Summertime Wrap Up!

The other day Claire asked me in the car if summer was over yet.  After I replied that we have a few weeks left she threw her hands up and said, "Awwww, man I wish summer could be over!  I'm ready for it to be FALL!"  I thought it was funny because just a week before she had asked me the same question, but her reply was "NO I'm going to miss summer!"  Fickle minded little girl.  Well, summer has been over for the kids since July 23rd when they started school again, but they'll soon get a 3 week break here at the end of Sept. that I'm looking forward to.  It's a chance to do things without having to deal with the extreme heat.  This year my niece Brooke was sweet enough to make my birthday cake.  It was her present to me and it was her first time to do a decorative tiered cake this this.  It meant a lot to me and it tasted DELICIOUS!

 That was such a fun trip.  One day we went to Bottomless Lakes near Roswell and June and I swam across the entire lake.  I don't know what we were thinking because who knows what's out there in the middle of the lake.  We were all by ourselves; thank goodness we didn't get a cramp or get a visit from a water snake. :)
Since my birthday is close to July 4th and Artesia always has such an awesome fireworks display we decided to celebrate there this year.  During the day they have a parade and a firemans challenge so we stopped by.

 Bryce lived in the skateboard knee pads that day. HA!

Jesse and David were the best ping pong players that night.  I've never seen anyone work up a sweat playing ping pong, but they were!  Fun times.

 Jesse's Cousin Ginger and her family all came down for a week and we had such a good time with them.  We spent the evening at White Sands and since it was a Full Moon that night we got to stay late and look at the stars.  Here are just a few snap shots of Ginger and Trey's family.  Such cutie pies.

Bella turned 3 this year!! I LOVE this age!! 

For Bella's birthday we went to this new inflatables place at the mall.  All the cousins came, we ate pizza and of course they had a blast.

Sowards Family Reunion

This year Ben & Connie were in charge of planning the reunion and they chose Brekenridge, CO.  That town is so gorgeous!  You can tell that people who live there like it because there are so many outdoor activities you can do in the summertime.  Hiking, Biking, White Water Rafting, fly fishing, gold panning (which we did). :)  That's just to name a few.  We stayed in this amazing cabin (I would call it a mansion) and everyday there was an activity that we could do.  We always have a good time together.

 This was our family picture taken on top of some mountain.  Poor Bella was sooo sick that day.  We couldn't get her normal bright smile out of her. Such a beautiful backdrop though.

 These magnetic tiles really entertained the kids.  They build some amazing buildings together.

 We had a night of playing Bunco, and we all couldn't believe that Greg got three Bunco's in a row!  He should have bought a lottery ticket that night!

 We went to an old mine and panned for gold.  We found some fools gold, but nothing else.  To bad.  Going into the mine was quite the experience.  I can't believe the conditions those guys worked in.

 So one night the guys spent about 2 1/2 hours (I'm not kidding) in the hot tub.  They were all pruned up, but were glad the soreness in their muscles were gone. 

 Here we are all in our Sowards Reunion T-shirts.  (With our big group we need some way to keep track of everyone.  This place transforms into a different place in the summertime.  There are mountain slides, coasters and all sorts of activities to do.  We spent the day there.

 Here they are before their big ride down the mountain slide.....

and here they are after.  Poor guys biffed it going down.  

 They weren't the only ones who took a tumble.  Ben, Jared & Greg also wiped out.  The First Aid Center kept seeing our Sowards Family Reunion shirts coming in and out getting doctored.  Jesse's hand got the worst of it.  It took close to 2 months to fully heal.