Cancun

So this is actually my sister's post from her blog. I copied it to ours until we get a chance to catch up on our blog. Thanks Julie!

As you can probably tell by the pictures...we had a blast in Cancun! We got to go with all of my brothers and sisters and my sisters' husbands and my mom and dad. (i.e. no little kids) But we all acted like a bunch of little kids anyway.

Eric, Nate, and Cindy decided to see how many pieces of bubble gum they could chew at once.

I stepped on a sea urchan (sp?) while snorkeling and couldn't walk that night. The natives there told us just to put vinegar on it and it would swell up, but be fine. We went to the doctor at our hotel and he said he would remove them for $70, but Jenny (my sister) and Nate decided they would remove them for free. So this is them cutting into me. Just so everyone knows you can't really just pull them out because it's more like ink and it just dissolves, so I let them work on me for about 15 minutes and made them stop. By the next day they felt fine. (It really didn't hurt that bad...I was just putting on an act for the camera.) This is a real shark that a kid caught on the beach.

Do you see the iguanas in the last two pictures. They were all over and didn't really care if we came close to them.

We are covered in sand in this picture because we were playing a serious game with frisbees. My brother, Eric, and brother-in-law, Blake, didn't let us rest too much. There was lots of frisbee, football, volleyball, tennis, etc.

So let's note this next picture...we stayed up late the night before and everyone else got to sleep in the car, but these are the drivers who didn't get to sleep until we got to the beach. (The guy sleeping on the left is my brother-in-law, Blake. You'll notice if he's not going, going, going then he crashes.) Okay...this picture is really funny. My brother, Eric, stayed up all night the night before we left, so this is him asleep at the airport. This gum on the side of his mouth isn't his, but is my sister's. We put it right on the edge then when he started to wake up, he moved it into his mouth and fell back asleep. We had everyone sitting near us laughing so hard. Eric didn't appreciate it very much. This is a picture of me and my daddy. We all did a lot of eating while we were there. This is us in a cenote, which is an underground cave with water. They were a nice cool change from the heat outside.

Hiking to the top of Coba

At the top of Coba

This is our rental car. I had to take a picture with Nate by it because it's quite a big difference than his HUGE truck he drives here.

On Sunday we got to go to church where Tyler served part of his mission. A family in the ward invited us over for dinner. They fed us a yummy true Mexican dinner and we taught them a fun American game. Although there were only about 4 people in this big crowd that could speak both English and Spanish, we all had such a great time! (Besides the family that fed us, the bishop and his family came over and the missionaries, which one of them Tyler trained.)

This is us mocking my mom (the photographer) when she tells us to get closer together.

We were all pretty proud of ourselves for hiking the Coba ruins.

Excited

I know I'm way behind on blogging everything, but I'll catch up later, maybe. We have been so busy. After our birthday's was our anniversary and I left to Arizona to visit my grand parents that day with Alissa. It was a fun relaxing vacation. I got home and then the next day we left for NYC which was a blast. Blake went back to school and since then we have been going on bike rides, camping, swimming, fishing and enjoying the summer in Ohio.

Tuesday we leave for Idaho and I am so excited!!! It is going to be so much fun. We will be busy there too. A vacation to Utah with the Jones', a baby blessing for Makenna, baby shower for Kristi, trip to Mexico with the Davis adults, Garrett's wedding and reception, 2 baptisms, family pictures and another wedding reception for Garrett. Are we going to be there until Christmas? Nope, we are doing all of this in only weeks. It is going to be so much fun! I do need to motivate myself to get ready to go. Our house needs to be ready to show since it is for sale. Right now it is in a continuous stage of chaos. Sewing stuff on the table. Ironing stuff on the kitchen counter, the couch is in front of the stairs as a baby gate, blankets on the floor and couch from Remi and Broden being cold in our 80+ degree house, dished in the sink, towels on the porch, laundry in the dryer, toys EVERYWHERE, dirty bathrooms and the list could go on and on.

Right now though, I am enjoying listening to Remi and Broden playing together. And watching Alissa play on the floor with toys instead of getting into the cupboards, or my sewing stuff, or the garbage, or the toilet paper, or climbing on the stairs or pulling on the computer cord. In a nutshell they are all being really good right now, so I'm sitting down enjoying watching instead of cleaning.

Anyway, I love being a mom. Some days are overwhelming, but I still wouldn't change anything. I'm trying to be better at laughing at what the kids are doing instead of crying about what I'm not getting done. It has been working for a couple days. I just need to keep the perspective that it won't matter in 10 years how clean my house was, but I do want to remember how much fun my kids had playing and how much fun I had with them.

Ok, I'm going to go clean now.

Birthdays, Anniversary and Mother's Day

Blake's cake. The kids put the candles in all by themselves.













Blake looking a little green on his birthday.

The kids helping open presents.

My peppermint patty cake.

May is our big celebration month. May 10th was Blake's birthday and Mother's Day. Blake and Remi made me breakfast in bed, and Remi and Broden joined me and we all ate in bed. Then Alissa woke up and she also got breakfast in bed. For Blake's birthday we let him open his presents before church. He got 4 new ties. He already opened his other birthday and anniversary present. He got a new camera. One of the really nice ones that you can use different lenses with. He has been wanting one of these since we got married. Thank you air force for helping us out with this one. Then after church we just hung out and we were going to make a nice steak dinner, but Blake was feeling sick all afternoon, so steak wasn't really what he wanted. Remi and I did make a birthday cake for him though. We sang to him and he blew out the candles, but didn't eat any. The kids and I enjoyed it though. Poor Blake just didn't have a very good birthday. The kids did go to bed early though and we got to watch Twilight together. That was relaxing. Blake got me 2 hanging pots of flowers that are beautiful. I wanted something I could take with me if we move this summer.

The 13th was my birthday. I have been trying to eat healthy, so I didn't want a cake. But with kids you can't not sing Happy Birthday and blow out a candle, so Blake got creative. He got me a York Peppermint patty and put a candle in it. We all shared it after I blew out my candle. I also got some spatula's, bungee cords and flashlights. Then in the afternoon he took me shopping for some clothes and a new swimming suit. It was fun! I have and amazing husband. I also got to go to Arizona for my birthday. I left on the 15th(which is our anniversary). Thank you to those of you who gave me this gift. I had such a fun time down there.

When I got home our anniversary present was in the garage. New bikes, helmets and everything we needed to go for family bike rides. We have been wanting to do this for 3 years, and we can finally do it financially. I'm so glad we got these while we live here. There are so many places to see and you can see so much more when riding a bike than you can on foot.

We have been married for five wonderful years. Sometimes it feels like it has been forever. Not in a bad way though. It just seems like I have always had Blake by my side. I don't really remember life without him. He is such a good husband and an amazing father. I am so grateful he holds the priesthood and honors it. He can always make me smile. We have so much fun together and I look forward to having forever with him!

Home for Sale

In between all our travels and birthdays we got our home all ready to put on the market. FINALLY! We were scheduled to sign the papers on Monday, May 11th. We were supposed to fix the attic ladder, paint the garage, get patio furniture, plant flowers, paint both front porch and back deck and have it all clean for pictures. Well it rained from the time Blake got out of school until Saturday night. So Monday morning for some reason the kids got up at 5:45 am. This is not normal for them! But we got an early start on our chores. We painted both decks and got everything else done that was on our chore list all by 1:00 pm, when the Realtor came to sign papers and take pictures. Finally we are done! Now we just have to keep it clean and ready to show. We have had 3 showings since we listed and hopefully it will sell fast. We would love to rent a bigger home for the rest of our time here. 2 bedrooms is only fun for so long!

These are the before pictures. I don't have a before pic of the half bath. It was pink and blue flowery wall paper and a blue floor. You can imagine, right?



Kitchen- notice the wall where the fridge and stove are on the right. It's gone.

More kitchen
Dining room
Living room. Check out the huge, heavy old curtains.
From front door looking into living room.
Stairway.
Upstairs bathroom.
More upstairs bathroom. You can't see it, but the tile is falling off around the tub.
Remi's room.
More Remi's room.
Our room.

More our room.The front then.

And the front now!

Front porch.

Our room.

More our room.

Remi and Broden's Room.














Living room.













More living room.













Kitchen.













Back yard.

Washington DC

Riding the Metro.

Broden, Avery, Drew and Remi.

Pajama party in our room!

Relaxing in the grass.

In April we decided we wanted to take a trip to the temple. Then Blake found out he couldn't be in the clinic on Thursday and Friday because the seniors had boards, so we decided to take a trip to the DC Temple. We left Wednesday afternoon and after 4 potty stops for Remi and constant screaming by at least 1 child we made it to the Temple just in time for me to go to the 8:30 session. The Temple was so peaceful and it is a beautiful temple.

That night we stayed in a hotel then got up and Blake went to the temple while we got everything packed and ready to go. We then drove to the next hotel and checked in so we could park our car there and we rode the metro to DC. We went to the zoo for a little while, it was packed though, so we went all the way into town and met up with some friends to see some sights. That night we watched all the kiddos while the other 2 couples we went with went to the temple. They each have 2 and 1 on the way. 2 of the kids slept in their room, so we just had 2 extra in our room. All the kids had so much fun eating candy, playing on the beds and watching movies.

Friday we rode the metro into town again and walked all over to see the Declaration of Independence, the Air and Space Museum, and the Capitol Building. When we were in the room to see the Declaration of Independence it was really quiet. The atmosphere was reverent and everyone was serious. There was a really long line to see it and as soon as we got in the room our kids went bezerk. They started screaming and running around. They weren't mad really, just highper. So I peeked over someone's shoulder at it and we hurried out of there as fast as we could so we didn't get arrested for disturbing the peace. Then we rode the Metro to the pentagon, just for fun. It right at 5:00 so everyone was leaving. When we were looking at a map a man stopped us to offer help. We talked to him for a while. He was from Utah and a member of the church. He had 6 kids and is in the Air Force. He is going back to Finland I think this summer where he will be stationed for the Air Force. He was really nice. I'm sure we stuck out there with our 3 kids, all of us dressed modestly on a hot day, looking at a map. He probably had a good idea we were members.

That night we drove into town to see everything at night. It was neat, but not what I was expecting. I though everything would be lit up like we light up our temples. They weren't. It was still fun though.

Washington DC is an amazing city. The Metro is so easy to use and easily accesible for strollers. There is so much to do there that is free and so much to learn. The hotel we stayed in was amazing. All the bathroom soaps and everything were Bath and Body Works and the furniture was really nice. It was one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in.

Saturday we packed up and drove home. The kids didn't do too much better on the drive home than they did on the drive there. When we got home I wasn't sure if I even wanted to go on another road trip. EVER.

That night we went bowling with a bunch of friends from church. It was sooooo much fun. We had different competitions with the couples then went out for ice cream. It was a sweet date!