Mainland Trip Part Eight: Birthday & Father's Day!

Ryan's grandpa, G'pa Ben and his lovely wife, Diane came to Colorado to visit over his 75th birthday and what a celebration it was! Earlier that day we'd been to the water park in Denver (and of course left my camera in the car!) :( But that evening we ate at my favorite Mexican Restaurant in town, 3 Margaritas!

For once, I'm in a pic and not behind the camera :)

Singing Happy Birthday!

The next day we visited with our wonderful friends, Chad & Annie :)

June 19th was Father's Day of course! And with two sets of families around you better believe we celebrated with both! Just like we did in the past. Not always easy- but it's what you do so you can be with both families and it's worth it :)

Here my dad is receiving his favorite sodas, Jaritos & Henry Weinhart's rootbeer and cream soda. Lucky guy :)

Every G'pa has got to have a clown nose!! Courtesy of me :)

And everyone had to try it on :)

Cousin Josh

Cousin Zac

Gabriella

Kolea- too embarrassed to have a picture taken!

And we tried with River w/0 success. He was too busy with his newfound love: Corn on the cob.

Our second celebration at the Hitz home with Ella trying on G'pa Ben's nose :)

G'pa Steve

Great G'pa Ben :)

Mainland Trip Part Seven: Estes Park

On Thursday, June 16th we went up to Estes Park to spend the day in the mountains. We always love going there as a family and exploring the little (easy) hiking trails in Rocky Mountain National Park. And we always top it off with a trip through the historic town and visit their candy shops :)

This was the highlight!

We went with Ryan's family- even his G'pa and step G'ma were in town!

I'm having a complete metal block about the name of this hike!

And this one! Both they were both gorgeous :)

They love their daddy!

Awww :)

Soooo picturesque!

Ryan and I ALWAYS go into this same shoe store every time we go to Estes Park. They have great shoes and normally we end up with a great bargain! Anyhow, this day they had some mustaches by the register that we could have (I noticed when I was buying some shoes!) And we had tons of fun- not to mention some good laughs...

Mmmm lovely!

Funny kid :)

We were getting ready to go swimming and look what we found in the car as we were loading up? Cali wanted to come along for the ride- she knew she was about to miss a good time!

Sorry Cali, maybe next time :)

Mainland Trip Part Six: Summer Days

After saying our goodbyes to parts of my family, we began saying hello to parts of Ryan's family! There was never a dull moment and lots of laughs all around... although River doesn't look too happy here!

Please tell me my children aren't the only kids that do this...

River experienced his first Twizzler... oh the joys of summer!

Swimsuits and Trampolines. Yes, thank you!

And another Great G'pa! This time it's G'pa Ben :)

I don't know why I like this picture so much... maybe b/c Kolea looks like such a peanut in that big yard. Or maybe it's the contrast of the green grass against her yellow dress... I just like it.

Playing at another pool, 4 generations here! Great G'pa Ben, G'ma Ginger, Me, and my kids!

Koela was busy.

That night Gabriella became a beauty pageant contestant :)

Keep away boys! :)

Mainland Trip Part Fiver: The Park & Goodbyes

Fossil Creek Park is my kids' favorite park- EVER. Just look at it! A big MAMMOTH in the middle? What kid wouldn't love it? On June 13th we met our friends to play :)

Crystle, pushing River

Gabriella and Megan enjoying some girl time! Megan and Hunter are the same age and have been "friends" since birth :)
Later we went to a different side of this same park with a water feature that the kids are able to play in... we didn't bring suits :) Oh well!

Hmmm, I'm not so sure they should be doing that!

Buuuuut, I let them.

While the other two sat and chilled... Kolea is starting to feel a little better!

On June 14th it was time to say goodbye to my two baby brothers :) Joseph was flying back to Cali and we weren't sure when we'd see him again...

Goodbye Joe! We love you!

(For those of you who don't know the story, Michael accidentally shot Joseph in the eye with a BB gun in a freak accident when they were 10 & 12 years old. So if you notice Joe's left eye- he has it, but is blind in it now. They weren't kidding when they said "You'll shoot your eye out!") Needless to say that's one of our family's favorite movies :)

Hello Kolea.

Next we went to say goodbye to Mike & Bekah- also, unsure of when we'd see them again!

Mainland Trip Part Four: The Wedding

June 11th, Michael and Bekah were married in the Denver, CO temple! My children were patiently waiting outside while we were in for the ceremony. Remember my part one post where I said Kolea had a fever for like two weeks? Yeah, that's why she looks so awesome here... We don't really know what the problem ever was except that she was cutting all four of her 2 year molars at once :( Anyhow, she also had a VERY swollen lymph node that was up in her cheek! We were afraid there might be an abscess in her cheek so a friend (who is a dentist and had looked at her a couple of days earlier) phoned in an antibiotic for her. We picked it up in between the wedding luncheon and the reception... And now onto happier things!

The Oh So Happy Couple!

Gabriella was SOOO embarrassed when they kissed :)

My cute dad (in the middle) and two of his biker brothers :)

HA! This pic just makes me laugh! Cute cousins!

My parents TEN grandkids! Yay! Michael is holding Emily's twins, Tamara's two boys are by Gabriella and Lorayne's two boys are by Hunter :) You know who the rest belong to!

Our first attempt at getting a family photo...

Here is Lorayne, holding my Kolea since my arms and Ryan's arms were dead tired (we'd been holding her for a week and a half straight with her being sick!) My wonderful sisters helped me a lot that day with her! Anyhow, Lorayne is now our last hostess with the mostess- are you sick of hearing that now? I just have such wonderful sisters and they are great hostesses! We love throwing parties :)
Lorayne and Brett opened their home to the wedding party for the luncheon and it was marvelous! Simply mah-valous :)

My darling brother, Adam and his fun wife, Tammy!

The cutest little boy on earth! (Who just turned one yesterday- ah!!)

P.S. I made his bow tie!

I forgot to take many pics at the reception so this is about all I have! Daddy, daughter dance :) Gabriella was in heaven- she loves her daddy!

He was having a pretty good time too :)

(I did her hair- it was fun!)

The magnificent Uncle Creed! He turned my sick baby girl into one happy little thing! Who knows what they were even laughing at!?! But we didn't care- these were the first laughs we'd seen in over a week and a half! Yay!

We were able to get some decent family photos that afternoon in my parent's backyard- finally something worth framing :)

Congrats Mike and Bekah!