Father's Day and 2 New Family Members!

Brad and Don came home from Utah for the summer and arrived with a special father's day present for Dad...A New Puppy!!
He is a pure bred yellow lab and absolutely adorable. We can tell he's gonna be big because of his huge paws.
We also had another exciting thing happen...Brad and Rachel are ENGAGED!!
We are so happy to have Rachel join our family.
And then on Sunday it was Father's Day. We had such a great day celebrating with Aaron, my father and grandfather. I love celebrating Aaron as a father because he is such a great dad and Preston and I are so grateful for him.
Father's Day Dinner
Aaron about to open his gifts
Matt with Caitlin opening his giftsAnd Papa opening his gifts with the help of Tommy and KaydenLyndsey made the best Father's Day cake!!Besides dinner, cake and gifts, we had a great time on the trampoline and with the puppies!
Preston jumping on the trampoline with dad supervising.
Aaron showing Kayden how to jump, and Preston is a natural!


It's always fun to watch Luke and Preston together. They are quite the handful! I can't believe how much one year old's love stairs!


Grandpa with his 2 oldest grandsons, Tommy and Kayden(making a silly face), and the new puppy, Turbo
He was totally asleep in this position. Don't know how that's comfortable...
Grandpa Peirce also has a new puppy, Sarah, and she came to spend the day with us. She is a golden retriever.
Preston loved playing with the puppies.

It was so fun to watch these 2 together. Turbo really attacked little Sarah but she didn't mind.

Happy Father's Day!!!

River Day

Grandma Carter came to visit and we went to play in the American River, just down the street. Preston absolutely loved playing in the sand and water.

I could just eat him up...




(Don't look too closely at me, you might get blinded by my whiteness!)
We love living by the river!

Aaron's Birthday

We couldn't decide how to celebrate Aaron's 27th Birthday. We kept shooting down all our ideas because Aaron wanted to do something different. He ended up coming up with the idea to eat on the Delta King on the Sacramento River. Great food and a perfect setting. We loved it!
Us with a beautiful view of the river

Us, Wes and Lani, Jim and Dee
Beautiful view of the bridge
Brothers in front of the Delta King
The Whole Group
We LOVE cupcakes so I decided to try out Icing on the Cupcake instead of a traditional birthday cake for Aaron. They look pretty but I was disappointed with the taste so in addition to the 12 I got from Icing on the Cupcake, I had to pick up a few more from our favorite, Esther's Cupcakes.

Aaron blowing out his candles
My handsome husband
Preston kept putting his arms behind his head so Aaron copied :)
Some great presents
Happy Birthday Aaron!!!!

Camping at Big Trees

We have been talking about wanting to go camping for a long time and we FINALLY made it happen! Anna and Alyssa wanted to go to and we decided it would be so fun to go back to Big Trees where we spent so much time as children.
Our Campsite
It is a definite adventure camping with a 15 month old, especially when we ended up with a campsite on an incline. Preston isn't that sturdy on his feet so someone had to be with him at all times, holding on to him so that he wouldn't hurt himself falling. Speaking of falling, the moment we arrived we took him out of the car and he went running down the street and fell on his forehead and nose. Poor buddy!
We brought so much food and we were a little scared about bears but they had these food lockers that we could put everything away in. I'm happy to say we did not see any bears.
Preston and Kayden loved playing with the food locker. And notice Preston's monkey leash? It was our best friend this weekend.
Heading out for the day. I just love this picture and how it captures Aaron speaking so sweetly to Preston.
Family ShotAlyssa was camera happy and took this video when we didn't know she was recording.

Pitiful! No idea what he is crying about but he looks so cute!
Sticks were Preston's best friend and our worst enemy. They really are dangerous! I get it now.
But those sticks really did make Preston happy.
When I was about 7 years old my parents bought some property in Dorrington, CA just 10 minutes up the road from Big Trees. We spent so much time here growing up and I have SO MANY memories here. We sold it in 2001 but I wanted to make sure Aaron saw it.
Our family in front of the cabin

Alyssa, Anna and Kayden at the front door
A picture of the family room through the window, it pretty much looks the same!Beautiful big windows have a great view of the forest
Glad no one was there because we did a lot of trespassing
I remember going to this lot as a kid before the cabin was built and playing in the middle of these 3 trees.
After visiting the cabin we went to the State Park and toured the Big Trees. We brought lunch and had a little picnic.
The HUGE stump that can be used as a stage
I love how Preston is looking up at the super tall trees
Sisters :) and Preston
Preston (luckily) took his nap while we walked
Alyssa and Me
The dogwood trees were in bloom and they were BEAUTIFUL! We couldn't have gone at a better time.

Tree Tunnel
Sisters again :)
Daddy and Preston walking
Checking out the trail, he has a lot to say

He had so much fun playing with these pinecones that someone lined up
After we left the state park we stopped at this overlook. So beautiful.
Preston loved playing in the field



And Alyssa and Anna took in some sun and a nap


Once again the leash to the rescue


Daddy found a caterpillar!"How big is Preston?" "SOOOO big"
We really had such a great time and can't wait to go back when Preston is a little older. It was surprisingly cold for June and Preston wasn't very good about sleeping past 5am so we were all pretty tired but we definitely made some good memories. On the way home we even stopped by this apple stand that we would often stop at to get apple pie or apple cider on our way up to the cabin.
Lunch at KFC before we parted ways.
Can't wait for next time!!!