Life as a Yowler

Tuesday morning my parents and Evan joined us for Lance’s senior trip. Lance and Grant and our whole Yowler family had a nice early start to the trip. We were able to take my two youngest brothers to see and experience a lot of things on the way.  It was nice having them along. They are both very polite and very helpful. They would constantly ask what they could do to help me. The kids love them a lot too. They loved having uncle Lance and uncle Grant along to entertain them and play with them. Plus Lance and Grant were very patient with them….even during early morning wake up calls. I’m telling you though, Grant could sleep through a tornado. He does a fantastic job of sleeping through noise.

My aunt Brenda(my mom’s sister) and her family live in Colorado Springs. We met up with them and ate at a cool pizza  restaurant. It was designed like an old saloon. We ordered the pizza then watched on a board from back at our table for our order number. We put Joah in charge of constant watching for our number, 73. What a great way to keep him still. That was not sarcasm. He took his job very very seriously.

My oldest cousin, Brad’s kids are here in Colorado for a few weeks this summer. They are the sweetest kids. Laura has taken a huge interest in Isla. She loves to hold her when Isla cooperates. Josh’s kids also joined. Brielle loves her cousin Taylor.

Brielle and Taylor are close to the same age.

We drove through Garden of the Gods Wednesday morning. We got out and did some climbing while my mom sat with the baby. It was nice to be able to join the kids in climbing without holding the baby. I usually can’t do much for fear of falling and crushing the baby or throwing her over a cliff…..neither scenario would be great.

Those muscles!!!

Wednesday evening, July 4th, we joined Mike and Brenda and family at their ranch for a cookout. They really went all out. There was so much food.

Before we ate, my dad took Joah fishing in Mike and Brenda’s pond.  Joah caught a fish within 5 minutes. They caught 12 total. Joah became a pro by the end of the night at bating the hook. He wasn’t afraid at all of touching those bugs.

My cousin, Dawn, made the most amazing cakes.

Rachelle(my cousin Josh’s wife) painted the kids faces.

Our little monkey

Our little tiger. He took his role very seriously. He was crawling around on all 4’s and roaring at people.

After we ate the kids did some pop it’s and some more party popper things. Sparklers aren’t allowed in Colorado right now because of wildfire warnings, so there were none of those. After the kids destroyed the porch with trash from the poppers, they did a piñata.

We played some yard games. The kids also spent a lot of time swinging on the big wooden swing.

After the cookout we headed up town to watch fireworks. I’m so glad we got to see them. That’s one of my favorite things about the 4th. It was a great day and a great trip so far!!!