Cousins Day Out

My awesome sister in law Erin just cant help herself. She has to make lists. Lists for everything. She is the most organized person I know. Everything has its place and everything is written down just in case she forgets anything. So for the past two summers, she has made a List. This list is a planned schedule of what events we will be doing on what day and at what time we will be doing them. She has planned for all of the cousins to get together and do an activity once a week at a place that she has previously organized. So it makes it really easy for the rest of us bc we just have to show up and do what the taskmaster has planned. So being the completely unorganized and scatter brained person that I am, I was going to take a picture of the list so that you could see its immaculate detail... but I lost it. So last week when I called Erin to ask what the activity was this week, she said "refer to the list.." And when I told her that I lost my list, well you can understand her frustration. But on that note, I do have to say that I am so Happy that she takes the time to make these activities happen. To make the memories we are creating and bringing all the cousins closer together. They wont ever forget what they have done, and I wont either thanks to the blog that I know have. Now when I need to remember something, she can say to me "refer to the blog" and I will once again smile at the memories.

Activity #1 Wheeler Farm

Coo Coo looking at the kids, watching them play

Gretchen and Gage checking out the "madcow" ducks

All the kids on a tractor plus some stranger girl that we dont know..

Activity #2 The Gateway planetarium

Coo Coo finding her chair...

Gage walking on the moon

Anders, Soyer and Ady walking on the moon

More moon walking... we had cousin Halley from the Smith side with us
too, so that was an added bonus!

The girls on Mars... doesnt it look totally real??

Dancing Queen!

Cousin Halley was here all the way from Florida and was able to see her dance!!

Izabele is my dancer. She is pretty good at it too! In years past its been just watching my little girl perform on stage and thinking "oh thats so cute." But this year she was REALLY good! They did "The Wizard of Oz" and she was a munchkin for ballet and a lion for tap. This year was especially fun bc she was able to perform on the same night as 3 of her cousins, Rivka, Adysen, and Zahava. Which also meant that Grandpa, aka Cranky and Grandma, aka Coo Coo only had to see the performance once rather than 3 diffrent nights. Ahhh, the things grandparents do for their grandkids. But I was proud of Izzy, she did great!!

Izzy, Adysen, Zahava, and Rivka.

Rare, unique, and special

We had the opportunity to go on vacation to Island Park with some good friends this last week. As I thought about what to write about on this post to describe this trip, many thoughts kept coming to my mind. Laughter, sarcasm, silliness, but most of all the word that kept coming back is "rare." Let me explain. Rare because we were with 3 families. Thats 6 adults and 11 and a half kids. There was not one awkward moment, not one fight, not one issue. Thats 17 1/2 people under the same roof for 4 days and we all got along. The older girls got along with the little girls, the big boys got along with the little boys, and not only that, but they all played together. Then there is the 6 adults. Let me start with my girlfriends. I dont think ive ever had 2 friends like them in my life. Im close to my sisters but ive never had girl"friends" like them. I know that if I ever needed anything I could call them. I know that I can trust them with anything and that our late night talks at IHOP wont ever go beyond that booth. I know they wont judge me no matter what shocking story I can tell them, and I know that they will laugh with me and cry with me.
I consider that rare, unique, special. And I know that im blessed to have them. I feel as though in all our moves around this valley, that I ended up here for a reason and two of those reasons are Stacie and Rebecca. Now for their sarcastic, hilarious husbands... ummm...what else do I say about them. I laugh everytime they are around and im grateful for how mellow they are. How they support their wives in anything they want to do. Because you see, if they didnt, well then our friendship wouldnt be the same. They dont give a crap if we as girls need to go run down to Yogurt stop, or go on a walk, or go to Ihop for some "girltalk" They are as mellow as Scott and we can all laugh together and trust each other and get along. I really feel its a rare thing. A special bond, and a unique friendship.

This is the awesome theatre room that is in the basement, bc what cabin doesnt have one of those? I mean c'mon!

This is a shot of the great room from the upstairs loft..

And here is Ryan trying to throw bread on the street to try and get the seagull's away from the river so the kids could feed the fish and not the birds...

And the birds.. who Ryan did succeed in getting rid of and they were able to throw bread to the fish..

The kids on the river throwing the 3 day old bread that we had just bought that decided to go moldy...

Some weird river rodent that thought it was his lunch time too..

Me and my girls...

Big trout in the water..I bet he would be yummy.

Gorgeous view of the river...

All the kids minus the 1/2 one in Stacies tummy..

Back view of Haddocks amazing cabin. Thanks for sharing guys!!

And their own boat dock right off of the back patio.. Bc thats another thing everyone has at their cabin... totally normal.

Kids playing in the water..

Ryan and Scott trying to catch a fish for the kids using a rope and a plastic bag... you see the bag was weighted down with a rock and the fish were supposed to just swim right into it so that all the kids could see .... great idea, dont you think???

They really thought they would be successful..

I have no idea what Jeff is so happy about in this picture. What on earth could make him smile this big in the middle of the afternoon???

Rebecca reading to Lizzie on a rainy day..

Bead making on a rainy day...This proved to be a great activity for the kids... oh and for the dads too.

Ryan coloring a Star Wars picture, bc what dad doesnt want to do that?

Stacie checking the blogs of her 20 year high school reunion she missed to be on this trip with us.. But thank goodness for facebook, now none of us ever need to consider going to a high school reunion again...not that I would anyway.

And of course on the patio, there was jedi training going on..

All the kids minus Izzy...

All the kids minus Will...

On the way home Scott and I decided to take the long way home and go through Yellowstone and down through Jackson Hole. We stopped at Old Faithful and while we were waiting Oliver bit into a cinnamon roll and lost his tooth. As you can see he panicked.

He got over it quickly..

This is just a picture of me and Izzy and some girl doing bra adjustment in the background..

Still waiting for Old Faithful to be faithful..

Scott and I in Jackson sitting on the ever so famous antler arch in the park.

And my very cute, very tired kids exhausted from a perfect vacation. Thank you Haddocks and Hamiltons for helping create such a wonderful memory!!

It's a Family Affair!

We all signed up for "signs on the trail" 5k, It was Erin's, Gretchen's and My girls first 5k! It was alot of fun to share this with them, they all did great including my girls! They messed up the route and we ended up going 4 miles instead of 3 but everyone hung in there and it was a party! BUT, I KNOW YOUR ALL WONDERING ...WHO IS THE MOUNTAIN MAN STANDING IN OUR PICTURE??? One of these things doesnt belong here. Thats Troy, and his idea of what to wear to a 5k. Dont let him scare you, he only looks like a creepy psycho, really he's harmless.

Erin, Gretchen, and I did the "Heart of Holladay" 5k today!! It was also a blast. The weather was perfect and so was the company. I ran my fastest time ever and I was really happy about that. I want to do this one for sure next year also. Good route, good t-shirts, good times.

We're too sexy for our shirts, too sexy for our shirts, so sexy it hurts.. We're too sexy for our bodies, too sexy for our bodies, too sexy..... We are models, you know what I mean, and we do our little dance on the catwalk.. ya on the catwalk...