cabin 2009

{by guest blogger & sister leah}

friday:

2:00 pm. arrive at cabin. quick swim.

begin get-ready rotation for family dinner.

out to eat delicious thai food.

party of 42 please!

luckily, we were seated

en route to the public restroom.

good for us, not so good for everyone else.

the siblings

becky | holly | mark | john | dad | anne

ry & leah

{note the bright blue gum. classy!}

and as part of the

natural progression

of the evening,

late-night

crawdad hunting

caps off day one.

saturday:

a truly beautiful wedding {aunt becky & ken}

at an incredibly gorgeous location.

uncle mark & aunt beth

hosted at their montana paradise.

a lovely ceremony.

a lovely bride.

even lovely guests {us.}

having a lovely time.

enjoying lovely food

{a cheese platter to die for, truly incredible stuffed mushrooms,

hand painted chocolates - yum!}

& being ever so helpful cutting flowers.

melissa & tim

{aren't they so very cute together?}

how we really look when unaware of the camera.

{please note chelsey, dad & i.

what are we doing with our mouths?}

grandma r. & all her kids.

can you believe my grandpa made that canoe?

{and about 10 others just like it}

could this shot be any cuter?

and could brad look any cooler?

a garden nymph!

being jazzy.

to match the music.

it was all very cool. as -obviously- are we.

and relaxing after a long day of play.

which is harder than work.

and requires at least twice as much down time.

that's the ratio we were going for.

sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday

included a whole heap of the following:

i just love how avery is eating

with all the older yet single kids.

she can already tell they are the coolest.

pirateering & buccaneering.

{this is what happens with 2 rafts and 10 grown siblings.}

favorite quotes:

"arrgh, the one in black be mine." -brad (about chelsey)

"aargh, she be the first to walk the plank." -jordan (about me)

"aargh, relax!!!" -tim (about tara)

every night something new was lit on fire.

here it was a fire raft, sent out to sea.

or lake in this case.

our underwater glamor shots.

{katelyn & leah}

jonny's HUGE sliver

ryan caught avery a turtle.

she named it froggy.

and she let him go,

so he could go home & sleep.

such adorable children.

with such funny things to do & say.

lest we forget our biathlon.

and chelsey & brad oh-so-close to winning.

{fantastic final push chels!}

curses on tim and his freakish athleticism.

can you tell we love going to the cabin?

can't wait for next year!

home

So after 4 wonderful, long, and arduous weeks, we are finally home and ready to get settled. Brad starts school next friday, so we are on overdrive trying to get things into order, and run random errands that need to get done before school starts. So in light of the current situation, I thought it might take me a while to post a decent post about our vacation, so I asked my sister (who had a wonderful post about the first half of our vacation) if she would post hers on here...lazy I know, but I figure I'll get the second half done soon after. Anyways, so look forward to her update. Thanks leah...

Since I’ve missed so much time, this is a catch up.

February

Month of love
Enjoyed family valentines breakfast together

March
Avery turned two. Last days in highchair for Avery...passed on to benj. We enjoyed having tons of family come to help us celebrate the bday and Benjamin’s baby blessing. Both sets of grandparents came, My sister's, and my brother in law. Went back to cardston with just the kids to visit the fam. Long drive. Wonderful visit.

April

Had friends over for easter dinner and an easter egg hunt in the backyard. Chopped off hair

May
Brad out of school. Headed up to Edmonton to babysit our twin 18mo old nieces for the week. BUSY. Everyone got sick. We all stayed sick in rounds for the next two weeks. Made a second trip up to Edmonton later that month to visit everyone and to purchase a ridiculous amount of ikea furniture. Avery went to her first birthday parties. Said goodbye to good friends who moved. Enjoyed the first warm moments outdoors!

June
Played. Swam. Enjoyed friends. Said goodbye to more moving friends. Put together ikea furniture. Played some more. Brad’s birthday came on the 19th. Father’s day came the next Sunday, and our anniversary followed up the next week on the 25th (mj passed away the same day) We went on more dates those two weeks than we had in the last 6 months. Every other day we were doing something, and I think we aided in our babysitter’s college fund quite well. June 26th Brad found out he was in dentistry. What a wonderful month!

need an update

So next week we'll be going on an extended vacation, so I think an update and pictures is needed before we take off again.

Where to begin really. I feel like it's been so long since I've really written about the kids. Benjamin is growing steadily (an understatement for those of you that know how chubby his legs are!) At his last appointment he was just over 20lbs and 27 inches tall, and he's now 7months old. He's been sitting on his own for quite a while, but he's also become quite proficient in the art of rolling. I can't say that he's technically crawling, but he gets up on his arms and pushes himself backwards extremely well. He makes the most wonderful sounds! Sometimes they're screeches and sometimes they're cries, but occasionally he graces us with the sweetest coos and tones that almost sound like momma, that I will take any sound he makes. He's still jolly. It's the best word to describe him. He's always quick to smile and laugh, and enjoys avery immensely. Almost as much as she enjoys him. Two has been much easier than I could have imagined, but largely in part to the fact that brad is home all the time. It has been wonderful, and I have been spoiled. I don't know how I will go back to running errands by myself with two kids...especially in the depths of winter.



Avery is wonderful and imaginative. She has a plastic palm tree that she tied a red rope around. She pulls it behind her and calls it her puppy. She has many toy puppies, and I can't comprehend the reasoning for it, but she is always designating new titles to old toys, and making up words for things. She insists on calling flamingos "fan go gos" and gives herself the giggles every time she says it. When we're reading a book, she'll point to the bear and call it a yellow duck then squeal with laughter. Besides her love for the sillies, she is speaking incredibly well (I think...who can I compare her to but benjamin) She has many sentences, and many more I wish she would forget. How do you explain to a two year old that only mom gets to say things like "don't talk to me like that". She repeats it back to me when I'm getting mad at her. She loves to help. She will load her dish in the dishwasher after she's finished. If I'm lucky the dishwasher won't have clean dishes in it. She loves to get toys for Benj. If I'm lucky, she didn't just drop a car on his head as he was sleeping in his crib. She loves to read books. If I'm lucky, this means she didn't sneak out of bed and collect every.last.book into her bed so she's fallen asleep on top of a small mountain of knowledge. She loves to play. I'm lucky, because she loves to play with every member of our family. I'm luckier that I have a husband that loves to play back. He's been know to play extended sessions of my little ponies, and has actually named all of avery's small collection. She will only play ponies with daddy now, because only he knows the names.

Mud Cake

the other day I made this

If you are, like me, a self proclaimed chocoholic, stay away

Mmmmmm

WE'RE IN

If anything is worthy of making myself come out of self imposed bloggers neglect, it would be this tidbit of news. My wonderful husband, after many years of study and hard work, has not only graduated, but also been accepted into the University of Saskatchewan’s dental program for fall of 2009. I couldn’t be prouder of him. I couldn’t be happier. It’s wonderful to feel like we’re starting to accomplish things we listed as goals so long ago.

Now that I’ve broken my bloggers silence, I suppose I should continue this streak. New updates to follow very shortly.