California Fun!! July 2- 20

I don't know if I'm going to scrapbook these photos so I decided to put a whole bunch on the blog. Sorry if I bore you. My kids look at the blog all the time so this is mostly for them to remember this wonderful vacation by. We made precious memories.

The cousins watching Studio C on the porch swing.

The only pictures I took of Fourth of July: food. :) The night before my mom and I took the kids to Jackson to see the fireworks and had a good time eating Cracker Jacks and goofing off more than seeing the fireworks.

Eating hamburgers and hot dogs outside.

Kylie made choco mallo brownies with fireworks on the top in M&M's.

Samuel loves to chase the neighbor's chickens that come into my parents' yard.

Spencer teaching Kaitlyn how to shoot the BB gun.

My turn! I hit the Sprite can on the very first try!

The two cans we aimed at.

The 3 little kids playing with my old kitchen set on the back patio. They spent the majority of each day out here and I loved it. I could hear them play through the screen door and rarely had to check on them. It was so nice not to worry about neighbors or streets.

Kaitlyn asleep on the stairs when she was sick. She started this long fever and horrible cough illness that passed to each of us. 

Samuel supposedly sleeping in my old crib. He loved to climb out onto my dresser and get into the bag of animal crackers and candy corn I had put there leftover from our airplane ride.

Kaitlyn and Makenna wearing my and my sister's old dance costumes.

Celebrating Aunt Rish's birthday the day she drove in from Wyoming.

 Three cousins going to sleep.

 Singing around the piano beautiful church music.

There's always a project to do around the property. Here some kids help Papa haul leaves.

Samuel loved Aunt Lori and it was such a break for me to have someone else he would go to. Plus I thought it was sweet seeing him form relationships, trust, and accept help from my siblings and parents.

I had a fever on Alexis' birthday so she was left to make her cake mostly on her own. She decorated it to have green grass, a blue fountain in the middle, and a cobblestone path.

She's 10 years old!

I got her a watch.

Mama reading to Samuel one night.

Our official family vacation where all my siblings were here and we did something fun everyday was from July 16-23.  Friday, July 17 was the first fun day. We went to Lake Amador and had a great time going down the slide and hanging out. 

A view of the lake and diving platform

 My dad on the slide

 Thomas, Trish, and Makenna

 Me, Lori, Kaitlyn

 Look at that splash!

Tami and Shane

 Me

 My mom and Makenna

 Toad and Alexis playing in the sand.

 Kaitlyn

Aunt Lori and Makenna going down backwards.

Kaitlyn going down with Samuel.

 Who could this be?

 Makenna and Aunt Lori

Aunt Misty with her niece Paige

Mama and my baby Samuel

Hanging out in the shade.

Papa

Saturday we spent the morning putting a new floor in the old horse corral and the afternoon playing games.

Ripping out the old floor.

 Spencer throwing a horseshoe

 Tetherball

The whole time we worked and played we had a compilation of everyone's favorite songs playing. I missed this, but evidently one of my sisters took a picture of my parents dancing to one of theirs.

 Sunday we all went to church together--the ward we grew up in. Afterward my dad taught us about family history using a presentation he put together.

Monday, July 20 we went to Pine Acres Resort where they had a pool, sprayground, mini golf, nature trails, and other activities.

Aunt Lori with her nieces Makenna, Kaitlyn, and Tad.

Getting lunch

Views of the sprayground and pool from the picnic tables.

Makenna and Samuel playing at the sprayground.

Another view of the pool from someone else's camera. And another picture of lunch.

 For FHE we watched a movie projected on the side of the house. We had popcorn and chocolate and it was so much fun!!

To be continued...

Off to California!

The kids and I left for a 5 week vacation on Friday, June 26. First we drove 11 1/2 hours to Nashville, TN. The first half of the drive went great but the second half wasn't so fun. The kids were tired of squishing in the seats or sitting on the floor (we don't all fit), and we hit a lot of road construction, 2 accidents, and city traffic that made us sit for too long. I was 30 weeks pregnant and was the worst when it came to being patient for sitting that long. But we made it and received a cheerful welcome by my sister, Lori. We stayed in her apartment until Tuesday and really enjoyed Nashville.

 Saturday we had a pool party for Lori's birthday. It was at her friend's house, which was just gorgeous.

 The kids swam all day and I sat and took in the beautiful weather and lush green trees of the back yard.

 Lori busy in their outdoor kitchen. We had hamburgers and hotdogs and then cake and homemade ice cream.

 Makenna

 Spencer, Madalyn, Makenna

 The view of the back of the house from the grass.

 Spencer and Kylie enjoying the grilled food.

 Kaitlyn

 Thomas

 Alexis and Madalyn

 Aunt Lori with the homemade ice cream and oreo cake.

After swimming all afternoon we went back to Lori's and had leftovers for dinner while hanging out. These pictures are boring, but I'm posting for scrapbooking purposes for the kids to remember the trip by.

 Samuel with his burrito. He was good and happy the whole weekend.

 Eating in the living room.

 Spencer and Madalyn

 Alexis, Lori. Kylie

 Sunday after church. I'm not usually in pictures I take of my kids and I didn't realize I was so short.

 Me and Samuel

 Those of us who wore black and white and grey. We had fun going to Lori's ward and having a linger longer afterward. Then she was off to the beach to join her friend's family vacation, but we had fun without her.

 Monday I took the kids to downtown Nashville. First we rode the free city bus, which was a treat to the kids. I enjoyed it too--sitting back and relaxing and seeing all the fancy shops, country music hall of fame, state capitol building, and other cool Nashville sites.

 Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning we swam in Lori's apartment pool. We had it to ourselves and the kids had a great time.

Tuesday evening we went to the Nashville Airport to catch our flight to California. It's been 9 years since I've flown with all of my kids so many don't remember flying or haven't been on an airplane. I was super excited to take them and see their reactions and experience it with them.

 About to go through security. The people photobombing the picture in the back were nice to help me know what to do to get us all through.

 Once we were all through security and had our shoes back on the kids ran to the windows and squealed about the airplanes they saw taking off and landing.

 I love Makenna's smile here.

 Waiting for our flight Samuel amused himself by practicing buttoning and unbuttoning his outfit. It was mostly unbuttoning, though, so every time I picked him up he appeared half naked.

 Finally getting on our flight!

 The kids on the jetway. I figured I had enough small kids to qualify us to be one of the first ones to board. Since it was my first time flying with them in so long, I'm glad I did. We sat in the back and all got seats together.

 Alexis, Kylie, and Makenna in the row across from me.

 Spencer and Thomas sat in front and eventually a nice grandma sat next to them. Kaitlyn, Madalyn, and I sat behind them with Samuel on my lap. The arrangements worked perfectly and we had a wonderful flight.

 We had almost 4 hours in Las Vegas late at night (our time) so I took the kids to the play area. Here they are looking at the airplanes through telescopes.

 They also played airplane.

Thomas on the control tower.

We finally left Las Vegas at 10:45pm and arrived in Sacramento at midnight. Of course it felt much later our time, but the kids did great. They all slept on that leg and most slept the 1 1/2 hours home to my parents house. They were so cheerful about coming to get us in two cars at that late hour and we were so happy to be in California! We don't come out here very often.