Visit with friends

A put together a cluster of pictures from our visit with the Colemans out in Utah. They've been our good friends for a long time, and we are lucky to have such great friends!

The kids playing in the fountain at Gateway Mall.

Doing sparklers. Hailey and Kenzie on the slides.

Karen, Kenzie and me. Chris and Mike

Park City, Utah

I totally spaced blogging the main part of our trip to Utah..........every year my family has a family reunion up in Park City. We all stay at the Silver King resort, and do some swimming, hiking, the alpine slide and some more swimming. This year we were up there over the 4th of July, so we had front row seats to the firework show up there. And I mean literally front row, we were right across the street from the parking lot where they were setting them off. It was amazing! Braxton had a great time with all of the cousins. And everyone was able to go except Jarom and Liina, so almost the entire family was there. Amber, Hunter and Anna
Zach showing off his back dive
Some of the fireworksThis is my favorite picture....Mike and Hailey came down the slide together and their sled stopped about 100 yards from the end. So Mike had to pull Hailey down the rest of the way.
Mike and Hailey
Braxton and Noah
Kira, Hailey and Carter

Spencer, Zach, Abe, Carter, Braxton and Uncle Craig heading up to ride the Alpine slide.
Stacy, Amanda, Jeff, Parker, Summer and Kim....below them you can see Mike, Hailey, Kerry, Sophia, Kim (Kerry's babysitter) and Amber.

Air and Space Museum

Actually, I'm not quite sure what this museum was called. It's out at the Dulles airport and there were airplanes and space equipment in it, so I just assumed. We met up with Mikes Dad and Stepmom there. It was pretty cool to see all of the old fighter jets and a real Space shuttle. Unfortunately my camera battery died, so I wasn't able to get many pictures. Braxton and Grandpa Ellsworth
Aunt Kerri and Hailey

Hershey Park, Pennsylvania

Part of the plan to go up to DC, was to also go up to Palmyra, NY and see some of the church sites up there. Along the way, we were going to stop at Hershey Park for a day. However, after driving to and from Utah, and then up to Virginia, I'd had enough in the car. We'd already bought our tickets for the park, so we decided to go up for the day. Hershey is about 2 1/2 hrs away from Mike's, mom's, so not too far. The park turned out to be a lot bigger than we had anticipated. There were a ton of rides, big roller coasters, and a lot of little rides for Hailey to go on. Braxton and Hailey on the hot air balloon ride.Hailey and Aunt Kerri on the spaceships Aunt Kerri and Hailey
Braxton and I

This is my favorite picture....Hailey wanted Mike to ride on the Frogger with her....I am surprised they let him on the ride.

Look closely at Mikes belly....tight squeeze.
It was hilarious watching him on the ride. The platform would just bounce up and down.

In a previous blog, I posted a picture of Mike, Braxton and Kerri on a ride...this is the ride. It was called "Storm Runner".

Braxton and Cheryl after we'd gone on the "wet" ride. I can't remember the name of it. But dumb us pick our last ride of the day to be one that SOAKS you! We all had to ride in the car soaking wet....well Kerri and Hailey didn't.

Hailey had seen little girls with their faces painted at the park, and had begged all day to have her's painted "like a princess". I had put it off all day, but while we were on the wet roller coaster her Aunt Kerri had her face painted. She loved it so much she wouldn't let me wash her face the next day and walked around with smeared face paint.

Trip into DC

Mikes Mom and Stepdad live just outside of Washington DC, so it's easy to drive into town and do some sight seeing. It was very hot and humid, however, so that made for some cranky kids...and adults.

Me, Hailey, Braxton and Mike at the FDR memorial. (there were some amazing sculptures and water fountains)

Braxton, Mike and Hailey standing in line with the unemployed workers, during the depression.

Grandma Cheryl, with Braxton and Hailey.

Me, Braxton and Hailey standing in the Jefferson Memorial, you can see the Washington Memorial behind us.

Virginia/West Virginia 08

Another week, another "vacation". I am vacationed out at this point! It's been fun, but I'm tired of being in the car. We just got back from a trip up to DC and West Virginia to visit Mikes parents. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to be back up there.

The first part of the trip was spent with Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Dave. We did A LOT of stuff and most of it was done in 95' or higher heat! We visited the treasury department and saw how they print money, we saw the new FDR memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, we did some shopping, and we drove up to Hershey Pennsylvania and went to Hershey Park, which was a blast!



The second part of our trip was spent with Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth. They both work during the week so we were only able to spend a couple of days with them, but we still had a great time. We got to see the space and air museum, saw "Batman" and went and played at their house, which is located on 3 acres. The kids love being with their grandparents, and their Aunt Kerri. Braxton was so upset when we left and wanted to go back.



I have lots of pictures to post, but haven't loaded them from my camera yet....but this one I had to scan in....it's classic. This is Mike, Kerri and Braxton on a rollercoaster at Hershey Park called Storm Runner..... Their faces say it all.

Fathers Day

I noticed that I didn't mention Father's Day this year. I usually don't blog about things if there aren't pictures to go along with it and we didn't take any pictures on Father's day. But I thought I'd just pay tribute to Mike..... If any of you have seen him with the kids there is no doubt at what a great father he is. He's loving, patient (most of the time), fun, a great listener, and loves to just play with the kids. I asked Braxton and Hailey what their favorite thing about their dad was and Braxton said that "he's fun and playful" and Hailey said that she loves when "daddy tickles Braxton and wrestles Braxton and she jumps on his back." :)

We had a pretty low key Father's Day this year. The Crosby's and the Sampson's (Minus Destin) came over for dinner. Kris and I were supposed to cook, but it turned out that Mike and Mike did most of the cooking.

Mike, you are a great father and a wonderful husband. Thanks for all that you do! We love you.

Utah

So I'm noticing as my kids get older that I just can't go to my parents and hang out anymore, they get bored very easily. And when they are bored they are kranky and obnoxious. So I had to come up with things to keep them entertained, which when you live in a place for most of your life you take for granted all it has to offere and it's hard to come up with things that you can do. I decided to take them to "Heritage Park". When I was growing up it was just the "this is the place monument", but it's grown into a whole little town of things to do. I figured it would be good for Braxton to see Brigham Youngs house and get a taste of how the pioneers lived. So one morning we went with my mom and the kids had a great time.

My Mom, Braxton and Hailey at Brigham Youngs farm house.Braxton and Hailey in one of the bedrooms in BY's house

Hailey, My mom and Braxton taking a wagon ride

Me, Hailey and Braxton sitting in BY's gazebo

Braxton petting a friendly horse.

The Trek

We did it! We made it to and from Utah, in the car, without killing eachother! It was a long trip, (about 32 hours and we do it in two days) but a good time. Nicole Sampson and myself, along with our six kids traveled out to Utah to visit our families for a couple of weeks, and with airline prices being so high we decided to drive, although with gas prices being so high I don't know how much $ we saved. But it's always an interesting experience, one that I hope the kids won't forget. There were no earth shattering events along the way, other than Zach Sampson figuring out (the hard way) that he can't play is DS and drive on windy roads at the same time. He threw up for about 2 hours......and one of the sacks he threw up in had a hole in the bottom of it.....not pretty! The "road crew"...Nicole, Me, Braxton, Parker, Zach

Max, Gabby and Hailey
I had put together little "activity purses" for the girls to keep them entertained. And thought that putting in princess stamps along with a pad of paper for them to stamp on would be fun for them....well, they thought it would be more fun to take the stamp pad and wipe it all over their hands and arms.

Braxton, Parker and Zach at a stopoff in Tennessee (notice everyone is still happy)

The drive back home is always the longest...everyone is tired and done with the car. The first day went pretty smoothly, there were some scuffles here and there, but nothing major. The second day, tempers were high and everyone was cranky. After taking away all game boys and DS's we had to turn off the movie and when that didn't work we gave everyone Dramamine....and this is the result. Peace and quiet.

Nicole and I both get car sick when the roads are windy, so when one of us isn't driving the other has to take dramamine. I know Nicole would kill me if she knew I put this on my blog. She was OUT!

Summer...in full force!

Well, we've been out of school for about three weeks now, and time has FLOWN by! There have definately been no lazy days of summer here. Between going out of town, and all of the camps that my kids have been doing I feel like we've constantly been on the go. The weather has been nice and hot, but the lake is still low and with the cost of gas these days, we can't justify going out on the boat. So here it is the middle of June and I still have yet to go wakeboarding! My most favorite thing to do.

Braxton has had a very busy summer so far. First we had scout camp, which he absolutely LOVED! I made the mistake of volunteering for a couple of days, which at times was super painful, but we got through it. (Mike says I've voided the service if I complain about it.......is that true? :) Anyway, Braxton did a lot of fun things and brought a lot of "projects" home with him. I don't have the heart to throw anything away yet. There is a life size picture that the kids did of themselves, that everytime I see it out of the corner of my eye I start to panic cause I think someone is in the house........especially at night! I figure I'd give it a few more weeks and then I'd break it to Braxton that it's time for it to go. Braxton has also done a basketball camp. Which he also LOVED!

Hailey hasn't been left out. She was able to do a "princess" camp. Yep you read right, they now have princess camp. They had tea parties, learned ballet dances, did dress up, colored princess pictures, made princess crafts and played in the "castle". She loved it too. She still asks if she can go back to princess camp.

Our summer took a turn two weeks ago when we found out that the rental house that we own, was vacated by it's tenants, who still owe us two months rent. They had lived there for 4 years, never been late with rent and had planned to buy it, which almost happened twice, and I'm talkin we were down to the day of closing when we'd recieve a call saying there was a gliche and it needed to be postponed. Anyway, they just up and moved. So I went over to the house to see what kind of condition it was in, and OH MY GOSH! It's hard to put into words what the house looks like. I'll just say this, I can't imagine that anyone lived in that house the condition it's in. It's so dirty, bug infested, smelly............and I'm at a loss for words. It's something you have to witness for yourself. So, we are in the process of fixing it up. I have come to the realization that every spare second we have has to be devoted to getting the house ready to sell. I'll post pictures later.

I am venturing out to Utah next week. And I say venturing because we are driving once again. After our last trip I promised myself that was the last time, but never say never I guess. The Sampsons are coming with us again, so it's Nicole, myself and six kids. Should be an adventure!

one year older, and none the wiser......

Another birthday come and gone! I never thought I'd dread getting older, but it just seems that each year brings more challenges, as far as the breakdown of my body. I can remember my older sister telling me on my 30th birthday, that things start to change once you turn the big 3 0. I just kind of brushed it off, but oh my gosh, it's true. I never would have thought that I would wake up every morning, stiff on every part of my body, and when I walk down the stairs my ankles, knees...HIPS would crack all the way down! I'm only 33 for crying out loud. But I guess so goes life. So instead of focusing on the negatives I made a list of all of the things I'm grateful for....Mike, being a good provider, working hard so he would have a good stable job, being a worthy priesthood holder, fulfilling his calling to the best of his ablility, his way of trying to make me feel better when I'm stressed, being a great dad to our kids, being a hard worker! loving me when I'm not so easy to love.... Braxton, trying hard at school, being kind to his sister, helping out when I'm sick, having a great sense of humor, being kind and giving to everyone. Hailey, being loving, always wanting to help me out around the house, asking me if I'm ok when she sees I'm sad. Having a wonderful extended family, having parents and inlaws who love me and my family. Having awesome friends who are there when we need them. And most of all having a relationship with my Heavenly Father and my brother Jesus Christ, knowing that eventhough I feel like it sometimes, I am never alone.