A Visit to Aunt Mel's

 Last week, Jonny and I spent a couple of days at my sister's house in eastern Oregon.  She took us to a little park along the Snake River that had a bunch of old-fashioned equipment.   Jonny liked the teeter-totter but he especially loved the merry-go-round.  I didn't think he was ever going to get off!

 Melanie has a pool in her backyard and Jonny decided that he wanted to go swimming with his cousins.  We got a life-jacket on him but as Melanie was helping him into the pool, he let go of the ladder and fell backwards into the pool.  It scared him and I didn't think we were going to get him back in the pool.  He did though but he would only get in the tiger floatie if you would hold onto him.  He also spent a lot of time standing on the ladder.

 Cousin Kassidy found a little abandoned kitten in the bushes near their house just a couple of days before our visit.  All of the kids loved carrying that little kitty around.

This picture was taken the day after we got back from the trip.  Jonny must have had a lot of fun because he was exhausted!

Happy Fourth!

 Chris, Jonny and I went for a drive and a picnic for the Fourth of July.  We drove down to the Snake River to see the Swan Falls dam.  There is a nice grassy area with trees so we enjoyed the cool breeze while we ate our lunch and then we explored around for a while.  There was a walkway that went completely across the river, so we walked over that, too.  Jonny was kind-of nervous about walking on it the first time so he rode on his daddy's shoulders but he was brave enough to walk on his own two feet on the way back.  To finish up the day, we went over to our cousin's house for fireworks.  Jonny started out watching the fireworks with his hands over his ears so they gave him some earplugs and he wore those until the fireworks were over.  He was even brave enough to hold a sparkler this year!

Family Reunion 2012

My 2012 family reunion was held at Massacre Rock State Park again this year.  It's a nice little campground--especially because it has flushing toilets and showers!  There are all kinds of big rocks around the campground and the little boys loved exploring!

It was a little on the hot side so we were grateful that Aunt Melanie brought her snow cone machine!

Jonny enjoyed eating hot dogs and s'mores cooked over the campfire--especially the marshmallows!

Jonny hasn't slept well in a tent before, but this year he did.  I guess he was exhausted from all the running around and playing with cousins!

This was almost all of the family that came.  One of my cousins got away before we took the family photo.  We even brought our dog this year, since our backup animal feeders were away on a family reunion also.  We had to keep Mac on a leash while we were at the campground.  Jonny loved walking Mac all around and it seems like all of his cousins did, too.