Final Fair...

2 weeks ago the boys and I headed up to Nana and Papa's house for the Gold Country Fair! This was going to be Trevor's last fair, so we wanted to be there to watch everything!!!

Soooo excited!!! Lovin' on Uncle T!

The first day Trevor showed his pig, and Papa worked hard with the boards keeping the pigs from fighting!The following day was the steer show! Trevor had 2 steers he wanted to show and sell, so Aubrey ended up taking one on as her project with Trevor's help. This was because you can only sell one animal as an exhibitor unless you win grand or reserve with more than one. They started off with showmanship! This is where the exhibitors are judged on the care of their animal, it's grooming as well as their own, how well they "show" the animal, and their knowledge of the questions asked of them regarding the animals.
Trev was up first!

The judge was from Oklahoma and was a crack up! Here he was razzing Trevor, because he was the only young man in a group with 8 girls!

You betcha!!! Trevor won and was complimented very highly by the judge!!! He told the audience and the exhibitors that he does this a lot to recruit for the college in Oklahoma and gets a lot of great showmen and women to come their and be on the judging team from all over. He asked Trevor his age and if he had graduated and selected a college. When Trevor told him he had, the gentleman said that he was going to tell him to come to Oklahoma! HUGE compliment!!!Aubrey was up next in really her first attempt at showing a steer!

She did pretty well and got third in a group of many who've shown before!

Later that afternoon was the market show, where the Grand and Reserve Champion steers were chosen! Guess who won Reserve?!?

AUBREY!!!Here he is!

Since Trevor won showmanship, he got to participate in the Master Showmanship competition!!! This is where the exhibitors who won showmanship for their species compete for the award of Master Showman!!! Trev got to show a pig...

...and a steer, both of which he was comfortable with! But then also had to show a lamb......as well as meat and dairy goats! These he's only shown once before! Immediately after showing he had to pack up and head off to college! He got the phone call before boarding his plane that he had won!!! Your Master Showman right there!!!

We had a lot of fun at the fair, so come back and we'll show you more!

Sanddollars & Sunsets!!!

On our final day in Ft. Bragg, we packed a lunch and headed to $anddollar Beach for some fun!

Austin...

...and Ryan were ready to play!!!Ryan got up close and personal with the waves, even though he was fully clothed! Austin had a great time running around in the sand and getting dirty!!!

Of course you can't go to the beach without building a sand castle...

...or dragging some seaweed around!!!

Uncle Allen and Auntie Megan took the boys for a walk along the beach looking for shells...
... and $anddollars!!!

Uncle Allen helped Ryan find one and he was soooo proud of it and wouldn't let it out of his site!

He's such a sweetheart! Ryan made friends with this little girl at the campsite next to us and had a great time playing with her. He was telling her about his $anddollar, and she'd never seen one, so he was showing his off to her. When it was time to go, he told her that we were going to $anddollar Beach and the she could have that one because he could get another one. She was so excited, but he wasn't when we got into the car and I informed him that we were not going to $anddollar Beach. He was upset, but luckily I had another one at home that he was able to have!

Daddy was crazy and went boogie boarding!!! Yes, he was the only one in the water on the entire beach, and froze his tail off doing so!After getting back to camp, we decided to head out to the beach to watch the sunset before eating dinner. Our lazy little boys just didn't want to walk anywhere themselves on this trip! Adorable little stinkers!!!

Megan got this cool picture of us as we watched the sea lions in the water right below the rock we were standing on!We all got found a spot and got comfortable... ...to watch this AMAZING sunset!!!

We had a great time camping in Ft. Bragg! It's so fun to enjoy the outdoors and admire Heavenly Father's amazing creations! We've decided this will now become a tradition!

MacKerricher & Mendocino

The first morning of our camping trip we headed out to the beach at MacKerricher State Park where we were camping!

It was a little cold out, but we were all so excited to see the ocean and enjoy the cool, fresh air!

Ryan immediately found these holes that had been dug out and began crawling through them!

It wasn't long before Daddy had him jumping off the top of them into the sand down below!

Austin had a great time climbing around, but wouldn't go into the holes!!!

Or look at the camera for a picture! Stinker!!!

After heading back to camp and getting cleaned up, we checked out the whale fossils...

...then headed to the adorable little town of Mendocino!!! We walked around for a bit in search of some Salt Water Taffy, but settled for some delicious fudge instead! We decided that next time we come here, Grandpa and Grandma Drinkwater have to come with us!!!

Austin was asleep, so Justin and I were trading off, because Ryan would decide he was done walking every so often! At one point, I was soooo hot I had to take off my sweatshirt, so Justin was holding both of the boys! I grabbed my camera, and that is one mad "get that camera out of my face" look!

Labor Day camping adventures!!!

Over Labor Day weekend, our cute little family piled into our van filled with all of our camping gear and met up with...

...Ashley, Steve...
...Megan and Allen for some camping fun in Ft. Bragg!!!

Megan, Ashley and I had camped there several times while growing up, so we were excited to take all of the guys with us to this fun place!!!
Ryan and Austin found something fun to do at all times!

Ryan bugged Steve constantly to let him pull him behind his bike on the long board! It was cute!

Having fun for these boys means playing with fire...

...or getting as dirty as possible!!!

Cheeseburgers!!!

We had a blast on our trip, so check back to see what other fun we had!!!

My little...

Hoarder!!!

I'm pretty sure that Austin will end up on the show "Hoarding: Buried Alive" in the future! This kid LOVES everything he finds! Once he latches onto a toy, you better not touch it or you might soon be missing a few fingers!!! His thing lately has been filling boxes, buckets, and especially the laundry basket with toys, shoes, cups, stuffed animals, blankets and just about anything else that he can get his little mits on, then he drags it or pushes it with him everywhere he goes! This is a habit we'll eventually have to break, but for now, it keeps him happy! Unless you touch his things! He cracks me up!!!