"Mountain Man!"

Jason (and CPT Connor) and bunch of other guys from his Battalion climbed up to "Camp Muir" on Mt. Rainier! At the top they all broke out a can of Rainier beer and enjoyed...

What a view as you climb. Only 7 hours worth of hiking for this amazing site!!!

There he is - the Mountain Man himself. Put a check on the "bucket list" for this one. Wish I could say I've climbed Mt. Rainier. Awesome job E-shed.

More Yearns, Utah camping/fishing photos...

Poppa "E" and Alyssa by the campfire...our Alyssa - such a girl with her "hand on the hip" pose.

Jay & Ashton - day 1 of fishing. Ashton actually really enjoyed the outdoors.

Ashton & Mommy hiking around the lake/mountain area, while Daddy fishes on at the Lake. Gotta love those baby back-packs. (Thanks Aunt Nikki).

Camping: Crazy or Courageous? (Utah 2009)

The Evershed Entourage' enjoying the campfire after a long day of fishing and "hiking" around Yearns, Utah.

I love this photo of Alyssa & Jason. It's about 6:45am and she is SO digging the fishing thing with Daddy. Luckily, up at Yearns - you are catching a trout almost every time you put your line out there...and Alyssa just loved reeling them all in. (and then letting them go) "bye bye fishy, go back to your home."

Alyssa handing her Daddy a worm for his line. Didn't take her long before she was touching the worms and "petting" the fish.

Ashton - "the morning after." She actually slept great, but I think the altitude and outdoors made her nose run like a faucet. She was happy though. I swore we were severely insane for trying to camp/fish/hike with 2 little girls...but it actually turned out to be pretty fun. Can't wait to do it again after Jay gets back! It was SO beautiful and fun to see where Jason's family camped when he was growing up and to watch him share that with his kids now. I am very thankful for this experience! What a great memory for us all...well, maybe not Ashton...but she'll see photos! ;)

Happy 4th of July!!!

"Firecracker, Firecracker...boom, boom, boom!" Yes, I totally did Ashton's hair to look like 2 lil fireworks...and her mommy thinks she's darn darlin! She instantly grabbed one of the flags off of the wagon and started waving it - she is such a true American lil girl! :)

OMG! Is this photo for real? All Eversheds in one picture together!?! Holy smokes...is it snowing in "you know where?" YES! we are all together...on the 4th of July no less. We all got up early and participated in the Bridlewood's (Nik & Rob's neighborhood) annual 4th of July bike parade. It is SOOO fun for the kids. They decorate their bikes/scooters/wagons all up in red, white and blue and go through the whole neighborhood (about 1/2 mile or so) and wave to people who are watching in their driveways. It is a very fun way to start off July 4th's morning!

Here's all "our" kids. Justin, Alyssa, Ashton, Paige and Allie. Of course Ashton is not looking at the camera...and don't ya just love the way Jason decorated Alyssa's poor helmet? Wow! isn't she a HUGE STAR?!? :) We all had a great day and hope y'all did too. Happy Birthday USA!!!

Growing Girls!

Alyssa (aka Ashton's 2nd mommy) and her lil sis Ashton literally "hanging" around in the yard on one of these many beautiful days we are having! Yeah, it SO feels like summer and the girls are totally enjoying it.

"Mom! Are you seriously leaving my hair in these 2 whale spouts?" (yes...I am so longing for Ash to have a wee bit longer hair, that I am doing the double vertical pig-tails...mommy is sorry Ashton...kind of) :)

Ballerina Buddies

Emily, Paige & Alyssa posing in their "Sleeping Beauty" ballet recital costumes. Their big performance is next week and the girls are getting very excited!


Gwenavere, Alex, Emily, Paige, Carrick & Alyssa posing in their costumes. "Princes and Princesses: Royalty"

Alyssa is very focused during her creative scarf dance...twasn't that long ago that I was doing the same scarf dance with the same teacher in the same dance studio...ohhh, fine - so it was SUPER long ago, but at least I can still remember it...for now at least. We are so proud of our 'lil ballerina.

1SG Evershed!

We are SO SOOO proud of Jay - he got "frocked" 1SG (First Sgt) on Thursday!!! He is now in charge of approximately 180 soldiers. It was a very nice ceremony, that of course brought a few tears to my eyes. Ashton helped me "pin" on his new rank during it (it's really Velcro now, but it's still called pinning). Of course, I'm the only one smiling - they all stay SOOO serious and he didn't even look at me during it! Not sure if I'll ever get the hang of all of these "Army wife" mannerisms and such...??? oh well. It was a great day and in true patriotic fashion I had both of the girls dressed in all red, white, and blue...probably another Army wife faux pas - again, oh well...

Unfortunately, the very next day at 'O dark thirty - Jason was out the door and gone to Fort Polk, Louisiana for training. Gotta love the Army...talk about a roller coaster of emotions: beaming pride, nervousness, happy tears, sad good-byes, crying kids missing their Daddy all in a 24 hour period - whew! Still, we are very proud of 1SG Evershed - Congrats!