The great race

That evening Nic and Karla had Mexican food catered and it was amazing. We teased them about being Californified because they had a caterer, but it was marvelous. Plus, we ate leftovers the rest of the reunion!
The guacamole and salsa were delish! La fuente! Bon apetite... oh wait, that's the wrong language!
Promptly after dinner Brian and I came up with some games so we headed to the park. We had 3 different races and opted to organize each race by gender. We let the girls go first. The initial race was the shoe race. Each contestant has to remove their shoes and line up on the starting line. Brian then took the bag of shoes to the finish line where they were to find and put shoes on before racing back to the starting line.
There may have been a male interference of the girls' shoes... But they still had a good time.
The boys followed where Jared, without shoes, had an unfair advantage.
To be perfectly honest I can't remember who won either race... I think Nicole won the girls and Zachary won the boys....
Next they had to squeeze a ball between their knees and try to walk without dropping it. Brian had to continually move the finish line closer. Otherwise this would have taken all night.
Every time one of them would get remotely close, they would drop the ball and have to start over.
Finally they discovered hopping...
Which led to a very speedy boy's race.
of pure hopping!
The final race for the kids was a 3 legged race. At the starting line, I was feeling a bit sorry for poor little Xiana and Jared. They are so little and didn't stand a fighting chance. I coached Xiana and told her to count one two one two in order to step in sequence. I think Jared thought I was crazy because he looked at me like I was speaking a different language. The race was on...
And putt putt putt said Little Red. This was a classic tortoise and a hare tale. The bigger girls kept falling and falling while the two little ones steadily gained on them.
Everyone was hooting and hollering and the kids were hysterically laughing as they feel down again and again...
While Jared and Xiana acted like they always walked with their legs tied together. Not only did they win, but they made it look effortless. Who would have though? It was hysterical!
Next up were the boys. Again, I thought it an unfair pairing for Ammon and Zachary to be together due to their vast height difference...
But once again, they went against all odds...
And took the gold!
The only adult race was the egg toss. We let the older kids participate as well. Perhaps we shouldn't have! It was a night for the underdogs. Ekco and Noah ended up beating us all. This was no small feat either. The final toss was substantially far away from each other. They were so proud. It was darling!
Brian claims I hurled the egg at him. Fortunately, neither of us got creamed by an egg.
I can't say that everyone was so lucky!
Some of the eggs were amazingly strong and bounced rather than cracking.
It was a rip roaring good time and we brought medals for all... and whistles which I am happy to report stayed at the park.
It was a fun night, until someone locked my keys in my car (not mentioning any names). That was a bummer since we do not have a spare. The boys attempted to break in for a while but were unsuccessful in doing so. We called a locksmith just in time for Brian to get it open. My dad was kind enough to pay the fellow half his charge for all his hard work.
That's pretty much how I felt!
And Zachary got the worst of the egg... by far. What a wonderful time spent with family. I daresay EVERYONE had a great time!

Virginia City

Our first day trip was to Virginia City. Unfortunately the Talbots didn't arrive until early evening that night so they didn't get to join us. Still, we had two sets of Freys, the Cherpeskis and Andersens. We walked around the scorching streets and then the clan went to the museum while I nursed Kolton on a bench in the shade. The Cherpeskis got their traditional photo and we ate our packed lunches while the Freys went out to eat.
The girls truly love each other. They played and played and played. Despite group of 3 on this day, there were no tears.
Virginia City is a charming town with saloons and gun slingers on every corner. There are old buildings, vintage shops and multiple museums.
The kids learned about the first mines and what it took to run them.
Ekco is so cute. Every morning when she gets up she color coordinates her outfits with Xiana. Sometimes it's a stretch, but this day she managed to find matching shirts for herself, Xiana, and Nicole who was staying with us.
The whole group went on a train ride. It was nice to feel the breeze, sit and learn a little more about the olden days.
Kolton loved it!
He was all smiles for grandpa to catch.
It's pretty remarkable that we didn't lose anybody out the window because the kids were a little careless with the open sides.
Cute family... almost family picture (I'm not exaggerating when I say we scarcely saw Xiana the entire trip...she was busy!)
The girls minus Anna. She arrived later that day.
These kids were troopers. We had to do a lot of walking including several stories of stairs. They all managed to make it stroller free (except for the babies... we took pity on them and let them have a free ride).
One of my favorite things at Virginia City is the homemade waffle cones. Brian loves the caramel apples. So, we indulged in both. And they were scrumptious!
Part of the group went to the gun show (and the other part kind of wishes they had) and the other part went on the underground mine tour. Mom, myself, and Karla took the little ones on the mine tour. I have to admit, they were a bit young to appreciate the volume of information given on the tour. Though they did like the hard hats and the part where the guide blew out the candle leaving it pitch black. However, he did not have a very captive audience. At the very end the guide asked if anyone had any questions. The kids were silent so he further prodded saying there was no such thing as a stupid question. Xiana raised her hand and asked, "Is it almost time to be off this journey?" What a little stinker! He wasn't very amused commenting, "we are done."
The gun show, I heard, was excellent. In fact, for many it was the highlight of the trip. They said it was hilarious with a good portion of bathroom humor. We have a lot of boys in this group so that went over perfectly. This is Stinky. He is in the parade and is quite funny. You can pay to feed his donkey and many of the kids did so.
Ekco fed him too and was excited about it.
Another must see in my book is the Virginia City Jail. I love taking pictures here. Sometimes we miss it because it's easy to forget about as it's hidden down an alley. Our last stop was jail. We took turns being admitted.
Girls...we told them to look mad....
But they were pretty happy to be in jail.
Our whole family got locked up.
As did the Freys. Virginia City was kind of an afterthought to our plans, but it was a lot of fun. I'm glad we went. Xiana always asks if we can go again when she sees the picture on the train (which I'm ashamed to admit was taken two years ago). Like all people we forget sometimes the treasures that are right in our backyard.

Frey family reunion

We are so happy to have family reunion time roll around. We have them every other year and they only involve our immediate family. It is still challenging to accommodate every body's schedules. This year, to help us out since we had a new baby, everyone came to us. It was nice, but we weren't afraid of taking our little one camping. (After all, how much harder could it be at 3 months than it was at1?) Still, it was very kind of everyone to come here. We had the Cherpeskis at our house and the Talbots and Freys stayed with my parents. We opted for day trips instead of overnighters. It worked nicely to have them with us because they have a one-year-old that needed to go to bed at night just as our infant needed to sleep. This was Kolton's last weekend in our bedroom in his bassinet. When they first arrived we all sat and visited. We pretty much didn't see the girls the rest of the trip.

Danielle loved Kolton. She has 3 new baby cousins and I'm sure it felt good to not be the baby for a week.
All of Larissa's kids are great with babies. They entertained Kolton, and held him, and were eager to meet him.
Aren't they sweet? That night we went to Round Table for pizza and then to grandma and grandpa's house for candy bars. We waited for the rest of the clan to arrive that night and the following day. It was a the start of an exciting weekend.

Time

Time just won't stand still. It's amazing to think that Rowan just turned 4 and Xiana is about to turn 4. Kolton is already 4 months (3months in this picture). Time is just flying by. I remember at the beginning of summer when Kolton was born I couldn't believe that I had 3 whole months off of work. Now, work has begun with a vengeance and it feels like I scarcely blinked before those three months were over. Time is funny that way. What feels like yesterday (Kolton's birth) can also feel like a lifetime ago... These cousins love each other and they will always look out for one another.
Kolton loves Ella. He smiles and talks to her every time he sees her. He is extra calm when she's around and will follow her with his eyes wherever she goes.
Poor Rowan has an August birthday so everyone always misses it due to being out of town. This year we had my family reunion over his birthday so Mark and Tosh had us over for a birthday dinner. Rowan is so easy. He loved it.
This little girl and this little boy just keep growing. Kolton is the same weight Xiana was at a year and Xiana just keeps getting taller... though she hasn't gained much weight. Xiana learns something new every day and so does her little brother. Kolton is so alert and pays attention to everything. He loves to be around people and just take everything in. You can see the wheels turning in his head. Most of all, they adore each other which is a great blessing. I haven't had to intervene a single bout of jealousy, only excessive love!!!

Keeping Cool

This wasn't a particularly hot summer, but it was still a bit challenging to keep cool with a new baby. I felt like the early part of the summer was spent in the shade, or in the sun with the baby under a blanket for shade=not very cool for mama. By early August we thought Kolton was big enough for a little pool time so I took him in. He promptly fell asleep on my shoulder. Xiana used to do that all the time. It's funny because he doesn't love baths the way Xiana did so I anticipated some crying, perhaps even screaming when he hit the water. In fact, it was the opposite. He was so calm and relaxed. Like I said, he fell asleep. The bounce of the water must be soothing. I walked around with him for a bit and then handed him off to daddy so that I could actually go under the water.
This was a fun birthday party for the daughter of one of Brian's friends. It was at Red Hawk which was really nice. The kids had a blast playing in the water and then eating cake.
Later in the week I had Kylee. Xiana and Kylee do much better when there is some form of entertainment. Otherwise they tend to get in trouble so... we went to the fountains where they promptly made a new friend.
I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but Xiana braved the center of the fountains and walked right through. (I may or may not have double dared her to do so).

Life

We had my niece and nephew a few times in July. They are a lot of fun and very well behaved. One thing they all love to do is cut. Xiana had a little bit of money so I took her to the dollar store to spend it where she found what she has been asking for for a while: kid scissors. She loves them. She cuts with them all the live long day. She loves it, I love it. The only downfall is that her favorite things to cut are itty bitty strips of paper resulting in a house full of confetti. Not quite awesome, but still a very useful skill she is developing and giving me a tiny bit of free time in the process.
Kolton pretty much loves his little mobile above his head on his play mat. He is getting such control of his hands and eyes. He can figure out depth perception and grab onto his toys. Also, he can push buttons on the music part so it will make noise and light up. He is a smart little bugger who continues to be very good natured and a wonderful sleeper.
We met up with some of our friends at Round table for lunch one day and it was both delicious and fun.
The highlight of the day was a game of hide and seek which ended with Natalie dragging Emma out from under the table of a not very amused older gentleman. I almost peed my pants... truly... tears streaming down our faces funny. Kids are great!
And the love between brother and sister continues to grow. Sometimes all she has to do is look at him and he will giggle away amused and happy.
Oh yeah, and he rolls over... at least he has rolled over. Front to back a dozen times and back to front once. He's getting it!