rayner shine

Saturday

rocky mountain national park, part 1

for our family summer trip this year we drove up to rocky mountain national park

as you can see, it was a gorgeous drive. freddy helped us find our way...

here's the little cabin we rented on columbine lake, just outside of grand lake, co. isn't it cute? it was just perfect for us.

nothing better than daddy's big breakfast
(notice freddy's hair in the top photo. i don't know if it was bothering him, but it was driving his mama crazy!)

a few shots of the inside of the cabin. we loved this place

ready for an adventure!

first, we walked around columbine lake

it was a beautiful day

and a beautiful place!

after lunch in town at the local brewery, pat and laurel tried out the kayak while freddy and i watched

i couldn't handle it anymore, and lopped off his bangs. he's smiling bc he can SEE!!

it was a great day. :-)

uncle and bab-wa

at the beginning of august, my big bro merrill and his wife barbara came to visit.

we loved having them in our house and in beautiful colorado. uncle found abbi's robe, aka "big brown" in their bedroom downstairs. he couldn't resist striking a pose.

major rayner gave us an excellent tour of the academy

they spent a couple of nights with us, then we dropped them off at the broadmoor to spend 3 nights celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary.

thank you for coming to see us! congrats on 20 years!! we love y'all!!!

left: 3 towels! this is what laurel typically looks like when we go swimming in colorado. the wind makes you so cold when you get out of the pool.
right: one of my favorite outfits laurel came up with recently. thanks for the shirt, buddy!

1.) laurel's new responsibility is watering the flowers outside. so far they are still alive, although struggling... 2.) the kids have a new reading nook in the living room 3.) another classic laurel-chosen outfit 4.) after dinner bible story with the sweetest daddy in the world.

nice volley!

on her half birthday, this 4 1/2 year old got her first bike.

this was right before laurel got stung 3 times on her upper lip by a mean ole yellow jacket. that ride/walk home was not much fun at all. :-(

never a dull moment

poor freddy got a bad case of hand/foot/mouth virus. he was so pitiful. glad that's over with!

bekah's surprise shower

waaaaay back on july 22nd, a few of my friends and i threw a surprise shower for bekah and jeremy marsh. we thought we had to hurry up and do it, bc it seemed baby emeline was going to be here any minute...