Labor Day Weekend

We decided to make a quick trip to AZ for Labor Day Weekend. My aunt and uncle were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and having a big party so we hooked up with my parents to attend the festivities. We stayed at Allen's mom's house in Show Low. The kids had a ball dragging out all of the dress ups on Saturday morning.

Doesn't she look like she needs a "Vote For Pedro" tshirt! This picture cracks me up!

Wigs for everyone!

Later that morning we headed to my dad's hometown of Taylor, AZ. They were having their annual Sweet Corn Festival so we went to enjoy the party. First up was a parade where my kids RAKED in the candy through the course of the tiny parade (the single wide trailer as a back drop is especially attractive here):

Parade Baby!

After the parade we were able to participate in the kids rodeo. They had games and relays set up for the kids to participate in. During/after the tug 'o war:

The highlight of the morning was the chicken/rabbit chase game. They saved this for the very end and my kids were so excited to participate. The older kids were separated and allowed to chase and catch chickens and the little kids had a similar activity but they chased and caught bunnies. The winners got to keep the animal they caught (worst prize ever in my opinion). Carter got VERY close to catching a chicken:

We were so relieved that the kids didn't catch anything. Unfortunately they did not share our relief. Of the 200ish kids who participated, our 3 were the only ones crying after the event. We're such city slickers. Ironically, one boy caught and won TWO chickens and his parents were trying to give them away after the chase. There were no takers!

After the kids rodeo we had a fair lunch consisting of Navajo tacos, grilled corn, snow cones and kettle corn. The kids had a turn in the bounce house, we did a bit of shopping and then called it a day. It was super fun! Back at the ranch, the kids took a LONG ATV ride with Allen, we built a campfire and had a good time hanging out.

That evening we were able to attend the 50th anniversary celebration. It was fun to see so much extended family that I hadn't seen in years. My cousins did a great job planning the party and I took plenty of notes since we will be hosting a 50th anniversary party for my parents in 3 years.

My dad with all of his siblings/spouses (minus one couple who is serving a mission):

One other fun surprise of the weekend is that my sister and her hubby ended up being in AZ over the weekend. They flew down from WA to buy their daughter a car and drive it home. Here they are with the cutie cute car! It was fun to spend a bit of time together with them.

We had a great weekend and headed home on Sunday afternoon to get ready for another busy week!

Florida Trip - Misc. Pictures

A few more misc. pictures from our reunion. I still need to get the family beach pictures we took but they are on Allen's computer so it may be awhile before I get that post up.

Grandma & the girls after church:

And what happens when you get the crazy big brother involved :)

Nightly talent shows and dance parties:

A morning spent in Seaside, FL. Probably the most quaint town I've EVER been in. Fabulous homes, restaurants/shops and town square. The kids got ice cream and Allen and I shared a piece of chocolate dipped key lime pie (a little piece of heaven):

They had food trucks all along the main drag and one of them was called "Frost Bites":

LOTS of babies:

Dottie (born 1 day after Emery), Ems, and Hyrum (born 10 days after Emery)

LAZY post-beach afternoon naps:

Destin is one of our all-time favorite vacation destinations and we hope we get to go back soon. We loved our time there and time with the Frost family!

Florida Reunion - Beach Pictures

{yes, everyone on the beach looked at me like I was crazy when I was gathering dried, nasty seaweed to make this - it was worth it}

The best part of our Florida trip was the time we spent at the beach. We usually hit the beach right after breakfast and stayed for a few hours and then went back after dinner. I have always heard the gulf coast has the best beaches and was so happy to finally find out for myself that it is TRUE. The sand is white and the water is crystal clear and the perfect temperature! Here's an illustration of the incredible water:{see that parachute way out there? Those were two of my nephews trying parasailing for the first time!}

Another thing that made this beach great were the lack of waves most of the time. It was perfect for our family full of young kids. However, on our last day, we had some decent waves and Allen taught Carter how to boogie board. He LOVED it and got quite good. I know Allen can't wait for Carter to get a bit older so they can enjoy even more of these kinds of things together!





{Emery SERIOUSLY hated the sand. We took her down to the beach in the stroller and she sat there almost the entire time. She took her morning naps there when we realized she would sleep if we draped this sheet over her stroller. She was a total champ on the trip!}

{There was a sandbar a ways out in the water that some of the older kids loved swimming out to every day. They had to swim and then dive about 10 feet deep to collect sand dollars off the bar. Carter amassed a huge collection that we brought home with us.}

{Night beach pics}

My best tip if you're planning a beach vacation: EVERYONE in your family should take a swim shirt. And each family member should have a different color. It was so easy to find my kids on the beach/ocean because of their different colored swimshirts. Everyone should also have a hat!

{More posts to come. Blogger is so insanely slow lately and will only let me upload 1 picture at a time. I'm not sure if it is because of my file size, my computer or blogger. This post took me almost 3 hours to put together!}

Florida Reunion - Pool Pictures

Here's my first batch of reunion pictures! In my opinion, the key to any successful beach vacation is having access to a pool. While we LOVE going to the beach, it's nice to have another option for playing in the water that doesn't involve sand or lugging a million things to the beach. Our accommodations on this trip were fantastic. We rented 3 beach houses on a dead end street and we had a pool and private beach access. It was AWESOME! On most days we spent the morning at the beach, came home for lunch/naps, spent the afternoon at the pool and then went back to the beach in the evening. It was perfect. I didn't take a ton of pool pics but we certainly enjoyed our time there. The kids loved racing each other, playing chicken on the uncles/dads shoulders, diving for rings and playing games that Aunt Meghan made up! It was great.

{Addie became a little fishy this summer and is able to swim proficiently on her own!}

{18 month old Madeline}

{The closest I got to Ems looking at me and smiling}

{Grandkids + grandma}

{Uncle Jake & Leslie}

{Aunt Tess & Eli}

{Aunt Meghan & sleeping Claire}

Family Reunion

We drove to Vancouver, WA (across the river from Portland) to my sister's house on August 1. We had a family reunion scheduled the 2nd week of August but I decided if we were making the LONG drive that I wanted to stay for two full weeks. Allen flew home the next morning so he could spend the week working.

The first week was full of a lot of hanging out for the kids. My kids absolutely adore all of their cousins and they had a fabulous time getting to spend so much time with their Baldwin cousins over two weeks. The weather was up and down during the time we were there (welcome to the PNW, right?) but it didn't stop the kids from swimming the pool every day (in 60 degree weather a couple times).

Mason also taught them that if you put dish soap on the trampoline with a bit of water, you get LOTS of bubbles. They went through and entire bottle of soap over a few days doing this.

We were able to celebrate Maddie's 5th birthday with a fun ice cream themed party. Unfortunately she was sick on her bday but we were happy to celebrate with her anyway.

The kids had LOTS of late nights:


Lots of craft projects (completely organized by the older kids - loved it!):

Tons of yummy treats (and food):


Dress up and pretend play (my little nieces were so good about playing with the younger kids. I loved hearing them direct them in "Little house on the Prairie" and school)

On one of the warm days we went and played in the Hood river for the day. The kids had a ball swimming, digging in the sand and having mud wars. We were hoping to squeeze in one more river day but the weather never really cooperated again.
My sister and I were able to squeeze in a Girls Night Out too. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, shopped for a couple of hours and then saw the Broadway production of South Pacific in downtown Portland one night. It was so much fun getting to spend a few child free hours together.

There was also a lot of pickup basketball played, walks with blackberry picking (yum!), video game playing (by the boys) and going to the movies.

The second week, the rest of my family joined in the fun. Allen flew back on Saturday morning. My mom and dad drove up with Parker and Bailey and then Teresa, Steve and Christina flew up a couple days later.

The first day we were together we drove up to Mount St. Helen's for the day. The drive was absolutely gorgeous and we loved learning about the volcano and the day it erupted in 1980. Unfortunately, it was totally cloudy and we were unable to see the volcano at all. It was a bummer but we just had to laugh about it (like I said, welcome to the PNW!). We had a picnic lunch in the balmy 50 degree weather and then headed back home.

That afternoon the kids filled up a bunch of water balloons for a water fight and we came out to find the girls looking like this:
It was too funny to not take a picture of!

We headed off to the beach for a few days and had the best time. We stayed in this same beach house 5 years ago (I was pregnant with Makenna at the time!) and we were excited to stay there again. The house is right on the water and is big enough to accommodate us all. On the way to the beach we made a stop in downtown Portland to go to Voodoo donuts. It's a very famous shop that has been featured on lots of Food Network shows and boasts being on the top 10 best donut list for the country. We waited for an hour in line just to get in the store. We were a bit skeptical while standing in line but they were the YUMMIEST donuts ever. They had a huge variety and our favorite was the maple donut with bacon on top. I know it sounds disgusting but it was SO good. We also had a bubblegum donut (makenna), an M&M donut (carter), a mango donut, a peanut butter/oreo donut and a couple others. They were so good!



Our trips to the OR coast always include the same activities. Trips to the tidepools:

Sitting in the hot tub:

Then running down to the beach and jumping in the FREEZING water:

And then running back to the hot tub. Addie was not too happy about being left standing on the beach while everyone jumped in. The water was about 52 degrees on this day and I could barely stand to get my feet wet, let alone jump in. Of course Allen had to get in on the fun as he feels he always has to get in ocean when he has the opportunity (crazy!)

There was lots of game playing:

Spoiling of Addie (who was beloved by everyone and fought over by the cousins):

My mom brought lots of craft projects that kept the kids occupied for hours at time. We took walks on the beach and had fun finding sea creatures everywhere.

On the way home from the beach we always stop at Tillamook cheese factory for the tour, cheese sampling and their amazing ice cream:

(Carter's interesting outfit is due to the fact that he jumped in the ocean full clothed right before we were leaving. I was completely out of clothes for him so he wore dirty jeans and a pj top for the rest of the day. I was not too amused at the time but it was actually funny).

The day after returning from the beach we made the epic 24 hour drive home in just two days. It was pretty brutal and I'm not sure we've ever been more tired in our lives. We had to make it home in order to start school the following morning. The kids actually missed the first week of school so we were pretty desperate to make it home in time for the 2nd week.

We had a wonderful time being together with my family. A special thanks to the Jackson's for hosting our big group and to my mom and dad for all their organization of the events.