Family Reunion June 2013 Part 1

We took a big trip to South Carolina last month and had a blast! Evelyn's family had a reunion, the first time in 6-7 years we had all been together. I know, way too long. Hopefully we can do this again soon.

I have so many pictures to share, so hang in there, it's going to be a big one! And this is just part 1.

We flew to Myrtle beach on a red eye; the kids were so excited because they got to stay up really late! Here they are, leaving the house at 8:30 pm. Our flight left SLC at 12am. 

I don't know if it was because it was midnight or because there weren't many kids aboard, but the pilot brought the kids up to see the cockpit. They even got to push some buttons and things. Made me nervous though, I hoped they didn't mess up some important setting we needed to fly! We all got a little sleep on the plane (the kids, more than Jeremy and I). Then a layover in Charlotte NC and on to Myrtle Beach. 

This was the amazing beach house we got to stay in: 6 bedroom, 6 bathroom, a block away from the beach, with a swimming pool. It was a beautiful house. It even had an elevator inside!

Here's our view of the beach from the sitting area on the roof.

We went to the beach a few times, here's the whole gang (minus Kael, Heather, and baby Sam).

 All the kids loved playing in the waves and digging in the sand.

Their cousins bought some nets to catch crabs. Natalie was hooked, that's about all she did one day. Our kids and their cousins had quite the collection of crabs and little fish. Even some of us adults joined in the fun.

Mathew and William, such cute boys, digging in the sand.

 Nicole preferred the shade with daddy.

The girls kept an eye on the crabs while the boys played a game of beach baseball. Lilly is the cutest little thing, so happy and petite, it was fun to get snuggles from her. There was also some boogie boarding and kite flying. It was a fun day at the beach!

While Jeremy and I like the beach, we prefer to swim in a pool, and we just happened to have one at our house! Here's some of our pool adventures...

Swimming in the rain!

Baby Sam was quite a hit with all the kids! These cousins sure love each other.

There were chicken fights, water squirter fights, sun, and a little relaxation by the pool!

Kai was relentless with his water attacks!

Natalie and her cousin Brooke loved to jump into the pool. Over and over and over! They kept asking poor Aunt Heather to make up new dives for them! haha Here is Natalie executing the "Star Dive!"

All together now! 

That's the end of Part 1. 

(Thanks to all the aunts & uncle's and grandma for some of the pictures. It's nice to be in such an artistic family)

4th of July

We had a get together with our friends to light off a few fireworks; nothing much, but enough to make the kids happy. It's becoming a yearly tradition to spend the 4th together with these friends, good times! I forgot that Natalie had "done" Kai's hair earlier before we left so he had horns that night. We laughed at his shadow, he looked like an alien.

It turns out that we didn't have to buy any, we could've just sat outside watching the neighbor's huge firework show! They must have spent hundreds of dollars! Ours paled in comparison. oh well, it was a fun night with good company.

Our Gymnast

Natalie started gymnastics a few years back and then wanted to stop. Last year she asked to start again and all the kids wanted to go, so I put them all in classes. Natalie broke her elbow in October on bars and had to stop. She also needed surgery and 6 months of physical therapy! Kai didn't like going alone (Nicole has switched to a day time team by then) so he dropped out. Soon it was just Nicole and boy is she a natural!!

Nicole had her end of the year parent performance where they showed us all the skills they've been working on. I go watch every time so I know what goes on there, but Jeremy hasn't been able to come as much. I could't get close enough for a decent shot on some events, but here she is on bars. She got her pull over all by herself that day! 

We were going to pull her out for summer for financial reasons, but her coach didn't want to let her go. She is now on scholarship to the gym for a few months! Natalie is begging to go back, but I want to give her a few more months to think about it, plus we can't afford it at the moment. I think Natalie would excel at music or swimming instead. 

Look how happy she is that she just did her her pull over!!

My flash didn't fire here so it's a little dark, but look at that split back walkover.

Here is the cute team. All the girls are 3-4. She has since moved up to the 4-5 year old class.

Baby Sam

We got a surprise visit from my sister-in-law Heather and her cute baby boy. The kids were so excited  to meet him, they had been asking A LOT, when they could see him. He is so cute and Heather is such a great mommy. We wish we could've seen Kael too, but he had to work. Now we are looking forward to our family reunion to get to hold and squeeze him some more!

Nicole needed a little help "holding" him. 

Nicole's Mohawk

I usually have an end goal in mind when doing Nicole's hair, but every so often I decide to change it up along the way, and sometimes the final outcome looks totally different than imagined. 

This day I ran out of time and when I looked at it, I decided leaving the middle undone actually looked pretty cool! So here it is, the mohawk. I took her out for a quick photo shoot to capture it. She got her self dressed that morning in full-out bling, which matched her hair perfectly, so I couldn't pass up the moment.

Easter 2013

We had a very small Easter this year, the Easter Bunny didn't bring very much which was fine with us. 

Our cute eggs. Kai wrote Yoda on one and drew Yoda on the other. haha 

All dressed up for Church in their new Easter clothes.

Moving Day! and Nicole Turns 4!

It's hard to believe it's been almost 3 months since we moved in to our new house! In some ways it feels like we've been here much longer, and in some, like it was just yesterday.

The moving truck came on March 2nd, and it was literally, as big as our house! Since I had done most of the packing work, moving the actual boxes went very fast. We only needed two main trips in the truck. We were all pretty excited that day.

We believe in having every last thing in a box when moving. We did pretty good considering Jeremy and Kai had the flu for 3 weeks (the weeks we had to pack)!

The last remnants. It was hard taking the pictures down from the walls, the house didn't seem the same without them. 

Nicole with her bestie. : )

It's strange seeing your own home so empty.

 Lunch break at our new home with over-worked family and hungry kids!

New Rooms!

Natalie really wants a brother, if for nothing else, to have a "neighbor!" She says she's bored because no one is upstairs with her. Except, Jeremy and I of course, but apparently we don't count. So for a while we found her  asleep in the hall or her doorway.

Nicole had her birthday right after we moved in. Poor thing, we were a little too busy to do much more than a few balloons and cake. She didn't seem to mind though. Happy 4th birthday!