Fun With Other Ratchfords

After three days in Preston, we headed down to Layton, Utah to hang out with the Ratchfords.  

Here we are having a "nosh."

It is always crazy when seven little Ratchfords hang out together, but it's chaos of the best kind, especially when Garreth pulls out one of his genius kid-friendly ideas.  (He just never seems to run out of them!)  

Sam continued to wear his cowboy boots...

...and I continued to document it for future blackmailing/prom date embarrassment purposes.

We took the kids to Cherry Hills and had a lot of fun cooling off in that hot and dry Utah sunshine.

This picture just makes me smile every time I see it.  Classic Sam and Declan.

One night we got a babysitter and the grown-ups headed down to Rio Tinto Stadium to see the All-Star game.  The US All-Star team played England's Everton team and it was a great match.  I really love watching soccer, and watching it with 20,000 other people made it even more exciting.

The game ended in a tie, so they kicked penalty kicks to determine the winner (which ended up being Everton).  It was an exciting way to end the game.

We love benefitting from the perks of Davy's job! 

Garreth's sister Elaine, his mom, a very important soccer person, Garreth, Rachel, and me.

Leah and Eva had horse camp while we were there and we got to go over to watch their graduation.  The owner let the kids pet and sit on one of the horses afterwards, which was a big hit.

Cowboy Ronan.

Cowboy Sam.  (Doesn't he look at home on a horse?)

Wee cowboy Declan.

And the Marlboro man.

We also went up to Park City to shop at the outlet stores, and thanks to Rachel's supreme coupon-ing skills, got some great deals and finished most of our school shopping.

Here's Sam in a dressing room.

After a fun-filled three days at Davy's house, we headed back up to Preston for one last day of rodeo festivities.  On the way, we stopped to see our niece Candi's brand-new baby boy, Kellin.   He is so cute, and Candi was very patient as we all ogled over him.

Garreth and Elaine.  

Garreth and Flo.

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, not knowing when we'll get to see them all again.  We love you guys!  Thanks for everything!

Preston, Part 2

On Sunday, we got to celebrate the reason for our trip, my baby sister Madi, who used to look like this...

...and now looks like this.  (Lucky, huh?)

Madi left for the MTC today to begin her 18 month LDS mission to Porto, Portugal.  We got to hear her farewell talk in church, and celebrate with family and friends afterwards.  (My new little nephew, Kael, was blessed in church, too, and we were so excited that we got to be there for that, too!)  

And since it's the last time we'll all be together for a while, we had a family picture taken.

And we also got to imagine what we'd look like if we all had my Dad's mustache.  (And if Tom and Lance had grossly distorted heads, and Bailey had my hair.)

On Monday, we went out to Glendale reservoir.

We played on Papa's new pontoon boats...

...and those crazy Ratchford kids did tricks off the end of the dock.

After dragging the kids from the water, some of us took off in the jeep and on the 4-wheelers for a ride into the mountains.

We took turns riding in the jeep with Papa,

and on the 4-wheelers.   Can you tell by my smile that I was in my element?  I love going on jeep rides with my dad!  I am constantly amazed at what that little vehicle can climb and I love visiting with my dad and hearing stories from when he was a kid.  I have so many happy memories of mountain jeep rides, since it's something we did a lot of as a family when I was a kid.  It was so fun to share it with my kids, too.

While the boys were napping one day, I ran to IFA to get my little cowboy a surprise.

I think he must love them, he hasn't taken them off since!

Cowboy Sam and Cowgirl Iris.

Violet and Declan.

On Tuesday, some of us Becksteads went down to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house.  It was very beautiful.

Papa and Nana.  

Preston

We are back from a fantastic vacation to Utah and Idaho!

We left Birch Bay on a Friday night, stopped to stay in Pendleton, Oregon, then got to Preston Saturday evening, just in time for a big BBQ in my parents' backyard.

 Papa and Bailey did an awesome fireworks show for us.

My brother Bailey, his son Trip, and Sam.

After the fireworks, Liam decided to do a little dazzling of his own, showing off his breakdancing and boogie skills. 

This inspired a meeting to plan a big cousin program.

Since Grace and Liam were the ringleaders, you can bet there was a lot of booty-shaking involved.

Iris was an especially fancy performer in her sparkly stretch pants.

It was so fun to all be back together again.  

Halle and Grace were super-excited to see each other...

...and we got to meet Halle's new little brother, Kael, who is simply the cutest baby around.

Apparently, a love of children walking on your back runs in my genetic code - here's Bailey enjoying a niece and nephew massage.

Watching Trip drive the four-wheeler was hilarious...

...and so was watching the kids fly!

We played our favorite game, Beyond Balderdash,

and some sleep-deprived parents of newborns didn't make it all the way through.

I can tell by the sheer amount of pictures I took that it will take many more posts to share them all, so stay tuned!