The AMAZING Race

In an effort to promote more family togetherness and traditions, my mom came up with some ideas. Her idea and the one she really wanted to do was The Amazing Race. It's like the only show she watches on TV and she wanted to try out a family one.

Eric was against it for his own reasons, and while he didn't want to particpate he was okay with the kids and I doing so. It ended up working out okay because my mom did it on a day when Eric had to be at the game store anyway.

My mom had divided us into teams prior to the event, but due to circumstances changing for a few people, last minute changes were made. I ended up on a team with my little brother, his son, my brother in law, Lex and Jace. Yup, I was the only female and it was slightly awkward.

Our first order of business was to decorate our 'mascot'. A wooden letter painted a certain color. Our teams had to have the color of the letter in our names as well. We came up with the Red Rebels. I did like that because I was the only girl, the boys didn't put up too much of a fight regarding the name, or how we decorated it.

Then my mom wanted to get pictures of each of the teams. I'm still not sure what happened, but she missed getting a picture of the first team which Shaylyn and Ailey were a part of. ::Sniff, sniff::

{...The Red Rebels...}

{...The Blue Bunnies...}

Our first feat was to eat crackers and then hum three notes. I volunteered for that one (before I knew I had to stuff crackers in my face). I did pretty good and then we got our info. Our first clue led us the playground at the elementary school near my parents house.

We had to do a few things there. One such thing was to go down the slide 3 different ways. My dad was to supervise this activity and one way we were supposed to go down was on our stomaches. That wasn't happening for me, so my Dad told me to go down a different way.

We then had to have my Dad hold our mascot, take a picture and send it to my mom before we got the okay to move on.

We were on our way to our next stop (the grocery store) when my mom texted us that we didn't do one of the tricks right. My brother and brother in law ran back to the playground to do it the right way, while I stayed with the 2 strollers and Lex. We then made the long trek to the store. It was a hot day and I was glad when we finally made it to the store.

We had to do a few different things at the grocery store. One was to play Chubby Bunny and record it, the other was the down pudding cups without a spoon while wearing a bib. Which also needed to be recorded.

Our next stop was at my mom's house. She had a few tasks there, however another group beat us there, so we had to wait. During our wait we found out only a couple people needed to do the pudding - not all of us. We were also supposed to get another treat from the store and deliver to someone. My little brother never opened that envelope - so we lost points on that.

When the group finished their business, we went at it. My mom gathers golf balls while she walks during her breaks at work (no idea why) and she had them all in a basket and we needed to get a count of different company's, etc.

We moved on to the church. This is where we got a little bit stumped. There was a riddle we had to figure out. I eventually figured out that it was talking about a tree. We each needed to get a picture holding on to the tree and then we had to come up with a chant/slogan for our team. We did that in a matter of seconds and I can't remember it now. We said something about doing things our own way and not caring! LOL.

We got back to mom's and after dinner we waited for results. My team ended up in last place because of the missing delivery.

All in all it was a fun day and activity. It was hard for this pregnant lady wandering around the streets in the heat, but at the end of the day I was thankful for the exercise. I was also thankful for an activity that my kids enjoyed that was away from the TV.

Even after all the walking our day incurred, they had no trouble finding energy to mess around in Grandma's front yard.

The biggest excitement of the night came when we were trying to clean up dinner. The sink wouldn't drain. No matter what was tried, it didn't work. My brothers in law came to the rescue and tried to figure the issue out. After a few failed experimenatations, they figured out what they needed and they went and rented it from the home improvement store. In a matter of seconds they fixed the issue and everyone was happy.

What Happens Next...

Back To School Blues

Back to school time always hits me with many emotions. On one hand I'm sad to send my kids back to school and on the other hand, there are times when they've had enough of each other that they need the break.

This year was no exception, especially as I had a kid starting high school and one of my 'babies' was headed to Kindergarten. It really was kind of hard on this mom. But I did my best to keep my emotions in check and made sure we got their first day pictures done. (Even if I had to get up at like 6 to get Tanis taken care of)

Backpacks for the older kids came a day late, but I wanted to make sure I got a picture of backpacks too.

Ailey had to wait a week to go to school, but she was okay with that. it meant she could use the TV without anyone getting in her way. She was just as excited to go to Kindergarten, though. Her face shows differently as her Dad got after her for something just before we left.

{...Blame Mommy Brain for leaving the price tag on...}

When she got to the Kindergarten area she went to her teacher to get her name necklace. Smart teacher to hand these out before school started.

Then Ailey found her 2 best friends (who also ended up in her class) and life was especially good.

I'm really sad these kids are all gone and Jace is the only one left at home. But he keeps the time Ailey is gone filled with fun and it's nice to get a few things done with just one little person needing me.

What Happens Next...

Cousin's Camp 2015

It was time for Cousin's Camp again. It was decided, though that the whole family should be involved. My older sister got the dates set up from a Thursday thru Saturday. She was hoping to have all the kids there (including her step kids) on Thursday. Well, we couldn't make Thursday work. Eric didn't have enough time off and I certainly wasn't going to take 6 kids up the mountain by myself. Not to mention that the campsite chosen was close to Heber. My sister seemed a little upset, but there really wasn't a whole lot I could do.

So Friday morning we got all ready to go and I think we were able to be out of the house shortly after noon. We had an uneventful drive up the mountain and then got situated. While Eric worked on getting the tent up and the kids bringing sleeping bags, pillows and blankets to the tent, I worked on lunch.

After lunch, the kids found their cousins and Eric and I cleaned up lunch. Or I cleaned up lunch and Eric kept the dogs from going crazy and Jace from running into the road. Lex chose to play a game Eric had bought just for camping.

Then it was time for the kids to color their yearly shirts. Some kids take their time, some kids - not so much.

My little sister then had the kids try their hands at a craft. The idea was to make 'lightning bugs' out of plastic eggs and pipe cleaners. Then you stick a battery operated tea light in it and you've got your bug.

Then it was time for some good ol' relaxation.

{...It was fun to see Ailey as the 'big cousin' that everyone wanted to be with...}

{...A lady in the campground next to us brought us a couple packages of Peeps for us to roast. I don't like Peeps to begin with, so I didn't roast any - but some of my kids couldn't wait to do it...}

We had a classic dinner of hotdogs and smores for dessert. It was quick and easy and the kids pretty much all ate without complaint.

Jace really loved being outdoors and the whole camping thing.

Because we all have little kids, we all went to our tents rather early. This part is a little sad for me as I really enjoy staying up swapping stories and laughing by the campfire. But, I knew it was better to go to bed at the same time as Jace so that I wouldn't wake him up if I came into the tent later.

He slept okay, but I had a hard time sleeping as we were super close to a freeway and trucks were on that strip of road all night long.

The next day really did become kind of a lazy Saturday. People found random things to do. My older sister had a bin of random things to do and one of them was beads to make necklaces and/or bracelets. The kids had way more fun doing this than I thought they might.

Then things got a little tricky. My little sisters kids love the outdoors and love going on walks and when camping, hikes. So they were begging to go on a hike all morning. That meant my kids quickly jumped on the bandwagon. 

My older sister wasn't thrilled at the idea of taking a bunch of kids hiking by herself, and as a mom I couldn't really let her do that anyway. It wasn't fair. So I decided I'd go along as well, with whichever kids wanted to go.

Eric stayed at camp to watch Jace and to play games with my Dad and little brother who showed up that morning. Shaylyn and Tanis also opted to stay back. Shaylyn claims it was so she could keep my little brothers son entertained and Tanis was backup help for Jace.

My poor little sister had come without her husband, as he was out of town for work, so although she really had NO desire to go on a hike, she was a good little mommy and did what would make her kids happy.

So we had my 2 sisters, my mom and 6 little kids with us. We relied on my older sister for direction and guidance as she had some sort of map or something on her phone. We started on the trail that was supposed to be 4 miles long. We all kind of figured 4 miles would be nothing, especially on a trail. So we went along. Kami acted as a great tour guide and the kids were eating it up.

We hiked about a mile in when we passed this bike just sitting off to the side of the mountain. We found it a bit odd and the next thing I know my little sister is screaming, "There's someone up there." We had just talked about bears being in that area, so at first I was worried that's what she saw. But when she uttered those words, I kind of laughed at her. She's always been a little more of a worrier and she wasn't really expecting to see anyone so it caught her off guard. Thankfully she was able to laugh at herself a little bit too.

We had to make a decision on if we were going to turn around at this point or just keep going. I think we were all a little proud and had the attitude of we can do 3 more miles. We don't need to turn around. So off we went.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. This trail was not well paved, and it was A LOT of up and down. There were overgrown weeds all around (like as tall as Ailey) and it was anything but an easy hike.

We all started worrying as the trail seemed never ending and there were a few times, our 'guide' even wondered if we were a bit lost. But she's been outdoors a lot in her life and has a good sense of direction and we soon found the trail markers so we knew we were where we were supposed to be.

It was beginning to become a long hike and the kids were getting tired, but I think I only heard a complaint from both Ailey and Nate one time. Poor Nate's asthma acted up the higher we went and it was hard for him to keep going as he couldn't catch his breath and had to breathe so hard just to be able to breathe at all. And because he doesn't normally have episodes, we don't have anything for him. I felt like a horrible mother and just tried to make sure he kept hydrated.

Eventually my sisters husband started to worry about us as we had been gone for 3 hours. (Really didn't seem that  long) Thankfully, they had phones that worked. Kami was able to tell Mark where we were and he came up the back side of the trail. He met up with us after about 1 1/2 miles on his end and was a presence we all were glad to see. We realized how stupid we were to not have convinced one of the men to come with us in the beginning.

My little sister's little boy had fallen asleep shortly before Mark showed up and so she had spent a long time carrying her little boy in her arms, trying to navigate a trail that was anything but friendly for carrying another. My kids were dragging their feet by this point, so Mark grabbed Ailey and had her on his shoulders while my older sister carried her 2 year old. It was crazy. I could barely move one of my legs and was worried I did something horrible to my body.

We got back to camp and I really couldn't move easily. We had discussed leaving Saturday night to make it back to the city to see Eric's brother that was coming in from out of town on Sunday. I told Eric I didn't mind if we left but he'd have to pack everything as I really couldn't move. He had decided earlier on that we'd just leave on Sunday. My little brother had come realizing we were staying and everyone else was leaving so it wouldn't be fair to leave him.

We all visited for a bit longer on Saturday night and then everyone else took their leave. We stayed and had fun with our little family and my little brother. We had a good chance to get to know my brother's little boy a little more and I was thankful for that time. I was worried I wouldn't be able to move the next morning either, but thankfully I woke up without pain.

My little brother had to leave fairly early as he had to get his kid back to his mom by a certain time. We packed up and cleared out shortly after as we had my Grandma's birthday party to get to later that night.

It was a fun campout and I'm glad we went and I'm definitely thankful for the lessons I learned on that hike and even more thankful there wasn't a bear or two that decided to visit with us.

What Happens Next...