EASTER 2013

Well, we still didn't have our trailer this year (maybe next year) but this year was special in the fact that ALL of my siblings and their spouses and families were there at least for 2 days!  It was so awesome to see how big we are getting!  I love my family!  It was so fun to get together!  But because Easter is better explained with pictures, I think I will just caption all these pics to describe our trip instead of the usual novel and then throw up of pictures I usually include :)!....EASTER 2013

I won't lie, the mornings were FREEZING until the sun finally peeked out from the mountain we camped next to.  Here is Collin in my mom's trailer being our morning baker!  He did pretty good, but I remembered how hard it is camping with a baby.  Between nap times and feeding and having to be held the whole time, its a lot of work. 

Tallie brought her 4 wheelers down and even Gaven had his own this year, which the kids LOVED riding.  Doesn't Jaq look cute all riding up?

Collin bundled with Cordelle.  It was cold so we had to keep him cuddled even though this age is not well known for its swaddling success.

Mom and Tiffany cooking breakfast!

We always celebrate with easter baskets on Friday morning so they have plenty of time to play with their loot. So here are all the grandkids waiting and freezing in anticipation of finding their baskets. (minus collin who was back in the tent asleep)

Seth is obsessed with battleship and has been trying to save up for it, but we decided to surprise him. 

Jaquelle mastered the mini-bop-it, so we'll see how she does with the bigger one!  Games were a fun idea for easter this year.

Battleship did not disappoint.  You should have seen this kid's face and excitement.  I have video.  It was priceless.  He probably played 12 games of this before we went home.

This year's easter baskets hill.

The kids and their loot.

Collin was asleep for the easter basket hunt, but I think he liked his basket anyways.

Spent the day on the sandy beaches of Green River.  Been camping by green river for 20 years and never knew this place existed.  Its seriously nice sand and an awesome beach!  So fun!

Cordelle is going to die that I put this on the blog and maybe I should take it off especially with him being in the bishopbric now, but it was pretty funny.

Collins first feel of Sand.  I think he liked it, till he ate it, and I wouldn't let him play in it anymore.

Scotty chillin in the sun.

Beautiful picture of the river and scenery eh?

Cordelle being gross.

Scott pretending he's Tongan.

The Pa and Ma.

And finally Friday night, everyone was there and so Scott opened his mission call!!!  This face is posed, yes, but he really was SUPER excited.  He is going to New York, New York Spanish Speaking.  So excited for him.  I was able to have a conversation just he and I before we left camp and I was just so impressed with him.  He is just ready and wanting to go out and serve and help people see the good and be influenced by the gospel.  He isn't nervous or anxious, he just wants to go and give everything to his mission! Perhaps this is more common than not, but I see so many missionaries, fearful of the unexpected or living up to what is a good missionary, but not Scott, there was just pure confidence that God knew him, and he was where he was supposed to be. He said he feels like he has sacrificed a lot and so he doesn't want to hold back.  He cried a little as he talked about the people who had had such a powerful influence on his life in preparing him for this including his family, his young men leaders and his bishop. Oh the boy is just good through and through.  Despite being around people (even many of his own family) that dont always make the best decisions he has remained true and good.  College life has brought out in him optimism.  He has always had remarkable maturity for his age and a great perspective on life, but something about being independent brought out this attitude of joy that is entirely infectious.  You wonder why there are not more people like Scott in the world to off set the evil.  I love this kid.  As a side note and as a tender mercy, he has some lucky numbers.  I think they are like 1135 or something like that.  Anyways he laughs about it, because he always see's those numbers on mile markers, or addresses or randomly through out life.  They just always appear.  Well after he got his call and read it, about 5 minutes later he just kept saying "No Way" No way!  He then explained to us that the zip code for New York, New York were those exact lucky numbers he always saw.  Talk about a tender mercy. God knows us.  God knows him.  That gave him a light I will never forget.

The kids eating my dutch oven lasagna.  Tasted pretty good I thought!

Games in Krista's trailer.

Ahh the campfires.  We're all getting older now, so where most of the boys and were off causing some trouble or playing night games, it was funny to see all of us and our spouses and kids around the fire for once.

Easter Egg Hunt

It was so fun to have my entire family there!  From left to right and in birth order...Krista, Brett, me, Tallie, Neal, Mark, and Scott.  (yes I am the shortest one in my family by a long shot.)

Add in the pa and ma.

being crazy with tallie

and with our spouses...except for Scott :)

At Goblin Valley

Always on backpack duty.

This was their tough guy faces - I can think of something else Seth looks like he is doing.  (with Mason)

Alexa, Seth, Mason, Jaq, Zack and Anna

Little camping baseball

...even Jaq gave it a go!

This place was a gem of a find.  It was this ENORMOUS sand hill just one mountain over from where we were camping (like a 5 min walk).  Pure sand.  So while the boys went out shooting, Tallie and I took the kids and played in the sand.  The softest sand ever, with no weeds....so weird and random in the middle of nowhere. 

Gaven, Jaq, Collin, and Seth right as the sun was setting.

Collin was definitely in sensory overload.  He loved it though.

And this picture just cracks me up.  Can this face of Collin's be any more clear about taking more pictures?

The kids and I on a four-wheeler ride (Tallie and Jim brought them and we had a blast!)

Seth was in boy heaven! 

With a four wheeler just his size, he did pretty good and started to really get the hand of it.

And once they knew they could ride the little one, they figured they were big enough for the big ones.

Overall, a great trip!  It was fun to just see my own siblings and to be honest compared to most years, I didn't see many of my other cousins there.  Love this great tradition!

March....to the beat of our March. :)

One night Cordelle didn't want to go to the SUU girls bball game that we had tickets for so I took Seth on a date.  We bought popcorn and treats, we sat on the last row (per his request) and watched an incredible game.  I think the game went into triple over time.....then we won by 1 point!  He was SO into it. It was fun!

Here is my favorite conversation from the night.

Me: Seth, which player do you like the best?
Seth: like whose Face do I like the best?
Me: no silly, like who do you think PLAYS the best?
Seth: oh. I better start paying attention then.

This is what my kids do.  They draw.  If you look closer, half of these are Seth's drawings and the other half are Jaq's exact duplicates of Seth's drawings.  Funny.  They each have a story and I love to hear them.  They usually write a sentence describing what is happening (just like Seth does each day at school). They can literally sit down for 45 to an hour and draw pictures.  I love it.

One day I went through all my light house stuff and gathered it up to sell it.  Then I remembered I had an entire basement bathroom that was bare as bare could be, so I redecorated once again with Light houses downstairs.  I never thought I'd use some of this again (well and most of it did end up back in a box) but I was glad I could use at least part of it.  #strangeoldobsessions

One day I walked into the living room to find this.

I love this picture.  This was just a regular morning before school.  Collin was being entertained, Jaq was still sleepy and Seth was reading a Star Wars book to both of them while I showered real quick.  Love these kids.

LAKE TO LAKE RELAY WITH THE GAHHHLLLS!!

I love this race!  I especially love relays.  There is nothing better than getting your run on and then jumping in a car of sweaty, chocolate milk drunken girls to spend the day with.  Lake to Lake is nice because its only 51 miles so we each have about 5-6 miles for 2 legs.  So not too bad.  My first leg felt great and I ran 6 miles at a 7.35 min mile pace so I was STOKED about that.  I was booking it and it was a lot of down hill, but still.  I was pleased to keep it under an 8 min mile.  The second leg was long and hard and I was pretty spent from my first leg, but luckily just as I was about to come up on this huge mountainous dirt road (probably a hill, but for my purposes....a huge mountain) and was almost completely deflated when Cordelle called me.  It was the perfect distraction.  I looked like I was talking to myself as I ran because I had my ear buds plugged into my phone, but I seriously couldn't have done it without that phone call.  So he must have been inspired to call!  Anyways, we had a great time as always.  Lots of laughs, gas, stretching, belching, and dinner at In-n-Out.  I know, great running food right?  Love these girls.

Me, Lisa Boshell, Lisa Haag, Tawna Marriott, and Krista Chamberlain

Krista made a friend on her first leg.

My famous stretch

Half our team had IT band problems so here is Lisa and Krista in their agony.

AT THE FINISH LINE!

Lisa trying to copy my famous stretch.

The Sand Hollow picture snap.  We always take individual pictures by the lake when we are done.  I dont know why.  But its fun.

I don't remember what was so funny but I think this picture is a good sum of the day. I believe I was waiting for my turn to run at an exchange.  I sent this picture to Cordelle at work and they all made captions for it.  Here's the one I liked the best, "Hey look, this is the tiniest stethoscope in the world."

He's just SO smiley....I couldn't help myself. Collin @ 7.5 months