Are You Ready for One HUGE Blog Post????

Hello, my name is Tripp and this is my crooked half smile. Mommy tells me I could be a villain in a mellowdrama.

We have been having a very busy summer! For starters, my brother Brice got hom from his mission in California! We are so excited to have him back! He has really loved getting to know Trippster better.

For the fourth of July we decided to see how Tripp would do with sparklers. Despite the fire and burn hazards involved, we let him hold them himself. He went through an entire box and was completely mesmerized the entire time. I even got a smile out of him after I hid the binky! Next year maybe we'll let him shoot off some roman candles. :)

We have had the opportunity to go to the cabin quite a few times this summer. Tripp really enjoys the four wheelers and being outside. It really relaxes me and I always love to be up there. My entire family has been able to come up with us which makes it even better. We went to Big Springs and made the hike up to the historical Johnny Sack cabin

Coloring on the bench outside the cabin with Uncle Trey and Aunt Lainey

Me and Mom

We were able to climb to the very top of Sawtelle Mountain...ok so we drove up there, but the view was still just as beautiful as if we had walked.

Sweet Uncle Brice-even he couldn't calm Tripp down. He wasn't feeling well on this trip. It really made me appreciate how wonderfully behaved he is most of the time. He cried for three days straight!!

We visited West Yellowstone, saw a couple great (and one not so great) plays, and the kids were able to play in the park there.

We even drove through Yellowstone National Park and almost got charged by a buffalo! No joke! After the almost-goring we drove to Old Faithful and watched the geyser erupt. It was magnificent.

Waiting for Old Faithful...

Beautiful!!!

Inside the Old Faithful Lodge

Uncle Trey being a big helper

In between trips to the cabin, I was able to go to Girls' camp, Tripp was able to spend a week with his Grandma Trudy, and Bryant has been able to get in some golfing as well as quite a bit of work. Grandma Trudy (Bryant's mom), had all her grandkids for a week. She is truly amazing--she had a 15 page itinerary planned out day to day and themed the week around bugs. The kids had bug outfits, painted their faces with bug shapes, drank bug juice, and even had a program put together for us when we came to pick them up! Wow! She really is creative and it is obvious that she loves her grandkids very much. I'm sure she was exhausted by the end of the week.

He decided he loved to climb the tree

"Headbutt" with Daddy :)

My beautiful nieces Paislee and Ella

Ella performing in the program a song she "wrote herself"

Tripp wouldn't get out of the tree to participate in the program, but he sure loved watching it!

Cousin Grant--always a smile. I love it!!

I have gotten the opportunity to take Tripp to do a lot of fun things around Meridian as well. We have been to Chuck E. Cheeses, the Park, many "playplace" restaurants, and of course over to Grandma and Grandmpa Hessing's house. We took Tripp over to Settlers' Park a while ago, and it has an entire section with water. At first he was a bit nervous, but by the end of the day he was running in and out of the water until he was soaked!

Grandma Gibbons and Grandma Teresa

Once he got up the guts to run through the water there was no stopping him!

"Following the Leader"

I am starting to become exhausted with all the traveling, packing and unpacking, etc. I have loved all the summer fun but I'm just as excited to take some time to relax and get back in to normal life. Tripp and I occasionally went to the cabin when Bryant had to work, so we are missing him and excited to have some more time with him as things settle down!

Here are a few more summer pictures that I liked. That I have no story for. That even if I did have a story for, I wouldn't tell you because this post is way too long.