4 Years Ago...

Though this is probably the last year we will go, John and I have made a tradition to return every year to the spot where he proposed to me. It's on an island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. While the gnats are always undesirable, this year was particularly bad.

Granted, we were warned by a sign at the park entrance, we thought we had the insect repellent to ward them off... but I SWEAR, these gnats LIKED the repellent! We didn't make it to the exact spot John proposed due to us getting bit up and worrying about how bit up Rhett was getting that we decided to take pictures at a spot that had shade and turn around and head back. We also decided that the gnats were not worth coming every year and having to deal with. However, here are the family pictures from our trip!

The Great Salt Lake behind us. Kind of looks like a wave less ocean... but MORE salty!

I swear this is the ONLY tree on the island.... it's a place we stop and take a break at every year because it's the first source (and only) of shade on our journey to Elephant Rock where John proposed... this was as far as we made it this year!

Disney Land!

We had a blast with our week at DL! All the picture of Rhett at DL will be on his website, but these are the ones that don't really fit him, but some nice shots we got of the family vacationing at DL! DL is my mother-in-laws favorite place to go for family vacation. Probably because it's a park for all ages down to the infants! Here she is below on our first day sporting her pose on King Arthur's Carousel.

And then, you can see the poses run in the family.... (by the way a LOT of Rhett's pictures were snapped at the carousel because it was by far his favorite ride -- well it may have been a toss up between this and Pirates of the Caribbean!).

I guess John's not the next King Arthur.... Sword wouldn't budge!

I had never been on the riverboat that goes around an island in the lake at Disneyland. I was excited to do something I hadn't done in my previous visits there (probably because John doesn't think this ride was the most exciting -- but add kids and there is ALWAYS an adventure! Ours was with Rhett and the stairs!)

We currently own two cameras. My Cannon Powershot that we mostly use just for video since our Cannon Rebel (our nice SRL) doesn't have that feature. However, I think my Cannon Powershot is beginning to fade on me. The picture below was taken with it and it wasn't the first picture that has streaks.... however, the fade kind of made this family picture look cool!

John and I went onto Autotopia and this was John's attempt to snap a picture of me behind him while he was driving. Of all the many tries that he took this is the ONLY one he got of me IN the picture (that is before he took pictures when we were about to get out of the cars!).

He had a better shot once we stopped moving!

Part of the Butler clan at Toon Town

Most of the grandkids with grandma and Mickey (Rhett was fast asleep).

Below was a night shot that I got of Cinderellas (?? - not sure which princess' castle it was) castle, leading to Fantasy Land. We were waiting for the fireworks to start and because it is a night shot that had the shutter open for longer than your typical snap and shoot picture, the people at the bottom of the picture are distorted, but I think it has a cool effect if done just a LITTLE better! Not bad for an armature!

Rhett liked driving the car in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, so we had to get a picture of him "driving".

Grandma and Grandpa Butler chilling on the bench on King Arthur's Carousel.

Sporting the Mickey ears in the teacup. Getting a picture in the stationary cup was the only way we were going to get a picture of Rhett in the teacup. Otherwise, he just gets snuggly put on the bench between us and he doesn't really get scene if any pictures are taken in motion.

Grandpa and Katelynn. If looks could speak, I would say that they are expressing similar emotion because their facial expressions are fairly similar! You can just tell the LOADS of fun they are having at that moment!

Okay, so this IS Cinderella's castle (in the Storybook Land boat ride). I thought all the minitures in Storybook Land were just so darn cute, but this one was my favorite.

Most of the Butler clan on Mainstreet in Disney Land.

Isn't this just an "aw" moment? They were actually celebrating their wedding anniversary this day!

One of the Butler families (minus a few children) on the spinning teacups.

John got a picture of my mother-in-law and me in motion. Rhett's actually in the cup with us, but as I stated before, he cannot be scene.

And here is the 3d model of the original Disney Land Park

I thought the Splash Mountain model was pretty cool too!

Family at the Tide Pools!

I posted a few pictures on Rhett's blog about our time at the tide pictures (click here to see that specific blog post), but I thought I would finish posting them here.

John LOVES loves the ocean. He says he is just drawn to it. I have to admit, there is something VERY appealing about spending the day at the ocean -- even if you are not really getting into it to swim. Just being there and looking out into its vastness is something quite awesome!

We were told there were caves further down the beach... Some of our nieces and nephews wanted to go and so we started down the beach. This is the best we could come up with. Not really a cave by my standards, but the kids thought it was downright cool!

My sweet mother-in-law and me.

All the kids "accidentally" getting hit by the waves as the tide started to come back in.

My niece Emily (her brother Nate is in the background) and I sinking our feet into the sand as the waves rolled over them.

A bigger wave caught John by surprise. Rhett watch the water swarm below him from the safe distance of John's chest.

Another view of the Butler clan! The vacation was an experience to be had -- and that was without the ENTIRE family there (some of the families couldn't make it).

Butlers and the Birthday Pinyata!

While we were on our family vacation at Disneyland, we celebrated my nephew's birthday (Sam Butler). They got him a pinyata (I know the spelling is wrong, but at 1:30AM as I write this, I really don't care...) as a surprise and the MOST entertaining part was watching the Butler boys setting it up over a tree. Leading of COURSE was my husband IN THE TREE!

The kids waiting patiently while the his Hispanics laugh at the WAY white folks! (Really some just stopped and were quite the entertained!)

The rise of the Pinyata and John coming safely to the ground.

John's the baby of the family. He has three other brothers (two of which were on the family vacation with us). John's oldest brother, Richie (in picture below) insisted on mummifying the kids face with the piece of cloth. And of course, he had to tie it differently on each kid (chin bandage, bow on top of the boys head, face mask, etc).

In the end, fun was had by all and when the pinyata finally DID break. Even Rhett did a dive crawl for the scattered candy/toys! Happy birthday to Sam!

Family Vacation

I am working on posting our family vaction blog on Rhett's blog and realized it was more family than Rhett and should have been posted on this blog... oh well, clik here to see Rhett's blog (which is updated WAY more frequently than this blog).