The Trip...

I'll do a few more pics of this week because we had so much fun.

Mon. 7/25--we head to Provo for the day after I run in the morning (the hills killed me!) and Dan biked with his Dad in the mountains.  First we meet Dan's old mission companion and his fam at a park for a picnic lunch in Provo.  Then we walk around the outside of the City Center temple--beautiful!  Then we drive up the canyon and "hike" a paved trail to the base of Bridal Veil Falls.  The kids had fun climbing around.  We head to campus.  Most things are closed because they were observing Pioneer Day on Monday!  Boo!  So we had chick fil a shake instead of creamery ice cream at the WILK and then go bowling in the basement.  We had dinner with our friends Nate and Steph Bleak and their 4 kids.  They had a big firework pack to shoot off and we do that when it gets dark.  Fun.

Tue. 7/26--We visit Dan's Grandma Aird at her assisted living place in the morning.  We don't stay long but have a great visit with all the kids.  We have a quiet afternoon playing games at Dan's sister Heather's house.  We visit Dan's high school friend and his family for dinner and walk around a place called Wheeler Farm.  It's hot (like 100) but not awful in the shad and when the sun goes down it is fine.  The kids had fun looking at the animals and playing on the playground.

Wed. 7/27--We hike with Dan's dad in the morning (we leave Emily at home and take Jack in a hiking backpack.  it's our fam plus a few cousins).  It's a 3 mile round trip hike up a canyon not far from their house.  The trail follows a pretty stream.  At the end of the hike there's a rope swing in a tall, tall tree that we all took turns on.  It reminded me of the tire swings at the ranch.  We run some errands in the afternoon and have a quiet dinner.  Dan's cousin Bryan and his fam come over to say hi after dinner.  Their visit got cut short a bit when their 4 year old fell on the swing set and hit his head on a rock wall--he bled a little but didn't need stitches (they had to run him to the urgent care though!).

 

 

Thur. 7/28--We (all the sisters in law) have a surprise baby shower for Ben's wife Eboni at lunch time.  She's having their first child, a boy, in October.  Dan and his Dad and another brother in law watch all the kids while we party.  That night we have an adult dinner to kick of the family reunion with Dan's parents and all his siblings and spouses (minus one brother in law who had to work).  Very fun time and the babysitters survived the kids.

 

Fri. 7/29--The whole clan goes to Lagoon for the day of the reunion.  We get there at 10:30 am and don't get home til 10:30 pm.  Lots of fun.  Brooke and Megan were really brave and went on some big fun coasters with us.  There were also lots of little kids coasters and things for Jack and Candy to enjoy.  It was a hot, fun, exhausting day but it was great to be all together.
 

Sat. 7/30--We are all SO TIRED!  So we have a pretty quiet day.  Dan and I and our kids move to his sister Heather's house because his parents had someone coming to stay in their basement.  After we move and help clean the basement, we visit his sister Amberly and play games.  We play more games after a Cafe Rio takeout dinner with most of the clan again at Heather's house.

Sun. 7/31--We head out to my roommate Maren's ward that meets at 9 am in Riverton.  Her husband is the Bishop, so that was fun to see him conducting and he also taught the 5th Sunday lesson.  We go to her house for lunch and playing after church.  We get back to Bountiful at 4, start to pack up, take some pictures for my nieces and nephews and then head to a birthday celebration for the August birthdays (me, Dan's sister Ali (aug 12) and her husband Ben (aug 13).  We say our goodbyes and head to Heather's around 8 pm to finish packing.  We play a few more games with Heather and Randy but go to bed at 10 since we are driving out early in the morning.

Week before the trip

I'm limiting myself to 6 pictures for this week!  And short words.
Mon. 7/18--quick grocery swap, to the zoo with Tracy's for Megan T's 9th bday, spent afternoon at Tracy's and had FHE and had cake there
Tue. 7/19--get car inspected, Candy's ears hurt--take her to doctor, ear infection
Wed. 7/20--swim for playgroup at pool
Thu. 7/21--start packing
Fri. 7/22--pack all morning, Tracy's watch the kids while I clean up.  We leave to pick Dan up from work at 3 pm and head to Amarillo.  We get to the hotel at 12:45 am. 
Sat. 7/23--I wake up a bunch and at 5 am give up and figure we should just hit the road.  We drive all day and arrive at Dan's parents' house around 6 pm. 
Sun. 7/24--We head to temple square in the morning and walk around with our fam and Dan's parents.  We walk around the garden on top of the conference center.  Beautiful morning.  Go to church with Dan's parents at 1 pm.  We sat on the second row, about 15 feet in front of Pres. Eyring on the stand.  Jack keeps waving at him :). 

Birthdays and Reunion Week

We've had a pretty awesome week. 

Monday was Candy's 5th birthday.  She requested eggs and toast for breakfast.   So I made it and gave her the biggest portion of eggs and she ate like 3 bites and offered the rest to her siblings!  Crazy kid.

Breakfast--if you look close you can see her awesome goggle tan--she looks like a raccoon!  It's hilarious!

We did grocery swap with some extra complications from Megan and Brooke needing to get to basketball camp.  Candy and her best bud, Kenzie

She had to wait all.day.long. to open those presents. She was SO excited when Dan got home.

After dinner she opened them.  Her big wish this time was for that horse for her doll to ride.  Megan and Brooke have horses already and Candy desperately wanted one.  She also got new markers, a sticker book, gummy bears, and some coloring pages.

For family night we all went around and said things we loved or favorite memories of Candy.  She felt so special and was adorable.  Then for family night treat we had ice cream sandwiches with candles in hers.

Tuesday July 12th was busy.  One thing after another.  It started with basketball camp for Megan and Brooke.  While they were gone, my visiting teachers came and I baked cupcakes for Brooke and Candy's party later.  I picked up the big girls and we sat in the car cutting out and taping on our cow costumes for some free chick fil a.  Mmm, mmm, good.  We met up with a few friends there and hung out til naptime. 

During naptime I made frosting (almond vanilla buttercream) and decorated cupcakes and then took the kids to the pool for their party.  I invited 4 friends and their kids but only 2 could make it.  We kept it very low key so we wouldn't get in trouble for having an unscheduled party.  All the kids swam for a while, I called them over for cupcakes, and they swam a while more.  We did presents in the parking lot on the way out.  My girls loved it!  And I did too, easy party. 

Wednesday was Brooke's 7th birthday!  I keep telling her that you'll be home next year when she's baptized (we'll wait for you :) ).  She requested omelettes and they were yummy.  Ham and cheese.

We played at the pool after basketball camp and caught up with Kat Barney and her boys there.  We had fun swimming and having lunch.  We came home for quiet time and I had promised Brooke a date with me to work on her gift from some friends--a little paint your own school house and peg dolls.  She was in heaven.  Here's her finished product.

Then when Dan got home, it was her turn for us to say what we loved about her and for her to open presents. 

She got gummy bears, a sticker book, a chapter book to read, and we showed her the inline skates (her big wish) that were on their way but weren't delivered yet.  She was thrilled.

We did her candles in a cupcake and then we all had popsicles for her birthday treat.

Thursday was the last day of basketball camp.  I came to watch the end and see them hand out certificates and t shirts. Megan LOVED basketball camp.  She didn't make many baskets in the little scrimmage I watched, but man was she good at stealing the ball.  Brooke was NOT loving basketball camp since she was on the other team and they got creamed.  She had fun other than that though.  (Megan's in green, Brooke in yellow)

Then it was a busy afternoon for me of packing up for our family reunion weekend.  I baked a cake so we could celebrate the birthdays with the cousins too.  We left the house around 3:45 and drove to pick up Dan from his office (he had gotten a ride into work).  We got to the lake house at 5.  Dad and Sally had been there for an hour or so and Amy and the kids had been there all day.  Jamie and her crew arrived near 5:30 and Carrie and Shad got there after they finished work, Carrie near 6 and Shad near 6:30.  Shad didn't even get dinner, he walked in the house and straight out to the boat to take a big crew out.  All the kids went except Ellie, Jack, and Emily I think.  And a big group of grownups too.  There were like 17 people out with him!  They rode til sunset and then we all came in for dinner and talking.  We were up til 10:30 or so. 

Friday morning we did a really fun adults only sunrise run.  Me, Dan, Jamie, Carrie, Shad, Amy, and Dad.  Good times wakesurfing and kneeboarding.  We came in around 9. 

Then it was the kids' turn.

It got rough in the afternoons and we did tubing.  Lots of fun and really hot.  We had a sad mishap though.  As the big kids got ready to ride the tubes, Zach was sitting on one side of the double and as Julianne jumped onto the other side she somehow landed just the wrong way on his arm and his arm broke!  Crazy.  A hairline fracture of the radius.  Poor kid.  So he and Shad ran to the ER in the afternoon for x-rays and came home splinted and with a sling.  Jamie bought a shaved ice maker for the lake house and we put it to good use.  Dinner that night was hot dogs and hamburgers.  We were all wiped out and by about 9:30 most of us were dropping off.

Saturday was another adult only sunrise run.  I missed that one but they had fun.  Then we did lots of tubing that day.  Lots.  We're all sore and bruised and rubbed raw from the tubes but it was worth it! 

Dad trying to kill his 4 oldest kids--we're all looking forward to doing this with you next summer!

We were all packing up on Saturday but Dad and Shad wanted one last run with the two single tubes.  I think they had fun.

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We cleaned up and ate a quick pizza dinner before heading home near 6 pm. 

All the grandkids:

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The whole crew--just missing Ty!

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It was a really nice weekend together.  I've got a great family.  It felt good to just talk and laugh and enjoy being there.

It was a great Sunday today.  Dan had early meetings but the kids were pretty good considering how tired we all were.  Sacrament meeting was great.  A new family spoke (they live 4 houses down from us).  The husband is a convert and he talked about how when he was dating his now-wife in high school, her dad was bishop and occasionally they'd invite him to talk to the missionaries and he (raised Catholic) would politely decline.  Then they invited him to vacation with the family to some place he'd never heard of--Nauvoo.  He said as they went through the sites there, his heart softened and he told his girlfriend he was ready to meet the missionaries.  His talk was on being member missionaries.  He said a big part of why he became interested in the church was just the feeling in the home of that family.  And how they weren't pushy, they let him come to them over time with questions as he felt comfortable but they always invited.  It was a good talk.  My class was on captain moroni and amalikiah and the contrasts between those two leaders.  And then I got to play piano for singing time which was fun.  We had a quiet afternoon.  Dan went to a baptism for the ward he's over and then we had dinner and bedtime.
Cute Emily this morning.  I took her to the doctor on thursday before heading to the lake and we found out both her ears were infected--she's had a terrible cough.  Poor thing.  She's so good though, she didn't even act fussy with all that!