California Vacation

For fall break we joined the Rowley clan in California for a reunion. Frank and Elaine were kind enough to pay for a beach house for all of us to stay in.

For the most part, we hung out at the house and on the beach. It was quite the relaxing vacation!

One morning we were walking down to the beach and it turned out to be high tide. The waves were rolling clear up to the cliff's edge at the stairs we took down to the beach. So we hiked a ways down the beach to a larger beach area. Mabel and Gray were completely traumatized by this. They were sure the waves were going to take us out. They screamed the ENTIRE time.
Here's Mabel when we reached our destination:

None too happy.


Gray and I built a merman:

Mabel and I built a sand castle:

The weather was PERFECT the first two days. I actually braved the chilly waters! I tried to boogie board. It didn't go well.

I think I'd just gotten overrun by a wave when this picture was taken. I haven't boogie boarded since I was a teenager. It was a lot of fun even though I totally stunk at it!

Aiden braved a few waves:

Bret boogie boarded as well. He may have been better at it than I was.

All the cousins built a giant sand city.

Here's the view from the balcony of our beach house.

We went to the Mormon Batallion Museum. It was really good!

The kids panned for gold.

Mabel quickly got tired of it and found some stick horses to tool around on.

Aiden and Jackson (I can finally tell Chad's twins apart! Now, to work on Cade's twins!) were selected to show us what the gear looked like back in the day.

Since Frank and Elaine were on their mission over Easter, we held a late Easter egg hunt. Sadly, none of the Bret Rowley family found any of the golden eggs :(

Here's Grandma Yellow with the older grandkids.

Mabel isn't entirely aware of the need for speed in this hunt!

Gray with his winnings.

The fam.

All of the grandkids.

The WHOLE fam damily:

Dances with Wolves?

Tuesday night was Aiden's first Pack Night!

He earned his Bobcat. In order to get his patch he had to do what cats do and dig through "kitty litter" (with his mouth) for "cat droppings".

Here he is finding out what he had to do.

Go, Aiden, GO!

I think he fished out nine pieces of black liccorice.


He didn't appreciate the black liccorice. What ever happened to using tootsie rolls as cat pooh?

Here are two boys I teach/have taught in primary...Hunter and Wyatt.

I don't have Wyatt any more, since the ward split. He was put with a new teacher. I'm sure he misses me since I am THE BEST Primary teacher EVAH!

But they both earned their Bear awards! Go boys!

After the awards were handed out, the boys were split into groups of a mixture of Wolves, Bears, and Webelos. They had three challenges. Here's the first...

SIX-legged race!

I'm just going to say, Aiden picked a bad day to wear flip-flops! But his team won and his sacrifice was not in vain!

The next challenge, they had to build the tallest structure out of straws and tape.

Aiden's team did not win.

Mabel and Adelyn were dancing to their own music while the challenge was going.

The last challenge they had to shoot down a plastic cup pyramid with rubber bands. I think their team won again, but I'm not sure...it was never officially announced over all the chaos that was going on by that time. "Some" people don't know how to control their kids ;p.

It was a great time though! I think Aiden is really going to love Cub Scouts!

Soccer

Our neighborhood soccer league has started back up. After a lot of complaining and whining from the boys, we went ahead and signed 'em up anyway! Our boys lack motivation to step away from their electronics. They are their mother's boys (me no likey the running so much either...a slow jog I can do!).

They ended up enjoying themselves for the most part...

Aiden scored a goal! which I missed because I was going back and forth between his game and Gray's :(

He really seemed to be getting into the action!


That is, until Aiden took a hard kicked soccer ball to the gut. He had to take a short time out and I thought he was done. But he put some mud on it and got back in the game!

Bret is once again the coach for Gray's age group.

Gray would really just rather sit and watch. But he did get in there and try! He came VERY close to scoring a goal at one point!


I'm glad they're back at it! I'll be more glad when the heat decides to give it a rest!

Story Time

Mabel has gotten into the habit of wanting me to tell her a story for her nap time. These stories usually involve Princess Mabel and her family. The other day I suggested she tell me a story.
Here's how it went:
Mabel: "There was a little girl named Mabel."
Me: "Was she a princess?"
Mabel: "No, I'm not a princess! And there was a big boy named Daddy and a big girl named Mommy. And a big brother named Aiden. And a little brother named Grayson. And they lived in a house."
Me: "Was it a beautiful house?"
Mabel: "No, it was this house."

Wow. Glad you appreciate all my hard work on decorating this dump, Mabel! Can you do any better, Little Miss Sassy Pants!

Saturday was a Special Day!

What a great Saturday we had! We were able to witness the baptism of our oldest child!



Jeez-a-loo! I look as tired as I felt that day!

I'm told the best part of the baptism was him swimming out of the font (I couldn't see from my angle). Awesome. But to be honest, he really did better than I expected. Sorry if that is horrible for a mother to say but seriously, he was reverent during the baptism itself and the confirmation. I was expecting him to be a ham the entire time (this kid digs the lime light).

Thank you to all who made it! I know it was a crazy Saturday for a lot of you, so it means A LOT to us that you were able to come!

Aiden with his grandmas...

Grandma and Grandpa Yellow who took a little break from their Bluff Fort mission to share in this day!

As per usual, I completely forgot to take any pictures at the luncheon. I fully intended to get pics of EVERYONE, and I managed to get pics of NO ONE! Yay for me!

8 is Great!

Aiden turns eight this Saturday. I can't believe I have a kid turning eight. It's insane really. Bret will be out of town on a campout so we celebrated last Saturday.
We played the candy bar game.




We ate cupcakes and ice cream.



We opened a few gifts.


Then it was off to see the new Spy Kids. This is what Aiden chose.
Here the kids are anticipating the awesomeness...

More anticipation...

We bought the kids their own little trays of snacks (I don't recommend this! Lame!! They had a splashing of popcorn, and icee or soda and FRUIT SNACKS??? Who wants fruits snacks at a movie theater??).
After the main event I asked the kids what they thought of the movie...


Thumbs up all around! From the kids. I thought the movie was horrible, terrible, wretched. But my opinion doesn't count here. I'm glad the kids loved it!

Now to plan for a baptism!

First Day of School

Aiden had his first day of school yesterday. All seemed to be going well until about TWO hours into it. Then I got a phone call from his teacher, Ms. Wiehe. She said he was fine, but there had been an incident. Aiden hit a GIRL because she kept getting him out during a game they were playing. We are so proud!! Let's hope this is not indicative of how the rest of the year is going to go!