Black Butte Ranch

Thank you, Marc and Connie for taking us to this beautiful place! In the mountains of Central Oregon near Sisters and Bend, is this fabulous resort. The pictures speak for themselves, but there is so much to do and the cabin we stayed in was so luxurious. It was a mini reunion of Jolleys and Erica was glad to be reunited with her grandparents.
And we were very excited to meet this new little Jolley. We love you, Cameron!Carly loved him too.
Every night Grandpa put the boys to bed in their bunkhouse. They slept in a room full of built-in bunkbeds and felt like big boys sleeping in their own room. It was adorable to see them all gathered around Grandpa's storybook. And we were exhausted from all the fun stuff we did during the day!Kellen taught Joseph how to play chess and they stayed focused on this for about an hour everyday, smart boys! They also played quite a bit of Scrabble with Grandma and Jenni.We had our choice of three different pools and we spent time in each one. On this day, we got kicked out of the big pool for adult swim, but had a blast with the noodles in the wading pool.Erica LOVES the water.There was lots of bike riding.Grandma had an awesome craft for the boys to do everyday, like decorating these cute visors.A fun canoe trip.Good times at the park.Tennis player boys.
If you get up early enough, like these cute girls in their jammies, you can watch the deer come and eat breakfast out of their special trough.A front row seat right from the deck.Pigtail twins. Erica was a bit sassy with her cousin. She yelled at Carly everytime Carly came near her toys, her food or her bath. If she could have said the word "mine" it would have been said.Ice cream on a scorching hot day. Erica was quite the little beggar and Grandpa's a softie.We had the best "Anniversary Party" on our last night there. Carol threw it for us parents with the help of our kids. It was so fun! We played the newlywed game and Darren and I killed at it. The wivesThe husbandsThe adorable helpers.What a great trip! Let's do it again!

Utah Trip 2011, Part Two

Finally! The rest of our Utah trip in pictures. The first day we were there, the kids beat the heat in the kiddie pool in Grandma and Grandpa's awesome new backyard.Erica was happy to see family.Elle is so sweet with Erica. She shared all her toys and showed Erica how to play with dolls.On Independence Day we enjoyed a BBQ with the extended Anderson family and then did fireworks back at home. The kids had a blast with Grandma and her glowsticks! (Her brilliant alternative to sparklers.)Taylor and Jonathan put on the fireworks show for our little culdesac of fire.Joseph still just doesn't dig fireworks. It's the same every year. remember this, and thisBut he still managed to enjoy the show.The rest of us enjoying the show.Swimming at Grandma Mangum's house!Happy birthday, Grandma!We even made it down to Beaver to see Grandma Williams.As usual, more beautiful pictures my Dad took! We love you, Grandma and Grandpa!

Utah Trip 2011, Part One (LAGOON!)

Oh, it's been so fun to look through pictures of our trip in July to Utah. We did so many fun things. One of my favorites was our trip all together to Lagoon! We started with burgers at Inn N Out. Yum.I had warned the boys that I was going to force them to go on a couple of rides even if they didn't want to. (I found my love for roller coasters by being coerced onto the Colossus by my mother when I was young and wanted to provide the same opportunity.) The first ride we chose was one of those opportunities. It was the one where you sit in a car and go around on a circular track really fast. Here's the before picture:And the after picture. Justin recovered well, Joseph was still not happy.He was much happier playing the carnival games. He and Justin and Darren even won stuffed animals.Then it was time for snacks and dogpiles on GrandpaAnd a nap for Erica.I got to ditch my kids to ride the big rollercoasters with my sibs. The new coaster "Wicked" is super fun!The train is always a crowd pleaser.And my Dad took so many great pictures of the kids riding the cars!Cute cousinsErica finished out the night on the merry go round with Taylor.