July randomness and getting ready for Trek

We had a 1st birthday to celebrate in July....here is my cuter than cute nephew Bridger. Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks and belly! He is such a happy boy....so easy to smile and love everyone around him.

He LOVED his birthday cupcake! We were all afraid that he was going to suffocate himself with it because he kept just inhaling it! He had it completely pressed into his mouth and nose. His mom and dad kept trying to move it down more towards his mouth, but he would always shove it right back up his nose! I'm sure he liked whatever cake and icing he actually got into his mouth, although I'm sure it wasn't much.
The birthday party was at Heise. Grace was kinda bummed because of her wrist, she was at the point that we were waiting to see the Orthopedic Surgeon, so she had to be careful, no horseplay or swimming or basically anything fun. As you can tell she was SO excited to be there without much she could actually do.
Score on the cheap toys! He loved the ball we got him....and so did the other kids. He didn't get to play with it for too long before it ran off with some of the big kids so they could play soccer.
Brotherly love! Gaylen had to push his weight around with his baby brother. I think Gavin was being kinda nice to Gaylen too and didn't want to hurt him! ;)
Some of the "Moms" for the Pioneer Trek came over and helped me do some food prep the week before the trek. It was lots of fun....even though I wasn't actually there helping very much. That was the day I had to take Grace in to the Orthopedic Surgeon. But thanks to these lovely ladies, there was so much less work for me!
Some of them brought their kids over and they all played outside together.
A train of kids on the slide! They all had so much fun together!
Here's Gary working on another project in the shelter. We really want to honor my dad....not just him, but both of my parents. (Sometimes I think Gary just comes up with things to make my mom cry and hug him again!) The fire still burns strong in us to make the farm a wonderful place where the family wants to be. We really want to feel my dad's spirit there always.
Finished product up top. I love looking at it. We still have lots of ideas that will probably happen next summer. The other sign down by the benches was Grace's sign that Gary helped her do.
Here we are hiking down a draw. Gary and his dad are up ahead cleaning out a path for the horses and mules to get down there during the trek. It was so hot that day! I only had on capri's....I wasn't exactly planning on trekking through the brush with a 4 year old that day. I scratched the crap out of my legs....oh well....just conditioning for the next week, right?!
We drove around the canyon rim on the family property and at the old cabin we saw this cute rock chuck pokin' out.
This is why we came out around, at the corner of the property is a pile of rocks and it kinda looked like what the pioneers would have done when they buried someone. It was actually a property line marker, but we moved the rocks around a little more to make it look more like a grave. This was going to be one of our stops on our trek. I found some sticks and Gary lashed together this cross for our grave marker.
So much more to tell you about the trek, but that will be a long post....so I will do it soon! I promise.