A Fabulous, Fun-Filled Fourth!

We spent the 4th of July up in Rupert/Burley, Idaho this year with Greg's family and had a great time! Here are some highlights of what we did:

Highlight #1 - The Weather

This really was the main highlight for me, believe it or not! The cold front (if you can even call it that - maybe it should be called a "little less hot, but still pretty hot front") hit Idaho Friday so we spent the majority of the day in the 80's, instead of the 100's! It was heavenly.

Highlight #2 - The Water

Greg's sister Jenny and her family live on the Snake River, so every 4th, we spend the majority of the day having a big party at their house doing a lot of boating, jet-skiing, or swimming (however, I am not a big fan of the swimming since you never know what's in river water!). They also set up a little blow-up waterpark for the kids which they went CRAZY in. Gavin was pretty intense with the waterguns, as you can see!

Highlight #3 - Seeing Greg Water Ski

Since the first day I met Greg, I have heard him talk a lot about water skiing and how much he loves it, yet funny enough, I've never actually seen him do it! Well yesterday, he decided that after a 6 year hiatus, he was ready to get back on the slalom ski and see if he could even still do it. And seriously, I was AMAZED. My husband is AWESOME! :) (Even though, according to him, this isn't the best picture because he "did a lot better the second time" when I wasn't there to shoot pictures, of course! But I still found this quite impressive.) When he was done, I asked him why he didn't show that to me on the first trip to his parents', because he probably could have proposed that night and I would have instantly said yes. :) Unfortunately, all that showing off paid its price because he is now sore from his neck down to his calves!

Highlight #4 - Gavin's First Fishing Trip

Greg's dad has a good friend who lives a couple hours away and has a private pond that he stocks with tons of fish each year. So needless to say, the boys in Greg's family LOVE to go out there whenever they can, and come back with a few coolers full of fish. Well they decided to go on Saturday, and Greg and Gavin were pretty dang excited about it since it was Gavin's first time. And from what I hear, they both had such a blast! Gavin loved every second of it... well, except when he went to weigh his biggest fish and it started flailing around, sending him running into the weeds terrified. In the end, he caught four fish, the biggest one weighing 6 pounds (see picture above)! He even got the true outdoors experience when he got to pee in the weeds. :) He thought that was pretty darn cool.

Highlight #5: The Lodging

Greg's parents' house was pretty full because Greg's brother Mike and his family were in town from Washington, as well as his sister from Grace, Idaho and her kids. So we decided that instead of waking everybody up with Tyler's crying during the night as well as making our nieces and nephews sleep on the floor or couch, we would just rough it. That's right, we slept in a camping trailer just outside his parents' house! And yes, I call that "roughin' it." :) It was actually a pretty nice trailer with a bathroom and kitchen, and of course the boys were in heaven, so it wasn't too bad in the end. But I did tell Greg both nights that he needed to enjoy this while he could, because it was the closest he would ever get me to camping. :)

Overall, we had a great holiday. We all came home completely and utterly exhausted, but it was worth every second! -Ash (I posted a bunch more pictures below, so check them out too.)

Tyler on the car-ride up. I have no idea why movies will not entertain this kid for a 2-hour drive, but they just won't. So instead, he played with my sunglasses!

Gavin being patriotic at the Rupert parade.

Tyler's "parade face."

I am not kidding, this is the look he had on his face the whole time!

Gavin and Ty playing on the beach. They were so enthralled with digging in the sand that they didn't even think about venturing into the water, thank heavens!

Greg and his brother Jeff pushing Colton around in a toy box in the river. Funny story short - they were all having a water fight and Colton thought that paddling away in the toy box would be a good idea. Too bad Uncle Greg and Uncle Jeff caught up to him and drown him out!

The annual fathers vs. sons baseball game. This is our nephew Marc pitching to Greg.

A view of their house from the river. Not a bad setup, huh?

Gavin getting ready to fish!

Cute daddy-son picture.

Gavin weighing the out of control 6-pound fish! :) Poor kid... it scared the living daylights out of him!