Road Trip

The middle of July the kids and I spent eight days in Indiana and Ohio.  We had so much fun seeing many of our former neighbors and good friends.  The kids are ready to become Hoosiers again after our few days in Indiana.  What awesome friends we have!

We spent the rest of the week in Ohio visiting with family (Aaron was able to come for the weekend).  Everyone gathered together to celebrate "Mama's" birthday.  Her brother, sister, and mother were also there and it was her last before she and Rudy leave on their mission.

 Madelyn and Naomi with cousin Rudi

 What's more fun than cooling off with giant ice cream cones?

 

Justin and Sam

Elizabeth was able to surprise her cousins and spend a day at girls' camp with them.  She had so much fun with her Aunt Marsha, Robyn, Chelsea, Joy, Megan, and Megan!  She had lots of adventures to share with us, especially a memorable ride home from camp with a blown out tire in Cleveland!

Cruise pictures!

 We went on our first cruise a couple of weeks ago and loved it.  Of course, what's not to love...

 a crew that is constantly pampering you and making these cute animals out of towels,

 yummy food,

 more yummy food,

 and lots of new people to meet.

Watching their kids play Minecraft everyday almost made us feel like we were at home!

 

We had stops at Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau.  Our favorite island was easily Half Moon Cay.  It was very small with the most perfect beach I have ever seen.

We went on a catamaran and went snorkeling at Grand Turk.  The crew on the boat was super fun that took us out.

 Kayaking at Half Moon Cay was wonderful

In front of our cruise ship on the beach at Half Moon Cay.

 Last night on the cruise ship

 This sign couldn't have been more fitting on the island of Half Moon Cay.  We might have considered it...

but we had these cuties to come home to.  You can see that our kids were loved while we were away.  Thanks for holding down the fort, Cheyenne! 

Disney Vacation

So...our family finally made it to Florida on vacation.  We tried to go three years ago, but you may remember from this post that two days before our last planned trip to Florida, Aaron had some health problems.  Made me a bit nervous to plan this vacation, but thankfully it went off without a hitch.  Our first day at Disney was three years to the day after Aaron's heart attack.

Beautiful Orlando LDS temple

We spent four days at Disney and still didn't manage to squeeze everything in.  We were at Magic Kingdom for two days, and a day each at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.  We split up some and the boys would go off and do boy rides while the girls and I did some of the smaller rides (Elizabeth was in between our groups, depending on what we were doing).  Madelyn was a trooper and went on all of the big roller coasters.  Naomi wasn't quite big enough and I think she was honestly okay with that.

Monday night the girls and I went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at Magic Kingdom.  There was a parade and trick or treating around the park.  We had fun, but after a long day at the park, the girls were wiped out!  The boys went to see the Star Wars exhibit at Hollywood Studios and the Tower of Terror while we were gone.  They liked it so much, they went again a couple days later!

Light show at the Halloween party...awesome!

Madelyn and Naomi getting their book out for the princesses to sign.

We didn't get to see all of the princesses, but we saw most of them.  I think the only ones they missed were Snow White and Rapunzel.  We also saw Pooh, Tigger, and Mickey and Minnie.  Meeting the princesses was so exciting for these girls.

Wednesday we took a break from Disney and went to Cocoa Beach.  Our kids are so deprived, this was their first visit to the beach (we weren't counting Lake Michigan).  After they got used to the salt from the ocean, they loved it.  They had so much fun playing in the waves and the sand.  We had beautiful weather the whole time we were there - high 80's and no rain.  Such a relaxing day!

Our whole gang 

 The best part of our vacation was being together as a family.  All of our family vacations are spent going to visit extended family, which we love, but we needed this time to just be together as a family.  I about cry when I think we won't have too many more years before our kids start moving out for college and missions.  I've already got some plans for next year's family vacation in the works!

Steadman's slides

For the second year in a row, we went to Steadman's Slides while we were in Idaho. It's just outside of Raft River in the country and they have two huge slip n slides and a zip line. This year we had most of the family there and we celebrated Beth's birthday.

Everyone started out going down just one tube at a time. After lunch, we started to get more brave and the trains of tubes grew longer. Everyone had so much fun. Some of the kids ran up the hill all day long and would slide down with or without a tube. They were all exhausted by the time we left!
The night before we went, five of our six kids threw up. Thankfully, it was a quick moving bug, but Naomi was still a little under the weather and wanted to snuggle all day. She even let my brother Frank hold her, but you can see she looks a bit more nervous about my brother-in-law Devan. He wore this outfit as a joke, but ended up leaving it on all day! He got some pretty funny looks!
Just about everyone tried the zipline, including my brave 6 year old niece, Sidnee.

Bruce fell in love with my niece Cheyenne while we were there. I don't think we've ever had to ask any of our kids not to kiss people, but this is a problem for Bruce. He loves cute girls! I hope he grows out of this soon.

The Windy City - Spring Break

Thursday morning the kids and I headed to Chicago. Aaron met us that night after work. Our first stop was the Children's Museum at Navy Pier. I have taken the kids a lot of places by myself, but Chicago during Spring Break was definitely an experience! Let's just say we weren't the only ones who thought of going there for a few days. It was fun to see the kids watch in amazement as we were walking down Michigan Avenue at the hoards of people.
Our good friends from Toledo (who now live in Omaha) were also in town so we met them there. We haven't seen a lot of each other the last few years, but Alisha and I had plenty to talk about. The best line came from her son Andy who asked when he was going to get to play with his new friends again. He doesn't remember that they used to play together all the time. Andy used to refer to Bruce and Will as one entity: BruceyWill! It was great to see them again!
Elizabeth and Naomi ready for a day of hard work!
Friday we visited Legoland. This place was also very busy, but we still had a great time. Our boys love playing with Legos and loved getting to see all of the creations. One of their favorite parts of the museum was the 4D movie. Naomi kept reaching out trying to touch everything and loved the sprays of water and wind.
What's more cool than posing with Batman?
Elizabeth is not our thrill seeker when it comes to rides. The couple of rides they had at Legoland were about her speed. I think she rode this one three times.

I was thinking I should have taken pictures of our kids riding the escalator at the mall or playing on the elevator at our hotel because I think they had as much fun doing that as they did at the museums. Our neighbor told us that's always a highlight of their trips to Chicago as well so it's nice to know we aren't alone.

July 2007 Trip to Idaho

Devils Tower - Eastern side of Wyoming

In July we made our annual trek to Idaho this time with 5 kids. They all did really well in the car. The first day we drove about 26 hours until we arrived at Brian & Julie's place near Harlowton Montana. We stopped in Wyoming to see Devils Tower, which is the nations first National monument. I always like to pick something to see on the way out or back. Last year we visited Mount Rushmore.