Pitcher Family Reunion

Towards the end of August we went to the Pitcher family reunion.  We met up with my parents, and brothers and their girl friends at Flathead Lake.  My parents rented a cabin and boat which was so much fun.  It was so neat to sit out on the deck and over look the lake as the sun set.  The weather was great most of the days. 

The first morning that we were there the boys got up early and went fishing off of our dock.  It was kind of chilly (notice Conner shivering) and we didn't catch anything :(  

We bought some life jackets a few years ago and have hardly used them.  We brought them with us and I am glad we did - we made the boys put them on everytime they were down around the water.  They came in handy - one time when Conner was throwing rocks off the dock he got a little over enthusiatic and he fell off the dock.  He popped right back up and his uncle grabbed the back of his life jacket and lifted him back onto the dock.  

Micah made us all laugh with his fishing technique:  he would stick the tip of his rod in the water, swish it around and say "here fishy, fishy, fishy, here fishy"

Later that day we went to an interpretive center.  We had fun trying to guess which pelt belonged to which animal.  Here is Conner modeling one of the pelts:

Here is Micah trying to move a big antler:

After that we went for a short hike.  Micah hiking with Brittney:

Then we stopped and had lunch and a rest:

On Sunday we went into Kalispell for church and that evening we took some pictures.  I was so impressed with this picture, everyone is smiling and looking at the camera (except Brooklyn which is okay).

The big group shot.  Drew and his girlfriend Brittney and Reed and his girlfriend Stephanie and their dog Ace plus our family and my parents.

My boys were very interested in Ace.  Micah really liked to put the leash on him and walk around the deck.

We rented a boat from Monday thru Thursday.  It was so much fun!  We used to do a lot of boating in the summer when we were growing up and I have missed going since the old boat broke down.  Everyone except Brooklyn tried something.  Uncle Drew convinced Alan to go on the tube with him.  Alan really wanted to go really slow though.  He went for a short ride and then he wanted to get off because they were going too fast:

Drew and Brittney

 This is the only picture I got of Reed on the boat.  He had to go back home to go to work on Monday evening:

Micah helping Grandma make a salad: 

One evening we went fishing:

Cute picture of Conner:

This was Brooklyn's first fishing expedition.  She is about 6 weeks old:

Micah speared a hot dog on the end of his pole and then he swished his pole through the water.  Surprisingly, we didn't catch any fish.

Carissa skiing

Mom working on her form:

Dad skiing.  I wish I could have been in the boat.  He is still a pro!

Drew wakeboarding.  He made it look easy and he even started doing some tricks.

 Me and my brother, Reed

Carissa wakeboarding.  I pulled up easily most of the time but staying up was kind of tricky.  I did manage to go for some short rides before I crashed.

We did a campfire and roasted marshmallows one night.  Grandma is in the background holding Brooklyn.  Everyone was so kind, they all took turns watching my kids so that I could go out in the boat too.

Our cabin was on a protected little cove.  You can kind of see the cove behind the boys.  In the evenings the water got so calm.

Uncle Reed holding Brooklyn

Uncle Reed skiing and skimming the water with his hand:

Steph got up on the wakeboard!  I'm not sure if her face is showing surprise, or excitement or maybe both.  And Brittney got up on skis but I didn't get any pictures.

A bald eagle landed in a tree in our cove and let us admire it:

Towards the end of the trip we convinced the boys to go with me on the tube.  Grandpa promised to go really slow and Uncle Drew promised to give the boys candy if they did it.  So we all piled on the tube and set off at an extremely slow speed.  The picture below was taken right before the people in the boat got tired of watching our slow float and decided to slowly speed up.  Well, that might have worked except that with my weight on the front the nose of the tube submarined.  All the kids slid off face first into the water.  Micah and Conner started crying.  We got all the kids back into the boat and worked on calming them down.  Uncle Drew was holding Conner and Conner was still sobbing after a minute so Uncle Drew says "At least now you get to have some candy" and Conner stopped mid sob and said "what kind of candy?"  It was pretty funny.  They were fine after that although they had no interest in going on the tube again.  

Reed and Steph brought their floating living room.  One afternoon we took it out for a paddle.  Alan abandoned ship after a while and swam back to shore:

We were looking for pirates to squirt with our squirt guns but we didn't find any.  Micah was really eager to help me paddle and Conner stood guard with his squirt gun:

We celebrated my parent's anniversary while we were there.  They took us out for Mexican food in Kalispell and then we went to an icecream shop.  They had all kinds of different flavors.  I tried lemon dill ice cream - it actually was pretty good.  Here is Drew, Brittney and Reed enjoying some icecream:

My parents with their 3 children and 4 grandchildren:

 On Friday we took the boat back and packed up and left.  Conner held Brooklyn and helped her be happy while I packed up:

The boys playing the cat and mouse game with grandpa: 

 Alan entertaining Brooklyn while we packed up:

 

It was fun to get together and play games and spend time out in the fresh air! 

Bassett Reunion

At the beginning of August we went to the Bassett family reunion at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They did a lot of work to make the stay fun.  I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the tent town that we set up on their lawn - 6 tents all set up in a little area, one for each family.  It was beautiful weather and the boys enjoyed sleeping outside.  Brooklyn and I claimed a bedroom and we slept inside. 

On Friday the adult boys went golfing in the morning.  Then the boys watched the kids while the girls went into town and threw me a baby shower.  We had a yummy chicken and avacodo salad and chocolate covered strawberries.  I got some cute clothes and it was fun to just visit with everyone.  We also tied a quilt for Brooklyn.  I didn't get any pictures of the gathering, which makes me think I need to do better about remembering my camera!

Most of these pictures are from Saturday.

G-ma and G-pa set up a zip line for the kids.  It attached to the porch and went to the swing set.  The kids had a blast.  Reed helping Micah go on the zip line:

Conner getting ready to go:

Alan zooming down the line:

Jordan really enjoyed holding Brooklyn.  She took very good care of her:

Kids playing on the swing set.  L to R Alan, Becky, James and in the front is Ava

Conner and Caden playing

Reed helping Micah go down the slip and slide:

Saturday afternoon we did the Bassett olympics.  Here is Uncle Andrew showing the kids how to get a high score on the slip and slide:

Here is Alan doing the slip and slide:

Conner was extremely grumpy and refused to participate in any of the events so this is the only picture I got of him:

Alan walking across the balance beam...

And he stuck the landing!

Aunt Kristie holding Brooklyn. 

Micah was a little young to compete so he mostly played in the pool.  Here is Ava, Micah and Chase playing in the water:

Micah loved this pool noodle and carried it around for a while:

Afterward everyone got a certificate and a candy for participating.  It was a lot of fun!

 

The next day was Sunday.  We all got up early and headed over to the church for Kyla's baptism.  It was nice to see her get baptized.  Then we blessed Brooklyn.  We decided to do it there since all of Reed's family was there and my parents drove down so they were there too.  I absolutely love to hear my babies get blessed.  Reed gave Brooklyn a wonderful blessing.  Here is Brooklyn being held by her dad, with Grandma P. admiring her: 

About 3 1/2 weeks old.  She was so pretty in her blessing dress.  It is the same dress that her mom was blessed in, kind of a neat tradition:

No matter how many times I rotate this picture it always gets posted upside down.

Here is our family afterward:

A 3 generation photo, Brooklyn, Mom and Grandma Pitcher

Brooklyn, me and Grandma and Grandpa Pitcher

Our family with Grandma and Grandpa Bassett:

 The Basset Clan.  This was the first time in a long time that we were all together.  Mom and Dad Bassett were there with all six of their children, and their spouses, and all 20 grandchildren (ranging in age from 9 years old to 3 weeks).  Pretty impressive sight!

The big group picture with the Pitchers and Eddingtons in it:

 

It was wonderful to see everyone.  I absolutely love watching my kids get to know their cousins and play with them.  I wish we could do this more often!

Brooklyn's first 2 weeks

After the boys left to spend a week with my parents it was very quiet.  It was nice to just spend time with Reed and get to know Brooklyn a little better.  I also got a lot of painting done in the boys' room, which was really nice! 

3 days old and not very happy

3 days old and much happier snuggling with dad.  She looks so tiny!

This is the outfit she came home in.  I forgot to mention earlier that when she was born her left foot was kind of curled in.  The nurse mentioned that it might be club foot but when the pediatrician checked her out she said it was just turned like that from being squished in the uterus and that it would staighten out on its own since it had lots of space now.  

4 days old

6 days old:

Brooklyn's first sponge bath at home:

All clean!  She was a good sport about her bath - no crying.

1 week old and so cute!

8 days old.  I have found that she sleeps better when her head is covered.  I guess she just likes to be really warm.

Big yawn - 10 days old

All dressed up and ready for church with mom - 2 1/2 weeks old:

Brooklyn and her dad taking a Sunday afternoon nap:

Brooklyn had her days and nights mixed up at first.  She slept a lot during the day and then she wanted to stay up all night and eat.  Luckily that only lasted a couple of weeks.

 

When I took Brooklyn in for her 2 week check up she weighed 9 lbs and 2 oz and she was 21 1/4 inches long.  So she gained half a pound and grew 1 and a quarter inches in 2 weeks.  It always amazes me how fast they grow during the first couple of months.  

4th of July

We started off the day with Micah waking Reed and I up at 5:30 am.  We both came down stairs with him so that he wouldn't wake his brothers.  He was being so silly, running around in circles and falling down, until he fell face first into our entertainment center.  Ouch!  As soon as we picked him up we could see that he was going to have an impressive black eye - it swelled immediately.  The pictures really don't do it justice:

A couple of days later:



 

It was the most impressive black eye that any of our children have ever had:

Later that morning we took the kids to the parade down town.  We got there early so that we could set up in the shade but it turned out to be kind of cool, so the sun would have felt nice.  Anyway the kids enjoyed the parade.  It was kind of long though and the first hour was just different kinds of military vehicles.  The kids enjoyed getting some candy and they liked seeing the helicopter flying right down the street.  I didn't take my camera so no pictures.

That evening we hung out with our friends down the street, the Porters.  We had bought a small bag of fire works and they had a bunch of fireworks so we enjoyed watching our own little firework show.   

Alan and Conner watching a black snake firework:

Micah was kind of wary of the fireworks.  He preferred to keep his distance and eat some red, white and blue trifle:

Setting up for the big tank battle: 

All the little tanks fought the big tank.  I am not sure who won, they all ended up in a big burning heap:

Micah and Josh, keeping well back from the pyro technics:

Then we took the kids to the city's firework show over the river.  We arrived just as it was starting so I dropped everyone off and went and found a parking spot.  I didn't meet up with everyone until after it was over, but that worked out.  It was really good, we might do that next year instead of doing our own thing.  I want to go earlier so that we can find a spot and watch it as a family.  It was a great 4th of July!