wedded bliss

introducing mr. and mrs. schmatty and schbeka young!

(aka matt and beka)

we just got back from a little summer jaunt down to albuquerque, new mexico to see these two lovelies marry and enjoy some time with family. more to come on the trip, but first, wedding pics! 

beka and matt (emily's youngest brother).

mothers and sons (the six young family grandsons).

girl's club.

wheeler boys.

emmelie with the newest member of the family, baby derek.

all the boys.

entertaining toddlers at a wedding: not for the faint of heart.

matt and ken.

father-of-the-groom, dennis, toasting the newlyweds.

beautiful mother-of-the-groom.

dancing the night away.

congrats matto and beka! (currently off in iceland on their honeymoon.)

wishing you many years of happily, happily wedded bliss.

gap toothed

afton lost her two front teeth this past week.

when those same two teeth had just come in here.

Ross Lake

(by Bryan)

Although you'd hardly guess by the weather in these photos, we used the first official weekend of summer to take an onvernight trip to Ross Lake. This trip was a bit of a departure from some of our previous backpacking trips (Hyas Lake and Clyde Lake) inasmuch as it involved both hiking and boating. 

To get to the lake's numerous camp sites, you hike about a mile down a steepish trail to a dock and summon a ferry from Ross Lake Resort. Upon arriving at the resort (in this case, "resort" is basically a bunch of rustic log cabins floating in the lake), we rented a small aluminum boat that we used to explore the terrain for two days. The girls loved it and quickly dubbed this the best camping trip ever.

Awaiting the ferry from Ross Lake Resort.

Summer learning to drive.

Afton named a large number of interesting rocks she found. 

She was devastated to learn that national park 

regulations forbid visitors from taking rocks home. 

As always, Top Ramen features prominently in the girls' must have backpacking dinners.

In spite of the cool, cloudy conditions, Afton spent most of her free time in the lake. 

High spirits at the start of the hike.

Exploring one the lake's side channels (Nelson/Gessel crew in the background).

thirty-three

finally.

old enough to wear mom jeans.

i've been waiting my whole life for this.

beach!

spending the day with friends on jetty island.

in summer

seventh heaven

afton is seven today. 

this birthday, i asked summer to say a few words about her best friend sister afton:

"afton is silly and very fashionable and artistic. afton is a very silly sister, and she makes people laugh. She has a stuffy named friendy. also she has a small stuffed bird who is named peepers. afton's favorite show is ever after high. her favorite color is lots of colors. her favorite food is probably mostly noodles. afton likes to camp and also to swim. my favorite thing about afton is that she can cheer me up with her silliness. i can always play with her and have play dates with her every day. she is very cute."

afton is a gift and a treasure to our family. like a little fairy sprite, she brings a bit of magic and sparkle to everything she touches. happiest of birthdays to our precious wafty bay!

red ripe raspberries

this was the first year i attempted our raspberry hunt without bryan (bonus: all four kids in tow). as a result, we took about twice as much time to pick about half as many berries, but we were plum out of jam this year, and raspberry jam is basically its own food group at the wheelers, so a mama's gotta do what a mama's gotta do!

what i want to remember most about this excursion is how dallin screamed and whacked me nearly the entire time because he hates raspberries.

(the real cruelty being that he absolutely *does not* hate raspberries. toddlers, amiright?)

so i plopped him down in the dirt, dug out my phone, turned on ye ol' youtube, and we serenaded the whole working field with an interesting mix of current alt rock faves and beach boys classics (a blessed relief from the aforementioned screaming and whacking).

til next year!

dallin, pictured lower right, not hating raspberries.

denny creek rock slide

per our (apparently) fourth of july weekend tradition, we hit up denny creek rock slide for some fun in the sun this past saturday afternoon. as an added bonus, we were joined this year by the cute gessel family.

le crew:

nature's original slip'n'slide:

and i was just snapping pics, trying to catch a good one of caleb and dallin playing together, when i caught this little stinker on film:

d'oh! mama shoulda seen that one coming. nothing like cold mountain water down your back to make you feel alive, eh, dallin? 

they made up about it later, though:

live free

last day of school

yesterday was it for wheeler school year 2015-2016.

summer, second grade

afton, first grade

caleb, three year old preschool

summer with mrs. harding and afton with mrs. archuleta

see you in september!

into the woods

cherry creek falls family hike on saturday.

crossing the creek.

summer and afton asked to have their picture taken with this slug. 

so, yeah...

my first floral gift (ala caleb) of the season.

my, what a reasonably sized stick you've found, dallin.

and out of the woods (and home before dark!)

they see me rollin

and while we're on the subject of dallin, he got to go on his first bike ride with daddy a few weeks ago.

livin the dream!

picking strawberries with dallin

while the big kids were at school this morning, dallin and i snuck in a little trip to carnation to pick some fresh strawberries at harvold farms. well, i picked some fresh strawberries; dallin just gobbled up about a pound or two.

not sure why i look so concerned here (is it because my roots are showing?), but this is the best shot i got of my cutie and me together in the fields:

love that sticky, dirty, juicy strawberry face so pleased as punch with his delicious life.

it's true

we do have more fun.

blondes, that is.

er, fake blondes, that is.

a new nephew

derek alan young

born april 22, 2016

to kenny and emmelie young (and big brother, luke)

sixth boy young family grandchild in a row.

dance dance revolution

it's that time of year again!

debonair

okay, so this pic needs its own post because 

who else just wants to gobble baby dallin downey jr. up here?

killin it.