Family Pics 2024 without Andrew

These are some of my favorite family pics, the light and colors just worked so well but without Andrew it just wasn't the same.

Without Andrew we took the chance to get lots of great girl pics.  Man I love all that hair and those faces.  All so different and yet all mine.

Our photographer wanted to get one of me with each of my girls - I'm such a lucky mom to have so many girls to laugh with, talk with, cry with and be silly with.

What would we do without so pictures of everyone loving on Lily.

I think this is my fav of all the pics - I think all my girls have a bit of Greg's chin.

This path may not have been wide enough for all of us - which lead to lots of laughter and weird faces.

Our friend had to throw Andrew in for us - nice huh?!

Yellowstone

Thursday after dance we hit the road.  We arrived in Pocatello pretty late but Natali still walked Lily down to the front desk to see if they had a complementary toothpaste and toothbrush - she lucked out, or I did because she would have been using mine- haha.

Friday morning we drove to Rexburg and toured BYU-I.  The girls loved peeking in on some ballet classes and chatting with some of the dance students.  They were super nice, answered lots of questions, and encouraged Kate.  Their program accepts any dancer as a major or minor and it isn't competitive  - I think it made Kate excited to think that she could still dance.

We got a nice lunch in the campus food court then headed in to the park.  We caught a quick hike to get us moving.  I was starting in on a cold so I only made it 3/4th of the way but the views were amazing.

We had a great few days hiking and looking for animals.  I managed alright in spite of being sick.

Greg brought his camera on our hikes so he could get some good pics of the squirrels,  This one was a great one.

Natali spotted this beaver and we got a bunch of great photos.

In Mammoth we stumbled onto this great horned owl couple with their two babies.  Apparently, they nest there every year.  We will definitely be checking that spot again.

Lily was loving this hike - especially when the bison was blocking the path and we had to make a bit of a detour to give him space.

The best spotting of the trip was a mama black bear with two tiny cubs.  They were hanging out in the parking lot in the poring rain.  We couldn't get enough of them.  The first pic is out my car window on my iPhone - they were so close.

This short hike to a waterfall was a nice break from the car with a reward of the falls at the end.

After one late night drive everyone needed a bowl of marshmallow mateys to tuck them into bed.

Some of the incredible views from the trip...

We chased the rainbow and found the mama bear and cubs at the bottom - it was a lucky rainbow!

We enjoyed the long weekend but we were all ready to get home Monday night for a hot bath and our own bed.

Graduation Time 5th and 8th

Lily graduated from 5th grade, exiting elementary school for the end of elementary for all of the Easton's.

This is the snapshot of Lily's page from the slideshow.

She has so many great buddies.

She loved being in Mr. Myers class even if there were only 9 girls.

Emily was relieved to final complete middle school - hooray!

We got to make a cute poster for the fence - love that sweet face.

Here she is walking across to get her diploma.

We got to snap one pic with some of her friends before we hurried home to pack for Yellowstone.

While Greg and I sat through Emily's graduation Lily played pickle ball with Payton and Hazel.  Let summer begin!