rocky mountain high

turns out john denver had it right when he sang about "rocky mountain high."
after leaving utah, we cruised to rocky mountain national park.
breathtaking. absolutely breathtaking!
we had planned this little vacation for a year with our dear friends from lexington virginia.
don taught evan how to fly fish and we spent many evenings on their lovely front porch sipping lemonade when we lived in virgina.
we stayed in some cabins right on the big thompson river.
we ate by the river every night and fished it during the day.
maya caught her first trout on this river: a rainbow and a brown.
brynn's worm was caught in a tree-but she still liked fishing.
we hiked, fished, and just enjoyed being in the amazing park.
claudia and i explored estes park and found some fun souvenirs.
i wasn't quite sure i could leave and go back to a mountainless state after being in mountains for a whole month. it was not fun to leave.
we tried out this crazy slide in estes park, and after being a tiny bit hesitant at first, maya and brynn loved it.
all i know is that when i hear john denver sing (and we have a lot of his music at our house) rocky mountain high, it makes me so happy that i've been there and seen what he's talking about. that and i get a little teary eyed.

just can't get enough

one of my requests for our summer trip out west was to have some family pics by the wellsvilles.
now living in a place sans mountains i have come to appreciate the amazing ones i grew up beneath.
in fact, i still have an a debit card with the wellsville mountains on it and have been known to show it to people so that they can fully understand what i mean when i say "i grew up beneath some amazing mountains. see?"
so, the lovely camille stewart took these photos of us.
zoe was ready for bed, brynn and maya had koolaid mustaches, and evan had a bad haircut the morning of.
but as i like to say with my arm up "we prevailed!"
with camille's doing of course.
and i just can't get enough of these imgaes.
thanks camille-you are amazing.

the big Kindergarten

can't believe that the day has come for maya to go to kindergarten.
she rocked it in her high tops, bobcat shirt, jean jacket and batman backpack.
she also requested that her hair be all squiggly from braids.
the bus was the biggest hit, and she and her best friend anabella waited patiently for it to come.
she blew me a little kiss before she went to school.
she loved it, and i missed her while she was gone.

the little lady is 1!

happy b-ba-birthday little zoesy cat!
you brighten our days and make us laugh.
we love you!

the thomas girls visit

evan's best friend from his mission is daniel thomas. and daniel is married to the beautiful dalynn. and they have 3 little ladies just like us. they live in baltimore maryland and it just so happened that the thomas' and us would be out west at the same time. and we got to play together one afternoon. it was heaven. thanks dalynn for driving all the way up to visit us!

utah in summertime

-we went to logan's heroes on south main in logan. go if you haven't ever been! the owner is hameed and he has been there for nearly 30 years. tell him i sent you and you'll make a lifelong friend.

-we picked peas in the garden sans pants.

-we took the mendon way back to wellsville and saw the wellsvilles in all their glory.

-we tried the 'new and improved' mason play structure. donaldo has worked hard and even provided a bell to ring when you go down the slide. brynn would ONLY slide if she held on to barbie's finger. we saw their fort under the pine tree and then sipped limeade on the veranda. a most excellent day.

-aggie ice cream with annie mason webb!

-utah this year was unusually green and so amazingly beautiful. we hiked, ran and took in my favorite sounds of summer: the ditch running outside and a rainbird sprinkler going.