July- Part 2

So the first weekend in July we headed up to Boston to visit my sister Caroline and her hubby Jayde. Brian's family was kind enough to watch the kiddos so we could have this nice weekend away. It was a lot of fun. We spent one day touring downtown Boston. Caroline was a great tour guide and had a lot of great information to share with us. It's almost like she'd been there a time or two. (hehe)

We did a lot of walking that day and I was ready to die by the time we climbed up the Bunker Hill Monument. It wasn't that bad climbing up, it was down that started working on me pretty good. We got to the top and I don't know if we even stayed up there 3 minutes because a group of boy scouts came up and they were all sweaty and stinky and that was it for me! :)

 

After we got down my legs were jello! Laying there on the grass with the breeze blowing was a heavenly moment.

On the way back down through the city to our car we stopped by this pastry shop that is known to be delish so we grabbed a few cannolis and a heavenly cupcake! Ate back all our calories we burned walking that day, but so worth it! It was like soup nazi kitchen from Seinfeld. You forced your way up to the counter and yelled out your order and pushed your way back out. Quite the experience!

 And as if the cannoli wasn't enough, we had to go out and get the best ice cream I've probably ever had. Not just once, but twice! And they were huge ice cream cones and so worth it! I justified them from our long day of walking and our next day's 13+ mile bike ride!

 Day 2 was spent at Lexington and Concord. Caroline and Jayde were right! The bike ride made it was more fun. It was way fun! Perfect weather and just relaxing. We had a great time with them.

 That night we went to the beach and everyone got in but me. I was just thrilled to sit at a beach and relax with my eyes closed and not worry about a kid drowning. Besides, Brian only lasted about 30 minutes and got out because he was numb so I was just fine not getting in! It was pretty and relaxing.

 Our drive back was Brian's bday. He was nice enough to sacrifice it since it was our only weekend available to go up to Boston. On the way back we stopped for lunch at this great bbq place! It was yummy! We got back to the farm in time to celebrate my awesome hubby's bday with pie. It was a great trip.

A few days later was Bella's bday. Once the kids were done with school, we picked them up and went to Chucky Cheese. She wanted to go, so we did. We got back and had some pizza and then Elizabeth got Bella dressed up as a princess and so we had to take some pictures. There were so many beautiful ones of her. She's very photogenic! 

She wanted a fairy cake so I did my best. Liz made the most perfect little duck for our pond. She seemed pleased with it.

My Grandpa Porter passed away a few weeks later. It was unexpected and expected. He'd been getting weaker and weaker and one day he just stopped responding. Even though I knew it was coming, it was still hard. He was a great person and had such a love for family and family history. He did a lot of documenting of his life and ancestors and Nana's life. He devoted a lot of time putting together all that he knew and could find about our ancestors, quite a treasure really. I love him and will miss him.

 

Brian and his family were so kind to help out again as I left for a week to attend the funeral and be with my family. I felt bad leaving my kids again but wanted to be there for my Dad and be there for the funeral. Although the circumstances were sad, it was a wonderful and relaxing trip. It was great to see all my cousins and aunts and uncles and my sweet Nana. Sure love all of them.

Was also able to have a great night with the "originals". We went shopping and out to dinner and then got some ice cream after. I am blessed with such a wonderful family. I love all of them and love being with them. It's nice to sometimes get together without the kids so we can really enjoy each other's company.

 Love my sisters... even the orange haired one. Hahaha! The day before we bleached Jill's hair, cut Caroline's and dyed mine black, although it was supposed to be "natural dark brown". It was black! The first go round I had tiger stripes since my sister's didn't cover all the hair. It was a temporary hair color though so it's ok. I ended up liking it after the second round to cover the spots that didn't take. Jill put on 4 boxes to achieve a beautiful orange, then to dye it the color I was trying for in the first place. Too funny. Melanie was the practical one who left the way she came.

 My last day there we took a quick hike around Secret Lake. It's my kind of hike. No real hike, just walking around the lake on flat ground. It was beautiful and so nice to be there with my parents and in Utah. It's a great place!

I promised Liz and Sydney we'd do a bake sale. They made about $40 in 1 hour. I think we may have found a way to put Liz through college. Haha! They had fun and made plans for another one later in the summer. Cooper was great at jumping around getting attention. It was a success.

July was lots of good times with good people. People I love and am blessed to be party of a family with, especially my little nuggets. We've had a lot of fun with the trampoline this year. Just had to grab one with 3 of my 5 munchkins. Love all of them!

July- part 1

July was a great month! Always is. Here are some of the highlights:

Pool time:

Fireworks:

 With family:

Little Bubbles:

Big Bubbles:

Bigger Bubbles:

Biggest Bubbles:

Outside play:

Creative crafts:

Just to name a few.....

Draggin' my feet!

I don't know why, but I am totally not wanting to take the time to post on the blog lately. I think because my next story is so long and it's making me not want to get on and write about it. So, I'm going to touch the highlights and move on! I'm now 2 month behind! Yikes!

So my dear mother was sweet enough to drive back from Charleston to PA with me, that way I could stay almost a whole nuther week. Haha. I don't know how to spell that phrase. Someone asked me that the other day and now that I'm typing it I realize it must be made up. Oh well, so we started out and had to pull over probably 3 times in the first hour. It was not a good start! Most of the day was fine and the kids did really well. We had planned on making it back around midnight, but we ran into the mother of all storms! Like really! I was waiting for the cow to circle around us. Really I was waiting for something to crash through my window. I had driven all day and finally switched Mom and of course that was when the storm hit. It was crazy!!! We had to pull over under and overpass with several other cars to take cover because the rain was falling in sheets and we couldn't see. We finally ventured out again and there were tree parts strewn all about the road. In some areas, just the whole tree was down! Matter of fact, we ran over one of these said trees. Truly. A dang tree trunk lay almost all the way across the road and there was no avoiding it. And as if that weren't bad enough, shortly after we ran into a tree!!! It had snapped and was hanging over the freeway and we didn't see it until it was too late and I just yelled, "go through it", which looking back may have been a dumb idea, but we couldn't have swerved into the other lane, so we were blessed! If we had been in our suburban we would have had that trunk smash right into the window glass, but in the van, we missed the trunk and the branches just scraped along the top. It was like this chaos for a while. Finally we pulled over to try and get a car phone charger at walmart and people were driving in the wrong direction towards us and turns out a tree had fallen and knocked out the power lines. It was a mad crazy event so after a while of this we finally went and got a hotel and called it a night. At that point it was going to be nearly 3 AM before we got in. It was a good thing we stopped because the next morning we saw trees all along the freeway. It would have been a very long night. The news reported it as tornado strength wind but because it was so wide spread it couldn't be called one, but I believe it! That wind was CUH-RAY-ZEE!!!

We did make it and that night we took all the kids out to dinner which we haven't done for a long time. It was a great mexican place just down the street.

 
 Afterwards, we had a fireworks show in town, so that was fun. It was great weather and just a nice evening. It was nice having Wee-mama with us. We walked around a little then headed back to our car to join the rest of the hicks! It was a good start to July!

 It was perfect temperature and just a great summer night!

(That wasn't so bad. Should have just done it earlier :))

June

Getting behind in documenting what's happening can be overwhelming, especially for the month of June. It was a fun and busy month. It came and went so fast and I've been on the computer a few times to update but thought it would take too long, so I'd just get off, but I'm biting the bullet this time and just doing it!

We had a lot of park time. We've tried a number of parks in the area. One of the faves has a splash pad and they usually enjoy running through that for a bit.

We had a great trip to Charleston, SC. Only Liz and Caroline had been to the beach and neither one really remembered it, so they were all having so much fun! Wee-Mama and Papa John met us out there, along with Jill and her family. We had so much fun. Nonnie (grandma) was such a great host and we had the best time!


Of course, there was tons of beach time. We did both Folly Beach and then Kiawa. It was the first time to the beach for Cooper, Bella and Charlotte. Liz and Caroline didn't remember it from almost 5 years ago, so they were all so excited. It was fun to watch them all experience it for the "first time". The water was perfect temperature and it was tons of fun! The girls found a horse shoe crab and played with it for a bit. If it was alive when they found it, it wasn't when they were done. One day we took a little walk around Sunrise park. There was someone there with their sailboat so we snagged a picture. From this park you an see the battery across the way.

 The girls had wanted to see a wild dolphin more than anything. We had been to the beach a couple of times with no success. I was wondering if the trip would be ruined for Liz without seeing it, but one morning we went and Jill had my camera and snapped the most perfect picture of Elizabeth seeing the dolphins for the first time.  It was perfect!

 We always have to take a walk down along the harbor/battery. There are cannons and cannon balls from the civil war there on display.  We also love looking out in the water and did see some dolphins this time. Yay! Also love seeing all the old homes. Such a beautiful city!

Brian and I were lucky to have family watch the kids so we could go on a few dates. A few of our favorite things to do are food related, go figure. We had to make our traditional trip to California Dreaming. They have the best croissant rolls. They are amazing. We always get an extra order of them. I think Brian ate 5. :)  Brian also loves sea food, which I do not, so we made a trip out to a local sea food restaurant, Locklear's, which is right on the pier over looking the ocean. He got great sea food and I got the best hush puppies ever!!! I wanted to make another trip out there just for them, but didn't have time.

We took a drive to a park that is literally under the new bridge. It was so cute! They built the playground to look like the bridge. It was perfect too because it was under the bridge, which gave shade, and the breeze off the water made it wonderful!

 One night uncle Les and aunt Wendie had us all over for dinner and play. The kids all got to go fishing. Cooper caught a fish right away and ran away when they pulled it out of the water. It was so funny. Liz was the last to catch one. I was starting to wonder if she would, but I'm so glad she did. Everyone was successful. Even Brian! :)

 

 We had lots of great family time, both with close and distant cousins. Trips to the beach, family reunion, exploring downtown, walks on the batter, a tea party put on by Ronda, and just being together. It was wonderful!

It was a perfect family vacation!

Wedding Bells

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating the marriage of Julia and Patrick. It started out with a great night for the girls only. We got to hang out and just talk and do our nails. It was very relaxing and a great night of sleep. We ( Suzanne, Julia, MaryBeth and I) woke up and got ready. As we headed over to the hotel where the rest of our families were we got a call that the fire alarm went off at their hotel. So when we got there, this is what we saw:

Most were dressed, but the hair needed work. :) We were able to get everyone ready and to the temple before the sealing began. Luckily they were running late too. :) Brian did a great job getting them all dressed and everything packed up. 

The temple was great. It was so wonderful to see Patrick and Julia sealed for time and all eternity and see them so happy. It was great to have all the family there.

It was sweet to have all our little family there and to get a picture of us in front of the House of the Lord and to know that we are sealed for eternity together.

We drove back up from DC to our home where the reception was the following night. It was a nice evening, especially because after the ring ceremony, we took Bella, Charlotte and Caroline home. That made our night a lot more enjoyable to not have to worry about the kids the whole time. Brian did a wonderful job participating in the ring ceremony by singing some songs with his guitar. Such a beautiful voice.

We got a good picture of all the cousins together.

 Here are a few from the fun evening at the reception:

 After the reception, we headed home, grabbed the kids and took off on our all night drive to Charleston. Lots of driving, but wonderful weekend!