Maries!

My brothers and I each have a Marie child.  Five girls have Marie as their middle name, one girl has Marie as her first name.  Marie was my mom's middle name.  I love that we each have one.  I really wanted to get a picture of all the Maries together.  They are not perfect pictures, but we did it!

The Maries

Maysen, Anne, Skye, Marie, Mallory, Amelia

Why are all the girls looking to the left in the above picture?  They are looking at their goofy Uncle Mike who was trying to get Millie happy.

Mike

 The Maries by age

Maysen, Skye, Marie, Mallory, Amelia, Anne

 My brothers and I with our Maries

Stephanie & Maysen, Mike & Skye, Brett & Marie

John & Mallory, Spencer & Amelia, Matt & Anne

 The Anns: Anne and Jorja Ann

 Stephanie Ann, Jorja Ann and Anne Marie

 Stephanie, Anne and Jorja

We tried to get a grandkid shot, but that turned out to be a disaster. Preston is bawling, someone must have touched him.  He hates being touched.  We have all the grandkids here except Stockton and Parker. Look what you were missing out on Christen!

Skye, Maysen, Brandon, Abigail, Grace, Jorja

Marie, Preston, Blake, Larkin, Lincoln, Trevor

Mina, Amelia, Mallory, Ella, Anne

 Maysen and Brandon

 Grace and Jorja

We got a shot of me with my sister-in-laws.  Christen wasn't here, so Skye was her substitute.  What a good sport!  Here we are, oldest to youngest.  Well according to my families birth order.

Angela, Stephanie, Rachel, Skye (Christen), Sam, Cassie

 The two Sky(e)s: Skye Marie and Grace Sky

Jorja LOVED making lunch for the kids.  Grilled cheese sandwiches were her specialty.  She did so great.  Too bad when she was finished she was talking to Maysen and bumped her arm against the hot grill. That was no fun at all.

Jorja cooks

 Jorja's burn

Mike and Spencer's family left today.  Mike had to catch a flight home tomorrow.  Bubs has class all day tomorrow.  My dad came up today and was able to see them for about fifteen minutes before they left.  My dad came back from a tour late last night.  It's not easy to get all of us together!

John & Trevor

 Rachel wanted Spanish lessons from Bubs, Grace wasn't as interested

 Skye, Blake, Mike and Larkin getting one last ride

 Lincoln, Bubs, Ella

I also wanted a picture with just my brothers.  It is rare that we are all in the same place at the same time.  Blake wanted to get in the picture. Made me laugh.  It reminded me of John & Cassie's wedding where Preston stood in line with all the big boys.  I think he even had a yellow hammer sticking out of his suit.

Brett, Blake, Mike, Matt, Spencer, Stephanie, John

 Brett, Stephanie, Mike, Matt, Spencer, John

 Blake & Jorja

My dad meeting Brandon for the first time.  John and Cassie named Brandon after him.

Ronald meeting Brandon Ronald

Mike and John always have looked so much a like.  Maybe because they wear hats?  It's funny because both of their boys love hats too. 

John & Mike

Trevor & Blake

 John, Trevor, Blake, Mike

When Bubs left were lucky enough to get Ella to stay a few days extra with us.  She was excited to.  As soon as they left she had doubts and wished she had gone with them.  Not enough for me to call them. (They had only been gone three minutes.)  She did great though and was no problem at all.

Jorja & Ella

My brothers took many 4-wheel rides to Big Rock with various kids.  I went this afternoon.  As crazy as this sounds, this was my very first time to Big Rock.  I had heard my brothers talk about this for a long time, but it never worked out so I could go.  I never put up a fuss about it, because obviously I would have been able to go if I had asked earlier. I was a little nervous up on that rock.  There is a steep fall on one side. I do not like heights AT ALL!  I was relieved when everyone was back on the ground.  These pictures don't show how high the kids were.  A little too high for my liking.

Maysen

 Preston & Jorja

 Maysen & Preston

 Preston

My brothers said they used to be able to see the lake from here.  Now the trees are too tall to see it.

Preston

 Maysen, Jorja, Preston

 John & Trevor, Maysen, Jorja, Preston, Ella

John climbed the steep part holding Trevor.  CRAZY!  I was glad my brothers were there to help get the kids down.  Even though Preston insisted he could do it himself, I'm glad they were there to catch him if he fell.

Matt helping Ella

 Matt & Preston

 Maysen

I tried to get a picture before they drove away, but I was too slow. Preston saw a moose on the way down.  He pointed it out to Matt. Preston, Matt and Ella all saw the moose.  John, Maysen and Trevor drove right by without noticing.  Jorja and I were far behind because we stopped to take pictures.  I'm not sure if I drove by it, but I sure didn't notice it!  That's not surprising.

Maysen & John

 What a beautiful view!

 Palisades

 Another beautiful view.  Baby Brandon

 So tiny!

Too bad Parker wasn't up here.  I would love to see those two together. They are 12 days apart I think.  Brandon would look so tiny next to Parker!  That boy is huge!

Maysen won Pirates tonight.  I was a miserable pirate and no threat through the entire game.  It was close between Maysen and Brett.  John was a great pirate, but Maysen sunk him half way through the game.  I wish she would have sunk me.  I wasn't even worth attacking.  Matt did a Hail Mary on his last turn.  He attacked a level 4 merchant with one crew man.  Of course he didn't win.  The boat sailed to Maysen who defeated it easily.  She then rolled double sixes to seal her victory.  Brett couldn't believe it!  Maysen probably would have won anyway, but it was really close.