Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Flakes always take it too far

So, of course, you can't have a Flake family reunion where no one gets hurt and no one does anything dangerous. Sarah decided to put her 2 year old on the zip line - "he was begging" she says. I say, if he begs to touch a hot burner, do you let him? Just kidding, Sarah. Anyway, Sarah put her little guy on and then the guys gave him and push on the zip line and well, he fell right off. Luckily he didn't fall into the rock bed/creek below. I guess it could have been worse, so we are grateful that he stopped crying after a while with no bruises or cuts.

Ashley rides again!

Ashley was probably the most graceful rider out of everyone. There was no fumbling, falling off (Cassidy), taking Matt with you (Derek) or running into people (Austin). Nice job, Ash!

Austin on the zip line

Austin decided to take his turn on the zip line, but Sarah didn't realize that she was right in his path! It was pretty funny when he almost ran her over!

Eden on the zip line? I don't think so

In this video, Justin is trying to convince Eden to go on the zip line. When she is too smart for that, he tries to put Jude (under 2 years old) on this zip line that goes across a river. I'm pretty sure if Kelsey was there he wouldn't have tried it.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Joel Flake Family Reunion 2008

Matt, Whitney (and Natalie), Ashley (and Wesley), Haley (and Preston) riding horses.

President Derek Flake, the cowboy. If only his people could see him now.

Melanie and Emery in the hail on good old Jack Attack.

Austin and Luke during the hail storm, getting ready for their 1.5 hour ride around the beautiful Moses Ranch. Sarah is in the back directing traffic while Justin and Eden look on.

Ashley and Wesley riding Lizzy. Ashley was freezing the whole time, although she has on 3 jackets in this picture.

Whitter with Natalie on our very fun ride.

It was so beautiful out there.

Going around a beautiful pond.

Haley on Jack with Wesley. Matt was on Lizzy. He started out with Jackson, who fell asleep on the back of the horse so he went back home.

Here's a shot of their fun swing with Justin pushing kids. They really do have an amazing place up there.

Here you can see that Matt has just been yanked to the ground when the zip line rope wrapped around his leg while taking off with Derek on it. Pretty wild and painful, I would imagine.

Justin thought he could talk Eden into going. When she wouldn't have any of it, he tried to put Jude on. That didn't work either.


Wesley went on the zip line quite a few times, although he only had one shoe on most of the time because the other one got wet in the creek. Preston also had one shoe on for the same reason. Or was that because they had to share a dry pair of shoes?

Another shot of the beautiful scenery that we saw on horseback around the Moses Ranch.


Austin took look on some more horse rides after his 2.5 hour nap in the car and after the hail stopped. It was such a fun time up there!

Austin showing off his skills on the barrell race.

Derek leading Merrody and Natalie around the corral - what a good uncle.

Justin and his two kids, Eden and Jude, riding around the corral on Jack.


Austin and Luke watching the barrell racing.





The video on the top right is of little Joel riding on the zip line. That kid was so into it, he went like 5 times.

Funny Face Luke

Luke has this new "trick." He makes these really funny faces, closing his eyes and stuff. It's so funny because you can tell that he wants you to watch him and he knows that he's being funny. This particular time we were in the car with Dillon and Ashley, on the way back from horseback riding. He was in quite a funny mood. We really like this kid.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Night games: Family style

After playing some tackle football with Luke, Austin and Luke put on their swim suits to run through the sprinkler.

Having some fun playing some tackle football.

It started raining during their game, but they didn't care. Luke was laughing his head off.

Austin taking Luke through the sprinkler head first after the big game.

Two wild guys! Nice tan lines, Austin.

It wasn't hot enough to really enjoy going through the sprinkler - I think that's because it was 9:30pm. That just made this experience so much more fun for these guys.

If all Austin's potential clients could see him like this - they would sign up in a second!

Luke and Austin playing in the sprinkler. In this shot you can see our garden in the top left and one of our sweet, classy satellites on the top right.

So Saturday night we had a list of things to do. That included mowing our lawn (with our new mower for $35 - good find Austin!) and looking at a used grill listed on craigslist. We checked it out and Austin liked it (it's his Father's Day gift) so we got it. We are so excited to finally have a grill!! We'll definitely will be having a family party with it here pretty soon. The guy who sold it to us even volunteered to bring it to our house about 15 minutes or more away. They were so nice. Afterwards, Austin and Luke played some sweet tackle football and then ran through the sprinkler. It was a great Saturday.