Fourth of July

For about a year or so, my family had been planning that we would all get together in Idaho for July 4th 2015.  See it had been almost 3 years since my family had been all together.  3 BLASTED YEARS!!!  So in all of our planning and scheming, Autumn and Greyson called and were like, "hey we'll just get married around that time too."  So basically we were all planning for the most exciting week and half of our lives.  So my whole family started slowly, one-by-one making their way to Idaho and they were all there on July 3rd and with Brad's work, we weren't going to be able to make it until the next day and I was super jealous that they were all going to be together without us.  But then plans changed and we decided to just drive up a day early and surprise everyone.  So as we were driving through the winding roads and fields of Caldwell, only about 15 minutes from my parents house, Shawn texted me the above picture and told me that they were "all together and just missing the Robisons".  So it was pretty awesome walking in the house and seeing everyone's faces after that :)

So we were finally all together and it was amazing and we ate chinese food and held babies and talked and laughed and I realized just how much I had been missing all of them all these years!

The next day was the 4th and it started out with Mom and Dad making us all a big breakfast 

And we all just hung out and  

And held babies 

We sat around and talked to Heather, the coolest person in the world 

I miss that tiny hulk of a girl so much!!! 

Then the boys sat around and talked about music, because you know, they're obsessed.  Nathan is actually in school for music production and its amazing.  I mean, my 3 brothers have always been ridiculously talents when it comes to music, but now that Nathan is actually in school for it, things are just getting out of control awesome!  And he showed us all his latest song and I almost cried it was so good.   

We tried to do a baby photo shoot, but you know how that always goes.  But they are so blasted cute that even when the pics don't turn out, they are still adorable. 

Its hilarious watching them together, because I feel like Jonas is always touching Sadie and trying to bite her and pull on her and Sadie is always just super weirded out by him.  haha 

Austin is my favorite 

But so is Nathan and his stupid face 

And his stupid baby that wont just let me adopt her already 

Mom and Dad got out a crazy awesome slip n' slide for the kids 

It was so fun to watch them play all afternoon 

My Dad is the greatest :) 

 

I love it  

Ohhhhh those babies!!!!! 

Shawn is also my favorite, because you know, its Shawn.. 

And I am pretty sure I'd die without Miss Kaity in my life 

That evening we had a most delicious BBQ 

Greyson is awesome haha 

Awwe 

I can't handle Heather and her smile and her laugh 

My boys 

So don't be freaked out by the weird smiley faces covering two kids faces.  haha  My parents are in the process of adopting two children and we cant post any photos of them until the adoption is final.  So those creepy smiley faces will probably pop up in pictures for a little while.
But this is my family all together :) 

And here is just us Merkley siblings with Mama and Papa 

And then us ladies got together to see Autumn's wedding dress!  Ahhhhhhhh! 

She had these two patches sewn onto the dress.  They are patches from Mom and Dad's clothes.  So sweet. 

Then it was time to bathe some tiny kiddos together 

Annnd.... firework time!! 

Mom and Dad's neighbors put on a show right across the street every year, so we just set up in the front yard and lit off a few of our own.  There may have been a small fire from a firework that shot sideways and it was a little crazy and a little funny. 

We had icecream and played with sparklers and sat outside for a few hours watching the guys play with fire 

Sadie was not a fan of the loud fireworks, poor baby.  And Jonas could not have cared less.  But they did both eventually fall asleep. 

The next day was the day we all headed up to McCall and the incredibleness of that is conveyed in this pic of Jo and Sadie wearing matching PJs. 

San Francisco

So for Brad's job he has to do continuing education once a year to keep his license and his company pays for most of it, so we decided to make a little family vacation out of it.  He found a class in San Francisco and we packed up the car and were on our way.

We got a cute little hotel in San Mateo close to where his class was being held and got him all ready to go the next day.  He left at like 7am and as I laid in bed feeding Jonas and watching the other boys sleep I thought, "man I am so excited to be here, I just wish we could go do fun stuff today!" And right at that moment, Brad walked in the door and said that he read the days wrong and that he had the whole day to off.  haha 

So we rushed and got everybody ready to go and drove down to SF.   

We started at Pier 39 and went to the aquarium 

After touching nasty stingrays and octopuses all morning, we were hungry, so we went and got some lunch 

Kal was a fan of his shirley temple 

We walked around for a bit and saw some fun shops  

Then we went on a boat ride out to see Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz 

The kids thought the boat was pretty cool 

Then we did lots more walking all around Fisherman's Wharf.   

And Brad kept saying really loudly, "who is this 'fishermans dwarf' everyone keeps talking about?" and people looked at him like he was crazy and he thought it was hilarious. 

We stopped at the cutest little chocolate shop for a treat and I tried really hard to not buy every truffle in sight. 

Brad has a picture of when he was a kid sitting in this very same spot :) 

Then it was time for dinner!!  And we went to the Crab House and HOLY CRAP!!! 

The crab chowder was the most amazing thing I have ever tasted.  I loved it so much!  I would pay a thousand dollars for another bowl.  It was sooooo goooood.   

I honestly think that the best part of being in SF was eating everything. 

We also drove down Lombard Street and then found the Full House house and just drove around looking at all of the lovely architecture.  That was my favorite!  The houses and buildings there are incredible. 

The next day Brad had to go to class, so the boys and me stayed in and watched tv and napped and played games 

And waited for Brad to come home and bring us pizza 

After dinner we drove out to Half Moon Bay and played on the beach til sunset 

Jo's first time in the ocean and he just wasnt so sure about the whole thing 

I go to take a photo and they all immediately look away.. 

Thats one sexy man right there 

Clark loved the water and running from the waves 

Kal preferred digging in the sand 

Little buddy got cold and stayed wrapped in my sweater most of the evening 

I took a million of these photos as the sun was setting  

And I love them all so much 

Half Moon Bay was a really cute little town. 

lots of little farms and so many flower fields 

On Sunday we waited around for Brad to get out of class and then we spent all of Father's Day in the car driving to this little town called Mariposa that was just so flipping adorable! 

We got to spend our last day in Yosemite and Brad was just in heaven 

We stopped and had a picnic by a river and then we were back on the road and headed home 

It was such a fun trip!!!  I cant wait to go back and eat waaaay more ;)