Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Luke and GG
Grandmother visited with us a few nights while she was in Salt Lake a week ago. It was fun to see her-- I think it had been since Thanksgiving since we had seen her last! Luke took an immediate liking to her and gave her all his biggest smiles.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Ah, but the fun didn't stop there.....
Keyton, Liz, Emeline, Jarom, and Wes stayed with my parents in Salt Lake for 4 days after Tahoe. We filled our time with Sunday dinner, walks around Temple Square, a tour of the SWEETS candy factory (yum!)... and their outlet store of course...
Wes and Luke in their 'candy make hats'
We spent an afternoon here in Herriman with the bounce house, slide, and pool... as well as a pedicure for the moms while the dads babysat (and cleaned up dinner!).
We took the Welfare Square tour, ate lunch at some yummy sandwich shops, and got family pictures done (pictures to come later!).
Kissie and Pata treated the big grandkids to a carriage ride around Temple Square...
and icecream afterward, complete with a visit to Pata's office in the JSMB and a chance to ring Pata's office gong. 
We had a special family dinner in a private room at the Lion House where we each got to tell our favorite memories of the trip and of the last year (which was pretty easy for everyone considering we all had babies in the last year!)
And our last night was a big one... Kissie and Pata graciously watched the 5 smallest kiddos and sent the rest of us to the Lion King! I had seen it on Broadway about 9 years ago when my parents and I toured around New England after my mission... and it was just as amazing as I had remembered it! It was so cool, Cora loved it too. Before it started, I pointed out to her the pictures of the lions in the program, and she was a little confused-- "but mom, I thought they were going to be real lions!"-- but the singing, puppeteering, acting, and dancing in the play was incredible and she really enjoyed it-- and so did we! Kissie and Pata did well too luckily, with a 4 month old, 7 month old, 11 month old, 2 year old, and 3 year old!
It was a fun end to our 12 days of family fun!
Wes and Luke in their 'candy make hats'
We spent an afternoon here in Herriman with the bounce house, slide, and pool... as well as a pedicure for the moms while the dads babysat (and cleaned up dinner!).
We took the Welfare Square tour, ate lunch at some yummy sandwich shops, and got family pictures done (pictures to come later!).Kissie and Pata treated the big grandkids to a carriage ride around Temple Square...
and icecream afterward, complete with a visit to Pata's office in the JSMB and a chance to ring Pata's office gong. 
We had a special family dinner in a private room at the Lion House where we each got to tell our favorite memories of the trip and of the last year (which was pretty easy for everyone considering we all had babies in the last year!)
And our last night was a big one... Kissie and Pata graciously watched the 5 smallest kiddos and sent the rest of us to the Lion King! I had seen it on Broadway about 9 years ago when my parents and I toured around New England after my mission... and it was just as amazing as I had remembered it! It was so cool, Cora loved it too. Before it started, I pointed out to her the pictures of the lions in the program, and she was a little confused-- "but mom, I thought they were going to be real lions!"-- but the singing, puppeteering, acting, and dancing in the play was incredible and she really enjoyed it-- and so did we! Kissie and Pata did well too luckily, with a 4 month old, 7 month old, 11 month old, 2 year old, and 3 year old!
It was a fun end to our 12 days of family fun! Friday, August 20, 2010
Family Fun 2010 -- Part 1
My family goes on a trip every other year or so, and this year our destination was Lake Tahoe! We had a terrific time exploring a new beautiful place and had lots of adventures, besides lots of yummy food, games, and cousin play time.
We were pretty curious how the kids would do with a 9 hour car trip, and decided to minimize whining by leaving in the late afternoon and driving until midnight. The kids actually did really well, the girls were pretty much sucked into the new dvds from the library, and we only had to stop to feed Luke once since he's used to not eating often at night. The only big problem on the way there was the grownups... Kevin and I managed to throw away our credit card in a fast food garbage can and not realize it until 20 minutes down the road. We decided it was better to cancel it than lose time digging through hamburger wrappers. Oh well, it was an easy fix. We stayed entertained by listening to a slightly cheesey LDS WWII Delta, UT spy audiobook.
We spent the night in Reno and met up with the rest of the family for a quick hotel pool swim and a visit to the Reno outlet mall. They have a sporting goods store there that is as big as a regular mall! We rode the Ferris Wheel (inside the sporing goods store-- it's that big!) and had a nice time bumming around until we could leave to check in to the house.
Our house for the week.... it was great! Lots of bedrooms for everyone, centrally located, and huge decks for lots of pleasant outside time. We ate outside most of the time and the kids especially enjoyed watching the birds hop around looking for crumbs.
Sunday morning we went to church in a really lovely ward. I'm sure it's a little tricky to live in a ward that get SO many visitors summer and winter, but they were very welcoming. It was especially interesting because the ward has both Spanish and English speakers, so everything was translated... both directions.
Sunday afternoon we took a little walk to a beach to see Lake Tahoe up close for the first time. It was a nice walk down, which ended up being a long walk up, kiddo-wise. The kids actually did really great, except for Cora. She must have used up all her energy playing on the beach-- she was so excited, we had a hard time keeping her out of the water! It was a pretty little beach to cool off by, and Cora got much more beach time on non-Sunday days later in the week.
Because we all pay into our family fun fund, we all take turns planning the vacations, and then on vacation, we take turns with meals. I really like it because everyone has a vested interest and equal opportunity to choose activities and contribute to our family vacations. One of my favorite traditions that we do it to take turns doing a family devotional at night. It was nice to end our days with a spiritual thought and connect in a spiritual way as a family--even the kids. We had a week of great devotionals involving scripture stories, ping pong balls, foolish polly pockets building their houses on sand, family history, warm fuzzies, and the power of bleach.
Post-devotional family picture... all 15 of us!
We were pretty curious how the kids would do with a 9 hour car trip, and decided to minimize whining by leaving in the late afternoon and driving until midnight. The kids actually did really well, the girls were pretty much sucked into the new dvds from the library, and we only had to stop to feed Luke once since he's used to not eating often at night. The only big problem on the way there was the grownups... Kevin and I managed to throw away our credit card in a fast food garbage can and not realize it until 20 minutes down the road. We decided it was better to cancel it than lose time digging through hamburger wrappers. Oh well, it was an easy fix. We stayed entertained by listening to a slightly cheesey LDS WWII Delta, UT spy audiobook.
We spent the night in Reno and met up with the rest of the family for a quick hotel pool swim and a visit to the Reno outlet mall. They have a sporting goods store there that is as big as a regular mall! We rode the Ferris Wheel (inside the sporing goods store-- it's that big!) and had a nice time bumming around until we could leave to check in to the house.
Our house for the week.... it was great! Lots of bedrooms for everyone, centrally located, and huge decks for lots of pleasant outside time. We ate outside most of the time and the kids especially enjoyed watching the birds hop around looking for crumbs.Sunday morning we went to church in a really lovely ward. I'm sure it's a little tricky to live in a ward that get SO many visitors summer and winter, but they were very welcoming. It was especially interesting because the ward has both Spanish and English speakers, so everything was translated... both directions.
Sunday afternoon we took a little walk to a beach to see Lake Tahoe up close for the first time. It was a nice walk down, which ended up being a long walk up, kiddo-wise. The kids actually did really great, except for Cora. She must have used up all her energy playing on the beach-- she was so excited, we had a hard time keeping her out of the water! It was a pretty little beach to cool off by, and Cora got much more beach time on non-Sunday days later in the week.
Because we all pay into our family fun fund, we all take turns planning the vacations, and then on vacation, we take turns with meals. I really like it because everyone has a vested interest and equal opportunity to choose activities and contribute to our family vacations. One of my favorite traditions that we do it to take turns doing a family devotional at night. It was nice to end our days with a spiritual thought and connect in a spiritual way as a family--even the kids. We had a week of great devotionals involving scripture stories, ping pong balls, foolish polly pockets building their houses on sand, family history, warm fuzzies, and the power of bleach. 
Post-devotional family picture... all 15 of us!Family Fun 2010 -- Part 2
On Monday we took a boat cruise on the lake. It was relaxing, and interesting to get a view of the lake and all the shoreline-- it is huge! We hung out, watched the lake, explored the boat, and ate lunch.
Emerald Bay
The four big kids... I'm so glad that Cora and Violet had a chance to get to know their big kid cousins!
Afterward we stopped for icecream... yum, yum!
Luke was thanking his luck stars he got to sit by Kissie, who shared. He sure knows how to anticipate a bite!
Tuesday started off with a blast-- literally, as in a pinata candy blast. Kevin and I felt bad Cora slept through her highly anticipated chance at a pinata at the Ellis family reunion, so we brought one to Tahoe. Kissie filled it with yummy snacks for the rest of the week. Cora loved it!
Violet, not so much. She had to hold my hand while she swung.
The gang, all ready to hike.
We headed over to the North Star Tram for a day of hiking. Cora was our super star hiker of the day this time and hiked the whole way. Violet walked in and slept in the backpack on the way out.
Shad pushed Bailee in her stroller the whole way, even though it wasn't stroller-friendly hike at all. He definitely got the adult superstar hiker of the day recognition!
We had a nice hike to a lake and ate lunch there in a nice grassy spot...
after which we chased all the fish to the other side of the lake by throwing many many rocks in the water... a favorite pastime of kids AND adults!
We rode the tram further up to do another hike, but just sat and enjoyed the overlook view from the lodge instead.
On the way back down, we stop to let the kiddos try out the bungee trampoline. Wow, they could go high! Emeline did some great flips, but Cora couldn't master those tricks yet. She did have a great time jumping high.
Violet did NOT have a good time jumping, she just barely made it into the harness before breaking down. Maybe another year! 
So instead, some of our 'big kiddos' got to try it out to take her place. Keyton and Shad did several flips each, but said it was pretty tiring! It still looked cool!
Emerald Bay
The four big kids... I'm so glad that Cora and Violet had a chance to get to know their big kid cousins!
Afterward we stopped for icecream... yum, yum!
Luke was thanking his luck stars he got to sit by Kissie, who shared. He sure knows how to anticipate a bite!
Tuesday started off with a blast-- literally, as in a pinata candy blast. Kevin and I felt bad Cora slept through her highly anticipated chance at a pinata at the Ellis family reunion, so we brought one to Tahoe. Kissie filled it with yummy snacks for the rest of the week. Cora loved it!
Violet, not so much. She had to hold my hand while she swung.
The gang, all ready to hike.
We headed over to the North Star Tram for a day of hiking. Cora was our super star hiker of the day this time and hiked the whole way. Violet walked in and slept in the backpack on the way out.Shad pushed Bailee in her stroller the whole way, even though it wasn't stroller-friendly hike at all. He definitely got the adult superstar hiker of the day recognition!
We had a nice hike to a lake and ate lunch there in a nice grassy spot...
after which we chased all the fish to the other side of the lake by throwing many many rocks in the water... a favorite pastime of kids AND adults!
We rode the tram further up to do another hike, but just sat and enjoyed the overlook view from the lodge instead.On the way back down, we stop to let the kiddos try out the bungee trampoline. Wow, they could go high! Emeline did some great flips, but Cora couldn't master those tricks yet. She did have a great time jumping high.
Violet did NOT have a good time jumping, she just barely made it into the harness before breaking down. Maybe another year! 
So instead, some of our 'big kiddos' got to try it out to take her place. Keyton and Shad did several flips each, but said it was pretty tiring! It still looked cool!
Family Fun 2010 -- Part 3 -- Beach Days!
We spent Wednesday and Thursday at the beach! My kids LOVE the beach, and I do too, so it was a lot of fun. Luckily the rental house was really well-equipped and even had beach umbrellas... so we had lots of shade and the water was nice and cool. We built sandcastles, waded, swam, kayaked, and even para-sailed. Unfortunately, Cora started not feeling so great at the beach on the second day, but she took a nap on the beach while the rest of us played and that worked out well too.
Cora and Violet were so excited to see Bailee so much on our trip-- they pray for her almost every day at home, and are always talking about her. Luckily Bailee has super kind parents who don't mind the hovering!
Three babies and three mommies!
The gang and the sandcastle... in progress
Violet and I taking a turn kayaking
Shad and Pata trying to wrestle each other into the water!
Kevin and Cora taking a turn kayaking
Luke loved kicking his feet in the cool water and watching all the activity around him. It was fun to sit there and watch everyone having a good time with the warm sun and cool water.
Violet especially loved the sand. When we took her swimsuit off back at the house, a whole pile of sand fell out! 
The parasailing was the big adventure of the day on Thursday. Keyton, Kissie, Pata, and I all went-- the girls and then the boys. It wasn't scary at all, and not nearly as loud as I thought it was going to be (I was thinking of skydiving, where the wind is so loud) . In fact, it felt quite peaceful and lovely!
We went high! I think they said 1500 feet.
We ended the day with a nice dinner out to give everyone a break from cooking.
The three babies of the family, Wes, Bailee, and Luke
Cora and Violet were so excited to see Bailee so much on our trip-- they pray for her almost every day at home, and are always talking about her. Luckily Bailee has super kind parents who don't mind the hovering!
Three babies and three mommies!
The gang and the sandcastle... in progress
Violet and I taking a turn kayaking
Shad and Pata trying to wrestle each other into the water!
Kevin and Cora taking a turn kayaking
Luke loved kicking his feet in the cool water and watching all the activity around him. It was fun to sit there and watch everyone having a good time with the warm sun and cool water.
Violet especially loved the sand. When we took her swimsuit off back at the house, a whole pile of sand fell out! 
The parasailing was the big adventure of the day on Thursday. Keyton, Kissie, Pata, and I all went-- the girls and then the boys. It wasn't scary at all, and not nearly as loud as I thought it was going to be (I was thinking of skydiving, where the wind is so loud) . In fact, it felt quite peaceful and lovely!
We went high! I think they said 1500 feet.
We ended the day with a nice dinner out to give everyone a break from cooking.
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