An Eventful Week

This past week was quite an eventful one for us. It felt like a bit of a marathon, we raced from one fun thing to the next. I'll start with the last event because it was definitely the most important.

Sunday we blessed sweet baby Austin. We were grateful for all the family that traveled far and near to celebrate this special day with us. Here are a few pictures.

Austin James McInelly
2 months old

We're even starting to get some smiles.

Our marathon began with the fourth of July. My older brother Chris is a pyro at heart. He's always loved fire and enjoys blowing things up. He used to live in Vancouver, Washington where it is actually legal to do fireworks, most anything goes. He recently moved to Coeur d'Alene, but went back to Vancouver to properly celebrate July 4th. We also made the trip out because we knew the show would be worth it, and it was.

We did fireworks for 2 hours non-stop. It was amazing and the kids had a blast.

From there, we all traveled to the Oregon Coast.

It was a bit cool, but that didn't put a damper on the fun.

(Zach, Hunter, Braydon)

(Linsey, Savannah)
The kids still wore their swimsuits and played in the waves.

(Gavin, Emma)
They made sandcastles and built dams.

Even little Austin was a trooper.

We spent a day at Ecola beach. It's one of Jared's favorite spots and because it's hard to get to, it's usually not crowded. We braved the mile and a quarter "for experienced hikers only" trail with 7 kids, one infant, and flip flops all around. It was quite the trek, but we made it without any casualities.


It was sad to pack up and go home, but we had to get on to the next fun thing.

Linsey had a birthday and her party was Friday night. We planned a backyard drive in. We started off playing games and then after having cake and opening presents, we all sat in the backyard and watched a movie projected onto a large screen on the back of our house. The weather was perfect and everyone had fun. Happy 9th Birthday Linsey!




On Saturday and Sunday, lots of our family members were able to come out for Austin's baby blessing. I failed to get a big picture with everyone, but here are a few random snapshots.

Baby Blake, Jared's dad, and Austin

A dog pile of cousins on Uncle Mat

My dad and Austin

My little brother Anthony

The Butler cousins all cleaned up ....but still silly.

Savannah and Linsey saying goodbye.

Monday, I literally did nothing, which is what I would imagine one might do after a real marathon. It was exhausting, but we made lots of good memories and had loads of fun!