In mixed order...because of how the pictures came up.
Doing "Horsey, horsey on your way" with Grandma Walton.
Snuggles with Grandpa John.
Grandpa Hatch lived to be 91 years old. He lived a wonderful, simple, meaningful life. His funeral was mostly a celebration of his life. There were plenty of tears that flowed from all of the love we had for him. And of couse we will miss him. It's hard not to just be happy for him that he is back with his wife and so many loved ones (I did ask if he would hand deliver a message of love to our girls in heaven...and he cheerfully agreed).
The funeral was also a wonderful family reunion. I loved seeing cousins I haven't seen in years!!
It was also great to spend time with both of our families and old friends.
Playing dress up at Aunt Cindy's house. This one scared me just a bit. Ash wearing Cindy's wedding dress.
We had fun playing at Julie's house! With brand new baby Luke, we have 3 boys and 3 girls!
Catching up with dental school friends. Just a few babies were added since we left San Francisco.
We had lots of fun playing Pit with Grandpa Walton.
Walton cousins! These kids had so much fun playing together.
Fishbein cousins...playing a gum trading game.
Sadie got to go on her "I'm turning 8 date" with Grandma Shelly a little early since we were in town.
Ash riding a horse...our tradition with Aunt Cindy.
Nate loved riding the pony. He fell off 3 times (the pony wasn't in the best mood at first) and Nate kept wanting to get back on. Nate didn't completely fall. Dave was holdling his shirt and caught him as he was falling...but it was still scary.
Before our trip to California, Heidi and her family came out for a fun weekend. Dave wanted to try feeding Rollo a live rat. So he saved the show for our friends. This was traumatic for many of us. Rollo never did end up eating the rat.
The oldest 4 played together in San Francisco when they were tiny.
Dave and the girls looking at Rollo through our macroscope.
They had me come look, and I must say that it looked pretty neat under the scope.
Ashlyn had 3 friends over for a little party. It was a cooking/sewing party. We sewed aprons and then made braided pizzas and braided dessert pizzas. By the way...Ashlyn's friends in this picture are all older. Two are older by 2 years. 1 is older by 1 year. And yet she fits right in with her height. 
Speaking of height...Sadie's good friend is next to her. She's about a head taller than Sadie, and Sadie is older than her by 2 months.
Ash just finished opening her presents.
Dave took the day off for Ashyln's birthday. We took the kids on post to go bowling. We had to stop to see this tank.
Nate puts his pants on backwards just about every day. Dave helped him find a frog and he was soooooooooooooo happy with his friend. He asked me: "Do you like frogs because they give you rubbies on your hand?" I guess fruvin was tickling Nate's hand and it felt like "rubbies" (our word for a backscratch). Nate had a birthday party that morning and that's why his face looked sort of like an elephant.
The girls went from sewing and cooking to shooting at her party. Ashlyn's holding her birthday present from her dad. I'm sure it's what all 10 year old girls want for their birthdays. Ash loves it. She said "I'd much rather shoot guns on a date than go out to dinner." We wrote that one down.
We've all had fun with Ashlyn's gun.
