The Purcell Clan

When we were in Idaho a couple weeks ago, my friend Brandi took our family pictures. They turned out so so cute. There were too many good ones to choose just a few, so I picked most of them to put on the blog :)

We took them at Freeman Park in Idaho Falls. It was a great place, with lots of different backdrops and posing opportunities. The weather that night was also perfect. No wind (amazing in itself!) and just cool enough so we weren't sweating to death.

Another big thank you to Brandi for working with our time frame and taking such great pictures.

Randy and Courtney -- still newlyweds!



I wanted to try a jumping picture, and after a few attempts, we got everyone and all their heads and feet in the picture together.

I thought this was a fun placement

Pretty little sun peeking thru the trees.

The 4 of us have a hard time taking a serious picture together. This was the best we could do.



It was hard to all get standing up at the same time and not roll down the hill. I love how Randy's legs are making a diamond shape and it looks like Brian only has one leg.

Maden and Syd with the grandparents.

4 original kids once again trying very hard to take a nice picture.

Brandi told us to do whatever we wanted and let our personalities come thru. I'm not sure Maden loved being dangled by his feet.

I don't know who Maden was looking at, but they got a huge smile out of him.

I think Brian and Celia like him. Just a little bit.

And the reason we were all there -- my wonderful parents.

Down by the River on a Wednesday Night

Today was crazy hot and humid. After work Ken suggested taking Storm to the river to run around and cool off a little. It was a perfect evening for it -- nice and toasty, no wind, and just enough clouds so we weren't blinded by the sun.

Storm loves playing in the river. (This is the dog who freaks out if she has to be out in the rain for 5 seconds). She went clear out to the middle of the river and actually swam around. She chased sticks and just had a grand old time. The river wasn't very deep, and she's so tall she almost didn't ever have to swim -- only in a couple of deep spots did she actually have to swim.

It was a fun little outing. We need to remember to do it again this summer.

Ken chasing Storm back to the bank

Looking very attentive at something down the river.

Storm trying to decide if she can jump the log to get to Ken.

Awesome balancing skills

Is that a happy face or what?

The log really was in the middle of the river. My shorts never got wet, so that tells you how shallow the water was.

I love her ears flopping when she goes for the stick.

She can actually run/hop pretty fast thru the water.

Her standard position in the car -- ears and lips flapping in the wind.

Chambers Family Reunion

My aunt Shauna worked her head off and found an awesome location for our family reunion. She did a great job finding a couple of cabins that would fit 43 people. They were right next to each other and both were right on Island Park Resevoir.

One of the cabins had an extra little patio right on the water.

Pretty mountain water. It wasn't nearly as busy as I expected it to be -- not filled with crazy boaters and jet skis.



Syd and my cousin Jackie are best friends when they are together. They spent a lot of time in and around the water together.





Ken tried his luck as a fisherman, but wasn't successful :(



On your mark...Get set....



GO!!!!!!




Ken and Syd had a rough start to their jet ski ride.




In they go. She was a good sport and got back on for a quick trip around the lake.



We even had a great grassy bank to hand out on when we were done being in the water.

We went to feed the fish at Big Springs. There were way too many mosquitoes making me crazy, so we pretty much just threw in our leftover pancakes and hardly got to watch the fish at all.

This is the same bridge we stopped at in December on the snowmobiles. In a perfect world I would never have to trade freezing cold for mosquitoes. It was too hard to enjoy it at either end of the year.

The whole gang of fish feeders, me, Syd, Jackie, Brian, Ken, Dad, Randy and Courtney. (Thanks Celia for taking the picture!)

The water is 52* all year long. That sounds a lot warmer when it's -5 out than it does when it's 75. Syd and Jackie couldn't stand to leave their feet in for very long at all.

Almost directly across the river from where Syd and Jackie put their feet in, Courtney spotted a moose! It was really close and just stood there eating and looking at us.

The moose became a prop and everyone had to have a turn taking a picture with it.

After that moose moved on, we drove down the road a little bit and found a mom and baby. The baby was so active -- running and jumping all around the mom. I'd never seen a baby moose, let alone such a playful one.

A storm moved in after we got back from feeding the fish. But my mom was very prepared with Minute to Win it games. Here I am ready to dominate at Noodling Around.

There was lots of time to love on Maden. The best part about being the aunt is getting to do all the fun stuff, and give him back to mom and dad when not so fun stuff like crying and diapers happen.

Jared likes Maden and I think Maden likes Jared pretty good too.



Courtney loving on him right by the water.

I took over feeding duties while I was there. Maden would get so excited and try so hard to "help" get to food to his face faster. Mostly he just made a mess and made me laugh at him.



I found some presents at the airport that I couldn't resist getting for the kid. A squishy, soft basketball and a vampire binky.

He was too busy to sit still at Wingers. He was so wiggly!

Brian likes posing with the kid for pictures.

No one was around to take a picture of Maden reading his story so nicely. So I did it myself.

The one thing Ken wanted to do while we were out there was see Yellowstone National Park. He'd never been and wanted to see and show everything to Syd. My dad was our driver, and we rented a talking GPS that guided us all through the park and showed us lots of cool stuff off the beaten path that we would never have known about otherwise.

Standing at the edge of a super hot lake. The water was hotter than a hot tub -- you couldn't leave your hand in for more than a few seconds.

Ken couldn't believe they let you touch everything and actually get in the water at Yellowstone.



Waiting for Old Faithful to do its thing.



Ken had no idea what to expect from Old Faithful, but I think he was pretty impressed by the duration and height of the geyser.

It seems that when Ken, Syd and I travel to Idaho together, we cannot come away unscathed. This time it wasn't anything as traumatic as the 4wheeler crash last time. Somehow, almost everyone who stayed in our cabin ended up with some kind of flu bug or poisoning. I was the first one it affected -- right in the middle of the dining room at Old Faithful. I'd been feeling gross and puky since we got in the car, but attributed it to trying to look at my phone while we were driving on windy mountain roads. I can now say that I have upchucked (twice!) at Old Faithful. Such a prestigious honor, I know. I was sick for the entire ride through Yellowstone and was absolutely miserable. I was so glad someone had the good idea to get a take out box from the restaurant to use as a puke bucket in the car. Otherwise, I would have been toast and the car trashed. Thank you so much to my dad and Ken for taking care of me as much as they could and being so nice while I was having the worst car ride ever.

The feeling at the beginning of the trip -- eating a snow cone in the airport! Could not have been more different from the trip home.

My dad fashioned a handle for the puke bucket so I could hook it to my backpack. I didn't need it all day while we were flying, but I was too scared to go without it.

I'm bummed the trip had to end on a sick note, but we really did have a good time. It was good to see everyone, and for Ken to see more of the world I grew up in.