A funeral and a Reunion

I have a big family.  It's always been big and we've always been around each other.  I don't think I have ever lived anywhere where I haven't had some family member near me.  It's not a bad thing, but it's a rare thing.

My grandmother passed away on the 9th of April, which happens to be one of my cousin's birthday.  She passed away a long time ago so I'm sure she doesn't mind sharing that day with grandma.

With a funeral as major as this one we knew there would be a big turn out so it turned into a funeral/reunion.  All 7 siblings were there.  40 of the 43 grandchildren were there and to many great grand children, I think the number is 79 with 7 more on the way, to count were there.

I was excited to go to Phoenix and see my family, friends and my old haunts. My family all stayed in the same hotel in Scottsdale.  That was fun.  The kids were able to hang out, swim, eat breakfast together and go to grandma and grandpa's room to watch TV.

 The weekend went well.  We met over at my aunt's house in Paradise Valley on Friday.  It was fun seeing cousins I haven't seen in years.  It was just like when we were younger.  I didn't bring my camera.  Silly me.

The funeral was nice.  My dad spoke and did a wonderful job.  The luncheon afterwards was nice.  I spent most of the time talking to my cousins.  Grandma got a ride to the cemetery in style, in a Cadillac.

 The bicentennial babies.  There were 5 of us born in 1976.  They always called us the 76ers.  The chair is for our cousin Elizabeth (Betsy) who died back in 2003.

After the graveside service our family headed to our old house.  The street is still beautiful even though the new owners have done some weird things to the front of the house.  We then headed to our favorite ice cream place, Mary Coyles.

The night of the funeral we went to a church in Mesa to have a big family dinner and do more socializing. 

We drove back to Redlands on Sunday and had a big family dinner since Pookie and Jonathan came back with us.  The kids loved having Uncle Jonny in the car.  Or maybe it was his Ipad they loved.  It was a nice

Noah's 12!!

 Today Noah turned 12!.  Can't believe we have a 12 year old.  The first thought that went through my head this morning was, "Wow!  When did I become old enough to have a 12 year old?"  I quickly got over that and headed to the kitchen to make Noah his favorite breakfast, waffles.  Then he had to leave for school.  While he was gone I made cupcakes for his carpool.  The cupcakes were loved, but the pictures on them were not.  Apparently it is super easy to embarrass a 12 year old.  I was told thank you, but to never send pictures in again.  Oh well.

Our birthday celebrations weren't as fun as they were going to be because we had to leave for a funeral the next day, but we managed to have a little fun.  Noah enjoyed his presents. 

Noah has grown up so well.  He has a lot of responsibility on him as he is the oldest.  He is such a big help for us and takes great care of his siblings.  He loves to play Wii, play trumpet and read books.  He tolerates homework and swim team.  He hates having to get up early for school.

We love you Noah.  Happy Birthday!!

Easter Goodness

I need to stop eating candy.  Here is a glimpse on some of our Easter fun. 

Lily also got her American Girl Doll. She named it Emma.  She worked so hard to get it has has completely stopped wearing pullups at night and has been dry since Feb. 18th.  We are proud of her.

Spring Break-day 4

It's always hard to go back to reality after vacation.  We took our time getting ready to leave.  We had a nice breakfast, packed and played outside one more time before we got in the car and headed back down the mountain.

It was a great break.  We are all glad we did it.  It's wonderful to be together.

Spring Break-day 3

Damon was in charge or the activities today and he didn't disappoint.  After a slow morning (love not getting up and rushing out) we headed out to do some geocaching and a hike.  We hiked Castle Rock and did the Royal Flush geocache.

 We couldn't find the first cache because it was buried under snow.  Damon stood on top of it though.  It was quite a fun hike and the kids didn't complain much because we were looking for the caches.

 We had lunch on top of Castle Rock and enjoyed the views of the Lake from the top.  We made it down in record time with only 1 fall.  No one got hurt though and Damon managed to save his camera during the fall (that was the first thing I asked, "Is the camera ok?).

After we returned back to the trail start the kids wanted to take over the activities for the rest of the day.  We headed for the Alpine slide and the Go Karts.  Both were fun, but on the second run down the slide Lily and I lost control and flipped over.  She was crying the rest of the way down.  She got a bit of a burn on her head.  The Go Karts lifted her spirits and so did pizza for dinner.

 We had dinner alfresco at Boulder Bay Park.  It was a beautiful setting.  The kids met some dogs and their owner let the kids take the dogs on a walk.  They loved it.  After showers we had movie night and watched "Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension".  The kids fell asleep pretty quick after that.

Spring Break-day 2

Skiing!  Lily wasn't going to go so Damon was going to stay home with her.  She was scared to try skiing.  I was set with just going with the boys, but then Damon decided he wanted to go as well.  We ended up telling Lily she was going to try skiing.

After a nice leisurely breakfast we went to the ski shop and got fitted with skis.  Lily cried because she was the only one who didn't get poles.  It's been 16 years since I've been skiing and I must say that I enjoy the newer style of skis better then the long, narrow ones. 

We skied a half day at Snow Summit.  I was glad for the half day because after 4 hours I was done in.  The kids had never been and I didn't want to bother with lessons so they got a real basic ski class from me.  Here is how it went... 1)If you want to go fast point your skis downhill.  2)If you want to go slow make a triangle with the tip in front, it's called snow plow.  3) If you fall down fall to the left or right. 4) When you fall down point your skis perpendicular to the hill so you don't start going down the hill. 5) Have fun and don't fall when getting off the ski lift.

 It was a little touch and go at first and a bit of yelling from me, but after the first run everyone seemed to have figured it out and we all had a great day.  By the end of the day the kids were all bored with the bunny hill.  We were all very exhausted afterwards.  It was a great day!  The kids are already talking about doing it again next ski season.