Yellowstone

The day after school was out this summer we packed our bags

and headed to Idaho for our Gwilliam Family Reunion in

Island Park, Idaho. 

 

We were able to break the trip up and stay over at Kris and

Eric's in Boise on our way there.

 

For our first adventure we went to Yellowstone National Park. 

It was beautiful!  We quickly spotted a few buffalo

along the side of the road.

 

 

A little further down the road we spotted a bigger herd of buffalo.

 

 

 

 

Grandpa was a good tour guide along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaitlyn, Megan, Scott, Blake, Keith, Conner, Kyle Lindsey and Logan

 

 

Next stop was Norris Geyser and Basin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

McKayla, Kaitlyn, Conner, Logan, Megan and Kyle

 

 
 

 

 

Macy, Henry, Kris, Blake, Logan, Kaitlyn, Eric, Jack and Tyson

 

 

Logan thought it was fun to give Jack a few piggy back rides.

 

 

 

 

Henry and Grandpa having fun playing in the car.

 

I love this picture of Kaitlyn helping Grandpa figure

out how to use his new phone. 

Now he can text the grandkids whenever he wants to.

 

 

Grandma, McKayla and Logan playing some cards.

It's so much fun to spend time with our extended family - especially

when we don't get to do it very often.

 

Model Time

A friend in the ward owns a Prom/Wedding Dress Shop.

Kaitlyn and some other girls from the ward were asked to

help with a wedding fair they were participating in.

The girls had their hair and makeup done for the show.

 

 

 

Kaitlyn didn't want me to take any pictures...

 

but I didn't listen :)

 

Rachel getting her makeup done.

 

Taylor's turn to get her hair done.

 

 

 

 

 

Celia and Sister Larsen making sure Celia's dress was just right.

 

 

The Brittner sisters all dressed up.

 

Kaitlyn thought Jodie's dress was so big and poofy it might be comfy to sit on.

 

 

Jamie, Jodie, Taylor, Kaitlyn, Rachel and Celia



Baseball Season

This year Logan played on the Washington Nationals team in the comp division.

He had a great season and made some good friends on his team.

 

He pitched a little bit, but mostly played at 1st, 3rd base, and center field

 

 

 

It's fun to see him improve every year.

During one game Mike said to Logan "Do the thing where you hit the ball really far and run around the bases." - Logan responded by hitting a homerun to the other field!!!

 

There were only 4 teams in his division so we ended up playing the same teams over and over.  He enjoyed the competition of playing against our neighbors Mario and Gabe from the Giants.

 

 

We took the Lauren, Mallory and Jaxson to one of the games and I gave them the camera to get some pictures of Logan.

 

Oh look they got one of Logan in there :)

 

Seeing the pictures they ended up with cracked me up - not enough time to upload all the pictures they got of themselves in the stands.

 

Another shot of Logan playing 1st base.

So glad Logan played again this year and that he loved it so much!

Surprise!

We're going away for the weekend.

 

When I pick up Kaitlyn from seminary she asks if we can just start driving and go on a spontaneous trip - usually she wants to go to Idaho.  Most of the time I know she just wants to get out of school, but she says it on the weekends too.  So when Mike and I started talking about going to Reno for the weekend we decided not to tell the kids so Kaitlyn could have her spontaneous trip.  Logan had a half day on Friday so we picked him up at about noon.  I told Kaitlyn she had a dental appt. so I would be picking her up early.  Yes, I lied, but I needed a way to get her out of school early.  It was funny to watch Kaitlyn as she walked out of school and saw all of us in the truck with the bikes on the back.  She started walking really slowly and looked very confused.  When we told her our plans for the day she was thrilled!  She loved that it was spontaneous and didn't want to know anything more about what we were doing for the weekend.  She wanted everything to be a surprise.

 

 

Logan took a few minutes to come around.  He had his own plans for the weekend.  He wanted to hang out with his friends like he does every Friday and he didn't want to miss his baseball game.  Plus he thought he was going to have to go to the dentist since that's why I told Kaitlyn I was picking her up early.  He wanted to know all the plans for the entire weekend immediately.  Kaitlyn plugged her ears while we told him our plans.  Once he found out where we were going, that I did have his ipod and had packed the right things for him he came around and was excited to go on our adventure.

 

 

The kids kept taking pictures of themselves in the backseat with their ipods so Mike and I decided to get in on it. 

 

 (Photo Bomb ;)

 

 

 

We have a picture of Logan in this chair when he was a toddler.

Sad that he's growing so fast.

 

After we unpacked and went to dinner we told the kids we were
going to a Foreigner Concert.

Logan was excited, Kaitlyn not so much.

They both love 80's music, but Kaitlyn felt a little to young for all
the oldies in the crowd.

It wasn't as good as the Journey Concert we took them to a few years ago,
but we still had a good time.

 

On Saturday we found a great trail along the water to ride our bikes.



 

 

Unfortunately Mike and Logan liked to ride their bikes off the trail and soon had
flat tires from all the thorns they rode over. 
After we got their bikes repaired we found another trail to ride on.

Logan was thrilled because it was definitely more of a mountain biking trail.

 

Kaitlyn and I were wondering why we weren't shopping or laying by
the pool reading a book, but we took pictures of each other riding
the trail to prove that we did it!

 

 

 

We had a great spontaneous get away

and hope to do it again soon!