It's been a while. A bit too long really. But since big sister has taken to reading the books I print from this blog, I'm reminded that I like writing down our family history. So let's catch up.
Big brother had a birthday. A 6th birthday, to be exact. We did a friend party, which he loved. Big thanks to my sister for making him a pinata - all the boys loved it! Unfortunately none of them could break it open, so I got to do it. They enjoyed their cupcakes and really just played. I kept it very low key. Big sister and her friend were big helpers, too. I can't believe the boy is 6!
In our Easter finery. This was a couple weeks after Easter, but you get the idea...
Big sister turned 11. It's not every day yer young lady turns 11! We broke down and got her a cell phone. A cheap one through the grocery store Aaron works at. It gets paid for through our rewards points, so it's basically free. She has (for the most part) been very responsible with it. I will say it's nice to be able to get a hold of her whenever I want! We did a small celebration for her, as well. She wanted to take some friends to Cinderella. We limited it to 2 friends, since a movie and treats and paying a babysitter so mom and dad could go at her request all costs $$$. She had a fabulous time!
Behold the birthday cake!
We did do a combined family party for big sister and big brother. Lots of cousins, yummy burritos, and a delicious chocolate cake for big sister and lemon cake with orange buttercream frosting for big brother. I have pictures, somewhere, I think.
Little Brother is past the needing-a-nap-every-day point. But a couple times a week he still gets a little run down. Usually I'll just lay him on the couch with a movie and he'll fall asleep. This particular day he was just struggling. So I held him and rocked him. It took about 2 minutes for this to happen. Haha! He's getting bigger and bigger - I'm going to relish this as long as he'll let me!
We made it to the Payson Temple open house. What an exquisite temple. My mother's side of the family has some roots there, so it was a little big extra special for me. The kids found it all to be beautiful - they especially loved all the stained glass windows.
My big sister graduated from medical school! Oh my goodness we were all so proud of her! We didn't want to take the kids because we didn't want to fight with all 4 of them during the graduation ceremony. Husband's sister was kind enough to take them all. We actually enjoyed the drive out to Reno - the time flies by when nobody is whining at you from the backseat and you don't have to stop several times. My sister and I are so photogenic...
It was so cool to hear her name called and watch her husband place her hood during the ceremony. Just awesome! We celebrated with in-n-out right after because we were all starving. Then later, my sisters helped me make a yummy tri-tip dinner for her. The next morning, we got up bright and early to go to the Reno Temple. We ended up on the Tongan session, which was pretty cool. Reading the English subtitles really made me think about the words in a different way. It is always nice to be in the temple with family. After the temple, Husband and I headed up to Lake Tahoe. We decided that since his sister had our kids, we'd make the most of it and celebrate our 13th anniversary a bit early. We went on a hike before we got to the hotel.
We are new fans of the selfie-stick. How nice to have a picture of us together without trying to find someone to take it. Anyway, we hiked to Skunk Harbor. We just thought it was a nice easy hike to the lake. Which it was. But at the lake is a really cool stone house. Built in the 1920's by people who got WAY too rich during the gold rush. This was their 2nd summer home on Lake Tahoe. You could only get there by boat, so all the materials were brought in by boat. Not cheap. I can see the appeal, though. Beautiful sandy beaches and total privacy! The exterior of the home is in pretty good condition, and you can see the foundations for additional buildings around the property. It was really neat to walk around and explore it all. This is a panoramic (love that feature on my phone) of the home from behind.
After our hike, we checked in at the MontBleu Casino Resort. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and then spent the rest of the night watching a movie in our room. We really loved just being together. Sunday morning we ate breakfast and then headed home. Our kiddos had a fabulous time at the Aunt & Uncle's house, but were happy to see us. It was a really fantastic weekend!
Little sister got to do a wax museum report. They had to pick a celebrity. I convinced her to do Kerri Strug. She loved reading all about her, and she made her poster entirely on her own. I helped her type up a script. It was supposed to be 30 seconds long, but I think hers was closer to a minute. She memorized the whole thing and recited it perfectly. The idea is that as people go around the push the button (sticker) on each "wax figure." When the button is pushed, they give their little script about the person they are portraying. It's still amazing tome that this little girl used to not be able to talk. You'd never know it now!
Later that same day, big sister had her D.A.R.E graduation. The officer that was in charge of her group was retiring, so this was his last one. That made it a little extra cool. I never get good seats for this stuff, but if you look close you can see her getting her certificate from Officer Lopez.
And last but not least we took a trip to Goblin Valley. We love camping. Little brother was super excited! And fell asleep about 20 minutes into the drive:
We made the discovery last year on our way home from the cabin that big brother gets car sick on winding canyon roads. Unfortunately we forgot this. He was watching a movie in the backseat and just started crying. We turned off the movie and rolled down his window and told him to keep looking out the window. It helped, but he was still not doing great. We pulled into Price and stopped at the Smith's to fuel up. I took big brother inside to the bathroom, and then he felt a bit better. Husband bought him some Dramamine. They came in a tablet form, and I wasn't sure we could get big brother to take it. I should know. The 3 younger ones are really good about taking medicine. Big sister is NOT, but the other 3 are happy to take whatever you give them. He just popped it in his mouth and chewed it up. Didn't even ask for water, funny boy. He was happy when we offered him some to get the taste out of his mouth, though. We had him sit up front with us. Big sister was not pleased about this move. As the oldest, I think she feels sitting up front is her right. Oh, well.
We made it to our campsite and set up while the kids immediately started exploring. We did hot dogs on the grill that night, which were delicious. Probably because we were all starving. I also made an apple cinnamon roll cobbler in the dutch oven, which was also heavenly. The next morning, we had a dutch oven breakfast and then went exploring in the campground a bit. The kids were having a blast!
After exploring the campsite, we headed to the Valley of the Goblins. There's 3, we headed out to the 1st one.
The kids had a blast. It's basically hiking, but instead of a straight path you can just climb all over the place. The quote of the day was "I found something!" They found caves, flat spot, teeter-totters, and all kinds of cool things that they wanted their siblings to see. Little brother started out being a pill. We couldn't figure out why. He had out-eaten almost all the kids at breakfast, so we figured he couldn't possibly be hungry. But he was demanding to be held and just whiny in general. I finally fed him a granola bar, which he gobbled down. Then he was fine! Husband and I were both surprised that he was still hungry!
After exploring for a while, we headed back to have sandwiches for lunch. Here's the kiddos climbing - this is just behind where our tent was.
After lunch, we put the boys down for a nap and then put ourselves down. We had been awake most of the night because of a huge wind storm, so we were really tired. The girls played by the tent and then played uno. When we woke up, Husband took the girls to the visitors center while I stayed in camp waiting for the boys to wake up. We went back to the Valley after naps, but unfortunately it started raining. It was a cool thunderstorm, since it just echoed of all the rocks. Little brother and little sister were not impressed, though. Little brother found a little cave under a rock and refused to come out, and little sister kept asking to go back to the truck. So once it started raining a bit harder we headed back. We drove over to little wildhorse canyon. The sun was shining there, so we went for a small walk down the trail. Then the kids were done, so we headed back to camp. The storm had passed, so we got our apricot chicken in the dutch oven and the kids went exploring with daddy a bit. After a really yummy dinner, we started in on roasting starbursts and s'mores. We would've stayed around the fire longer, but it started to sprinkle again. We got everything into the totes and into the truck, took the kids to the bathroom and got pajamas on, and hunkered down in the tent. We didn't quite make it all before the downpour started, but for the most part we got everything taken care of. We hung up the DVD player for the kids in the tent. With the volume all the way up, they still had a hard time hearing over the pouring rain. Husband had fortunately loaded some non-kiddie movies on his kindle, so we watched Red 2. He kept getting up every 30 minutes to check all the seams in the tent. It poured hard for 4 hours. But no leaks! Our tent is the bomb. We all slept pretty well that night. The next morning we made pancakes and bacon and then got everything packed up. There was 2 inches of standing water by our firepit, and the whole place was just a muddy mess. The kids mostly hung out in the truck playing on the kindles and such while mom and dad get everything packed. After getting packed up, we headed over to the Valley of the Goblins one more time. We had to be careful of the mud, but the kids still loved exploring. When we were out of water and granola bars, it was time to head home. We stopped at the visitors center and bought them all souvenir binoculars. They loved that. We remembered to give big brother his Dramamine, so the trip home was pretty pleasant! When we got home, Husband had to set up the tent again and clean off the tarp we had under it. The kids thought that was fun. It was a great vacation. The first time we've camped far from home for more than 1 night in our tent. We're excited to go on more camping trips with the kids. This whole getting older thing is not so bad!
While the kids were still off track, we took advantage and went to the Temple Quarry trail. It's short and sweet, but the kids love it. Love my little hikers! (And the big one, too!)
Somewhere in there we also helped my sister move back to her condo in Lehi. We've gone a couple times now to play in the pool with them. The heat seems to be broken, so the kids don't last very long before they all want to lay in the sun to warm up:
My sister and her husband - this is what happens when you ask them to smile!
Little sister and big brother
Little brother
Big sister and her bestest friend - I'm sad I didn't snap this when they were using their goggles to make pig faces at me...
And now the kids are back in school until the 1st week of July. So we'll make the best of it until then! Big sister and big brother will be at a charter school, so back to traditional schedule for them. Little sister is still on the wait list, but we're hoping she'll get in before our regular elementary starts at the end of July. We'll see!
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