Memories of Aiden

 I'm always asking myself why my whole family hates hiking. But then I come across pictures like this and I'm like, oh yep...I remember that one. That's probably why...😆😳 this was Twin Lakes near the Brighton ski resort in utah. I'm pretty sure trav was gone on a work trip and I was like, come on kids let's go!🙌 It was only a little over 2 miles round trip, but it was almost a thousand foot elevation gain that I packed Colton up, which is probably why I remember it being really flipping hard Lol!😉 It was beautiful though, and the kiddos were such little champs. On the way back a thunderstorm rolled in and it just started pouring out of nowhere. I remember us all giggling and screaming as we ran under some bushes for cover. We actually stayed dry too which was so funny. I'll never forget sitting under those bushes giggling with my babies 🥲❤️ Aiden would have been 11, so the kids would have been about 11, 8, 4, and Colts was probably still 2. They were so lit...

 Random from 2010. Aiden was 5🥲❤️ The first one is of Aiden and my mom's puppy, Lily. She gave the kids cow pillow and bunny pillow in the next pic, which are still on both their beds 🥲❤️ except they're totally flat now, I should get a follow up picture😉😆... They've both been very well loved 😉 She also got Aiden "Walter the farting dog,"  a book that we read him and Sadie a million times, complete with actual grey farting dog which really gave the story some extra personality because they would squeeze the farting dog and just laugh and laugh 🤣 My mom passed away the next year so these were some sweet memories to come across ❤️ Next is Halloween, we used to love dressing up together and this was one of my favorites... Refs, little football player and cheerleader, and Samson the weenie dog football❤️ The next one was at a family gathering and Aiden accidentally got locked out and I didn't know until I saw him peering through this window...poor little budd...

 Aiden and his sleeping shenanigans was the funniest thing ever. He was always sleep walking, sleep talking, and when he got tired, it didn't matter where he was, he would just tip over. I can't even count how many times he fell asleep at the dinner table 😆 He rarely made it through movies. One time at a hotel he almost sleep walked out the door in the middle of the night, luckily it had one of those locks at the top so every time he pulled the door it slammed into that and woke me up! Another time he came walking out to the living room and we had a set of stairs between it and his room. He sat down on the stairs and I was like, "hey buddy, whatcha doin?" he looked at me and said, "what does it look like I'm doing?" and laid down on a stair and went back to sleep. The first 2 pics of this set is one of my favorite memories, we rode a ferry from Seattle to Victoria B. C. and while we were waiting for dinner, he totally just tipped over and fell asleep at...

 These were from Astoria and the Peter Iredale shipwreck on the Oregon coast. We went and saw the Goonies House, Astoria Column, and the cool ships in the harbor. The kids really liked the shipwreck and it was really fun to go visit, they loved playing in the sand and on the beach, and Aiden was such a good sport and let everyone bury him. He was always the ringleader when it came to finding all the fun things to do🥲❤️

Oh Mr. Aiden... This whole incident was just CRAZY 🤦 One day Aiden wanted to go and climb the tree in our yard. I was cooking dinner and didn't want him to, and as he was walking out the door I said, "you better be careful! Don't go out there and break your stupid arm!" 5 minutes later, he came back in all pale, nauseous, and covered in dirt and was like, "mom, I think I broke my arm" and I was like YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! I told you NOT to go out and do that!!!  I took one look at it and was like, yep...arms are definitely not supposed to look like that...that's broken. And indeed it was...displaced and everything, and of course ended up needing surgery🤦 So surgery day came, and I told him multiple times.... Nothing to eat or drink after midnight. We had to be there really early in the morning so as I'm getting ready I hear some rustling out in the kitchen and yelled, what are you doing!? You better not be eating! Silence. So I go running...

 This was one of our last little getaways together as a family before Aiden passed😢❤️ It was such a fun weekend though ❤️ We went and stayed in Island Park and went sledding, swimming, and the kids had so much fun playing pool in the hotel lobby. The roads got closed because it snowed so bad and was negative 40 outside. Our plan was to go home Sunday night, but we couldn't get back so we thought we were going to have to call everybody out of school that Monday, but they ended up getting called out anyway so we ended up getting an extra day and it was so much fun! There was nowhere to get anything for lunch so we went and bought a loaf of bread, cheese singles, and Doritos at a gas station... And it was like, $40😆 better than starving though😆 we went to a different gas station and bought a whole bunch of stuff when we found out we were snowed in too. We had to buy dinner and lunch for the next day at a different gas station and it was like $80... I wish I could say it was the onl...