Megan's #10

On August 1st we celebrated Megan's 10th birthday. The benefit of having left over wedding cake is we can reuse it for birthday cake! We were able to play with Fondant for Garrity's wedding cake. It is my new found love to decorate cakes with. Garrity took what she wanted of her wedding cake, which still left us with two tiers. We took those and made them into a delightful, fancy birthday cake!

Megan's birthday breakfast. Her favorite - waffles.

THE birthday cake!

Megan's best friends, Maddie and Logan.

Grandma Coleman came a few days after Megan's birthday and gave her her first perm. She is sporting her new DO in the outfit grandma Coleman gave her.

Garrity's Wedding

Garrity was married June 29th in the Twin Falls, ID temple. It was a wonderful ceremony and one of the very few really hot days of the summer. The kids were loving playing in the water fountain and dipping their heads in it to cool off. Even if it was right before pictures were taken.

Gage is known as our little wanderer. While we were trying to get everyone together for pictures after the ceremony, Gage came up missing. We looked everywhere for him and were getting a little panicked. A gentleman from the neighborhood across the street from the temple brought him back over to the temple. He had been walking down the street in front of their house. Boy, did we get parents of the year!!!

Other than that, the whole day was perfect. Garrity looked absolutely beautiful. We are so excited to have Uncle Seth in our family!! Here are some fun pictures of the special day.

The kids finding any shad they can and enjoying the cool water fountain.

Emily did such a great job as the photographer.

Jake getting ready for family pictures.

Boy is it HOT!!

Mr. and Mrs. O'Crowley

Bradey and Lacey came and helped get ready for the reception. We were able to put a wedding cake together.

It was a lot of fun! Thank you Lacey and Jenny Yeck!!

The Final Touches!!

We were fortunate enough to get in on a good deal for our driveway. They were resurfacing the freeway by our house and saleing the old black top. They ground it and broke it down and then they would place it in driveways and smash it down with a steam roller. The timing could not have been more perfect for us. Garrity's wedding was only 2 days away. Hunter and Gage were mesmerized by the big machinery. It was a lot of fun to watch and it put a great finishing touch on the yard for Garrity's reception.

Hunter and Gage staying out of the way, but close enough you could be in on the action.

The Merrill Reunion

Well, the snow did melt and we were able to have an awesome reunion. We stayed at the Kern's cabin up by Anthony Lakes. Some of us in tents and others stayed in the cabin. It was a lot of fun! We canoed, hiked, biked, made friend ship bracelets and played games.

We were fortunate this reunion, no one got hurt. There was some experimentation with full pop cans and mosquito spray. Luckily, all that was harmed was a few lawn chairs. It will definitely be one of those things that we will look back on and laugh. We missed Cory and his family and Ryan and his family. Hopefully next year there will be everyone! Here are some pics of the event:

Two of the three "cutest" members of the bunch. Wyatt and Korbyn.

With the snow melted, it allowed for some exploring.

Korbyn showing us his adorable grin!

Wyatt trying to one-up him. Not quite as broad of a smile.

Gage watching the kids on the canoe.

Hunter, "Huh, I can go on the canoe right now?"

Our other "cutest" member of the bunch, Cooper. Held by our cute Mya!

Morris and Stetson waiting for their turn on the canoe.

Jason taking Keaton and Hunter out on the boat.

Tiffany and Layne balancing on the log to get to the canoe.

Gage looking cute.

Layne on the canoe.

Wyatt on the hike up to Van Patten Lake.

All the troop heading up to Van Patten.

Mason getting excited to be closer.

This was everyone that stayed and watched Jason and Morris jump off the big cliff. They jumped off the cliff and immediately a storm came in. We huddled under the big trees until it passed. Luckily it didn't last very long, but we headed down with some wet and tired kids. Morris was amazing at his bravery to jump off the cliff. He and Jason were the only ones!

Just getting an idea for what their in for.

One of our crafts was making people out of twigs and rocks. Sierra made this for uncle Cory, because it looked a lot like him!

Just arriving into Van Patten Lake. The kids did awesome!

We Did IT!! A Half Marathon

This first week of July was a crazy busy and bizarre week for us. We had the famous Bingham reunion up here in Oregon. It was so much fun! We missed Cindy and Lynn and Percilla and Keith. They are on missions, Percilla and Keith in Russia and Cindy and Lynn just left to start their 3 year calling as mission presidents of the Sole, Korea mission. Everyone showed up between June 30th and July 1st. Jake and Wendy had their baby Brand, on the 1st of July. It was fun having everyone here for this great event. We worked cattle, had a 10K, 5K, and 1 mile race. Horse riding, fishing, and lots of relaxing and visiting.

On the 4th of July we ran the Haines race. Royce, Emily and I ran the 10K. I ran it with my friend Ronda, who I do all my workouts with. We have been training to do a half marathon. It was a lot of fun, Royce was really close to first but ended up taking 2nd or 3rd in the men and I took first in the women's 10K. I felt it was my strongest race ever!!

Early July 5th Jason, Sierra, Lindsey and I left for California for a biopsy. We zoomed down and back in 2 days. Sierra got a zero, and everything looks great. I started feeling really tired on the trip and was out of breath going up stairs. I couldn't believe it, I just ran a 10K. By the time we got home early Thursday morning, my feet were hugely swollen. Jason had youth conference in Nyssa and left at 1:00pm that day with the youth. I wanted to go out for one more light run on Thursday since my marathon was Saturday the 9th. I went to run and couldn't even make it a mile. I was short of breath and my legs were very swollen. I ended up heading to the ER in Baker for questionable congestive heart failure. After long hours in the ER, they couldn't find anything wrong and I came home to have a follow up with a cardiologist. We headed down to Boise Friday afternoon to see if we could get into a cardiologist.

We ended up getting no where in Boise, but I decided to go with Daisy and Ronda to check in for the race and at least get my T-shirt. By that morning my swelling had decreased significantly and I could run a little bit without being short of breath. The hotel Jason and I were staying in was right along the green belt where the race route was. So, I decided to go ahead and run with Daisy and Ronda until I hit the hotel, then I would get in the car and head back to the finish line and meet them there. Long story short, the hotel was further away than I thought and by the time I got there I decided to just run the whole thing. I ended up finishing the race! What an emotional finish!! Thank you Ronda for sticking by my side! Thank you Jason for all your support!!!

Daisy, Ronda and I at the finish line.

Ronda and I waiting for Daisy.