End of Summer Elk

We made a last minute, quick trip up to Elk, WA days before school started. We missed the Mitchell/Harmon family reunion this year and wanted to see some of Jefferson's family before we dove back into school, soccer and schedules. It was such a relaxing few days. We drove up on Thursday and headed home Monday (and started school Tuesday). The only time we left Teri and LJay's home was to go to church.
We had beautiful weather! We spent our days hiking, riding the four wheelers, and swimming.

 

 

  

 The Mitchell's have a five acre "lake" on their property and just recently bought this huge floating trampoline. It was so much fun! Jefferson bounced me off the launcher so high!

 

 

We also enjoyed turtle hunting in the kayaks and canoe.

 

  Carter felt pretty grown up in his own kayak. He did a great job navigating it all on his own!

 

 

 

 We headed to Grammitchy's garden one morning and caught frogs and picked corn. There were tons of the tiniest little frogs I have ever seen. All the kids ended up with quite a few frogs in their containers.

 Carter had a super loose tooth and Grammitchy said she would give Carter $5 if he pulled it out. That was all the motivation he needed. That tooth came out, and true to her word, Teri gave Carter $5! (which he immediately bought a bird house at JoAnn's that he's been eying as soon as we got home) I love this disturbing, bloody smile...

 

 This handsome fella just hung out in the bjorn on walks and enjoyed "crawling" around.

 

 

 Grandpa LJay took Tay and I on a ride in his arctic cat. It was fast and a little scary. I thought Taytum was going to jump out the window when we started. She loosened up and was laughing by the end of the ride.

 On Saturday Jefferson's two step siblings, Bart and Bryan and their families came over to play all afternoon, watch college football, and eat dinner. My niece Taylor is 13 and was so sweet and kind to let Andi follow her around and ride 4 wheelers with her and swim with her and just be her shadow all afternoon. Andi was in heaven. Isn't Taylor beautiful?!

 

 We discovered that all of the sister-in-laws of the family were there and thought we ought to capture that on camera. Cheryl, Heather, Jaime, and me...

 All of the adults...

 

 Bo-Bo loved sleeping on the love sack. This picture isn't the best, but she was usually centered right in the middle of the love sack and looked like a little bird curled up in her nest.

 

Dax and Taytum were two peas in a pod and we didn't see them very much. They ran around the property most the day and got plenty dirty and into plenty of mischief. They were quite the pair! We had such a great time reconnecting with everyone, eating delicious home cooked meals, and enjoying our last days of summer.