Summer Wrap Up

We had a pretty busy summer - as you might be able to tell since I have not updated this in a while. We drove down to California for a little Ward Family reunion. Sam's sister Kaydell lives in Georgia and we haven't seen her in a few years - but she was coming to visit - so Rich's family and Raeleen's family drove down from Washington and we drove down from Oregon. It was a fun week. Here are some highlights...

Our first day we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (aka Marine World). This was a very fun day - we got to ride on rides (well Sam got to - I was stuck with the kids on the kid rides) - and we got to see lots of fun animal shows

We sat in the "splash zone" for the whale show -- Addie and Faith got the worst of it. :)
Our next day we went to the Oakland Temple. It was fun to take the kids to the place where Sam and I got married.
After the temple we spent the day at the beach. It was a perfect day out and we had lots of fun. At the end of our day we went to check out the light house.
With the rest of our time we spent our days doing this......... Just hanging out visiting in the Ward's backyard. And this was actually one of my favorite things to do.
As we sat there we watched this...........
The kids loved the "country" entertainment. :) Finally we took some family pictures. We are missing a brother and some brother in laws - but here is most of us.
Before we left California we got to stay a night with Amber's family up in El Dorado Hills. We went to a drive in movie and saw The Smurf movie. The kids spoke "smuf" for weeks after that. It was smurfing great!!
From California we drove over to Utah. We went for my cousins wedding but we went early so we could spend a couple of days with one of my very best friends - Christie. It's always a good time with Christie. Even when I get a kid sick in bed all day when we were suppose to go play at the lake. Anyways......... here we are at their local baseball teams game - Go Blue Sox!! (or something like that?!?!)
Then onto the wedding of my cousin Kiersten. It was so fun to see all the family and spend time together. It was a great trip and I'm so glad we were able to go.

Here are the kids dancing their hearts out with the bride and groom. They pretty much danced all night.
A week after we returned from our 2 week trip to Cali/Utah - we tried that camping thing yet again. No rain this time ( well not really - it did rain for a minute here and there on our last night - but NOTHING like what we experienced the last time. We went to Silver Falls. Sam had camped there a few times with his family when he was young (yes - they drove all the way from Cali for a camping trip!!) Well we got my sister Amber and her family to drive all the way up from Cali for a camping trip too!! :) AND she was 8 months pregnant. She must really love us - because I call that - crazy!! It was a great time - a memorable time. And Amber's little boy has the proof......

See this little boy below -- the one sticking his tongue out. That is Tomasi - and he made it extra memorable for all of us. See that hammock all the kids are on?? Well later that night tomasi was hanging from this hammock - and his sister was swinging it. I heard a loud thud. Then crying. I ran over and picked him up. It was dark out so I couldn't totally tell what I was looking at - but I could tell that his front tooth was half the size it should be. I ran him over to my sister and said - he either broke it off - or - it is shoved up into his gums. Turns out - it was jammed way up into his gums. Nasty!!! Poor guy. They took him to a hospital but they really couldn't do anything for him. So now Tomasi is sporting a front tooth that is half the size of all the others. But he's SO tough. He was eating with it the next day -- chips even!! Made me cringe watching him. He's one tough kid.

The very next night -- again - dark outside. I was walking back from the bathroom and I hear screaming. I hear my sister screaming. "Tomasi! NO!! Dad - get him!! OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH!" Well my stomach dropped and I ran to see what was happening. Tomasi had been running - somehow did not see the firepit WITH fire in it and fell right in. On hands and knees. Luckily my dad was right there and pulled him out immediately. It was so scary. He came away with only a few small blisters on his legs and arms. Poor kid tho - you know how burns continue to burn forever. But still - the kid is tough and didn't take too long to calm down.

I couldn't take anymore and I KNOW my sister would not be able to handle anything else. So lucky for us that was the end of Tomasi's adventures. No more terror was stuck in our hearts for the rest of the trip. :)
The over night campers were my family, Ambers family and my parents. But the cool thing was that we were close enough that almost everyone else was able to come up for day trips.
And camping isn't too boring when you have a bunch of cool waterfalls to check out.
That's it for our trips. Other summer happenings (and still continuing to happen even with school starting) is fishing with Sam. Sam likes to take the kids out fishing whenever he can. Sam likes the fishing part - the kids like the throwing rocking into the water part.

Here's Jackson with a fish. I always feel bad for these poor fish getting tortured by my kids and my husband. Sam actually caught a fish by the eyeball the other day. When he tried to get the hook out - the whole eyeball came out and was just sitting there on his hook. So gross! Poor fish is now swimming around with one eye. Probably just swimming in circles. :)

Another fun adventure was golf. I'd never been before - besides miniature golf. This day of fun that we had weeks ago is still reminding me that my body can't do everything. Lame back has been all out of wack for weeks. We really need Sam's brother Rich to live closer (he's a chiropractor).
Good summer!! It seemed incredibly short -- especially because the stupid weather stayed stupid for so much of it. But I sure do love the sun when I get it.