Summer 2014

Well, so much for posting more often... :/  Oh well, better once or twice then never.

It has been a summer full of traveling.

After spending March in Alaska with my family we drove down the Alcan with them for Family Week and, although we didn't know it at the time, Deborah and Trey's Wedding.

Flying out to Anchorage on our way to the lower 48.

On the Alcan.

After making it through Canada we got to North Dakota and Deborah and Trey got betrothed.  After spending a few days with Grandma in ND we headed for Colorado to our house.  The whole family spent the weekend with us and went skiing for a day.

Sarah and I taking a break.

After skiing we headed to Kentucky for Family Week and Passover then on to North Carolina to visit Grandma and Grandpa and for the Versteeg family reunion.  

 We had five generations in one picture.  Ronen, the fifth generation, was still inside of me though. :)

This was the last time we got to see Grandpa Rogers.  He had a heart attack and died a week before Ronen was born.  Ronen would have been his first great grandchild.  He was a great Grandpa and I wish he would have been able to meet Ronen.

The Versteeg family.

After leaving Grandma and Grandpa's house Dayton and I headed back to Colorado to spend a week at home for a midwife appointment.  The rest of my family headed to North Dakota to get ready for Deborah and Trey's Wedding.  

After a week Dayton and I headed to ND also to help get ready for the wedding.

We had the wedding on Grandma's farm.  It was a lot of fun.  A lot of people came and camped out for the whole weekend including Dayton's family.  It was a weekend of continuous volleyball.

My entire family.

All the girls.

 All the boys.

The wedding cake I got to make.  (Wedding pictures from A-Team Photography)

After the wedding my family went back to Alaska and Dayton and I drove home to Colorado with his family.

I was 36 weeks pregnant at this point and we decided we should stay home for a while. :)

Ronen Eliyahu was born on June 12.

A couple hours after he was born.

Mom was there for the birth.  She was in North Carolina for Grandpa Rogers funeral and flew straight to Colorado on the day Ronen was due.  I went into labor the morning after she flew in.

I had him at home with a wonderful midwife and the labor was great with no complications.

Four days old.

After spending a month at home recouping we hit the road again for family reunions in Oklahoma and Texas. 

Ronen enjoyed meeting Papa Warren.

After spending time in Oklahoma for Mema's birthday Dayton and I, along with his borther and sister, headed to Minnesota for Deborah's sister-in-law's wedding.

Deborah got to meet Ronen while we were there.

After the wedding we spent a week at Grandma Effie's with Deborah and Trey.

After spending the week at Grandma's and going to another friends wedding we headed back home and actually stayed there for a couple months.

That was our summer up to August.  I'll finish up the fall later. :)

Fun Sledding

A few days after walking across the lake we got a bunch of snow.  The older kids decided to take snow machines up the mountain for some fun in the new snow.  The younger kids felt left out since there wasn't room for them so Dayton and I promised to take them sledding a couple days later.  

So a few days later we headed up the trail with the toboggan and sleds hooked up to the back of the snow machine to find a good sledding hill.  

There were quite a few crashes.

And quite a bit of this.

Staggering the sleds might work a bit better next time.

But it wouldn't be nearly as fun. :)

Once we found a good hill everyone had fun sledding and snowboarding.

Joshua just got a real snowboard for his birthday so all the boys are on a snowboarding kick.  They had to practice.

                                              Benjamin                                                 David

                                                Caleb                                                   Joshua

We built a jump at the bottom of the hill.

That was a lot of fun but also meant a lot of this.

Benjamin had his own problematic spot.  

This particular spot tends to send you up on the edge of the track a bit and Benjamin never could get past it.

Sarah had fun going down the hill in the sled.

Benjamin's facial expressions while going down the hill were pretty good.

The jump was pretty fun in the sled too.

Sorry for the photo overload but it was a pretty fun trip. :)

We're heading out on our grand adventure down the Alcan today.  Half the family is already on their way to Anchorage and the rest of us are waiting for the second flight.
It should be fun!!

Walk Across the Lake

A few days after we flew in it was such nice weather we decided to go for a walk across the lake.

Despite the lack of snow and beautiful weather, there have been some cold snaps so the ice was plenty thick.  It's pretty cool walking across the lake when the ice is clear.

It had been so warm Sarah was building sandcastles.  Normally the sand is covered in snow.

We walked up to Tazimina River and decided to build a fire to heat up some water for hot chocolate.  

Dad chopped a hole in the ice with the ax to get the water.

Josh A built a fire while the other boys collected wood.

While the water heated up, Sarah and the younger boys had fun sliding down a dip in the ice.

Unfortunately, David took a rather nasty spill and split his eyebrow open.

Everyone had to inspect it and tell him how terrible it looked...

Despite the trauma, he had to make sure to get his hot chocolate before dad took him to the clinic to get three stitches.

Before the rest of us left, everyone had to try their hand at curling after just watching it during the Olympics.

After deciding we were going to be the next big thing at the Olympics we headed back to check out David's stitches.

All in all, it was a very fun day, despite the stitches.