A Happy Father's Day

Our second day in Idaho, was a very special day. It was Father's Day and the day Clara was blessed. In our Church, we bless our children. It is very simple and very beautiful. (Read more about how we bless babies here.) It was such a wonderful sight to see my three brothers, father, grandfather, and husband (along with Annie's brother and father) all gather to bless our sweet little girl. I can't recall what Chris said, but I certainly remember how I felt. The deepest and perfect love was radiating out of my heart. I know that Clara has been part of our family for much longer than the 5 months she's spent on this earth. And now that she is here, 

she is stuck with us forever.

Of course, I didn't take any pictures of Clara in her sweet dress, but after Church we did take a new family picture with all 17 people! Hannah, Jonathan's sister, conveniently lives in Rexburg and takes amazing pictures! We picked her up after Church and brought her to the farm.

I love the look on my dad's face. You can tell that he got exactly what he wanted for Father's Day; time with all of his kids and grandkids. It's crazy to think that this family started 33 years ago with just these two kids.

Sorry about that detour, back to the pictures (it was seriously windy that's why our hair was everywhere)!

These 4 boys are so funny together!

Yes, it is tough getting 7 children to look at the camera with smiling faces!

See, it's hard work.

Even when they have their two trucks.

Dropping them, doesn't help.

Sorry Clara!

Wayne kept telling Jonathan that he needed to take his bride out on
the pond in the row boat. This is proof he did it.

After pictures were done, Jonathan and I needed to take Hannah back to Rexburg while everyone else enjoyed the 40 pound turkey for lunch. Thank goodness that turkey was so big. so there was still plenty when we got back. We ate our lunch as Kyle was waking up from a nap and all he wanted to eat was jam. I'm not kidding.

Chris feeding Kyle his jam.

Seth was refusing to take a nap, so in a desperate attempt to get him to sleep, we asked him if he wanted to take a nap with Jonathan and me and he nodded yes. Well, that certainly shocked us! It seemed like he was still warming up to us at this point. He laid down with us and was quiet until he eventually fell asleep. After awhile I woke up and saw how cute Jonathan and Seth looked together. I headed downstairs and spent time with the family. After awhile, Denise, Annie's mom, checked in on them and Seth was wide awake, silently laying on the bed next to snoring Jonathan. (Jonathan is a very, very heavy sleeper.) He's lucky she showed up, or else he could have been there for a very long time.

Jonathan sleeping on the job.

We spent the evening chatting in the parlor as the children played together.

I just love these two little girls! 

We ended up outside to play another game of kickball. It was really windy and chilly, but lots of fun. During our game, Mike was able to kick a ball over the back fence. (Yeah, it was very impressive!)

One of Garrett's favorite things to do is to come up from behind and hug/choke people. 

He ended up getting Grandma this time.

After the game was over, Jonathan and I sat on the porch to watch the sunset. It was so lovely and relaxing. I had visions of us doing the same at our own home after we put the children down for the night.

It was such a wonderful day to celebrate Clara and all of the fathers in our family. My brothers are such great fathers. Andy is always making up cute little songs with his babies, Chris is always making Seth and Clara laugh, and Mike is always watching out for Garrett's safety. Jonathan is a wonderful uncle. He is adorable playing with the baby girls and goofing around with the boys. Our children are so blessed that they will have him as a father. This was a memorable Father's Day for our family.

A Long Day of Playing!

After the crazy drive, we pulled into Idaho Falls around 7 in the morning. 

Chris and Annie's cute little house.

We were greeted by Seth, Annie, Chris, and sweet baby Clara. I'm not sure who was the most excited for us to be there: Seth, Chris, or Mom! (Chris had been awake for hours and was pacing back and forth and my mom heard every step he took.) We spent a little bit of time there until we headed up to the farm, our home for the weekend.

This is the view from our room.

Jonathan and I were so tired from driving, that we took a long nap. I woke up a few times but couldn't do it until I had a dream that I was outside with the family. I knew it was time to get up and start playing!


While we were napping, both Ryan and Tyler each caught a fish! This was their first time fishing and they did a great job!

Ry's fish in his face, Ty & Chris with his fish, Seth & his Uncle Wes sitting while fishing, and Kyle & Andy fishing.

Here are a couple of videos of Tyler catching his fish.

My favorite part of this one is how he wipes his hand on his shirt after giving Chris a high-five. 

I love Ty running into the fishing line at the end of this one.

Side Story: For Father's Day, Chris refinished Grandpa Patterson's old canoe that we grew up with. It is GORGEOUS!!! Anyways, Chris and Dad decided that they needed to flip it over in the pond.

The water looks nice, but it was FREEZING!

Ryan and Tyler thought that they would swim too, but it was too cold for them. Dad tried to help Ty into the water, while Ryan took off in the canoe.

Ryan decided that he wanted to take the row boat for a spin, and Dad and Ty took over the canoe. As they got closer to the row boat, Ty wanted to jump ship to join Ryan. Dad was holding the row boat for Ty, but they were still drifting. Tyler yelled, "STOP MOVING!!!", but there's little you can do on the water. Eventually, Ty made it safely on to the row boat, but Ry was tired of rowing. Lucky for him, his grandpa is nice enough to tow him around.

After swimming, we played kickball in front of the house. This was Ryan's first time ever playing kickball and he's in 2nd grade! We all had a blast! Ry did great, Ty said he hated it so he didn't play too much with us, Kyle would kick the ball and then watch it roll, and Seth ended up stealing second base (the basketball) and practiced kicking it around the infield.

The chair was first base and the basketball was 2nd.

After we were all tired from playing kickball, Farmer Wayne (Annie's dad) saddled up old Pat and gave us rides around the pond.

Wayne insisted that the "newly weds" take a ride on the horse together. (I secretly loved being called the newly weds!) I started joking that Pat is our honeymoon stallion. Of course, since I was on the horse I didn't take any pictures, but it was a fun ride together!

Seth and baby Lyla

We also spent some time relaxing in the shade before heading back into town to have a family barbecue celebrating the reason we all went to Idaho for, baby Clara!

Seth and Kyle happily played on the teeter-totter together.

Ty loves his babies!! Seth was perfectly content sitting in the doorway to the house. He also drank half of the punch.

Lots of good food and talking!

Garrett and his parents made it in time to do more playing!

Jonathan thought it was nap time, but we still had more to do!

We headed back to the farm and Dad took Mike and Garrett out on the canoe.

Once they were done canoeing, Jonathan & Mike did some fishing. It took some time, but each of them caught a fish!

Mike caught a golden trout!

A beautiful sunset to end the day!

Jonathan and Lyla girl!

We had such a fun day! The whole family was finally reunited. It was so wonderful to have everyone together and (mostly) getting along. This was just the beginning to all of our fun. There is still so much more to share!

On the Road All Night and All Day

We decided to drive to Idaho after Jonathan finished work on Friday so we could get there during the day. (Yeah, it was CRAZY!)

Goodnight Nevada

Good morning Idaho (and bug guts...)

On the way home, it seemed like a way better idea to drive during the day. (Not too crazy.)

Seth saying bye in his snow boots.

A wonderful sight!

The sunset outside our window.

While I was preparing for our trip to Idaho, I found a cute blog post about a road trip date (click here to see it). I decided that it would be fun to do the same for us. Both ways, we used the "Road Trip Countdown" to keep track of where we going.

As we drove home, we let them drop to the ground.

We also printed out the license plate game. We almost got all of them (thanks to all the tourists at Yellowstone). On the way back, we also did the Road Trip Questionnaire. It was so much fun answering questions for each other. The first question was what your favorite color is. I've known for a long time that Jonathan's favorite color is red, but he didn't have it as easy. I love so many colors and haven't had one favorite since I was little (it was blue). Jonathan's answer however, was perfect. He said that my favorite color is any bright color. It was fun answering a whole bunch of other questions, some more thoughtful than others. It was great to get to know each other even better!

Well, that's how the drive to and from went, next up will be our first day in Idaho!

I Don't Know, Idaho!

Idaho was great! We loved every minute of it! The major highlights were meeting sweet (not so little) Clara,

playing at Annie's parents farm,

checking out BYI-Idaho with Hannah,

having a room to ourselves at the cabin (I'm not kidding, this was a big deal!), 

and seeing the cousins get along so well.

I still have so much more to share, but I figured this would be a good place to start.