The Monday before labor day rolled around Casey informs me that the entire office has chosen to take off the Friday before Labor Day so he's forced to take it off to. In hopes of not wasting a 4 day weekend, we thought it a bright idea to invite ourselves up to Montana and visit Casey's two uncles and their families who love up there. Let me tell you, they are the most wonderful families, both having so many qualities that I want implement in my own family or even us as parents. We had such a fabulous time!
We drove up Thursday night arriving half past midnight. Since the boys essentially slept the whole 6 hours up there, getting them back to sleep was rough business! Ha. I don't think the twins truly fell asleep until like 2 and from what I heard from Casey, Max didn't fall asleep until like 3, even being caught eating a tube of toothpaste. That kid and sneaking the toothpaste! I don't get it!
Friday was wonderful, we just sat around and talked with the family in the morning, met their HUGE bunnies in the backyard, rode bikes in the front yard, played with squirt guns, a neighbor boy brought my boys tiny frogs to play with, walked Jacob and Chandler to school, went to a huge park that had a creek and big playground to play on (and someone had their ferret on a leash, weirdo, but the kids were overly entertained). The older kids got back from school and my boys were thoroughly happy and entertained. Lexi, Carissa, Chandler, and Jacob are such fantastic kids. How in the world do you raise such sweet, loving, kind, obedient children!?!?!?! sure they probably have their imperfections but overall those are for sure the cream of the crop. They were so sweet to my kids.
Friday night all the family in Montana came over including Janae and her baby. We played 9 square, ate delicious homemade lasagna, it was just a fabulous evening laughing and talking with them all. I can't even remember the conversations I just remember the feelings of all love and happiness coming from them all. Unfortunately the whole weekend we were there, the state of Montana was covered in fires so the skies were so smokey and outside even smelt like a campfire at times.
Saturday morning we woke up decently early and I went and took pictures of Lance and Malinda's family! Their pictures turned out so fabulous, if I do say so myself, and I think they were really happy with them. By the end of the photo shoot the kids were actually WANTING to take more pictures and saying how fun it was! How awesome is that!
Maxson learned how to ride their little motorcycle that fit him perfectly, it seriously brought tears to my eyes teaching my boy how to ride a motorcycle like his mama. Sharing a hobby that brings me so much joy with my child and seeing him enjoy it so much was just so so fabulous. Max would have ridden that motorcycle all day I tell ya; along with Chandler and Jacob he just kept following and following them endlessly! Casey and I also rode Lance's bike, it's a 150cc I think, and it was great to be back on the bike shifting gears up and down the street, racing Max, and even more, taking the twins on rides, who of course LOVED it. Quinn said he didn't like going fast but it was just such a stinking blast. I want more!!!!!
We did a quick but wonderful trip to the tempe with Lance and Malinda while their kids watched our kids. We did dealings and it was very special to be in the room together with them. Power couple right there most definitely.
Sunday we went to church, all the helping hands around us was wonderful. Sweet Malinda stayed in nursery with my kids and even took Easton the whole time. It was great to be edified! Quinn informed us after church that he hates nursery. It was the funniest moment. When we told him that in Primary next year you won't get snacks he said "I hate snacks!" He is the stinking cutest. Always telling us stuff he doesn't like lol.
After church we went over to Kert and Catherine's and hung out there all evening snacking on a delicious taco bar all night long. Catherine had the most darling display of pineapples all over her home, we went on a hunt counting and there was like 58 or something. So cute. Love that woman. The boys were in heaven playing with all the weapons, legos, and Connor's cars. Bless that boy for sharing, ha. Love learning from them all, old and young.
Monday we slept in, all super tired from the night before, had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausage, packed up the car and sweet Malinda began giving us so much of Jacobs stuff he no longer uses or fits. it was fantastic. Clothes galore, toys, a bike and best of all the beloved motorcycle! Max couldn't believe his eyes and was oh so so so happy! It was super sweet of them. We're lucky it fit in our car, ha! Them mini vans sure can hold a lot!
We met all the Christensens over at a little lake with kayaks galore and did a little kayaking trip with the kids, it was a perfect activity for us all and really really fun. I love that it doesn't seem as if these families are continually on their phones, they connect with each other and are genuinely interested in being with one another and caring for each others needs. Their positive, centered in the gospel, serve one another endlessly, honest in all their doings, and FUN to be around, but real people with imperfections. I hope to be like so many of them after getting to spend 4 days with their great families.
We left back for home stopping in Cody for a couple hours to visit Josh George and their family and then back home!
Montana, we will definitely come visit you again!
Showing posts with label vacations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacations. Show all posts
Friday, September 8, 2017
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
A graduation trip
We had a most wonderful graduation trip this last weekend to Vail Colorado with some other dear friends who also graduated dental school with us!
Details!
Our dear friend, Katie, made it known that we could probably use her family's cabin up in Vail and we were stoked! Our plans fell through with the beach house we were going to do from someone's uncle because another one of our graduating friends would be too pregnant to join, so to Colorado it was!
Originally it was going to be us, Hinckleys, Blomstedts, and Welchs. But through a series of unfortunate circumstances, the day before it turned out to be just us and Hinckleys. We dearly missed all our other friends but still had such a fantastic time with the Hinkcley's.
Tayli, Casey's sister, bless her heart volunteered to be flown out to come watch our kids by herself for 5 days!!!!!! I am so indebted to her. Seriously. I was needing a break so badly from my wonderful children (love them! but definitely needed a break!). We had to rent a car but totally worth it.
She flew in Wednesday afternoon and we left Thursday morning! It was a long 8 1/2 hour drive but we made it! The Hicnkleys arrived just 15 minutes after we did, great timing!
The first night we watched a movie (I think? I honestly can't remember right now!) played a great game of wise or otherwise (love me, love my dog. once i've had enough, i want one more. cut your own loaf, pinch your own loaf- some hilarious fun). Carolyn made a delicious chicken tortilla soup with all the fixin's!
Friday we slept in nice and long, so wonderful!!!!!!! Drank delicious apple cider to wake up, watched the movie Cinderella and had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Casey and walked down the hill not knowing where we were going really, the Hinckley's picked us up later and we drove to their downtown busy village area. We walked around the area by the river, threw rocks, found new walking paths and just enjoyed being in nature. Also not having to nag at anyone to "stop doing that!" "come back here!" "no no no!" was quite refreshing. I actually got to hold Casey's hand as we walked and even walked with arms around each other lazily! Whew that hasn't happened in ages!
We came back and watched another movie, Guardians of the Galaxy maybe? Made sandwiches for lunch, maybe even took some naps! IN the afternoon we drove an hour away to some hot springs. The car ride through the curvy mountains made me real sick, blah. And then when we got out of the car I had a big whiff of sulfur from a bad area of the hot springs and that just about did me in. Luckily I kept my pride and did not vomit everywhere, uck. It quickly got better with fresher smelling air and being out of the car.
The hot springs were so much fun! It was two very large pools. One was a most most VERY comfortable 93 degrees and the other 104 to 106 degrees. We mostly hung out in the 93 one since our friends had their 8 month old little boy with them. We did get in the 104 one for awhile but the 93 one just felt so wonderful! The mountainous background was so beautiful too! The weather was so awesome we just couldn't feel luckier. We talked about everything under the moon with our friends during that hour and a half; politics, finances, kids, futures, friends, school, it was just a really fun afternoon.
We came home that evening to STEAK! All I want lately is steak, it just tastes so dang good! Steak, potatoes, carrots, sparkling cider, it was a really fun celebratory dinner. The combo of steak and sparkling cider in wine glasses and no children made it feel really special. I wanted to soak in every minute. That night we watched Avengers Age of Ultron which I fell asleep half way through, we'll have to watch it again later!
Saturday morning was another great long sleep in morning. Lon made up a big hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, orange juice, it was so delicious. The whole trip I just wanted to eat more and more food but was constantly so stuffed!!!!!! We ate real good that trip, real good. I think we watched a James Bond movie that morning.
In the late morning after we had lazed round long enough to feel greatly relaxed, we went searching for downtown area, but didn't quite find it. Instead we found a couple waterfalls! One we kinda hiked to was a little pretty one, and then once Casey saw the freshly looking bear paw print in the snow and then a little cave not far away and that was quick enough to scare us back down the little mountain we climbed. We found some other large houses to gawk at on our way to the downtown area again where we pretended we were high class walking into all the shops looking at the WAY overpriced items, haha. Like I said, it really was just fun to be with friends talking and laughing and being out in the wonderful open mountain air!
in the picture below you can see the cave to the left of Lon's head, nice and dark and scary, perfect nesting place for a bear!
We came home, watched Man of Steel (I don't think I had watched that many movies in the whole past year!!!!), had a lunch, lazied around and just chatted. We all kept talking about what we wanted from this trip and for me it was I just didn't want responsibility. I wanted to be able to sit and do nothing when I wanted or get up and immediately go when I wanted to and I got just that.
In the afternoon we went on a little walk up the neighborhood of the cabin which turned into finding a little hiking/walking trail we followed for a little bit. Lon turned into Gandalf the grey with his ginormous walking stick. It was fun being in the mountains and looking out over the gorgeous mountainside.
We came back to delicious soup leftovers and played games and just chatted for the rest of the evening while sipping fancy sparkling cider in more fancy cups. It was so great being with friends. We hope so much to stay in close contact with the Hinckleys. They are such a great friends. They are headed off to Oral Surgery school in Ohio for the next 4 years, those crazies!
Sunday morning was more sleeping in, cinnamon rolls, intense sausage mcmuffins, cereal, and apple cider for breakfast. We cleaned up the house and waited for church to come. I seriously sat on the couch with NOTHING to do before church began, so strange yet such a nice change for once!
Our 10 am meeting was 2 miles down the road in the next town over and to our surprise it was a bilingual ward- what fun! Half the speakers spoke spanish while the elders translated for us with little headsets so we could listen. It was a wonderful sacrament meeting. We went to the english Sunday school class, and then relief society was in spanish again! A kind sister volunteered to translate for us with the headsets again, so grateful because the lesson was wonderful! It's so fun how the spirit can all speak to us, language does not matter!
After church we came home and had yummy taco salad and packed up the rest of our stuff to go! We were going to stay one more day but we were sure missing our cute kids plus we didn't feel like there was much to do Sunday afternoon.
The drive home was LONG, but we got home a little before midnight and went in to look at our beautiful sleeping children. How I missed them and loved them but oh how I needed that break!
Our next morning was quite drastic to our previous ones, Max abruptly woke us to "mommy!" at 6:00 am and the babies followed at 6:30. They were all so happy to see us (mostly, but Bryson just kept looking at me with a big frowny face on the verge of tears when I tried talking to him, I think he must have been very offended I had left).
The trip was wonderful. I'm so glad we were able to go. I'm so grateful Tayli would watch our kids. I'm so proud of my husband for finishing 4 long years of dental school!
Details!
Our dear friend, Katie, made it known that we could probably use her family's cabin up in Vail and we were stoked! Our plans fell through with the beach house we were going to do from someone's uncle because another one of our graduating friends would be too pregnant to join, so to Colorado it was!
Originally it was going to be us, Hinckleys, Blomstedts, and Welchs. But through a series of unfortunate circumstances, the day before it turned out to be just us and Hinckleys. We dearly missed all our other friends but still had such a fantastic time with the Hinkcley's.
Tayli, Casey's sister, bless her heart volunteered to be flown out to come watch our kids by herself for 5 days!!!!!! I am so indebted to her. Seriously. I was needing a break so badly from my wonderful children (love them! but definitely needed a break!). We had to rent a car but totally worth it.
She flew in Wednesday afternoon and we left Thursday morning! It was a long 8 1/2 hour drive but we made it! The Hicnkleys arrived just 15 minutes after we did, great timing!
The first night we watched a movie (I think? I honestly can't remember right now!) played a great game of wise or otherwise (love me, love my dog. once i've had enough, i want one more. cut your own loaf, pinch your own loaf- some hilarious fun). Carolyn made a delicious chicken tortilla soup with all the fixin's!
Friday we slept in nice and long, so wonderful!!!!!!! Drank delicious apple cider to wake up, watched the movie Cinderella and had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Casey and walked down the hill not knowing where we were going really, the Hinckley's picked us up later and we drove to their downtown busy village area. We walked around the area by the river, threw rocks, found new walking paths and just enjoyed being in nature. Also not having to nag at anyone to "stop doing that!" "come back here!" "no no no!" was quite refreshing. I actually got to hold Casey's hand as we walked and even walked with arms around each other lazily! Whew that hasn't happened in ages!
We came back and watched another movie, Guardians of the Galaxy maybe? Made sandwiches for lunch, maybe even took some naps! IN the afternoon we drove an hour away to some hot springs. The car ride through the curvy mountains made me real sick, blah. And then when we got out of the car I had a big whiff of sulfur from a bad area of the hot springs and that just about did me in. Luckily I kept my pride and did not vomit everywhere, uck. It quickly got better with fresher smelling air and being out of the car.
The hot springs were so much fun! It was two very large pools. One was a most most VERY comfortable 93 degrees and the other 104 to 106 degrees. We mostly hung out in the 93 one since our friends had their 8 month old little boy with them. We did get in the 104 one for awhile but the 93 one just felt so wonderful! The mountainous background was so beautiful too! The weather was so awesome we just couldn't feel luckier. We talked about everything under the moon with our friends during that hour and a half; politics, finances, kids, futures, friends, school, it was just a really fun afternoon.
We came home that evening to STEAK! All I want lately is steak, it just tastes so dang good! Steak, potatoes, carrots, sparkling cider, it was a really fun celebratory dinner. The combo of steak and sparkling cider in wine glasses and no children made it feel really special. I wanted to soak in every minute. That night we watched Avengers Age of Ultron which I fell asleep half way through, we'll have to watch it again later!
Saturday morning was another great long sleep in morning. Lon made up a big hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, orange juice, it was so delicious. The whole trip I just wanted to eat more and more food but was constantly so stuffed!!!!!! We ate real good that trip, real good. I think we watched a James Bond movie that morning.
In the late morning after we had lazed round long enough to feel greatly relaxed, we went searching for downtown area, but didn't quite find it. Instead we found a couple waterfalls! One we kinda hiked to was a little pretty one, and then once Casey saw the freshly looking bear paw print in the snow and then a little cave not far away and that was quick enough to scare us back down the little mountain we climbed. We found some other large houses to gawk at on our way to the downtown area again where we pretended we were high class walking into all the shops looking at the WAY overpriced items, haha. Like I said, it really was just fun to be with friends talking and laughing and being out in the wonderful open mountain air!
if we were already practicing dentists for 5 years these would have been our souvenirs.
We came home, watched Man of Steel (I don't think I had watched that many movies in the whole past year!!!!), had a lunch, lazied around and just chatted. We all kept talking about what we wanted from this trip and for me it was I just didn't want responsibility. I wanted to be able to sit and do nothing when I wanted or get up and immediately go when I wanted to and I got just that.
In the afternoon we went on a little walk up the neighborhood of the cabin which turned into finding a little hiking/walking trail we followed for a little bit. Lon turned into Gandalf the grey with his ginormous walking stick. It was fun being in the mountains and looking out over the gorgeous mountainside.
We came back to delicious soup leftovers and played games and just chatted for the rest of the evening while sipping fancy sparkling cider in more fancy cups. It was so great being with friends. We hope so much to stay in close contact with the Hinckleys. They are such a great friends. They are headed off to Oral Surgery school in Ohio for the next 4 years, those crazies!
Sunday morning was more sleeping in, cinnamon rolls, intense sausage mcmuffins, cereal, and apple cider for breakfast. We cleaned up the house and waited for church to come. I seriously sat on the couch with NOTHING to do before church began, so strange yet such a nice change for once!
Our 10 am meeting was 2 miles down the road in the next town over and to our surprise it was a bilingual ward- what fun! Half the speakers spoke spanish while the elders translated for us with little headsets so we could listen. It was a wonderful sacrament meeting. We went to the english Sunday school class, and then relief society was in spanish again! A kind sister volunteered to translate for us with the headsets again, so grateful because the lesson was wonderful! It's so fun how the spirit can all speak to us, language does not matter!
After church we came home and had yummy taco salad and packed up the rest of our stuff to go! We were going to stay one more day but we were sure missing our cute kids plus we didn't feel like there was much to do Sunday afternoon.
The drive home was LONG, but we got home a little before midnight and went in to look at our beautiful sleeping children. How I missed them and loved them but oh how I needed that break!
Our next morning was quite drastic to our previous ones, Max abruptly woke us to "mommy!" at 6:00 am and the babies followed at 6:30. They were all so happy to see us (mostly, but Bryson just kept looking at me with a big frowny face on the verge of tears when I tried talking to him, I think he must have been very offended I had left).
The trip was wonderful. I'm so glad we were able to go. I'm so grateful Tayli would watch our kids. I'm so proud of my husband for finishing 4 long years of dental school!
Thursday, April 3, 2014
our spring break in indiana
for supposedly the last year this was our last opportunity to visit indiana! we do love visiting family and this trip did no disappoint. the adventurous casey persisted through my grumblings of not wanting to drive 11 hours with maxson and took us to indiana anyways. i'm so glad casey loves to travel because trips are always worth awful drive in the end.
parked it with the family which was stupendous
played don't eat pete, maxson cracked us up with how he caught on
st. patrick's day! camille is so great at making lots of green things. we had the most scrumptious green lime cake, green chicken lemon garlic pasta, green mini german pancakes (some were green). most the kids did not like all the food colored green, ha. funniest part is that we colored the milk green and when i gave it to max he expected it to taste yummy (like from strawberry/chocolate milk mix), he wasn't happy that it didn't have a new fun taste, ha.
camille and her kiddos in their green
littles making messes
littles making messes
one day we went to the children's museum in indiana which was quite spectacular, it was like a mini amusement park! there was so much fun for the kids, max loved exploring it all
chalk and bikes outside
i helped camille make new pillow covers, they turned out sober cute. this is my 4th set of pillow coverings i've done, they're so fun.
and that is some of our trip!
we're so lucky to have such good friends in our family members, i know maxson loved being around other children 24/7. he slept absolutely awful while there but has recovered since.
boy oh boy we love our family!!!
we're so lucky to have such good friends in our family members, i know maxson loved being around other children 24/7. he slept absolutely awful while there but has recovered since.
boy oh boy we love our family!!!
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