Summer Family Fun!

Here are some highlights of our Johnson Family reunion trip:

1. Every person in the entire family was able to make it.
2. There were 28 grandchildren running around having an absolute blast with each other - we hardly saw Marissa and Devon the entire trip they were too busy playing hard with cousins!
3. Our kids also got some 'Aunt Elizabeth' time so Ryan and I could go on the golf outing! Thanks, Fuzzy!
4. The little girls had a sleepover at Uncle Kurt and Aunt Sara's cabin during which they had a hot tub party and watched a girly movie - Marissa had a blast with all her little girl cousins!
5. Hot tub parties for the kids was a daily occurrence!
6. The kids went to a real live rodeo - or at least a pretend one - but it was good enough for them!
7. Horseback riding was a much sought after activity (except for those adults whose seats couldn't handle more than one ride!) and our kids thought it was great!
8. We shared family history stories that were both informational and inspiring that left us all a little aware of the special heritage from which we come.
9. The Johnson Family Cup was a hit all the way from "hot potato" and Limbo to the treasure hunt, three-legged race, and cherry spitting contest!
10. It seemed like Devon always had an older buddy watching out for him!
11. We played "Somebody Famous" that had a surprising but welcome appearance from Spike Groscueus and Robert E. Clow!
12. Before we all left, we were able to go into Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and some buffalo - we also shared a hotel room with Uncle Dan and Aunt Elizabeth that was at least a roof over our heads (but that's about it:)!
13. On our drive home, we stopped in St. George for a couple of days and went into Zion's National Park. We did a few hikes, took a few pictures, and ate at some fun little places just outside the park. We even hiked to the end of the Narrows where the kids got to play in the river for a bit and Ryan and I could fantasize about actually hiking the Narrows someday (again, for me).


Cowboy Devon at the rodeo!



All of us at the rodeo.



The next few pictures Uncle Dan took for us at the little pond between our cabins and the horses at Island Park. Thanks Dan!







Sawyer like cousin Rachel!



Daddy and Devon fishin'!



Marissa had a great time riding the horses all by herself!



Devon and Caroline were buds. One time when we went to find them this is what we saw...they were in their own little world!



We were eating dinner one night and all of a sudden I look over at Devon and he'd fallen asleep with his head leaning on his hand with his face tilted upwards. By the time we got the camera he was like this! We knew Devon was playing hard out there!



Marissa and Uncle Matt - sometimes my kids had a hard time keeping all of my brothers straight but they had a good time with each of them! Here's Uncle Matt with the kids playing his 'Minute to Win It' games with the kids. Marissa and Devon had a good time trying the balance dice on a popsicle stick they were holding in their mouth!



Ryan looks like he is a champion cherry pit spitter, and while his spit was respectable there were some more impressive distances in the family.



Here's the three legged race where Ryan is half dragging poor Marissa - this was only one of the events that helped to earn their team (the red team) the award of "cheater pants" at the end of the Johnson Family Cup!



Hot tub party at Uncle Kurt and Aunt Sara's!!! This happened pretty much everyday!



Devon was too little to ride the horses by himself out on the trail so he and Daddy were horse buddies!



Here we are at the end of a short hike in Yellowstone.



After doing a short hike with everybody in Yellowstone we split up and went our separate ways. Here we are at one of the waterfalls in Yellowstone.



Sawyer and Aunt Elizabeth!



Uncle Dan and Aunt Elizabeth with the kids at the waterfall. We got to have Uncle Dan and Aunt Fuzzy with us on the ride from Utah to Island Park and back! This made for a much more entertaining car ride!



The kids and me in front of Old Faithful.



Devon's going wakeboarding!


Goofy pictures of the kids in the river at Zions.





This was after we did a little hike along a path that led to the end of the "Narrows" hike. The kids had a blast playing around in the river!

Beach Trip!

Ryan has made an executive decision that we are going to take a family beach trip once a year...we'll see how long that lasts, but here are some highlights from the second Earp family beach trip!

Highlights:
1. This was like a mini family reunion on Ryan's side because 3 of the 4 siblings were here and all of the grandkids were present. The kids had a blast with all of their cousins!
2. Ryan and Uncle Matt were the experts on sand castle building and even let the kids help them build their legendary sand castle/fort!
3. Some kid at the beach saw all the little kids playing on it after it was built and we overheard him say to his family, "Hey did you see what those little kids made!"
4. Apparently, we have taken our kids to stay in quite a few hotels recently because they are sure getting to be good at all sleeping in the same room and we all get a good night sleep!
5. We pretty much never left the beach the four days we were there - we got some pretty sweet tans!
6. Grandma and Grandpa Earp brought back Hawaii outfits for all the grandkids from their recent trip and we got some cute pictures!
7. During one of our photo shoots with Grandma and Grandpa we lost Sawyer's only plug as it got swept away by a wave. Devon was unusually and tearfully sad about it, but after most of us thought it was long gone Uncle Matt saved the day!
8. Marissa and Taylor were able to rekindle their "best buddy" friendship" and once again had a blast together. One day at the beach we saw just the two of them laying by each other on the sand having their own conversation for quite a while. We found out later that Taylor was telling stories and Marissa was his avid listener and questioner!
9. Sawyer was just starting to get around so he had a great time helping himself to everything. That kid was like a food magnet and all of a sudden we looked down and he was gnawing away on his first peanut butter sandwich! Oops!




Here's the totally wicked sand castle/fort!







Here's Marissa and Taylor just after they were telling each other stories!



Grandma and Grandpa Earp and all their grandkids decked out in Hawaii apparel!



The kids in their Hawaii outfits.



Here you can see Devon looking down at Sawyer's plug at his feet just moments before it was swept away by a wave. I saw it there and almost ran to get it, but stopped myself thinking, "It's not going anywhere...I don't want to ruin the pictures," when seconds later it was gone from my sight.



Devon woke up with some awesome bedhead one morning!

Kindergarten Celebration!

I can't believe Marissa just finished her kindergarten year! She is growing up too fast and she agrees with me. In fact, she has stated a number of times that she doesn't want to go to first grade. She doesn't want to grow up and she will miss her teacher! She had a great year and I'm sure once she goes back in the fall she will love first grade, too!

She is a fantastic student and loves learning. She is an especially good reader and loves to read her chapter books as she lays in bed (just like mom)!



Marissa and Mrs. Brunenkant



Her class sang a cute little song about moving on to first grade. Good thing Marissa sang it for me several times beforehand because I was a few minutes late and arrived towards the end of the song!

Devon is such a "BIG BOY"!

Devon is at a great age and is really into being a 'big boy'. About a month ago he finally decided that using the potty was okay and he hasn't looked back. Not long after he also decided that riding his 'rocket bike' like a big boy without training wheels was cool, too! Ryan had to fix his bike which resulted in him removing his training wheels and then we just didn't put them back on. We thought we'd let Devon try it out and he was really quite good at it from the beginning so we decided to leave them off. In a matter of a couple of weeks Devon was riding circles around me and zapping 'abominable snowmen' as he raced around on his 'rocket bike'! It is fun to see such a little kid riding around so well!


Here is Devon showing me his "buff muscles"!



He loves to ride his 'rocket bike'!

Happy Easter!

I was so excited to dress Sawyer and Devon in these outfits because this is the first real matching outfit we could get them - Sawyer had to reach 6 mos before his clothes would really start to match Devon's 'big boy' clothes.



Easter morning after the hunt - you can tell what Devon's favorite part of Easter was!



Sawyer was content to watch his older siblings run their tails off trying to find all the eggs!



Yesterday, our community held an Easter egg hunt - Marissa made out pretty well this year. You can see her here already planning her next move!



Devon pretty much rocked his egg hunt - he was in the 0-3 years old age group so while all the 'babies' were too busy drooling over one egg, Devon, a.k.a. the 'rocket', was rakin' them in!

Flagstaff Trip!

Ryan had four days off in a row so we said, "What the heck...let's go to Flagstaff!" Here are some highlights:

1. Only a 4 hour drive passing by several outlet malls!
2. We spent a day at the Grand Canyon. We hiked the South Rim canyon trail which let us have a view of the Grand Canyon the whole time and it was paved!!
3. We went to the Lowell Observatory and the kids got to see Saturn through a huge telescope as well as the star 'Sirius'. Marissa especially loves this kind of thing and has been asking us questions such as "Is Jupiter a dead planet like Mars?" ever since.
4. We saw the remains of Sunset Crater Volcano after which Marissa was full of questions.
5. We visited the Wupatki Indian ruins during which time we decided that the rooms in their buildings were way too small. Ryan's favorite part was seeing (and feeling) the 'blowhole' (see picture below).
6. Devon fell into the toilet at the hotel, which gave us all (except maybe Devon) a good laugh!
7. You might read this and think all we do is go on trips and while that may be true for the time being it's all thanks to Uncle Dan and $39/night rooms at the Marriot!
8. The hotel had an indoor pool that the kids would have liked to frequent daily if we'd have let them and a cozy fireplace outside in the courtyard!



The Grand Canyon - as you can see Sawyer is really enjoying the view!



The canyon trail was lined with big rocks that the kids liked to walk along. They also like to run ahead of us on the trail and then hang out on the rocks. We could push Sawyer in the stroller, the kids never got tired, and we had an awesome view of the canyon - this was the perfect hike for our family!



Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument



This is the 'blowhole'. Air gets trapped underground and gets pushed up with some impressive force. It was surprisingly cool as well which led us all to wonder why in the world the Native Americans didn't build their buildings around this for some natural air conditioning!



The boys in front of the Wupatki Ruins.



From this view it really looks like the rooms are tiny...admittedly, when we walked right next to them they were bigger than they originally looked.