Jason and Leticia's Wedding

Last Saturday we saw Jason and Leticia finally get married. They met at Tara and Chad's wedding 7 years ago. It was one of our first dates as well! Kathy and Denny were also invited, but Denny was fishing. It worked out well, because Josh was a groomsman, so I needed a date, and Kathy made a great date :)

The festivities started Thursday with Jason's bachelor party. Josh went to dinner and they spent the night gambling. He didn't get home until around 4am....crazy boys! He did make it to work the next day, but sure he wasn't very productive. Then Friday was the rehearsal dinner. After going through the wedding they all went to dinner and he didn't make it home until after midnight. On Saturday he had to be at the church at 10am for pictures. I ran around the house gathering all of McKenna's things for her night with Damon and Shelly. She was invited to the wedding, but I was worried she wouldn't last that long.

It was a beautiful wedding in a church in Des Moines. The reception was at the performing arts center in downtown Des Moines. Both Chad and Tara were in the wedding, and I was invited to sit at the head table. Everything went flawlessly. A beautiful wedding, and a beautiful couple!

--Josh and I (handsome in his monkey suit!)--

--Leticia was so happy the whole day! --

--Nathan, Chad, Tara, Me, Josh, Sarah and Wes after the ceremony--

--Chad, Tara, Josh and Me looking at different cameras--

--First dance at the gorgeous venue! They took ballroom dancing lessons and really did an amazing job!--

--Tara and Chloe. Chloe did such a great job!--

--Cute little Andersen family--

Congrats Jason and Leticia!!!

Emmi is 39!

We had a birthday party for Emmi a week ago Wednesday. Kathy, Josh and I were all going to Jason and Leticia's wedding in Des Moines on Saturday, so we had her party on Wednesday. We seemed to have started a tradition of requesting what you want for birthday dinner, then everyone in the family comes together and makes what you want. Emmi wanted a salad bar with peppers, onions, croûtons, chicken, shrimp, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, cranberries, and I am sure I am forgetting everything else. Kathy and Denny made the meat, and hosted the event at their house. I brought the salad fixings and bread. It was really fun, and really yummy! It was fun hanging out with everyone before Denny went off to go fishing.

For her birthday, Emmi went shopping and picked out some outfits with Kathy. We got her a casserole tote that was insulated with her initials on it. She will be the hit of all the soccer moms!!!--Emmi and Kade blowing out candles--

--Miller/Christians--

In going through all of my pictures I also forgot to write about Summerfest! Ankeny doesn't celebrate July 4th on July 4th. They usually have a huge summerfest a few weekends later. This year we made it back from Idaho Falls in just enough time to go to the parade and the booths. McKenna LOVED the parade because it had giant balloons. They are her absolute favorite. We got there an hour early just to get a spot on the 2.5 mile parade route. The parade was over 2 miles long, but we had fun waving to the geek squad bug as it drove by!

--Balloons....I LOVE balloons!!!--

4th of July Part 4

Man - its almost a month later and still haven't finished the blog about the 4th of July!!!

After our hike through Yellowstone, the rest of the week was about relaxing. On Wednesday, the 4th of July, Brandon and I went to the Idaho Falls parade in the morning. It was pretty amazing. They had BMX jumps, people doing acrobatics on trampolines, lots of cute little drill teams and marching bands. We went with Cory and Heidi and their 4 kids. Then we headed to Menan for lots of really yummy food and Menan's parade. We bought our rubber duck for the annual duck race (they dump rubber ducks in the HUGE irrigation canal that runs through town.) Uncle Rand, who is the mayor, got to drive the big tractor up main street and dump them all in. We didn't win anything, but Isabelle won a shop light, and Aunt Caroline won a bucket....yay for cheesy prizes! And I know I mentioned it already, but the food was very yummy. We definitely ruined our diets. Homemade ice cream is my weakness.

--My cousin Megan, her husband James, and Isabelle (Isa) all waiting for the parade--

--More parade watchers--

--Gramma Rue trying to entertain a fussy Mac--

--Daddy and Mac waiting for the parade to start--

There is a huge carnival that goes on acrossed the street from my grandma's house. Lots of booths and games. We didn't get a chance to see much of it, but we did buy Mac a snowcone! That night we set off the fireworks we bought in Montana. A big, angry man came over and tried to start a fight. Apparently the ash from our fireworks was landing on his kids. Since his whole family was on Uncle Rand's property it was a little rediculous. And, as soon as he got back to his family, he lit a cigarette. Sure that isn't causing any damage. We continued to set off our fireworks and tried to ignore him. Mac was sound asleep at Grandma Watson's and slept right through our fireworks, and the 45 minute display that Menan puts on. Crazy kid!

--Aunt Diana, Gramma Rue and Uncle Brandon waiting for the fireworks to start (and being blinded by my flash) sorry guys!--

--Jessi, Aunt Caroline, and Lyndsi waiting for fireworks--

--Aunt Chelsey, Josh and Grandma Watson--

The trip went by much too quickly. Chelsey got a new computer for school that Josh spent a lot of time on. We got to visit Uncle Rick and Aunt Marie. Aunt Marie is going through kemo but we caught her on a day when she was in great spirits. It was really great to see them both!

Josh got a taste of what it was like to be a farmer. He helped Aunt Diana move the irrigation pipe for the potato fields. Needless to say, he is not going to change jobs anytime soon! We got to go on a driving tour of all of Uncle Rhett's land. Was a beautiful night for it, and I took quite a few pictures from the truck.

--Farmer Josh--

--Moving potato pipe--

We had such a great trip! Was so good to see everyone! We spent Friday with Dad and had a salmon cook out at Corey and Heidi's. Corey goes fishing in Alaska and brings home the most amazing salmon! We got to meet their latest addition, and play with their three other girls!

Saturday our flight was delayed, so we got a change to give Mac a nap, and play more cards before heading back to the airport. She did great on the way home! Her teething was finally over just about the time we got home.....oh well!

Below are pictures I took of the tetons and a sunset in Idaho. I just love the mountains :)

4th of July Visit Part 3 (Avalanche Peak)

Our main purpose for going to Yellowstone on Tuesday was to complete the hardest day hike in Yellowstone. It is a 5 mile hike on the east side of the park to Avalanche Peak. The Peak tops out around 11,000ft. We needed to climb around 2,000 just to reach it. We started out with 8 bottles of water thinking it was not going to be that hard.

--Here is a picture of a tree that had fallen, Chelsey claims to have knocked it over--

We were making good time, and we ran into a couple that was heading down the mountain. They said it got steep and rocky, and they gave us a trail map (good thinking!) Below is my favorite spot (excluding the top views.) There was a meadow about 0.7 miles up with amazing wildflowers. It is where all the runoff runs down the mountain during the melting season.

--Pretty flowers--

--View looking down (the mountain you see is as tall as the one we are climbing)

--one more picture, doesn't do the view justice--

The trail got steeper and rockier after this point. We ascended to above the tree line pretty quickly. There were warnings about bears in this area, but with the hot weather, we weren't too worried.

--Chels and the rocks we were climbing. You can see Yellowstone Lake in the background--

--Getting closer to the top--

As we got closer we ran into some snow. Chelsey, in true Chelsey form, started throwing snowballs. It felt really good, we were all hot and sweaty. It was strange for it to be so hot, but to be standing in snow.

--Josh and I next to the snow--

After we got through the snow, we could see the top, and the trail that lead to it. We had renewed energy and trekked on. In about 20 minutes we were at the top.

--That little patch of snow on the top right is where we were just standing--

--Chels and Josh at the top--

--Kissin at the top--

--Here is a picture I found online to show you how tall the mountain is--

It took us about 2 hours to hike up. We enjoyed the view for a while, ate snacks (and fed some to the chipmunk up there - don't tell the ranger) and headed back down. I thought the trip down was much harder than hiking up. Josh LOVED hiking downhill. I struggled to keep up! We made it down in about 45 minutes-1 hour. I was so happy to see the car, and the air conditioning!

--We had to take the token car trip photo on the way home--

4th of July Visit Part 2

On Monday we got to meet Isabelle Zolman, my cousin Megan's daughter. She is 4 months younger than McKenna. They had a lot of fun with Aunt Laura's dog. The dog is a yorkie she calls Tifa which is short for Queen Latifa...pretty funny. It was good catching up with her and seeing my cousing Justin (although he wasn't very talkative.) Here are some pictures of Isa and Mac playing over the course of the trip.

--Playing at Aunt Diana's new house--

--Playing with Isa's toys (thanks for sharing!)--

--playing with Isa at Grandma Watson's house (sure Brandon is happy they are playing with bowling pins--

On Monday we also got to see Aunt Diana and Uncle Rhett's new house. It isn't really new to them, but we had not seen it yet! They built a HUGE shop to store all the farm equipment and attached their new home right to it. It was just perfect for their farming operation. There was an office where Megan works all day. That works out perfectly because it allows for Aunt Diana to babysit! It really is a lovely home!

On Tuesday we went to Yellowstone. We were in a bit of a hurry trying to get through the whole southern loop in one day, and incorporate a 3 hour hike up to Avalanche Peak. The park entrance is only a little over an hour from Menan.

--This is a quick picture I took of the tetons on the way to the park. I miss the mountains!--

--Here is a rest stop outside of Island Park, perfect photo op--

--Here are a couple pictures of the river as we entered the park--

--This is the most exotic animal we saw...say hello to bison butt--

--The first thing we stopped for were the paintpots--

--Chels and Josh next to the biggest paint pot--

--They stink--

Our next stop was Old Faithful. We got Josh some excedrin, because he had a killer headache. Then we walked through Old Faithful Lodge, and walked outside just in time to see Old Faithful erupt.

--Chels and Old Faithful (there were so many people here!)--

--Old Faithful--

--Next we went on to Yellowstone Lake on our way to our crazy hike--

--I would like to build my house here....but the park rangers might get upset--

--If I were a buffalo, this is where I would live!--

So, most of these were taken from the car, so I apologize for the quality. I will post later on the amazing 5 mile hike we went on to the top of Avalanche Peak!