MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We wish you the very merriest Christmas!

We will be enjoying ours,

 and we hope you enjoy yours.

New Raymond Baby

We are pleased to announce that our new baby coming in February will be a . . .

BOY!!!!

See for yourself below.

We are now accepting name suggestions . . .

Zzzzzzz

Every now and then, Luke will fall asleep . . . right in the middle of whatever . . . and we can't help but grab the camera.

After some comotion and laughter from the rest of us, he will do his best to wake up . . . but he is unable to open his eyes . . . all he can do is give us a big smile.

Andrew Gets His Wolf Badge

Congratulations to Andrew on earning his Wolf Badge.

Brown Family "Talent" Show

The Brown family can really ham it up. At the cabin in May, each family put on a little show to some music for all the others to enjoy.

Kung Fu Fighting

Rubber Ducky
Who Let the Dogs Out

The Monster Mash

Happy Birthday Carter!

On May 9th Carter turned 4 and we are thrilled to get him beyond the age of 3 (if you know what I mean).

Grand Canyon Hike

Amy and I hiked the Grand Canyon with Jon Brown, and Lafe & Jaime Goeckeritz on May 8. Jon, Lafe, Amy and I all had visions of completing Rim to Rim to Rim. In short, Jon completed the full 48 miles, Lafe hiked 40 miles and Amy and I went the 24 miles across to the North Rim and had an adveture getting a ride back to the South Rim. Jaime hiked the 20 mile round trip to Phantom Ranch and back.

The Canyon never ceases to provide an adventure.

We started hiking at about 2:15 a.m.
Between Indian Gardens and Devil's Corkscrew we ran into some Grand Canyon riff-raff hiking out. Rick and Brian had come to the Canyon the night before with a group of guys from work that opted to start hiking right away rather than sleep for a few hours. We met up with them about 4:30ish as they were on their way to the South Rim from Phantom Ranch.

Crossing the bridge over the Colorado River along the bottom of the Canyon.

The trail along the bottom . . . if you look closely enough, you can see Lafe up ahead of Amy.

One of the many beautiful rock formation in the inner Canyon.

Inside of Supai Tunnel . . . smart enough to realize that we still had a long way to go before the top.

Happy Birthday Tim!

April 23 was my 34th birthday. There is nothing more that I want then my family around me and a chocolate cake to eat . . . all my wishes and dreams came true.

Brown Family Reunion

We got together with the Brown Family to enjoy an evening at the park in April. We love being around Grandpa and Grandma Brown.

Carter, Josie & Aiden

Sometimes a picture comes out just right . . . we just love this one of the cousins on Easter.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Amy turned 32 on April 11 . . . It was perfect, she went off to a bridal shower which gave us boys just enough time to get to the store and buy up everything pink we could find; table cloth, forks, balloons, streamers, rainbow chip cake & frosting . . . and get home and paint the house pink.

Spencer got busy making the cake (he is now able to do it all, start to finish . . . it is very nice), Andrew is the streamer master, and Ty and Carter made lots of noise.

She got home to a bunch of boys yelling SURPRISE and we enjoyed a nice afternoon together.

We sure love you Amy/Mom . . . we hope all you wishes and dreams come true.

Little League Opening Day

Baseball season is here.

Our family dedicates the months of March, April & May to baseball each year. This year, Spencer and Andrew are on the same team, the D'Backs in the Rookie division and Ty is on the Cubs in the Farm division.

The boys participated in Opening Day ceremonies by marching on the field in front of the spectators.

The D'Backs played their first game on the afternoon of Opening Day.

Andrew is one of the catchers on the team.

. . . and the future of Little League baseball.

Chiricahua Mountains

During Spring Break we snuck away camping to the Chiricahua Mountains with

the Farnsworths and Goeckeritzs.

After visiting just about every gas station between Phoenix & southern Arizona to fill up Lafe's tank, we arrived at the mountain range and located a fairly quiet, secluded campsite that was only occupied by two other parties upon our arrival. No sooner did we park our vehicles that 14 little kids went a scurrying around the campsite, kicking up dust and causing ruckus. We caused such a nuisance that one of the parties at the campsite packed up and moved to another campsite as soon as the sun came up the next morning.

We had a blast shooting arrows, playing with fire, riding bikes, and enjoying the beautiful country and weather.

We hike several trails that took us along some of the unique rock formations that have made the Chiricahuas famous.