Colorado Reunion Vacation- Part IV- The Pine Cone Collection

 As I mentioned before, we went on a lot of nature walks.  A favorite past time for the kids was to pick up and save the pine cones.  They had quite an extensive collection by the end of the trip!

 This giant one was clearly the favorite!

They had a lot of pine cones!

We had a wonderful trip and are grateful to the Webers and the Adairs for inviting us along!!

Colorado Reunion Vacation- Part III

 Picture Taking:  I have to be honest, I hate doing family pictures.  It is so hard to get all the kids behaving and looking at the camera that it just becomes so stressful for me that it hardly seems worth it.  However, I know that in the end, you have a family portrait that will be looked upon for many years and it really is worth it.  So, this was family picture day... Everyone wore their newly dyed shirts.

First a little Masey Mase:

 He is about as goofy as they come.... hey there good lookin'!

 The Weber crew:

 While waiting for other families, Uncle Steve was throwing his kids in the air.  Then my kids wanted to be thrown!  I was surprised he could throw Ellie...

 ... but really surprised when he threw up Owen!!

 Sure he didn't get much higher than what is pictured but Steve did it!  I mean, Owen is like 70 pounds, I am just glad Steve didn't throw out his back.

 Lindsay and Steve.

There was this little meadow by where we were waiting and I actually got some cute shots of the kids:

 Owen handing cousin Austin a flower.

 Owen hanging out... proof that he WAS in a decent mood before the big group shot!!  Right before the big group shot, Maggie stole a little rainbow pine cone from Owen.  This set him off.  He started wailing... right at the time the big group shot started.  So, the whole time we were taking the picture, he was screaming.  Ugh.   What can I say?  The boy is four and his sister took something from him-- this is expected but because I was also making him take a picture right after it was even worse!  A few minutes after, we took a walk and laid out on the grass looking for animals in the clouds and all was well again:).

This is a strange picture of Ellie but also a little cool.

Colorado Reunion Vacation- Part II

 On one of the days, Daniel's cousin Megan showed the kids how to make and race cars.  This was RIGHT up Owen's alley.  All the kids had a blast but I think the boys really did!

 First the kids all had to make their cars.. with dad's help.

 Mason's Great Grandma holding him :).

 The race:

 Owen's car was on the right... he beat is competitor.  The Weber family actually cleaned house!  We must be some great car-making engineers!

Colorado Reunion Vacation- Part I

 Last week we had the opportunity to go to Colorado for Dan's Mom's family reunion.  It was good to go and the kids had a blast!  It was fun seeing everyone again.  Because there is seriously something wrong with my brain, I didn't get a ton of pictures of all the events, but we enjoyed swimming, tubing, tye-dyeing, car making/racing, balloon animals, games and lots of nature walks.

Here are a few pictures of the kids swimming:

This is Elise and Miriam.  Miriam is actually Daniel's cousin (so Ellie's second cousin), but they are the same age.  Ellie actually went up to Dallas a few weeks ago and stayed at Miriam's place so she knew her before going to the reunion.