Nash gets baptized....FINALLY!

Well, better late than never...right?  This one took us awhile but that's because his dad wanted to be able to baptize him...check!  Nash did a great job (not that I was worried, I"m pretty sure he's part fish) and so did his dad (no forgotten words!).  We're proud of you buddy!

Floating the Oneida Narrows

Our last big hoo-rah before school started was a camping trip to the Oneida Narrows with my mom and dad, Uncle Doug, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Darwin, Aunt Debbie, Melissa & Braxton.  Travis, Sam & Nash had floated the river before with Melissa & Doug but I had never done it.  I wasn't too sure this was a good idea when we left home.  

We lucked out and had a great camping site.  The kids went to the water immediately and promptly made friends.  Then they ended up borrowing the peddle boat their friends had & played around on it!

On Saturday we floated the river for the first time.  I felt so bad!  My mom hit a rock in the first set of rapids.  She didn't make it too far before her tube was flat.  My dad helped her get on his tube and he got out of the water (he's floated before and mom hasn't).  Mom had to wait 20 minutes for Doug and Melissa to come by but eventually they made it!  We had a good float and ended up going to the stopping point (mom only went to the half way point).  Brooke rode in my tube with me and Caleb rode in a tube with Travis.  Sam & Nash had their own tubes.  We let Brooke, Caleb & Sam out at the half way point.  Poor Nash got dumped out on the second half of the river but he recouped fast!

We floated the river on Sunday too.  My mom and dad left early and didn't float with us.  They did take Brooke & Caleb home with them though because they didn't want to float again.  That made it much easier for me!  Brandon & Katie came up and Brandon floated with Braxton this time.

My butt found a rock under the second bridge.  This is after we came out from under the bridge and I was suffering from my rock collision!

There is this nice jumping rock on the second half of the river.  We stopped both days & Nash & Travis jumped off multiple times.  Travis did a flip off of it on Saturday and ended up hurting himself so he wouldn't do it again!

It was a fun float and I think we're going to make it an August tradition!  So much fun!

A few days after we got home this is what my knee looked like (major crash at the half way point).

Maughan Family Reunion 2014

Well, tonight was a fun one!  We had a Maughan reunion!  We haven't had an official one of those since grandpa's 80th birthday seven years ago!

My kids loved playing with all their cousins.  Samantha picked right back up with her cousin Lea (who lives in Missouri) and made friends with a "new" cousin Hailey (also Missouri).  She's gotten email addresses and regular snail mail addresses.  She's actually pretty good at writing letters so I think this may be the beginning of a new pen pal (her & Lea hit it off last year and have written a few letters to each other since then).

In preparation for this reunion I was trying to figure out just how many Maughans there are now.  If my numbers are correct we are currently sitting at about 92.  Holy cow, that's a lot of Maughans!  We had 55 of the 92 there tonight at some point in time!
(2) Grandpa/Marian
(22) Devon/Karen
     Anthony/Jessica - Emma, Marianne, Clara, Lea, James, Benjamin
     Jeff/Carrie - Kaitlyn, Rachel, Lexi
     Angela/Dave - Jordan, Hailey, Megan, Addison, Ryan
(16) Darwin/Deb
    Jeremy/Heidi - Jaxon, Croix, Knox
    Justin/Andrea - Staten, Lincoln (new one coming in November)
    Jesse/Jaymie - Henslee, Nixon
(14) Larry/Terri
    Misty/Travis - Samantha, Nash, Caleb, Brookelyn
    Cassidy/Chad - Jade, Jack, Sunny
    Zack
(12) Gaylen/Teresa
    Nate/Amanda - Tayson
    Lance/Stacey - Dillon, +1  (name is failing me!)
    Andy, Kaylee
(8) Doug/Kathy
   Melissa/Tim
    Brandon/Katie - Braxton (new one coming in November)
(18) Bruce
    Corey/Rachel - Emory, +1 (name failing again), Fischer
    Kellie/Andrian - Mahal, Dempsey
    Luke/Kylee - Brody (new one coming in October)  
     Kayla/Josh
    Austin
    Sierra

I'm impressed - I'm only forgetting 2 names (confession - I had to check Jeff's blog for his girls' names ;) but that's still not bad!)

We even managed to get a few photos of the entire bunch, but I'm waiting to get them back from Kylee so that I am photo shopped into them!

Relay for Life 2014

Apparently I'm a nerd because I already posted about Relay!  Duh.  Here are the pictures Amanda with Silver Stem Photography took.  

Opening Ceremony

15 yrs!

Oh heavens!  We were just babies!  With no idea of what we were getting ourselves into!

July 4, 2014 - Benson Marina

July 30, 1999-July 30, 2014

 3 college graduations, 3 college degrees & 2 student loans (that are still being pd on)

 10 moves (only 1 home owned)

18 jobs (yea, seriously)

 31 surgeries (for 5 out of the 6 of us - Misty is the only surgery free one!)

 6 vehicles (only 3 car loans though!)

3 dogs & 2 cats

 4 kids

 ~11 cell phones

 2 computers

 3 cameras

 3 home based businesses (Lia Sophia, Usborne & Preschool)

 1 trip to CA, 1 trip to OR & 1 trip to Yellowstone

 1/8 of a missing limb

 3 guitars

 2 bands

Add it all up and you get 15 ys of wedded bliss!