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.

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.

Pinewood Derby Madness!

Justin, Jude and Eden before the Pinewood Derby began.

We found out once we got there that this Pinewood Derby that was supposed to be for fun, actually had rules. Your car was supposed to weigh 5 ounces. Justin's car weight over a pound with his rock on top.

Before the Derby began, Luke and Jude were drinking it up. It's hard to believe that Jude is only 5 months older than Luke - he is so much taller. It makes Luke look like a shrimp.

Justin, using ductape to get the rock to stay on his car. Pretty classy.

He grabbed the rock from our backyard.

Luke couldn't believe what his Uncle Justin was doing to that car!

Once we got to the derby and Justin saw how much time and energy most men had put into their cars, he was pretty embarrassed of his rock n roll car so he covered it up with this towel and put it in the corner with the hymn books.

Eden was in charge of the car's graphics - she did an excellent job!

She even let Luke help her a little bit. Luke had a great time.

Justin, with his rock of choice.

Austin spent 10 hours on his (working on it up until we left and only getting a few hours of sleep because he worked on it till 4:30am) and Justin worked on his for 5 minutes. Most of that time was spent picking out a good rock.

Our Rose Bush

When we moved into this new place we weren't so sure about the rose bushes out front. They looked dead and have horrible thorns which stuck a few people on the way into our place. But now, Austin is bringing me roses from our front yard - it's so sweet!

A Day at the Zoo

Luke loved riding on his dad's shoulders. He could see some animals better that way.

The zoo has a carousel you can ride for $1. Luke LOVED it! We had a good time too. (and...yes, that is Tiger Woods standing behind me.)

Luke loved the penguin exhibit. He loved that he could see above and below the water. He got such a kick out of it.

Luke trying to jump into the zoo's pond...

Luke made an immediate friend with this monkey. There were millions of kids at the zoo when we went (Memorial Day) but as soon as Luke got up to the window, this money jumped from the top of the trees down to see Luke. It was really cute.

Daddy's Chair

Luke loves to play with his tongue

You can see that his buzz is growing out and he is needing another haircut.

It's been a little cold lately so I had him in a little sweatshirt. He discovered stickers that day and put them all over his sweatshirt (you can see them in the picture) and wouldn't let me wash the sweatshirt. Don't worry, I have since then.

Austin has been wanting this recliner from Big Lots (of all places)! Anyway, it recently went on sale for $199 so we had to buy one. Austin falls asleep in it many nights of the week. Luke loves rocking in it. It's the first real rocking chair we've had - weird. We love it though.