn't having fun so he didn't want to smile for the picture.

Mt Rushmore

This was one my favorite things we did, I wish we could have spent more time here. Mike said that it has changed a lot since he was little. They have built a trail that you can hike back on and walk right up next to the mountain below the faces, but we didn't have time to go on it. It gives us a reason to go back though.

Cosmo's Mystery Area

The kids (young, and old) had such a great time at Cosmo's. It was a guided tour through a cabin built on a mountain side near Mt Rushmore. In the area where this cabin was built there is a vortex that pulls everything in its direction. The water even runs uphill!

Roscoe helped demonstrate the "truth chair". If you tell the truth it leans back towards the wall, but if you tell a lie the chair falls forward off the ledge. Luckily Roscoe told the truth.

Mike being sucked in by the vortex.

Abby hanging from the ceiling and being pulled toward the vortex.

These are two level platforms but when you are closer to the vortex it makes you shorter. The person in the back is closer to the vortex so they get shorter when they stand on that platform.

Rapid City

These are all the places in Rapid City that Mike and PeeWee remembered.

This is the chapel they went to church at

This is where Ben played legion baseball

This is the house that they lived in after Darrell retired from the Air Force

This is where Mike and Ben went to high school

This is the little league field that they played at

South Dakota Trip

These are the places we stopped on the way out to South Dakota.

Devil's Gate, Wyoming

Independence Rock, Wyoming

The two specks on the rock are Mike and PeeWee. They raced to the top of the rock.

Roscoe's Birthday

All Roscoe wanted for his birthday was "cowboy stuff". When I asked him if he wanted a black cowboy hat like the bad guys or a white cowboy hat like the good guys he said that he wanted a black cowboy had because he wanted to be a bad guy.

Roscoe's best cowboy pose

Grandma teaching Roscoe how to mosey

Roscoe shooting his cap gun

Just love this picture!

Play Ball

We got to the park early to set up for Roscoe's birthday, so we played ball until everyone got there.

Grandma and Roscoe

Mike and Mark

Mike practicing his pitching

A Wizard in the Family

This is Robert practicing his wizarding skills. For those of you who do not know both Robert and Zack are true wizards, and if you don't believe me just ask to see their wands.

New Boots

July 3rd

Roscoe saw these boots at the store and was begging and crying for them, so a few days later we went back and bought them for him. He loved them and had to show them off to everyone.

Rock Climbing

July 3rd

Jessica and Shane took us all rock climbing while they were down for the Fourth of July. We had so much fun, and everyone but Paula took a try at it. Roscoe even did better than I did.

Roscoe climbing

Abby asking if she can come down, it's hard to tell how high she is

This is how high Abby really was

Michaela doing a great job

This is me at the begining/ending of my climb (I started and ended at the same place)