Road Trip

I had to post all the signs and states we went through. It was an amazing trip! We traveled through 9 states (only got to wave to Iowa and Ohio across the river), over 2500 miles, about 40 hours of driving and our kids were still happy. We have GREAT travelers! Thank goodness! We rented a van when we got to Indiana. It's the only time you will ever see us driving a mini van. LOL The kids were thrilled when they were told it had a DVD player. I'm not a fan of TV in the car, and I'll never own one, but for this much driving, we were glad we had it. We limited them to 1-2 shows a trip. The longest driving day was 10 hours. Not too bad. The shows even entertained Liam until he fell asleep. I love road trips, and I'm so glad I married someone who loves them too! We love driving, sleeping in the passenger side, and eating fast food. ha ha Great times! We had the best 26 days of vacation ever! Thank you to our family who made it possible! We flew home from Indiana and the kids were so sad. But, thank goodness they had an airplane to occupy their thoughts. :) Some slept, some read, some colored, and Liam got to watch a movie on the IPod. But, you must ALWAYS remember to read the airplane safety instructions! And what a better way to pass time in between flights, than running on the moving walkway! On our way home!

Last Stop... Indiana

Our last stop was IN again, for 7 more days, and then we had to head home. We squeezed all we could in such a short time. We hiked, swam, made about 20 PB&Js everyday, saw the movie Up, had ice cream at the Chocolate Moose (my choice. BEST shakes ever!), had Mama Bears pizza quite a few times (too die for!), went to the Farmer's Market (at least the others did with Kirra. I was sleeping in. ha ha) and I think Tracey made about 5 batches of popcorn every night! And we're not talking microwave. It was in a pot with oil. So yummy! The kids had movie night upstairs while the adults had movie night downstairs every night! We had a barbeque on my parents "land" (as we like to call it). They have 20 acres there that backs up to Hoosier National Forest. It is so peaceful there! And the kids can run free! The kids took turns pushing each other on the tire swing, even I got a turn! (Kirra can be quite strong) The kids got to fish for the first time, but unfortunately they didn't catch anything. My parents have a pond on the property with catfish and bass, but nothing was biting. Darn. :) Stew found his new inner peace by mowing the lawn. I think he mowed it at least 5 times. (there is quite a lot to mow, especially after months of not being mowed) It truly is a heavenly place to be! It was a great ending to a very fun trip.

Stop #4... North Carolina

Since we never get to see Stew's brother and family much, we decided to stop over in Clemmons, NC. The kids were so excited to see their cousins. We don't get to see them very often, since we are on opposite sides of the continent. The girls took to each other like neighbors. I was nervous they would be shy around us, but nope! We were welcomed at the car with big hugs! We had a blast! We hiked Pilot Mountain, went to a small amusement park and panned for gems, and spent 4th of July swimming and eating great food and watching fireworks over a river. It was great. Poor Liam was truly odd man out. Their girls are about our kids ages. Alexa 11, Kirra 10, Olivia 8, Malia 7, Maya 6, Julia 5, McKenna 2, Liam 1 1/2. It was quite the line up of girls! We figured out that for one month a year, their ages will go in order (counting the other 2 cousins) from 12 down to 5 plus 2 2 yr. olds. Fun! (I'm always figuring out numbers and patterns. It's a sickness. ha ha) Everyone got along perfectly, so calm, peaceful, and no fighting, except when Liam had to prove his manliness and push little McKenna around. He was amazed how she would cry every time he hit her. Strange reaction. LOL One of my favorite shots, is McKenna driving the yellow car, because Liam, who is infatuated with everything cars, is screaming in the background... TURN! TURN! ha ha ha He's a very verbal kid. It was a great trip, and lucky for us, we just missed the "humidity wave." Yeah! Beautiful everything!

Stop #3... Georgia

After leaving Indiana, we drove 10 hours to Michelle and Dallin's. I tried to cut down the pictures, but there were too many I wanted to save. So, skim through the ones you like. I couldn't decide. You have no idea how many I did delete. LOL Well, their house was very small, so Stew and I were "forced" to stay at the mansion. Michelle is a landscape designer for the Glenridge Mansion in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Very cool history there. It is being used for the new series on CW "The Vampire Diaries". They use the mansion for the house of one of the vampire brothers. (It had it's pilot on 9/10) It is huge! (the mansion that is) The picture of the bed, I posted, is the bed we slept in. I felt very little in such a huge bed! It was so fun! As soon as Michelle showed up with a dog, Liam and her were best friends. And then she let him drive the polaris. Heaven for this little boy! She took him for walks many times! Anywhere Anika was (the dog) Liam was! Some quick updates in GA: We saw Stone Mountain laser show. Awesome! Totally recommended to do at least once. We took the MARTA to Atlanta and saw the CNN building, the real hummer from Desert Storms, and the Olympic Rings fountain. We toured the grounds for the mansion, we walked the labyrinth, and played with the life size chess game. While touring, Julia tried to go into a door, and Kirra screamed... SNAKE! There was a huge rat snake (completely harmless) inches from her leg rising up to strike her in defense. Julia ran away and was unaffected. Malia was more traumatised than anyone. ha ha We got to see Dallin play on his basketball team, and Michelle play at her softball game (double header). We had church in Michelle's ward and went to their Sunbeams class. We just had fun being anywhere with Michelle and Dallin! It was beautiful there!

Stop #2... Nauvoo

Stew and the kids have never been to Nauvoo, so we had to make a stop there. It was wonderful. A little less "spiritual" as I had envisioned it. But what do you expect with this group and we were out numbered by kids. :) But we had a great time. The kids loved the cultural center where they got to make candles, ropes, bake bread, make a rug, wool, and a favorite, pretend to be a pioneer with real pioneer stuff. All the girls (except Shailey, the pre-teen) got pioneer bonnets. They were in heaven. True pioneers now. They loved playing tag in the field that over looked the Mississippi River. I think they've seen Little House on the Prairie too much. ha ha Greyson was content in his own world playing his new harmonica. Stew's favorite place was the gun shop. Such a boy thing. ha ha My favorite part was when we got to see a piece of family history. Stew's family was a part of Nauvoo. We went to the geneology center and they were able to pull up a map with the location they lived. The first few pictures are at the south west corner of their land. So just behind us would have been their home. It is now privately owned, so we couldn't go any farther. But it was such a cool experience to tell the kids... that's where your ancestors lived! We all felt a huge connection there. We spent 2 days in Nauvoo and on the way back home to Bloomington, we went through Carthage to see the jail. Very peaceful experience. Such a wonderful trip! Stew was once again a trooper with all the "wives". ha ha

Summer Time. First Stop... Lincoln's Home

When school got out, we were ready to party! We had a huge summer planned for an East coast vacation. My sister, Tracey and my parents, were VERY generous and helped us all get to Indiana for a much needed vacation! Stew was able to come this time and we were ready to leave reality behind and just vacation! We flew in to Indiana on a Friday, and the airport arrivals began. We were first to arrive, followed by Lisa on Saturday. Trisha, her kids, and my mom came at 3 am Sunday morning. Tracey and kids arrived Sunday evening with Glenn on a separate plane about 30 min. behind. That makes up everyone in our group until my dad arrived on July 5th. Our Springfield group consisted of 5 wives, 9 kids, only 1 stroller this time, and one husband. Stew was a TRUE trooper to handle so many women and children ALONE! (Glenn had to stay in Indiana to work) Michelle couldn't make the trip up, so we planned to make a trip down to see her. (that post to follow) Springfield was better than it was the last time I visited, 17 years earlier. :) It was like stepping back in time. The kids seemed to love the history too. The favored stop was at the train station where Lincoln gave his final speech before heading to Washington D.C. to accept his presidency.

Not for the Faint Hearted!

I posted the "after" picture first, to warn you with weak stomachs, these next few pics are a little graphic. Julia is a very brave girl. Many times she'll be bleeding and we'll say... what happened? She'll laugh and say... I don't know. :) She always has some new bruise that she can't explain. Well, this time I saw it in action and it was a little more dramatic. She was riding on her daddy's skateboard on the patio, on her belly. She went a little too fast and crashed into the sliding glass door TRACK! It was bleeding bad! She did cry over this one. Her tooth was loose and the bleeding wouldn't stop for over a few hours. The next day I took her to the dentist and they X-rayed it. Just as I thought, she had cut clean through the root and her tooth was hanging by the gums only. They are letting the tooth heal naturally and monitoring it. Thank goodness it is only a baby tooth. In the X-ray, you can see root, space, and then tooth. Crazy and very cool! They said it should fall out naturally and the big tooth inside looks good and unaffected. She lost her tooth last week (since these posts are very far behind). She looks so cute with her missing tooth! Now to make her a pillow. :) These pictures were actually taken 2 days after the accident and it looked a MILLION times better than day one! I meant to take a picture the day of, but life got in the way. :) The teeth on the sides of the broken one, have gone black from the bruising. But, luckily very lightly. Now getting a normal picture of her is very tricky. She usually has her tongue hanging out. She makes us laugh! She's very brave and loves to show off her teeth. The blister healed within 10 days! Amazing how the body can heal!

Preschool Graduation

This was a fun day! The kids were so excited! We had a little show to showoff the things they learned. They sang the ABC's forwards and backwards, the days of the week, months of the year, the flag salute and a few others that were favorites of mine from my childhood. They were all so cute! I'm excited to do preschool again! Out of the 9 kids, only 3 are not going to kindergarten, and I'm lucky to get them again. I love teaching preschool! We made graduation hats out of construction paper and yarn. I had taken their picture with Stew's graduation robe the week before, so their parents could have a picture with a gown. It was very huge and funny! ;)

Dance Time

May 2009: It was a crazy month in May. I had a wedding and a funeral on the same day. The dance recital and my piano recital combined. And my preschool "graduation". The month went by very fast! Thank goodness. The recital had some glitches, thanks to the school. (ha ha) But it was very successful! The costumes were amazing! Kirra was in a tap class and a cheer class and a combo class for the opening and closing numbers. She had to memorize 6 different dances and 4 cheers. I don't know how she did it! Malia had 3 dances, and Julia had 4 (her class got to big and it split. She kept some of her old ones and added new ones). Kirra's: LaBamba (purple skirt), Beat it (pink hat), Dancing in the Moonlight (pirates), and the tiger ears was cheer dancing to Eye of the Tiger. I didn't have pictures for 2 of the dances. Malia's: Pineapple Princess (grass skirt), All Shook Up (pink and black tutu), and Sukiyaki (kimono). Julia's: Lion Sleeps Tonight (safari hat), Danke Schoen (flowers in her hair), Black and White by Michael Jackson (zebra prints) and Conga (pink/blue/green very bright colors). They were AWESOME! We were so proud. Kirra, Malia, my dad, Greyson, and Katie and Jacqueline (my cousins) all performed for piano. I had 28 piano students performing. It was very full! Great job everyone, including Trisha who is the BEST dance teacher EVER!! Stew was in charge of taking pictures, as I was behind the scenes shuffling kids on stage, moving the piano back and forth, and open and closing the curtains (which is a WHOLE other story!). But, in his defense, he was dealing with Liam, so that is why some of the shots are a little blurry. Wiggly kid! :)

Easter Time

I love Easter! I don't know if it's because my birthday is so close, or the candy, or all the colors! I always loved the Easter cartoons, because they always had tons of colored eggs! I love color! We dye 5 dozen eggs every year. Each child gets to decorate about a dozen each. My family had a tradition growing up to use ALL colors of crayons, not just the wax one that comes in the box. Something I introduced to Stew. It makes it more fun and the designs are endless. We always run out of eggs before our ideas. :) You can't tell very much from the picture, but each egg is decorated differently. From a football to grapes to just a zig zag design. My kids love it just as much as I do. Stew even gets to put his artistic ability to play. Our church started at 9am, so we did our traditional egg hunt after church. But, Liam spotted one on his way out the door (the one with him on his belly). After church he only wanted the candy! (must take after me) The girls wore their dresses from Michelle and Dallin's wedding. We just added a little sweater and some new shoes. Ta-Da! New outfit!

Our Princess turns 7!

Our little Malia turned 7 in March! Disneyland's theme this year is all about the birthdays! If you go ON your birthDAY, you get in free. We have passes, so she got a gift card in the amount of the entrance fee... $59!! So, of course we had to celebrate her birthday at Disneyland. The happiest place on Earth! The girls had the day off from school, but Stew had to work. So, it was just me and the 4 kids. It was a blast. A lot of people looked at me, like I was crazy to be alone with the kids. But, they are very good kids and I didn't even worry. I didn't even need "Mommy's Little Helper" for Liam. (I don't even own one, he's that good!) Malia is our princess through and through! Her favorite color is pink. Her favorite princess is I Know You (a.k.a. Princess Aurora. She's called her this since she was 2 and singing along with the song!) She loves to dance and looks forward to the dance recital every year where she can perform! She loves loves LOVES ballet and wants to be one when she grows up. We've thought of putting her in professional ballet classes, but she loves her Aunt Trisha's class so much, she doesn't want to quit! We love our Malia and we're so glad she's a part of our family!

Green Valley Cabin

We took the kids up to a friend's cabin just outside of Big Bear. It was awesome! The first day was warm and they had a blast playing in the snow, taking a hike to the lake, skipping rocks and creating a sled path. Sunday it snowed all day. The last snow storm of the season! And it hit hard! You can see on the rails from day one to the next. And it only snowed more and more throughout the day. There was a huge window that the kids just watched everything from. Beautiful! We saw tons of birds and squirrels. They even got to see a raccoon 5 feet from their faces (through the glass, obviously). One night we heard mountain lions just outside our cabin. Stew and I were a little freaked out. :) Liam loved being outside, but not so much the cold. He mostly wandered on the porch. Malia was freezing! She chose to stay inside. But Kirra and Julia were die hards! We usually had to them to come in and and get warm. The sled path we made was the best! This cabin was stocked with everything we needed! Thank you to Danny Todd who hooked us up!

Mission Time

March 2009: I have been excited for this day since Kirra started school. I have always loved the missions. The history, the culture, and especially the look. I would build my house to be a true mission style, if I could. (not the cookie cutter tract homes that "say" mission style) Finally the day is here. I remember how fun it was for my own mission. We choose one that was close to home, since we started on it late. (We had just finished her science project the week before. Bad planning from the school. Sheesh!) She chose Mission San Gabriel, about 30 min. from home. She loved it! There were so many more pictures we took, because everything was so cool! She even got to ring the bell. Here are a few highlights. It was fun to see all the other 4th graders there doing the same thing as us. :) And, yes, Malia is wearing gloves. She is so much more fancy than I ever thought my children would be. And we love her more for it!