I sure did miss that face. He seemed so much more like a big kid when I got home after hanging out with all his younger cousins. Of course everyone was terribly sick while I was gone, baby and dad and babysitters and friends. The worst 24 hours flu was going around. Perfect timing. But everyone was alive when I got home, even though Tucker did choose to go to Doug over me at first. Dagger to my heart, but also nice at the same time. Seems like the boys had some good bonding time. Thanks to Nat and Holli-Aynn for helping out so much while I was gone!!

The wedding was really beautiful. The sealing was wonderful, the reception was absolutely wonderful, as was the cake, the bride & groom, and of course the bridesmaids with their awesome dresses made by Julia. I got to see lots of friends I haven't seen in a long time and it was so nice to be able to enjoy it all. Most especially fun was hanging out with all the family that came. Got to do a little shopping with a thousand stores close by and no baby to stop me. With dad and Katie there of course there were multiple stops to Cafe Rio, or Taco Rio as Aunt Kathy says, or just Cafe as dad started calling it. Ha.

I'm really so glad I got to go.








not bad looking after spending the night puking and running to the bathroom :)






My favorite shot of the night I think.








Some cherished friends from Plainview NY ward were there!


Zeke!








Isn't that cake awesome?






Thanks Alli for marrying someone awesome like Derek and getting us all together. And double thanks to Cass and Chris for letting us all crash their house again as usual. Love you guys.

yay for alli and derek getting married on friday!
boo for leaving tuck and doug behind.
yay for natalie, holli, rachel and sam for helping doug and tuck while i'm gone so neither i nor doug freaks out.

first trip away from this little guy over night.
i'm really going to miss this face a lot. i'm going to miss his dads too.

Tucker has been teething lately. He's getting at least two, probably more. He's been waking up a lot lately in the middle of the night screaming. The bad part is that I'm feeling semi sleep deprived lately. The good part is that he's pretty snuggly after he stops screaming his head off.

s h o e s

He's obsessed. Multiple times a day you can see Tucker walking around in giant shoes. He loves to borrow slippers where ever we are. He can totally walk in size 10+ in the sand at the beach, with them in between the proper toes.

As we were leaving our friends slip-n-slide party from the park on Saturday I heard our friends saying, hurry up, let's go and the other saying I can't find my slippers. I did notice that Tucker had his eye on them earlier...

Rathgeber Family Reunion 2011

(are Tucker and Colt having a staring contest?)


Lest you think we only went to Nevada City this summer, let me tell you about our awesome time in NY!

After missing last year it was sooo good to be there this year, even though it didn't work out for my beloved husband to join me and he was missed. It was so nice to get picked up at the airport after a terrifically terrible 12+ hour red eye standby flight alone with Tucker. He did pretty good actually, but it was still terrible and i was completely exhausted. I was so glad to see the look alike Explorer pull up. And then to get home to the beach and everyone was up on the deck outside anxiously waiting for us to get there (or just eating dinner) and give Tuck and I hugs. Pretty much got a hug from 45 smiling people right when I arrived. That is just the way I like it.


(faces like these x10)

And I can't believe how much some of the cousins have changed in 2 years! And there were 2 new babies (Zeke & Ellie) and a Colt I had never met. Can I just say that I love going home and I love love these reunions. Even though I seriously don't know how much longer we are going to get 45+ people from all over the country together every year for much longer, it's still going strong and awesome. Any-who.

Highlights of course include family olympics, specifically when uncle gary steam rolled aunt kathy or aunt barbara, i can't even remember but i do remember a bunch of parents rolling as fast as they could in the sand towards the ocean, barreling into each other. Loved it. Unfortunately no pictures to be had of that! Had lots of Ralphs, and pizza and Tucker was teething so he had his fill of otter pops. And got lots of cousin time with Luke and Zeke and Tuck had a blast trying to steal all of Livvy's toys. So fun to have cousins his age around. I really wish, with all my heart, that we could all live together, and our kids could grow up together like we did. And a shopping trip to the outlets with mom watching Tucker was very exciting. 3 babies and 6 grown ups. Of course Zeke and Luke were pretty much perfect. Going over and finally seeing Josh and Katie's new house was exciting. It really is beautiful.

(this is an awesome party backyard. i love this house.)

(grandpa dave entertaining some cuties)

(don't you wish this was your bathroom?! and this doesn't even show the awesome shower. i can't believe how much work this all took.)

We got to all hang out at the beach with our cousins, hang out with our kids, hang out with the new grandparents and swim and eat and talk and laugh. Pretty much as good as it gets. Oh, and all go to church together with Dad as the Bishop and me, Alli and Julie speaking with everyone there. It was a pretty awesome sight looking out at everyone there at church. I'm so grateful for Grandma Barbara and that she let the missionaries in so many years ago and was willing to listen. I feel very blessed.

OK, so a few of my favorites:


(uncle 'yake')


(don't ask me how this is still happening)






(congrats alli and derek. so glad you chose someone cool alli :) excited for you to be Mrs. Nielson in a few more days)










(and i don't know what was so funny...)




(so happy to have sister rathgeber back from her mission at temple square. so good to see her cute face at home again.)


(and that about says it all)




(reunited - and it feels so good.)


(don't they look so alike in this picture? and so cute.)


(tucker's go to face for group posed pictures)


(the great grands)



And had an awesome time with Grandma Gerry and Aunt Roberta at Grandmas house too. We got to show Tucker and Luke off to all her friends and it was quite amusing. The kids were a hit. Wish I had some better pictures of them together.

And if you haven't seen enough of this reunion you can see more from Alli, Jessie1, Jessie2, and Erin1, Erin 2, Erin3.

Oh man, I almost forgot this highlight. Many Rathgebers were fairly certain that we were all going to be rich off of this whale vomit that is worth millions. No joke about the whale vomit, that smells like vomit, being extremely rare and valuable. But unfortunately, what we had searched for so diligently was just a disgusting mass of something very invaluable. But it did get us all out to walk the beach a ton and have some fun :)

Family Home Evening

Uncle John invited us to Family Home Evening up at Washington, a ways up. Well, we started late (which should be expected really), one or two were slightly grumpy and the sun was pretty much setting when we finally got everyone up there. And it was worth it. This new spot that I had never been to had a fun rope swing into the beautiful river water. Glad Doug pushed me to go even though it was quite cool by then. And we all left a lot happier and in better spirits then when we got there and had a great time all together. We were all starving, and when I say we I mainly mean me, so we stopped at A&W's and ordered everything on the menu. I would say this FHE gets an A+ even though we actually never did get to meet up with John :)





Which reminds me of another family outing this summer that I wish I had some pictures of. We rafted, kayaked, canoed, tubed, and snorkeled down Truckee River one afternoon. Which started out very much like FHE being a little late and a little cranky. But ended up awesome. It was so fun. The chicken pasta salad was totally delicious made by Ape. Kaity and I got the big boat with Tuck, Lily, Gio and Zeke, with occasional visits from their dads. Danny found some treasures. Em and Dave flipped over the canoe at the end but besides that we navigated like professionals. We got home and then decided on a sister outing (minus Julia who was missed) and ate Thai food and talked about first kisses and knocked over the huge vase at Safeway trying to take a picture and finished off by eating ice cream.