Old Man Dave

Another for the books, my friends.  Dave is even an older man now that he was in these pictures.  Here he is, turning 32 last year.  As one of his presents, I taught Miles how to catch with his hands (Miles' lack of athleticism is a bit painful for Dave).  We practiced and practiced so they could have a decent game of catch on his birthday.  So thoughtful, I know.

First Day- Second Grade

Oi, I can't believe I got so far behind on all this!  Indeed, this is Miles' first day of second grade, which was in August of 2015.  One for the books:

He kept on trying not to smile, so as to showcase his "true" feelings about starting another school year and ending another summer break.  Miles has always said he doesn't like school, but he never complains about it or fights going, which I'm grateful for!

Second grade ended up being his favorite so far!  He really loved his teachers and was just a great and happy kid all year long!  Horn is such a great school and I will never take for granted the enormous blessing it was for him to get into that school.

Yellowstone

More than a year old, but I'm getting back on this thing....

Yellowstone is cool.  We had a fun time.  Got super duper close to some bison (in our car), walked around thermal pools, watched Old Faithful do her thing, saw some waterfalls and totally got lost exiting the park.  That was an adventure.  We had no idea where we were (no cell phone reception) and no idea when Wyoming would finally provide a town with a reasonable lodging option.  We ended up in Cody!

Epic Road Trip

We bought a car off my parents last summer and drove it from Coeur d'Alene all the way to Houston.  That's a long way, folks.  But we made a trip of it!  Don't have pictures of every stop, but here's some!

We first went to Boise and stayed with Dave's sister and fam.  Always good to see them!  Then we were Rexburg bound.  Stopped in Twin Falls:

Shoshone Falls.  

There was a fire, so it was hazy/smoky.

The obviously Mormon kid at the visitor's center told us to turn right "at the big white church" (the temple) to get to the falls.  It was cute.  Ah, the West and areas highly populated with Mormons...  We've been out of it for what seems like so long, it's always a little weird going back!

BYU-Idaho has changed so much since we went there!  It was fun to show Miles around our old stomping grounds.

He's ready to go to school there for the air hockey alone.

We bought him a quad at the bookstore there.  We figured there was no need to wait until he turned 8 since he has been so amazing about reading the scriptures!

This is the very spot where Dave asked me to marry him.

He's 11 years older this time, though.

We're growing up together!  Crazy.

Yellowstone was next.  You'll see.

Martin's Cove in Wyoming:

All those Mellor's are my ancestors.

McPhail's are Dave's ancestors.

Miles particularly enjoyed seeing one of his ancestors has "McKinnon" in their name.  Nathan MacKinnon is one of his favorite hockey players.

Denver:

One of the factors that helped us decide to buy the car off my parents and make this big road trip was the opportunity it gave us to go visit Grandma Lawson one more time.  It was amazing and lucky to see Dave's parents who were visiting her from their mission in Chile at the same time!

So glad we were able to spend time with her one last time.  I love how she was always up for a laugh.  Grandma Lawson was the best.  Extremely kind, thoughtful, organized and loving.

It was short and sweet, but totally worth it!