September Catch Up

We were so lucky to be able to spend the month of September in Utah and see so much of our family. It went by so much quicker than I thought it would and we didn't get in half as much as I had wanted to or even see all the people we wanted to see.
But we did get in some fun things. Memorial Day we went out boating with Jack's parents out at Willard Bay.
Jack's dad took us around the lake for a bit and I loved it! The kids....not so much. :o) I think they were a little bit worried about the choppy water and getting soaked. But we sure did enjoy our yummy picnic Char packed for us.
All in all it was a great day being able to spend the entire day all together as a family.
We also celebrated the Chinese Moon Festival...although a little late, but better late then never. I introduced the kids and Jack and Jack's parents to some really authentic Chinese food, though I can't say I was all that capable. Cooking the food was new to me too, so I was lucky everyone was so open to tasting it.
Dorothy and I also made a trip out to Gardner Village for the first time. It was super cute and they had all their Halloween...and even some Christmas things out and it was fun getting the kids all hyped up for the holidays.
And last but not least, we were just so excited for family and more family. So fun for the kids to play with their cousins.
Utah, we miss you already!

Oh Canada!

We survived another cross country trip, this time minus Jack, but plus D! My little sister was such a great help in making the 15 hr drive with me and the kids and it was so nice to see my parents and my other little sister C and her cute little twins. I finally got to meet them!! It was nice to have Ez come back for a little part of it too. So, again, almost all the family were together...almost all....we really need to work on getting the whole gang together!! :o)

But here's some pics of our trip back in August.

Cousins.
Playing at the park.

Jaxon loved playing with the twins and holding the babies. He's such a sweet boy!!
Ahhhh, love my sisters!
Family
Me and my bro!
He's so good with all the kids. :o)
Me and the twins.
My nieces sporting some homemade crafty goodness I made them. :o)
Cami and Jaxon.
Oh I love my cute fam...Miss them all so much already!

Beach, Beach, Beach!-Cali part 2

The end of July we were able to meet up with the Madsen side of the family for their yearly beach trip to San Elijo and had so much fun with lazy days at Moonlight beach.

I promise, my kids did enjoy the beach...though it's hard to tell from some of these pictures. :o)
Here's Jack reliving his younger days with Mailee. Jack has these same types of pictures of his dad throwing him up in the air too when he was younger.
This is how Jaxon spent most of his beach days....staring into a bucket of sand that had sand crabs hidden in it. He loved catching, watching the catching, and holding sand crabs. :o)
Mailee LOOOOVED the ocean. She is totally her daddy. Apparently Jack's mom would try and take Jack to the edge of the water and have a wave kind of knock him down to get him scared of the water when he was little so he wouldn't wander into it without parents knowing...well, we tried the same thing with Mailee and we got the same result as when Jack's parents did it to him....they just wanted more of the water!
Jack actually took Mailee out boogey boarding and she really enjoyed it.
Mailee also enjoyed wrestling with Grandpa and the other cousins.
While Jaxon enjoyed just sitting with Grandma. :o)
I looooved that the kids got to spend time with their cousins. Jaxon was finally at an age that he could actually play with the other cousins. :o)

Mailee showing off her new swimsuit.
Jaxon crawling through a sand tunnel that the older cousins had made.
Kids enjoying the beach. :o)
Oh how we miss the beach so much already!
It was so nice being with family and we had almost everyone there and we missed Nick and Crys' family sooooo much!! Can't wait until next year!

Cali, Cali Fun!--Part 1

We are sad to be done with our month in California, and we are sad to be away from all the fun family and friends we got to hang with, and we are sad that we had to say good bye to Jack for another month...but while Jack is in Ohio, we are enjoying our stay with Utah family...and coming up soon, our Canadian family! :o) But in the meantime, here's some more memories captured of our fun time in Cali. We got to have some fun with Jack's cousins and extended family at Grandma Davis'.

Pool was too cold for me, but Jack and the kids couldn't resist the water and of course the diving board.

I can't believe I don't have pictures of the fun cousins we were hanging with!! But I promise, they were there. :o)
Tom let us play with one of his fun birthday party entertainment before the party started.
Thank you Tom! :o) Our kids...ok, and me too...had sooo much fun in the bounce house!
Sooooo much fun with Tew cousins!!
We got to stay in San Diego with Jack's wonderful sister and her family while Jack worked at Camp Pendleton and had sooooo much fun getting to know their family and having our kids play together. We miss them so much already!
While we were closer to the San Diego area, we visited Balboa Park.
So many beautiful buildings and architecture to see!
Kids loved the fish ponds with the lily pads.
Gardens were fun to see too.

And my favorite pic of the day at Balboa Park---Jack playing with the kids at the fountain.