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!

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.

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.

Family Fun 2010 -- Part 4

On our last day we went horseback riding. We went in two group-- the guys first. The girls stayed back and helped with the pony rides for the kids. It was pretty fun, Liz and I led the kids on ponies on a little trail around a meadow. A nice change from the ones where they go in circles over and over that we have done before.

Post pony rideThen is was the girls turn!
Bye-bye mommies!I had never done anything like this before, but it was really fun. The horses were super gentle and mellow.

The kids watched a video while we were gone to pass the time.

Of course, we had to stop for icecream on the way back home!

And then we played games, packed up, did a little shopping, and tried to eat the rest of our leftovers that night. We really made good use of the three deck areas at the house-- they were great for lots of outdoor fun, and the kids did a little swimming in the hot tub there too!

And just for laughs...

We drove back on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was a rather eventful trip. A couple of miles outside of Winnemucca we heard a loud noise and soon thereafter the low pressure tire light went on. We pulled over, and sure enough, the tire was flat. Luckily Kevin is a super fast tire changer, even with us having to pull practically everything out of the back of the van to access the spare. 50 miles on a 50 mile and hour tire and a $100 special after-hours service fee later we were fixed and ready to get home. We hit Wendover needing gas, restrooms, and dinner, but the power was out for the whole town, and none of those things were available! I was getting a little worried, since that's a pretty long stretch of nothing between Wendover and Tooele, but the power came on 15 minutes later and we did our stuff and got on our way. Right into a huge windstorm blowing dirt off of those long stretches of nothing by the salt flats and whipping it up for low visibility. Good thing Kevin was driving! We saw a big wreck on the way back-- an overturned trailer, so the wind gusts were pretty strong I think. Lucky for us too, the kids did pretty well, excepting a few leaky diapers, even with the extra 3 hours tacked onto the drive!

Many thanks to Keyton and Liz for planning a wonderful vacation! I really appreciate the fact that we all make time and effort to spend concentrated time together as a family... and it doesn't hurt that it was in a beautiful place doing lots of fun things! Who else but the 15 of us could get so many laughs out of the line "There's a snake in my boots!" over and over all week long???

Luke at 7 Months

Luke is now 7 months old!
This month, Luke has started eating solids three times a day. He doesn't like peas! But other than that, he's a pretty good eater. He still nurses every 4 hours or so during the day.
His toes are a favorite grab. Luke loves playing with his toys. He especially likes his rattles, cars, and soft books. Luke is getting more hair and his little thighs are chubbing up just a little bit. He gained a pound and a half in a week and a half after we started solids!
Luke spends a lot of his time observing the world. He is especially fascinated by watching cars go by, but he is also always on the lookout for his sisters. They usually get his biggest smiles! The girls' zhu zhu pets are also intriguing.
Luke sat in the front part of a shopping cart for the first time last week. He loved it! It was like a whole new world opened up to him, instead of looking at the ceiling from his car seat in the back of the cart.
Luke has started squealing for fun (ouch!).
He is sleeping through the night on a regular basis, usually 8pm-6:30am, sometimes with a 10:00 feeding. Last night he surprised us and slept 6pm-6:45am!
Luke still loves sucking on his fingers. They come in handy when he's waiting to be fed, to self-sooth if he gets an accidental bonk, or just for fun.
Luke is a solid sitter now, and doesn't often fall. He's also begun rocking on his hands and knees more, and sometimes gets stuck under a chair because he can scootch backward, but not forward.Luke is such a happy baby! He is a pretty easy baby too, he is flexible and mellow with his schedule, and just keeps giving us smile after smile.