Final Outing with the Cousins

Jed and I took our kids and their cousins, Drewe from Florida, and Kaylee and Carson from Texas, on a final outing before they left for home this weekend. We took them to the West Fork Mink Creek Trail.  It's a beautiful, easy trail that my Aunt Renae and I have gone horseback riding on several times.

Just getting started - all smiles.

Ronin getting his hat just right.

We are on our way!

Connor and Carson made themselves the leaders.....surprise.

I thought this was a great photo - I'm glad our kids have been able to spend a lot of time with their cousins.

Ronin trying to keep up with the older boys.

Being with Ronin on this hike reminded me again how so little and cute he is. I remembered how he used to be my little baby and now he's grown up so much. He relishes being in the woods and has boundless energy. I love the hat.

Enough pictures, mom!

Kaylee stopping and smelling....I mean "blowing" the flowers.

Drewe wanted to try it too.

Aubrey and Jed took up the rear, mostly because Aubrey stopped a lot to take tons of pictures and Jed was teaching her different things about what was around them. She is most definately a daddy's girl and is stuck to his hip.

Rocks are magnets to boys, they couldn't help picking them up and throwing them.

The trail follows the actual Mink Creek and so here are all of the cousins hanging out on the bridge.

Sometimes it's just impossible to get just a nice smile from this boy.

Starting to look a little tired....

Finally, after an hour or so of hiking we found a nice little spot to rest and eat snacks.

Ahh, it's nice to just sit.

Like I said before, Ronin is all fun and jokes much of the time and it can be hard to get just a simple smile from him for a picture.

So, he got us all laughing and we gave up trying to get him to be serious. I hope he never loses his playfulness - maybe some of it will rub off onto me, I know I could use it.

Ok, this is the best family photo we can get with two silly boys. I give up....

The hike back went much faster, for it was either flat or down-hill walking. The kids liked running ahead and hiding so that they could scare one of us walking by. Kaylee scared Jed pretty good - enough to make him jump back. It was great.

Apparently, Aubrey and Kaylee got a little bored and took some silly pictures to pass the time away.

We all had a wonderful time and we will miss all our nieces and nephews that were able to come and spend some time in Idaho. We had lots of fun with all of you!