Our Summer Trip!

*Disclaimer!*

*This is going to be a BIG post! Forgive me! But with over 1200 pictures taken on this trip! I think I did pretty well with what I did put on here!*

Kentucky Part 1

After 12 hours of driving we made it to our first stop! We were excited to get there! Darren and his mamma are super cute! ;)

Grill master! Look at that skill!

 

Cute girl cousins! Coby, Belle, Lily, and Cora

Ethan gave the cousins a ride around the yard! They LOVED it!

Slip-N-Slide!

  

Off to Rochester, Minnesota! (14 hours driving)

The kids did A-MAZ-ING! They are traveling pro’s! I’m not even going to say how many slim-jims they ate! But hey it’s a road trip!

 

We made it!                Cute Jen

My two favorite Brothers! ;)

 

Jerry and Mom        Shannon and Stewart

 

Lots of cooking was done! Super fun!

The kids could either be found in 1 of 2 places…. 1 in the basement playing video games, or 2 outside! They had a blast and went non-stop!

Cute Sarah

Ethan!             Ashton!                    Josh!

  

Relaxing outside! Cute mamma rubbing my feet!

 

I L♥VE teasing my brothers!

He has no idea I’m coming! Look at the possessed look in my eye! Pretty scary! ha ha! Now it’s on!!! So… I ran to take refuge on poor Jen, Jerry’s pregnant wife! 

 

      I was really trying to be careful, and Jerry came anyway! Poor Jen!Look at her face in the last pic! I think she’s used to it though, cause after all, she is married to Jerry! ;)

  

*Fireworks!* Jerry Loves loves loves fireworks! Always has, always will! He had a TON! It wasn’t even July 4th but we start early! Who gave him that lighter?                                            

  

Ethan and Seth (They look like brothers!)

Me and Momma!

Look at those feet! Love it! ♥

Ashton, Ethan, Seth, Brooke, Sarah, Josh, Lily, Lizzy, Jacob, Benjamin!

My birthday! It was fun having my birthday during a family trip! I was spoiled rotten!

  

All the kiddos ready for church!

*Our Little Family*

Silly Boys!              Grammy Taking Pics

 

Cute Stewart and Shannon

 

Silly Seth!        Darren with Grandpa Steve

   

Birthday Cake Time!

  

Another thing Jerry is famous for is water fights! As you can see by his daughter Sarah behind him, she is about to start a water fight with her dad! It never ends well!  And the cup on my head? My brother Stewart snuck up behind me a poured water down my back and left the cup on my head!

It’s ON!

 

Jacob must have a death wish!

Check out Jerry ‘hauling’ after the kids!

 

This is me getting Stewart back! ha ha ha ha!!!!!

It was only a matter of time before Jerry got the hose out! Cups and buckets are NEVER enough water for him!

 

OLYMPICS!

We did the Olympic games as a family. Super fun! (Thanks Jerry and Jen for heading it!)

This was our shirts. BrOwCR 2012 (Stands for Brewer, Howe, Conner!) Pretty cleaver! ;)

*Warning! The next few pictures are ALL RED! You’ll be seeing red for days after these pics! ;) ) ha ha!

We look good in RED! ;)

 

Family Flags

 

Torch lighting! If all else fails, get lighter fluid!

  

*Bucket Tug-O-War*

      

*Ninja Warrior* (revised version)

Obstacle course: Up the slide, over the beam, down the net, Over another beam, across a balance beam, do a trick on the trampoline, over the buckets, across the monkey bars, up the rock wall, down the slide, run around house and touch the tree! Fun huh? ha ha!

*Winners!* Jerry gave me his medal! ;)

  

Covered in Sweat! Super fun though!

Lily with Uncle Stewart! ♥  Winners of “Rock/Paper/Scissors”

 

*Just Dance* Competition

Pretty darn hilarious!

Winners! Gold: Sarah, Silver: Ben, Bronze: Aunt Robin

 

Pool Fun!

*Racing the popsicle stick rafts they built*

    

4th of July 5k!

Ready to Run!

Jerry                    Ethan                  Mom!          

   

       Shannon            Brooke         Jen and Stewart

     

             Darren! He pulled his quad, so he couldn’t run. He got stroller duty! Here’s his picture proving he was present at the race! ha ha! However, he crossed the finish line pushing Lily and Jacob in the stroller with Ashton on his shoulders while running even though he shouldn’t have!

Finished!

Jerry beat us all! (No surprise! But he did great! Got 25 min!) Ethan stayed with me the WHOLE way! I was super proud of him! Now he wants to do races with me! :)

*Corn Hole*

(Thank you Grandpa Steve for making and bringing it!)

     

Thus marks the end of the Olympics! It was a blast!

(games not posted: Bop-it Challenge, Talent Show, Bucket knock down, Breath holding at pool, Frisbee golf, and probably a bunch more I can’t remember!)

    

Lizzy! Cutest little girl EVER!

Getting ready to say good-bye

 

I post these with reluctance, but will. I rarely cry. Thus why Darren felt need to document my tears! ;) It was hard saying good bye!

  

Thank you Jerry and Jen for opening up your house to the masses! It was a wonderful trip! We had a blast! Love you all!

************************************************

Off to Minneapolis, Minnesota! (only a 2 hour drive!)

Dan (Darren’s older brother) and his wife KaraJean were so kind to let us crash in on them to say hello for a couple days! As always we had so much fun with them! We always pick up right where we left off!

 

Girl Cousins + Jacob getting reacquainted! And Dan, Being Uncle Dan!

 

Brayden their oldest son! When we first got married he was a little 2 year old in diapers! (I thought only old people say those things!) ha ha!

 

Playing!

  

Cute Jacob and Sarah. Playing in the dirt!

 

Cute KaraJean and her daughter Paige! Her and Lily played so well together!

 

Lava Cake Time!

Dan whipped up a killer batch of Molten Lava Cakes! They were soooo good!!!! The second picture is so funny! It almost looks like he’s praying to the oven that they come out okay! :) And They Did!!!

 

What could be better than this?

Oh, I know!!!! Add Ice Cream!

Fireworks!

Darren and Brayden Playing Ping Pong. The others playing video games!

  

Ha ha ha!

  

Ethan and Mason!

  

Darren being Uncle Darren!

We played ‘Killer Bunnies’ our last night. Probably one of the funniest games I’ve played to date! We stayed up WAY too late, and we wanted to leave pretty early, but it was worth it!

Dan INSISTED that he cook us breakfast before we left! We kept saying we had to leave early and it would be ridiculous for him to get up and cook breakfast! We even joked while playing our game that he should just start cooking breakfast now, since we’d have to get up in a couple hours any way! Well he woke up and fixed a killer breakfast! We woke ALL the kids up and they were zombies, half asleep at the table, but they all ate and we enjoyed a delicious breakfast! Thank you Dan! ♥

*Brothers*

 

Back to Kentucky we go! (+14 hour drive)

When we got back Derek and Rebecca had arrived! It was so fun seeing everyone! Derek and Darren playing chess! This game hurts my brain! Literally!

 

Dawn and I attempting to play! She kicked my butt!

 

Cute Jacob, Cobi, and Doon watching it rain outside

 

*Fairy Houses* The kids have such wild imaginations! They spent quite a while outside making houses for the ‘fairies’!

Lily and Cora

If I was a fairy I know I’d want to live there!

  

Cute Darren

Think he’s annoyed with me taking his picture yet?

Cute Dawn!

   

Ashton, Doran, Jacob, Lily, Cora, Belle, Ethan, Cobi

Jacob, Grandma, and Rebecca with Cobi

  

Tony and Deb

  

I convinced Darren to go with me to visit his father’s grave

  

Bugs. Eeeew!

 

Horseshoes!

 

These are some intense Horseshoe players!

 

Roasting Marshmallows and frogs! just kidding! Kids had fun on their final night making smores!

 

That’s all she wrote!

Then back 12 hours home! We calculated over 50 hours in the car for this trip! But we were able to visit so many family members on both sides! This trip was LONG, but oh so worth it! We left with so many pictures and memories to last a life time!