Cousins Camp 2010

What is Cousin’s Camp? Basically it’s a family reunion on my side of the family that we do once a year to see everyone, have fun, spend quality time together, and allow the cousin’s time to spend together. It was such a blast this year, but then again it was a blast the last time we went, which was 2 years ago. (Last year we couldn’t go because I was to close to my due date.) We left Tuesday evening, stayed the night in Idaho Falls, and then continued the drive on Wednesday, arriving around 5 at my parents. The drive isn’t too bad; it was about 10 hrs, not including stops. We were the second ones to arrive. Mindy had already arrived with her kids a few days before us. Megan had come to drop off her kids and then return later on Thursday. Aaron and company arrived Wednesday night late, with my brother Jeff from Seattle. Wednesday we had fun in the backyard, which is huge (my parents have never had a backyard this big) setting up a slip n’ slide, having waterballons, etc. My parents also bought this huge playground thing for the kids to play on. Everyone else arrived Thursday in time to go to dinner at a pizza place for Charlotte’s Birthday. She turned 4! Happy Birthday!!! Then we went back home for presents, cake and ice cream. Friday was crazy! We went to this amusement/water park 15 minutes away called Silverwood; so much fun! We (the Heaths and Taylors) camped next to the toddler pool with our toddlers and switched off watching the kids and going down slides. We all got a little burned; I thought we’d put lots of sunblock on. The problem was we forgot to reapply. Opps. Then we went to the buffet. Yum-yum. You did not see me eating salads. Nope, it’s all about the pulled pork my friends. After dinner we went to the rides part of the park. Stephen took Haley and Brinton on all the rides us sane people with full stomachs wouldn’t go on. All in all it was a fantabulous day. Saturday we all kind of lounged about. We were so exhausted from the day before. Plus, I got James’ cold, so I actually woke up sick. Then we had an early birthday party for James Saturday evening. KFC and cupcakes; which I totally thought he would chow down, but he mostly poked at it taking a few bites here and there. I tell you this kid does not like to eat. All I have to say is… he didn’t get it from me. Then that night we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows around this campfire pit my parents had made in their backyard. Sunday we came home, and very reluctantly I might add. I cried on Monday and told Stephen that I wanted to go back to Cousin’s Camp; despite that fact that there were 26 of us in a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom home. It might sound crowded and a bit overwhelming, but we (all of my siblings) have very much grown up and are past our petty years. There were a few squabbles among the grandkids, but all in all a great time. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Brinton!!!! We love you!!!

P.S. When James opened up this tiny fire truck that we got him his cousin, Elly kept trying to say fire truck, but instead was saying fire sucks. haha! Indeed it does. Then when we tried to record her saying it, she said it right. :D

P.P.S. More pics of James Birthday Party to come as well as videos, I just have to figure out how to get them from my phone to my computer. Any suggestions.

Fourth of July Weekend

This is really late, but I really wanted to post what we did because we had a lot of fun and we took some great pictures. Because the fourth of July was on a Sunday they split the festivities between Saturday and Monday. Friday night, as mentioned in the last post, we moved, but because our house was a mess in Lehi, it was late, and all the fourth of July festivities are in Provo, we ended up staying at Stephen’s parents house in Provo. On Saturday we went to the Freedom Festival on Center Street in Provo. It’s basically like a giant Farmer’s market with lots of booths set up with handmade crafts and great food, etc. Last year they had some rides to, but I didn’t see any. It also could have been because we didn’t go all the way down to the end. We got tired and it as time for the babes to take a nap. Plus, we had a BBQ to go to at Uncle Stephen and Aunt Tracy’s and we didn’t want to be late; especially since they always have great food. Tracy is an awesome cook! We skipped James nap and went straight there, but he ended up taking a nap on there floor. Isn’t he cute? If you think you see lumps in his diaper then you’re correct, but I didn’t want to wake him, so we just let him sleep like that. Then we set off some fireworks that we’d gotten. We took some really cool pictures, so go here to see them. Sunday we went and saw my Grandma Jeanne Dean. Then Monday we went to the Fourth of July parade (again) in Provo. James peed through his two outfits that weren’t packed up, so we got him a baby tee at the dollar store. He went around with no pants on and daddy’s hat from Ecuador. Finally Monday night we went to our new home, and spent our first night there. Ahhh…home sweet home. P.S. I’m still unpacking. P.P.S. Did I mention that we don’t have internet?

Crazy Weekend and More...

We moved on July 2nd a Friday with, thankfully, a lot of help from the members in our ward, and they were able to do it all in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Funny, I told Stephen on Sunday to tell them that we would be feeding them pizza for their help (don't you hate it when you work hard with absolutely no reward, not even a cool glass of lemonade? I do.), so about 6 people volunteered; but when the pizza eating time came after packing I had to threaten people to eat it. Gee wiz, doesn't anyone like pizza anymore? Maybe because it was $5 buck pizza and not Papa Murphey's. Oh well. When we went to pick up our U-haul truck they accidentally overbooked the 14' truck, so they gave us the the 17' upgrade for free. Which was really nice by the way, I don't think that we would have been able to fit it all in the 14' truck. I forget to include the washer and dryer and love seat when reserving the truck size. So we were blessed. (Tangent Note: we actually had to leave our other/old loveseat behind because when we took it out of the garage where we had been keeping it in storage for the last almost two years we discovered that mice had been using the loveseat as their latrine. yuck!) One of the guys/ward movers even complimented me and said that out of all the moves he has ever done our was the most organized. Thank-you! I had packed pretty much the whole house by myself, and had felt a little bitter about it, but then when moving the actual boxes came in to play I didn't lift a finger. Mostly because I had to hold James, so Stephen did his part loading and unloading everything. Plus, I had put signs up everywhere trying to make things easier for them. Now I'm just trying to still finish all the unpacking. Man we have a lot of stuff! I'm trying my best to downsize, and still working at it. It's hard because we have a lot of family preparedness stuff that takes up room, and we can't obviously downsize those things.
So, we're pretty much all moved in and we love our new ward. We already have friends. Stephen has a friend from work, an old mission buddy, and a second cousin (one of the Stratfords) in our ward, and they all are married/have families. It's great. Our last ward was so hard to make friends because all the younger couples were moving so frequently, and/or they were busy with school or work. Not to mention being newly married they are very much into each other. But this ward seems more stable, in the sense that in four months a third of the ward won't be full of new people. I'm very excited, just trying to get used to the idea of not being near anything. I think that these new friends will fill that spot though...

(again sorry it's been awhile, we don't have internet anymore, since July 1st to be exact . Once I figure out where the Lehi library is hopefully I'll keep this more up to date.) (July 4th festivities' post coming soon...)