Quick Summer Catch-Up

We have been having so much fun this summer spending time with family.  We can't believe how fast time is flying!  Here is a quick re-cap of some of the things we've been up to:

As you can see from the pictures, on July 3rd we anxiously waited in the Idaho Falls airport for my brother, Elder Scott Winter to get home from his mission.  He served in the Colorado Denver South Mission.  I think no one was more excited than my Mom:

The nieces and nephews were also anxiously waiting.  Some of them were meeting Scott for the first time . . . in fact when he left, Dave and I didn't have any children . . . and we were excited to introduce him to the two that we had while he was gone!

Here he is walking into the airport:

A big hug from my mom:

We are so proud of Scott and we can tell that he was an amazing missionary.  We are grateful for the example he set for all of his nieces and nephews.  We are so happy to have him home and we're excited for all the things that lie ahead for him.  He will start BYU-Idaho this fall.

Here is the whole Winter family just after Scott's arrival.  I can't remember the last time we were all together!  

On the Fourth of July we attended the Rexburg parade.  Here is Parker with his cousin Lukas in Lukas' prized wagon . . . all the cousins were so anxious to have a turn riding in the wagon.  And no, it was not cold that day, Parker just insisted on wearing his jacket . . . at least he didn't get sunburned!

Here are Dave and Kambri at the parade:

Here I am with my Grandma Winter, who lives in Rexburg.  She is my last living Grandparent and we love every chance that we get to see her.

Here is Kambri with her cousin Addi.  Addi is my brother Landon's baby girl and was born about three weeks before Kambri.  She and Kambri were lying on this blanket for quite a while enjoying each other's company.  You can see in the picture they are holding hands.  So cute!

Here I am with my sister Tina watching the little firework show at my parent's house.  Tina has five kids and is holding her youngest, Tyson.  You might not be able to see, but Kambri was not very happy so she and I didn't stay outside for very long.

Here is Parker with his sparkler . . . this time it was starting to get a little chilly so he is justified in wearing his jacket!

We stayed in Idaho for over a week and on one day, some of us went to the Idaho Falls Zoo. They had a few little rides near the zoo and Parker got to ride a little train:

A neighbor that lives near my parents has miniature horses and the kids had a great time petting them:

Here are Dave and Kambri just relaxing on the back porch swing:

It was a great trip and it was so good to have all of my family together.  Hopefully it will happen again before too long!  

Below are a few pictures from when Dave and I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point to see the farm animals.  Parker loved the goats and how they would nibble at his fingers:

Here I am with Parker . . . we tried to get him to look at the camera, but he was too interested in the goats!

Here is Kambri, happy as always,  just hanging out in her car seat while we were at Thanksgiving Point:

Here is Parker's first ride on a horse . . . my dad would be so proud.  Parker probably would have ridden a horse at my parent's house, but for the first time in over 30 years, my dad is horseless.  Hopefully the next time we visit, he will have found a new horse for Parker to ride!  Parker loved riding this one and didn't even act nervous.

Here I am with my sister-in-law Jenny on the 24th of July.  This is just after we ran the Deseret News 10K.  We had great time!  As Jenny told our husbands after the race, "we started throwing out the H.M. words while we were running."  Yep, we talked about running a half-marathon . . . we'll see if it's all just talk or not.  I've done one but it was about 8 years ago before my mission, before having children, and before I knew any better!  

Here are our families who waited for us at the end of the race . . . I'll give a big shout-out to Jordan and Dave who got the kids up and ready to meet us at the end! 

Finally, we spent all of last week with Dave's family.  Unfortunately, we forgot our camera, or we thought we forgot it until we found it in the bottom of our diaper bag on the last day!  As a result, I'm lacking pictures from that trip (we spent it near Eden, UT and it was BEAUTIFUL).  I love Dave's family as much as my own and we had such a great time.  I'm including one picture from the trip.  Here is Dave, Parker, and myself standing in field of wildflowers that we saw on a little hike:

We feel so fortunate to have spent so much time with family this summer!