family reunion

so i'm WAY behind with blogging, but since we had a relatively slow summer, i think that's okay :) and i'm catching up! now enough disclaimer, here's the pictures:

this summer i decided it was time to break out of texas for a little while, it was a hard decision because i knew paul wouldn't have the time to break away with us, but thanks to a little help from my family,

we made it all the way to colorado! my mom's amazing family planned a big family reunion near mesa verde state park, and we loved visiting with everyone, hiking, swimming, eating, playing, eating and visiting!

and of course we posed for a bunch of family pictures :)

probably the only big unplanned disapointment (cause really leaving paul home was the only major disappointment, but that was the plan...) was me forgetting my camera, so these are all gleaned from FB and others...
it was great to see so many cousins! and we LOVED going hiking in the mountains. we also thought the pueblo tours were pretty cool, but this little hike was one of our favorites, just getting out in the mountains was such a treat! thanks katharine's family for coming with us and letting me slip into lecture mode :)


miriam, katharine, vienna, malachi, me, afton, rayna, grace, jacob and seth

we also happened to be there over the fourth of july which means, FIREWORKS... which 2/3 of my kids hated... but they couldn't sleep through them either, so they sat with us out on the second floor porch/balcony of the hotel and watched them with us. it was a nice little show, though it was a little drizzly, and we weren't sure when it was actually ending... maybe you had to be close to hear the program that went with it? or maybe the rain was giving them trouble, either way, we were glad of the rain/drizzle, because there were numerous wildfires not too far from where we were, though it rained a little bit almost every day. 

wathcing hte fireworks, i know it's not a very flattering picture, but it struck me as funny... kodi (the dog) did great!

and last but certainly not least, this is one of my favorite pictures from picture day, 


THE AFTONs --anyone else see the family resemblance?

there are a surprising number of repeated names in my mom's family, my afton was not technically named for this cousin, but it's certainly a great name! and they're so cute! for the curious, some of the other repeats include : Joseph (3), Elise (2), Emma (3), Sara (2), Katie/Katharine (3), Nan/Nathane/Nicki (okay, technically they're all different, but named for the same person) (3), Andy (2), David (3--2+ a middle, + Uncle Dave, in memory), and i'm probably forgetting someone! but it was fun and there would have been even more repeats if everyone had been able to come :)