dinosaur zoo

this summer our zoo had a dinosaur display.  perfect for a 4-year old boy that is crazy about dinosaurs!

boston was in heaven!  some of them even roared!  brighton didn't think that was too cool:)

boston, trying to pick the t-rex's nose!

nothing like a summer rainstorm!

black-eyed boston

since i'm so behind in my blogging, i can't remember how this happened!  probably finn!  ha ha!  just joking, whitney!

jordan's homecoming

shortly after jordan got home, he spoke in church and invited all friends and family to come.  afterward, we had dutch treats to eat!  joe, talking to dustin/jenna, kendall/traci, and lisel/canyon.  i'm pretty sure that's brighton sitting on the table hovering over baby canyon!

a bunch of future missionaries!  hayden, indy brian, cade, cole, finn, wyatt, finn brian, and brigham.

jordan's gorgeous group of friends!

family.  hayley, shannon, mary, gr./gr. hansen, uncle kim.

of course some sort of physical challenge had to come up.  chandler won the long jump contest on the front walkway.  church shoes and all!

welcome home, elder robert

what a great experience to welcome home a missionary!  the whole robert family (and then some) anxiously waited at the airport for jordan to come down the escalator.  jordan served a mission for 2 years in the netherlands.

welcome home posters were proudly being held!  (i love how sage snuck in front of his twin!)

boston, trying to get a sneak peek by climbing up the stairs!

while waiting, we assessed how much everyone had grown over the past 2 years.  hayden finally caught up to ellery!

first glimpse!!!  cheering erupted!

the kids couldn't help running over to him!

i love their beaming faces!

taryn and jordan were in the missionary training center together.  they helped each other through a very challenging time.  taryn was in thailand while jordan was in holland.  they'll forever have a special bond.

skylar, her face says it all!

i love my sensitive teenage boy!  it was a very emotional but happy day!

one of jordan's favorite companions, elder howell.  howell came home a year before jordan.

brighton (and boston) were 2 when jordan left.  now they're so big!

the family gathered at home for hours, even though a lot of the family had been travelling in europe for 10 days and had extreme jet lag.  it was too exciting--we gathered into the wee hours of the night!

more friends and family came to the house!



city celebration

we love the small-town parade every summer.  we gather at kim's old house and wave to all the "princesses" and march along with the bands.

sailor (with her friend isabel behind her).

boston, as happy as can be!  (finn and asher behind him)

all of the kids scrounging for candy! 

boston got a candy!!!

the local hair school came by and "did"  kids's hair.  boston was quite tickled!

feeling a little self-conscious!

perfect!

fireworks!

blurry taryn, isabel, sailor, paige, skylar, hayden, asher, brighton, finn

carnival

we had a blast at the carnival this past summer.  the big kids were old enough to go off on their own so we don't have any pictures of them, just the twins (what's new?!).  the fergusons came along and we all got sweaty and grimey together!  the fascination of the bell and the water was so sweet!

the very real motorcycles!

the always exciting roller coaster!

my favorite, the swings!

i got to go with finn! 

such joy!  and notice jake and kim behind us! 

boston's hair!

i have no idea what they were looking at but i think it's so cute!

so, our race down the fun slide started with jared giving finn a cheating head start:)

i love looking at these in succession....

next it was the big boys!  jared holding back the competition so he can win!