July's adventures

Mike took some pictures of Rachy so he could enter her in a cute baby contest, but he never entered. (I'd vote for her!) Independence Day parade in Haysville with the Barnards. The girls in the basement playing surgery on their toys. Mike and I took the young women on a high adventure canoe trip to Buffalo National River in Arkansas. It was pouring buckets of rain on us the afternoon we arrived. We set up and cooked in the rain-at least it was warm. Had this huge spider stow away in our trailer-the kids were fascinated. Good times. Our cousins, the Andersons stayed a night with us and the kids played hard.

Easter Morning

 

In front of the church on our way in to the Sunday morning session of General Conference.

Easter Egg hunt

 
All the fun happened this year in between the sessions of Saturday's General Conference. The kids helped us put the candy in the plastic eggs-I really liked that part, especially since our neighbor gave us a big garbage sack of plastic eggs that they don't use any more. Then we ate lunch while Daddy hid them in the back yard, and the kids went out and found them all in about 5 minutes. I think some of the kids are getting too old, or we've got to hide the eggs better.

Christmas vacation, part two

 

A long drive up north on Christmas Eve was made even longer when Michael got sick in the back seat and we had to pull over and clean up. Hannah was sick the day before and Bekah got sick on Christmas (she was none too enthusiastic about opening her stocking and always had her throw-up bowl close by). Thankfully noone else got sick the rest of the trip. We were saddened to find Brenda's grandma in the hospital, but we got to visit a few times and she is now home and recovering. A funny story was told and retold by grandpa several times: Sarah came to tattle on Rachel for pushing her so Daddy asked her if she had pushed Rachel first and she immediately replied "no, I just did this..." (recreating her choking Rachel around the neck). He thought that was hilarious. One of the highlights of our trip up to Salt Lake area was seeing the lights at Temple Square. The kids loved the lights; but the cold-not so much. The younger three were bawling for a good 20 minutes after we got in the car to drive back home. Good times. Hannah was in heaven the whole time because she got to spend lots of time with her two best cousins. Their favorite part about the entire trip was the morning we spent at the skating center with their cousins. Roller skates, scooters, laser tag, bounce houses, a cool jungle gym, pizza and video games. What's not to love? We stayed with my mom (Nana), and got to see my grandpa and grandma, my cousins, my Dad and Linda, my brother, my sister and her kids, and even my friend from high school. We had nice traveling weather, spent time with loved ones and made a lot of great memories.

Christmas Vacation, part one

 

I'm going to divide our trip into the southern and northern adventures. After traveling through the night, the first big sight the kids saw when waking up was Hoover Dam. Our visit with "Uncle Dave" was worth the trip. Their adorable twin boys are the sweetest-we all felt a little closer to Heaven after spending time with them. Next stop-St. George. We got to stay with Mike's sister and her kids, spend time with Mike's brother and see his parents. That wasn't all, oh no. We also got together with most of the Chavez relatives: Mike's Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Mike's Grandpa from Kanab even came up. It was so nice to see everyone and catch up on their lives. The kids loved hanging out with their cousins-the weather was so nice they didn't have to wear coats to go to the park or dance out on the trampoline. We had such a blast and we miss them all so much.

Our Christmas before Christmas.

 

We opened gifts before our trip so we wouldn't have to pack them all in our van. The girls were very excited about their American Girl Dolls and Michael loved his Space Police lego set. Rachel was the only unhappy camper. She wanted Sarah's Bitty Baby and Sarah wasn't about to share. They had a few smackdowns and we had to put the baby up. All was calm after that and Biscuit was the last to open his gift-he knew just what to do.

Labor Day adventure

About a week before Labor Day I opened my spice cupboard, noticed a tin of almonds and remembered I was going to make granola. Thinking about granola reminded me of hiking and thence sprang the idea of going on a hike for Labor Day (it is now Sept 14and I still haven't made the granola, but we did go hiking). We drove out to Toronto Lake in the Flint Hills; passing thousands of acres of cattle grazing land. The kids would've done better if we had brought a video, but it wasn't too bad for a day trip. We played lots of I spy and 20 questions. The hike was beautiful and had lots of interesting nature for the kids to explore: Tunnel spider webs just off the trail, silk worm "webs" up in the trees, mushrooms, bridges, rocks-even some pretty large hills. Instead of granola, we stopped midway and snacked on food from our 72 hour kits (we need to rotate them anyway). More I spy on the trail; a tree?, a rock?, the sky? And the thing they loved the most: Keeping an eye out for the blue squares on the trees marking the trail. The only casualties were some chigger bites and Rachel threw up in the car on the way home. Ahhh, that's what memories are made of.