Let's party!!

All aboard, choo choo choo......Griffin turned 2!

On Saturday, we had a train themed birthday party for our big boy. It's only right since he is obsessed with them lately. Sadly, we were missing some very important guests. Drew's mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law are all in Rochester, MN while his mom recovers from her second cancer surgery. We will be glad to see her home soon.  

The weather was beautiful. Last year's celebration was at noon and it must have been 100 degrees. This year we planned an evening party and it didn't reach 80 that day. I tried to post as few pictures as possible, but it's really hard to pick and choose!

Skype-ing with Aunt Shasta, Peyton, & Owen before everyone got there

this little guy got a kiss....via phone

the festive chefs

hat is usually backwards by choice these days

triple trouble

Ella watched all the crazy kids run around

is this really for me?

sing it......happy birthday to me!

he begged Drew to open most things

Duke had a lot of fun taking the ball from the kids

Westlee had a lot of fun leading Duke around like a horse

one of his favorite new things

the tongue out helps him concentrate I guess

a little tug of war with Grandpa Don

what a fun day!

A Special 2nd Birthday!

We have been going non-stop on vacation this week. This has been my first chance to sit down and get on the laptop. Yesterday, we moved from West Yellowstone, Montana to a nice mountain home in Teton Village, Wyoming just outside of Jackson. 

Yesterday was also a big day because Griffin turned TWO! Although we didn't get to see all of our family and friends, we look forward to celebrating with them next weekend. It was a very fun and tiring birthday......one will we always remember and Griffin never will. 

statue in front of the cabins in West Yellowstone

 We stopped at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center before heading south to see some bears, wolves, and eagles. 

all of the wolves looked very lazy

lots of pretty eagles, all injured in the wild and now live here

several playful bears

this one wandered around looking for something the whole time

they had a really fun playground

We made a pit stop for some little geysers and stretched our legs along the way. 

But how many two-year-olds can say they saw Old Faithful on their big day?

you might be a redneck, if you let your child play barefoot at a public monument

we "borrowed" the stick in his hands, but no plans of returning it......Griffin's favorite souvenir of the trip

Old Faithful who? I'm busy hitting this log

thanks Shasta for this shot from the webcam during eruption
we are on the sidewalk, even with trees......Griffin is up on Drew's shoulders

We made it to Jackson several hours later. Griffin had zero nap all day, so we grabbed a quick dinner and reluctantly headed to the Jackson Hole Rodeo wondering if we were making a big mistake. Not the case, he loved it. It was his first real rodeo and full of excitement. After 2 hours and pushing 10pm, we decided birthday boy better go home and get to bed. 

beautiful setting!

after 5 minutes in the car

We picked up some cupcakes at the grocery store and enjoyed them after dinner tonight. I will try to add those pictures later tonight after our scenic drive. On to the next adventure!

Happy 4th!!

Wednesday night we had a "pre-holiday" BBQ and enjoyed having all of the babies over for dinner. Chase and Griffin cruised around a lot, while the girls just hung out. 

tight squeeze!

Ella is a wiggle worm at 9 months

he tends to be barefoot these days

Charlotte hangs with Drew

everyone loves ice cream

our first group picture! next time we will remember while it's daylight

dirty boys need baths before bed

On the 4th we went down to Drew's parents and had a pool party with fireworks to end the night. Griffin was surprisingly interested in the fireworks and sat in our lap most of the show. 

2 little fish

Grandma Kathi and her surprised face

getting interested in the pool now

thankfully Kaleb watched out for him

how about a boat ride?

even Grandma Delores made it down from Springfield

he loves driving Pa's truck

ooooooo.......aaaaahhh, the show begins

someday we will get a picture with both looking

this boy is watermelon crazy!

We also made it to Jimi and Tammy's annual fireworks show/BBQ but didn't take any pictures. Darn. It was a fun/busy holiday! There's always next year.