Cousins cousins cousins

If I had a quarter for every time we've caught Jackson and his cousin Spencer peeing together Jared'd never work again! Boys..boys..boys..

Anyway, we have been really busy since moving back from Virginia. We've been able to spend tons of time with family. I knew we had a big family but I didn't realize how big until just recently. Back in Virginia Jared and I had a favorite show every night of the week we HAD to watch. So were so excited to get our new flat screen and DVR but I think we've been able to watch it a total of zero hours since we've been back. I'm sure things'll change once the snow starts falling but for now we are enjoying our time outside and with our family. And another thing...Red box is awesome, except when you rent a DVD and keep it for a week never watching it. I don't even know how many movies we've rented in the last month without watching. I know I should just return and not rent, but it's one buck!

Jackson and Tanner so far have 22 and a 1/2 cousins. And Jared still has 4 brothers and sisters who haven't had kids yet. So to say the least, Jackson and Tanner have had A LOT of instant friends since we've moved back.

Soo...My brother John and Misa came out from Texas and we got to watch their kids for a couple of days. They are three of the funniest little people I've ever met. We went to Kangaroo zoo and then stayed up late singing about monkeys jumping on the bed.







Then We got to go watch Jared's sister's Sharidee and Jerrin's kids for their anniversary. Jackson and Tanner LOVE going to their house because there's just a ton of boy power over there. The new thing now is for Jackson to rip his shirt off everytime we walk in their door.






My sister Jamie and Brian also came out from Colorado and stayed over. I tried to get some pictures of them, but Brain's face broke my camera...j/k!!!! I don't know why I don't have pictures of them. I guess they're just going to have to make a trip back right away!

Who wins the ugliest?

Jared and I had an argument about who can be uglier.














this was Tanner TRYING to be ugly...luckily he looks nothing like us.

This is Jackson TRYING to be ugly...luckily he also doesn't look anything like us.

What do you think?

Jackson Hole

Jared usually plays volleyball with his family on the fourth of July so he was a little dissapointed when I made plans to go camping in Jackson this year, but I made him have fun with me anyway.

We went to see the Bar J Wranglers on the fourth and they ended a little early so we could see the fireworks in Jackson Hole. We didn't have much time to get anywhere to watch the fireworks so we stopped at a car wash and watched them from the car.


Tiffany, Mick, Heather, Jason, Paul and Cindy were all up in Jackson for the fourth too and we were lucky enough to be invited to run the Snake River with them. There was tons of snow this last year so the river was pretty scary looking. But I have to say, that was the third time I've run the Snake and it was by far the most intense and the most fun I've had!! Losing Jason and Paul made it even that much more exciting too. Thanks for inviting us guys!! (see Heather's blog for video, and Tiffany's for more pictures)


We roasted some hot dogs for dinner and made smores by the fire that night.



In the morning we woke up to this.

This is a moose.


It's hard to tell but these are the moose tracks. Notice how they are right up against our tent. Jared woke up shaking in his boots convinced there was a bear scratching our tent (there actually was a bear in the campground a few night before, so he wasn't actually being too paranoid). But after making some noise and scaring it away we looked out the tent and saw three moose walking away. One thing I love about this camp ground is that everytime I've camped there I've woken up and seen moose. I've just never had them this close before.


Before we headed home we made a stop at Jenny Lake. I recall my dad saying he wore long pants on purpose so he wouldn't be tempted to get in the Lake with his bullet wound (refer to Dad's blog). I've learned that nothing slows that man down. Not even a bullet.


It was a really nice trip. We were especially lucky to have been able to go with Grandma and Grandpa this year. Jared got to talk to Grandpa a little bit and learned why we always go to Jackson and especially why we always stop at Jenny Lake. I never knew this but it used to be Great Grandma Astles favorite Lake. I guess traditions never die in our family.

Catching up....

Ta-da! Here are our Bermuda pictures FINALLY!!

Our trip started in New York where we flew in and spent the night with my cute old roomate Britney and her husband Martin. They took us to their ward talent show and it was in the middle of Harlem. I wish I would've taken some pictures. It was really fun. I LOVE NEW YORK!

This is how we got to Bermuda..

It took some serious getting used to. I got a little antsy knowing I was stuck on a ship with nowhere to go but the ocean. It was strange to just sit around and watch other people just sit around. I guess if we drank it wouldn't be as strange as it would be funny. Because apparently sitting around is really fun when you're drunk.


I can only describe Bermuda as paradise. The island is small, but it's beautiful! Every tree has flowers and everywhere we went it was so CLEAN! As you can see I was very happy to arrive.....FREEDOM!!!!



It's kind of hard to see how ridiculous this guy looks in his suit coat and Bermuda shorts AND yellow socks. Another popular combination was to wear light blue shorts and pink socks. And they all walked around as if they were just fine with it too.


We took a bus around the Island and this is where we got off at one of our stops to feed some sea turtles. The pictuers didn't turn out well, but it was pretty cool.


The best part of our trip was on Jared's birthday when we went snorkeling. Everyone told us to take our own gear and do it on the beaches, but we decided to go on an excursion through the ship and it was the best decision we made!! It was actually really inexpensive and they took us to this private island and we snorkeled all around it. I only went around the island once because I got pretty cold but Jared stayed in the water the whole 3 hours.


This is Tobacco bay, one of the popular places to snorkel. The whole island is made up of Volcanic rock and there are bazillion fish and snails and squid and all sorts of creatures all over the place. We fed them some bread and they jumped right out of the water and grabbed it from our fingers.


They had chocolate night on the ship. I was really excited about this, but it ended up mostly being a whole bunch of different chocolate cakes. I was dissapointed. I was expecting actual chocolate. It was just okay.


I did end up getting used to the boat after a while. Meals were always worrisome, since I wasn't sure if I was hungry or nauseated, but overall it was really fun! It was nice being able to spend time with Jared and just relax. We definately got to catch up on our sleep and that alone was money well spent!


The last day on the island we walked down the beach until we ran out of time and it was really fun! The sand is like fluffy pink powder. The rocks are really cool too. There were a million little tiny beaches we walked to and every one had a little inlet with tons of colorful fish.


We REALLY didn't want to leave!!



We got back to New York on Sunday the 8th. It was REALLY hot but we dragged our luggage around the city and went to some of our favorite spots anyway. Here's Jared with some tastey pizza.



Here we are in Little Italy. Britney and Martin told us that we had to go there to try the pastries. We are happy they did because they were yummy!! And that concludes our trip!