Family Reunion

CrAzY FuN!

My mom's family has a reunion every summer and this year one of the activities was this water slide attatched to a hill. Hearing about it didn't give it justice. It was fun, very steep (took your breath away) and Everyone (kids and adults) LOVED IT. The pictures are fun....but you would have to see it in person to get the real deal! Me and Carter---I was trying to be brave...but I have to be honest, I was a little worried for our lives! My heels were sore by the end from trying to dig them into the ground to slow us down!

Max

Gab

Camden---this kid was in heaven. He ran up the stairs and down that slide for 4 hours straight!

Darin and Carter. You might want to click on this one and see their faces! Poor Darin tried going down backwards with Camden on his back. Somehow he flew off the slide into the bushes. He had a nice case of roadrash!

Camden climbing up the hill!

This picture kind of gives you an idea of how steep it was.

I love Carter's hair in this picture. He was going so fast it made his hair stick up straight.

Holly and Gab

Gab....check out her face!

Here is a clip.... Sorry you will have to turn your head sideways to view this. I taped it with my camera and didn't realize I wouldn't be able to turn it later. We had a fun day!

And that's a wrap.....

Wow!! Has summer actually come to an end! Where does the time go? It seems just like yesterday we were planning memorial day and now labor day is fast approaching. I love summer and it's late warm evenings, family get together's, smore's, swimming, flowers and the ability to be as lazy as we would like. That being said, it really is TIME for school to start. My boys love to play but have become even better at fighting! I think a few hours away from each other during the day will be good! I guess kids need a little structure after a long fun summer. So as much as I hate to see the summer end and dread the inevitable winter, I am excited for Camden to start kindergarten (ahhhhhhhh were did my baby go?) and for Carter to start preschool (even bigger ahhhhhhhhh, I really can't believe he is 3 1/2!!!) I haven't been great at keeping all of our summer posted so here comes a mega post with all the happenings...or at least the ones I took pictures of....of the end of our summer. We have had ooodles of fun!

BEAR LAKE WITH THE FAM: On the 24th of July we went up to Bear Lake with my family. We spent the day at Rendezvous beach. We hadn't been to Bear Lake since I was pregnant with Carter so it had been a LONG time. We had such a good time. We rented wave runners which is always fun. My parents don't love pulling the boat through the canyon, and it really isn't that fun to ski on Bear Lake anyway...kind of choppy...but that is what makes the sea-doo's fun. We had a good time. Camden for those of you don't know, is terrified of boats. He cried the entire way there because he thought for sure the boat would be there. Anyway the following picture is quite amazing. I never thought in a million years he would go for a ride. But now he says he isn't afraid of "water 4-wheelers" only boats! He didn't want to ride it for long, but just the fact that he got on with a smile is pretty impressive!



Myah was pretty good to just chill out under the canopy. She is such a trooper and usually goes wherever we take her without a lot of fuss!

My darling niece Clara.
We are pretty HOT....don't you think!
SWIMMING!

Last year I was so good at taking my boys to the pool. We went every week (until I got pregnant and didn't want to do much of anything....luckily that wasn't until the end of the summer! This year however, I just am not quite as daring with 3 children. I am a little worried about taking care of a baby and keeping my eye on two little boys by myself and the pool is always sooooo crowded. Anyway we did plan a trip on a day that Darin got off of work a little early and we had a fun time! Everything is always more fun when dad can come anyway!

Once again Myah was quite portable. I feel bad I don't have a picture of her awake sitting in the pool. She was pretty indifferent about it, but she sure looked cute in her swimsuit!

Oh me oh MYAH!!!

Seriously she has a perma-grin! My boys were pretty good smilers, but this girl is ALWAYS smiling. Unless she is crying (which she doesn't do a lot, but is VERY dramatic when she does) she usually has a smile on her face! I just can't seem to get enough of her! She is just a ball of happiness!

She is getting big toooo fast!
SUMMER:

I took a few pictures of our yard and I had to just post one of our roses. I hate to see summer end....I LOVE flowers!

Bear Lake with Friends:

A couple of weekends ago some of our friends invited us to come up and stay at their cabin in Bear Lake. We had sooooo much fun! The boys had more fun than they knew what to do with! There were plenty of kids to play with, lots of yummy food....We had a really good time! Unfortunately we were having such a good time that I forgot to get my camera out until we were getting ready to go. So sorry in advance Maria for posting you in your p.j.'s (but I don't think you even know I have a blog so hopefully you will never find out!), but I had to have evidence of the trip.....Thanks again!

Camden, Carter, Tanner and Emily: All together there were about 12 kids while we were there and they didn't stop playing.....not until about midnight when they finally crashed! They had fun watching movies on the wall, playing games and you can't forget the kid favorite "treat table" with endless amounts of junk food to keep them wired all night! It really was kid heaven!
There were plenty of babies as well. This is little Madison... and I swear she went to sleep wherever they put her! She was so good, I don't ever remember hearing her cry. I guess when you are #6 in your family you have to be pretty laid back. Her and Myah are only 6 days apart and I am sure will be great friends some day!

Just showing off Myah's new favorite pass time....she loves standing and can bare all of her weight.... she just needs help staying balanced. (Thanks for holding her while we got packed up Amy.....sorry for the p.j. shot as well!)
And our gracious host Maria. Thanks for all of your hospitality! We had a lot of fun even if Darin had to get a dead mouse out of the drier! He really didn't mind!

The cabin which was more like an incredible log home, had an amazing view of the lake! It was so pretty! It was a great little get away!

BOYS and BAGS!

So every once in a while I ask for paper bags at the grocery store. I know I should do it more often because they are more earth friendly, but I like having a stash of plastic bags in my pantry. Well anytime Darin sees a paper bag this is the result. The boys think it is hilarious....and so does their dad!

BORED!

So maybe there is to much time in the summer. The boys were having a boring day. I was trying to get the house clean and they needed some attention and were asking for it in all of the wrong ways. I was at the end of my rope and ready to send them to time out for throwing markers all over the floor after I had asked them to clean up and instead told them to sit down and I got all of my frustrations out in a very...different...way. They thought it was great and I ended up with a smile on my face as well!

GRADY

And last but not least August brought a new little bundle of joy to our family. Grady was born to my little sis Lesli and her husband on the 10th weighing in at 8lbs. 12 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. He is a doll and we are so happy to have him in our family! Welcome to the world Grady!
Well that sums it up. I have a few more summer things to post, but school starts this week and life is going to get crazy again! This summer has been wonderful and I really hate to see it end....but I guess if we didn't have winter, than summer wouldn't be so great! Crunchy leaves, school supplies, cool nights, hot cocoa and trick or treating all await us. I guess Fall is pretty fun too!

Sun Valley

So all growing up my family went on a summer vacation to Sun Valley Idaho. My dad was in family business and they had meetings up there once a year so we made a family reunion out of it with all of my cousins. It is one of my most fondest memories as a child. Well the family business was sold and the yearly trip to Sun Valley ended. My kids had never been there so me and my siblings decided it was time to take a trip. We went for about 5 days and we had a blast. It is such a fun place to go! So here are a TON of pictures, but since I am using this as a means of journaling...really they are here for me. On the way we stopped at this gas station and I felt as though I was in a different country! I had to get a picture!

In Sun Valley there are just a bunch of condos with beautiful little gardens, streams and ponds. The kids had a fun time floating boats and chasing them down the little streams.

Sun Valley has a ton of swimming pools, but one afternoon we decided to go down to the local YMCA and go swimming. They had a lot of fountains, whirl pools and water slides. It was pretty fun. The men had gone golfing so they missed out! Max and Camden
Carter, Gabrielle and Camden
Here we are at the ice show. Every Saturday in the summer, there is an outdoor ice show. They bring in world famous skaters and have a big show. It is pretty fun. They don't start it until dusk, so my kids were pooped by the end. Darin didn't make this shot because Carter was just being potty trained and lets just say the training was struggling that night so Darin had to run back to the condo for some extra pants!
I took this picture for me to remember what the gardens looked like. That is what I want my garden to look like next year! It was so pretty.

One afternoon I left Carter to play with my mom, and when I got back this is how I found him! He was trying to catch a stick and I guess my mom told him to just go and get it. Thanks mom! He was in Heaven.
We attempted a shot with all of the grand kids, but kind of struggled. But we gave it a valiant effort! (Max 11, Gabrielle 9, Camden 5, Carter 3, Clara 15 moths, Myah 3 months)

Camden was upset because just prior to this picture he was trying to jump over a stream and he fell in and got all wet. We made him stay in his wet clothes so he still matched for the pictures and he wasn't too happy with it. However I think he was really trying hard no to smile!




I think Gabrielle was a little bored with the little kids not sitting down and smiling.
Carter just wanted to sit in the bushes.
We tried for a family shot, but we just didn't have a lot of luck.
We should have taken the boys bikes, but we didn't so we rented some and they were in little boy heaven! Camden learned to take his training wheels off while we were there and has since mastered the skill. I will have to post about that later.
We had a really fun time! Thanks to all of you for making it such a great trip!