Misc August Pics

These boys crack me up. I don't know how or why they fell asleep in this position.

Chase loves Ava. He insists on sitting next to her every time we eat. And when I say next to her, I mean their chairs have to be touching.

He loves her so much he even shares his brownie with her.

Dinner time at the Basset home....

Ava loves Kabobs. She already ate all of the pineapple off.

Jordan

Caden

Kailyn

Caden got some candy from church and shared it with Chase. Chase was so excited until he learned what a mega sour ball was...

Caden wasn't phased by it.

Chase kept touching Caden's cheek.

Ava enjoying a morning bowl of cereal.

I had this big bag of sugar in the mudroom. Unfortunately, Ava found it. She thought it was pretty good stuff and dug right in.

Ava loves the fan.

I often find Caden asleep looking at a book or laying on one.

Ava loves trying on a jacket.

Caden came down at 9am to tell me Ava was asleep. Asleep?!? at this hour (She normally naps around 12). Sure enough I went to the kitchen and this is how I found her. 

Elk Bugling 2012

So, I finally had a day off and have been wanting to get up to the mountains to see the elk.  We decided to pick up the kids from school one afternoon and go directly into the mountains.  We had planned on getting some family pictures, as well, but that just didn't happen.

Here are some pics of the school kids.

Caden showing off the playground equipment.

Jordan didn't see me for a long time, so this is a candid shot of her just as she looked up and recognized me.

I had some shots of Kailyn looking around, trying to find us, but they didn't turn out well, so here's a very uncandid picture of her.

It takes about 45 minutes to get up the mountains where the elk were.  There were lots of twists and turns.  Caden (and Kailyn, for that matter) inherited my ability to get motion sickness at the very thought of traveling on a road with a few turns.  Sadly, Caden tossed his cookies on the way up.

Don't let him fool you.  He's feeling pretty icky right now.

When we got to the parking lot of a meadow, we saw a bull elk with his 41 cows.  Oh, yeah, and it was quite windy and cold.

There's the bull.

I took a picture of each of the kids in front of these mountains.  They were gorgeous, but the photos did not turn out as well as I would have liked.  Oh, well, it was still nice.  I guess Kailyn's picture is the one with the elk up above.

There was an interesting presentation about elk by one Ranger Sue.  She talked about young (1-year old) male elk who have a single antler their first year . . .

competing with older and more mature elk for the attention of the cows.  They talked about parallel walking, bugling, posing, and sometimes fighting to build their harem.  It was actually very interesting.  She also talked about the double layer of hair in the hide during the winter, keeping the elk warm and dry.

In this next picture, the lead female had started walking towards another elk (not visible, but you could hear his bugling) on the other side of the hill.  The bull did not like that, so he got around them and herded them back to his area.

We drove down the road a little ways and found another herd of elk.  There were actually a few bulls with their individual harems.  It was getting dark, so I tried to snap a few pictures.  It was beautiful.  The camera couldn't quite do it justice.

In the following picture, you can see several cows closer to the camera.  A little further back you see the "presiding" or dominate bull, watching over his cows.  Behind him you can see several other bulls.  The one stands at guard to make sure none of the other bulls gets his cows.

On the way home, the kids all fell asleep.  Everyone enjoyed the trip and said, "thanks for taking us to the mountains."  Chase, however, thanked us multiple times and then called out each of his siblings by name to make sure they all said "thanks for taking us to the mountains" again.  It's quite cute with his cute 3-year old annunciations.

Stock Racing and Family Olympics

Uncle Spencer owns a stock car that was going to race. Some of the group decided to go and watch. Unfortunately, his car was damaged before some of us got there, so we didn't see his car race but still stayed to watch the other cars.

It was very hot. Thank goodness we had some shade to sit in.

Cars where dropping like flies. This black one broke its axle and was out.

See the tipped car? Its out, too.

Inspired by the Olympics that were going on at the time of the reunion, we decided to hold our own Family Olympics. We had slip and slide...

Relay races . . .

Shot put (more like just throw the ball and try not to hit anyone) . . .

and watch-the-cute 1 1/2 year old run as fast as she could.  Everything was an obstacle for her.

Grandpa B taking some pictures.

We also had an event where the kids were to walk along the balance beam (at the end of the pool) and then do a trick while jumping into the water.  We enjoyed a few candid pics of the youngest kids while awaiting the challengers for the event.

Caden with the carefully balanced walk . . .

and the graceful swan jump into the pool . . .

with a little falter on the landing.

Jordan got a little deduction for a wobble on the beam . . .

but look at that form as she contemplates her trick.  Looks like we may have had an interference from a younger sister . . .

into the air . . .

And she sticks the landing!!!!  Perfect!!!!

Kelcie showing good form . . .

Look at that wonderful tuck . . .

If judging on the splash, she NAILED it!

Kailyn with a fierce competitive look in her eyes . . .

Good form . . .

What?!?!  No splash?  Just a step into the water.  Got her head cut off (in the picture), though!

Some of the judges were not pleased with the efforts on the waterslide and felt they needed to demonstrate proper technique.

Uncle Andrew:

Uncle Russ:

Chase rocking this event!

Grandma B with grandchild number 20

Chase and Becky.  Did we mention that these 2 were adorable together?

A little more zip-lining action

The older girls

For the awards ceremony, the kids got a certificate of completion along with a piece of candy.  They were thrilled!

In closing, we thought we'd show a classic demonstration of our kids' bravery around dogs (actually, pets in general).  When Ava sees or hears a dog, she gets excited and makes some muffled dog-like barks.  But if they ever start walking towards her or even look at her, she loses it.  This has gotten a little better lately, thank goodness.  And lest you think it's only Ava, rest assured that all 5 of our kids have the same reaction.