Arizona and Mexico

On June 1st, Kellene and I went down to Arizona a few days early to surprise my little sister Julie and her new baby Isabella. We showed up at the hospital on Sunday morning and surprised them. No one knew we were coming. They weren't expecting us until Thurs. I rented a car and the surprise worked out well.

Kellene is helping Grammy cook dinner on Sun. night


Kellene had fun drinking out of Grandpa's big cup, we all call it his "binkie"

Eating dinner with Grammy, Grandpa, Aunt Julie, Uncle Rich, Isabella and Mommy

Kellene wanted to help swing Isabella

After my brother Keith graduated from medical school on Jun. 6, we headed down to Santo Tomas, Mexico, where my parents beach house had just been finished. It is a beautiful beach front home that they own with 3 other couples that are their best friends.

A picture of the house from the beach

Grammy and Grandpa reading books to Kellene and Hannah in Mexico at their beach house




My beautiful Niece Hannah who just turned 1. I miss you Hannah!

Mommy and Kellene on "Jill", one of Grandpa's ATVs. Kellene would only ride the ATV with me. She would scream if any one else tried to take her on them.


The beach goes on fore miles on end in each direction. One night after dinner, Kellene, Grandpa and I took a little ride.

Kellene and Grandpa playing in the sand. She sue is a Grandpa's girl!

When the tide was out there were bunches of tide pools that were perfect for the little ones to play in






Grammy and Kellene in the ocean. In Santo Tomas, the water is very calm most of the time with little to no waves, which is nice because you don't have to worry about the little ones getting knocked over.

Kellene kept trying to lie down in the water on Grammy. She was laughing her little head off the whole time. This kid has no fear!



Surf's up! Jake Forsey left his skin board in front of us. It entertained Kellene for quite a while, she walked back and forth on it and tried to pick it up.





We went out to dinner to celebrate Uncle Keith's 30th birthday

This is Kellene's soda pop face. Aunt Lindsay was giving her sprite

Kellene enjoying her noodles and entertaining us all as she ate




Julie and the beautiful Isabella

One of Kellen's goofy poses for the camera

Mommy and Kellene

Kellene, Grammy and Hannah

Here is everyone, minus Nate who couldn't come and Ryan who is due home from his mission on Aug. 21!
On the top is Rich and Keith and the bottom is Julie, Me and Lindsay

The 3 cousins, Isabella, Kellene and Hannah, and Lindsay is expecting, due in Jan.

Family Happenings

on June 6, My older brother Keith graduated from medical school. My dad got to hood him at his graduation. Now Keith and my sister-in-law Lindsay and their daughter Hannah are off to Indiana to start Keith's 3 year residency.


On May 30, at 4:39 pm, Isabella Karen Newell was born to my little sister Julie and her husband Rich.

Our 1st Family Vacation

For our first family vacation which happened to be over our 6 year wedding anniversary we rented a travel trailer and took off on our first family road trip. Our first destination was the Black Hills of South Dakota and a camp ground in Custer Sate Park that was near Mount Rushmore. It was such a fun week and we can't wait to do it again to some other adventurous destination.

Kellene eating chips as we head out of town.



Playing outside at the campground

The next set of pictures was taken at Wind Cave national park. This is the 2nd larges cave in the US. To date they have only explored about 5% of it. And the parts they have explored leads on for miles. Kellene was such a trooper. She wasn't afraid of any of it. She was quite the entertainment for the tour group. There were some neat sights to see down there.

Kellene and mommy in the cave

This is the long steep stair way leading down into the cave

A family picture in Wind Cave

Some of the cool rock formations in the cave

Kellene insisted loudly on walking through Wind Cave on her own. And what better way to do it than with a flash light in your mouth.



Play time in the trailer, Kellene invented a new game. Rearange the water bottles.


Get your leg down from there young lady!
Oh all right, your too cute to say no to!


This was the first time I can ever remember seeing the middle grade of gas cheaper than regular.

Daddy and Kellene walking up towards Mount Rushmore

They got side tracked by a mountain goat. We saw them everywhere and Kellene just wanted to go up to them and pet them. Luckily there was a fence in the way here. No such luck in our camp ground, fortunatly the goat was smart enough to keep moving.


A family picture in front of Mount Rushmore

We went to the cafe at Mount Rushmore for a snack. Kellene is showing off the half chewed sugar cookie in her mouth.

The following pictures were taken a Sylvan lake. Those that are National Treasure, Book of Secret fans, might recognize this as the lake that they portray to be right behind Mount Rushmore. It is actually about 6-7 miles south west of it. It is a beautiful lake.


These pictures are taken on top of the rocks where the "cloudless rain" shows Ben Gates where to find the entrance to Cibola.




The following pictures were taken at this petting zoo that we came across outside of Rapid City, SD. We all had a blast. The best part for us parents was watching Kellene's excitment around all of the animals.

Kellene's 1st pony ride where she laughed the whole time. It was the best part of the day!

Kellene is trying to feed some hay to the 3 week old calf


"Finally I am bigger that something"!



Kellene's 1st pony ride. She laughed her head off the whole time. It was so fun to watch her!



"Wa zat?" Kellene's way of saying "What's that?"

My only question is, who paid for the sign???
This is in Wyoming

This is the short Jackson Hole, Wyoming part of our trip. We camped at Signal Mountain Camp Ground witch is right next door to Signal Mountain Lodge where Nate and I spent our honeymoon.

This video is of Kellene enjoying watching her Daddy throw rocks into the lake

Picking up rocks and throwing them back into the water is an amazingly entertaining thing for an 18 month old.



The half-frozen over Jackson Lake that Kellene had no problem walking into.

A fun little video of Kellene stomping in the water.

Puddles everywhere, and we couldn't walk past one with out letting Kellene play in it, even if it was up to her ankles.


"I do it myself!" Nothing like letting a little one eat something messy on their own.

Cuddling with Daddy and her blanket the last night in the trailer.

Kellene liked to play with the door, especially when it was open, she would slide the white guard back and forth.