Family Pictures 2010

We did it again, of course it is always a miracle that we can find even one that will work. We have a lot of kids! It's weird, it doesn't seem like it until I see it in pictures. I love every one of my kids so much!! I hope they know and feel that!!

Poor baby!

Ashton fractured his collerbone. I felt so bad for him. He fell off me and Rich's bed when I was helping Paij redo her jewelry box. He sleeps on our bed often, and still does, just a crazy thing. I couldn't figure out where he was hurt, but had a long night of fussing and I didn't want to go sit at the E.R. by myself (Rich was at work). So the next day he went with me to the Urgent care, and after thinking it was the opposite side, and possible rib, I was totally wrong and babying the wrong side entirely, probably causing more pain:( He is doing better, however still baby's it and does grimice if he is picked up wrong. He looks adorable with his little sling. And the jewelry box turned out fabulous if I do say so myself!

Labor Day

Labor day this year was low key but tried to think of something for the kids to do. Lunch at the mall, always a fav. Our fun neighbors came with us. Tori and I let the kids ride the carousel 2x. A very expensive event, at $3 a kid- crazy 90 second ride:o, BUT they had a blast and that's what matters right? It was Ivy and Ashton's 1st time and they LOVED it, and were very sad to get off. We got See's lollipops, butterscotch of course and took the girls to Tinkerbells to let them pick out a necklace. All had a great time, even Logan was a trouper! It was kind of funny, when we got off the elevator, I heard a young kid say, wow that was a lot of kids! And it is, but they are great kids!!

WHY?????

Never fail, when one of my babies is missing, I always know where they are, and sometimes it's both of them together. They love to get back in the laundry room, locking the door behind them and devour as fast as possible Dixie's dog food. Gross!!! Disgusting!!! WHY on earth would they want to do that? When Ivy was Ashton's age, she would go and get 1 piece and put it in her mouth and come show me and say "mmmmmm, nummy!" At least they are completely predictable. They are partners in crime, or at least disgusting behavior.

Rich and I, after a summer of fun with the kids, decided to take a much needed break by ourselves, no phone, no traffic, no noise:) We went up to the mountains, got some fresh air, and some R&R!

He took me on a hike to see Dane spring that I missed out on because of the ankle incident last summer that everyone got to see. Pretty neat!
Mostly we enjoyed being together watching movies, playing cards- he kicked my butt every time, ahrrr:) and looking at the beautiful sunset, by ourselves. We enjoyed the cool mountain air, music and sometimes just QUIET! Our home can be very noisy. We feel rejuvenated and ready to be back in real life. It was such fun to take a breather.

Good riddins' ya loonies

School started Yeah! We were all ready!






Logan started High School, I can't hardly believe it! He has A-hour for the 1st time, it comes painfully too early for me. Fortunately for me, I pick up after school only, gotta love carpool:)

Paij started Jr. high, a big 7th grader. She was nervous, but so cute and brave and loved the 1st day

Sydney started 5th grade, and got the teacher she wanted, so far all the kids have had Mr. Daniels and have loved him! She was happy, but hot as she got off the bus.

Carson started 1st grade, all day for the 1st time, he informed me he is ready, we'll see how it goes. He also got off the bus happy but sweating to "death!"

Ivy and Ashton fortunately for me are home for a few more years, and took a really GREAT nap for the 1st time in awhile. I even had to wake them up to pick up the high school carpool.

I had a quiet, much needed day today, and was thrilled to see them after school!!

Day26 Saying goodbye and the end

We said our good byes and were on the road again, this time our destination........home sweet home!! (p.s. doesn't her hair rock!) We did bear minimum stopping and we stopped in Palm Springs for dinner at Panda. We were hit with the ever so stunning heat as we got out of the car. Yuck!! Rich said my skin was instantly flushed, and we still had 10 degrees hotter to get, yikes! We texted our great friend and house checker, Tori and asked her to turn our air down, so it wasn't so terribly hot when we arrived. She did so and had the feeling to check our fridge. She had to be the bearer of bad news and tell us it was dead, and not the slightest bit cold, disgusting!! Luckily they had a fridge we can borrow for a bit, thx Brunsons! We stopped by the store and got the necessities and made it home at around 11:30 p.m. The kids got to see their dear friends who were waiting up for them to get home. Time to unload and put away, as both of us worked in the morning. Short night, we got to bed at 2:30. Nothing like getting thrown back into real life!! We decided we along with all of our friends and family need to move somewhere cooler, and more beautiful. But we were glad to see our home, for it is in fact home sweet home. It is great to be home, even if it is miserably hot!

Day 25 Jelly Belly Factory

We had to check out the Jelly Belly Factory. We took the tour, it was interesting. The kids sampled flavors, and believe it or not one of the fav's was baby wipe- gross. They said it was tastey. We loaded up on the necessary flavors, (not baby wipe) and got some "belly flops" for camping treats. They were the defective ones, wrong size, etc.

We took Saber along again. On our way back to the Penrods we picked up pizzas and cheese bread from our new favorite place, Papa Murphy's, (thx Dan and Tiff). We ate, I did a couple of haircuts on our hubbies and tried to go to bed. I decided to use their washer and drier and get all the laundry done and back into bags, since I had a CRAZY schedule full of hair appointment waiting for me.

Day 23-24

Sunday we relaxed and didn't do too much, had a bbq With Shirley and Jon and their family. Rich and Logan had fun playing pool. The babies got lots of attention, and the rest of the kids played and we didn't see or hear much from them. Carson and Logan got to use the fireworks they bought in Wyoming. They had fun.

Monday we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium. We took along with us Graycee and Saber. (8 kids) We had fun looking at all the wonderful sea life that they had on display.They had some interactive things for toddlers, it

was cute to watch them, it seems all kids like to play in water. We went back and fixed dinner and had an evening of hair coloring, since there was 3 girls with major growout:) and they just so happen to have a beauty supply about a 1/2 mile away from their house. Late night, I think it was 3:15 when we finally finished.

Day 22 San Francisco

We went to San Francisco and went across the Golden Gate bridge. We stopped to take pictures,and it was so windy, got to love my hair:) We could see Alcatraz from a distance and went to Fisherman's warf. It was so crazy busy, and we knew we wouldn't be going back for fireworks for the 4th, especially with kids. But, we did get to get clam chowder, mmmm my favorite! We went down the famous Lombard street, aka the most "crooked" street. It was so crazy weird. The streets were so frieky, so extremely hilly, so steep. It scared me but everyone else loved it. I'm just glad I wasn't driving, I know I would have panicked! It was a fun day! We finally made it to our friends the Penrods house, just a couple days late. We had a great time catching up and laughing. Shirley is recovering from 2 spinal surgeries and isn't able to do too much, so it was pretty relaxed, which was fine with us.