Ottley Cousin Visit

 

Tucker’s mom, Judy, had four siblings.  Her second oldest is Linda.  Of the five children, Judy and Dev are no longer living (Judy Leukemia and Dev cancer…of the mouth?  I’m not sure the name).  Their parents, Grandma Shirl and Grandpa Milt, are still living at the age of 89.  Seems that we hardly ever get to see cousins, aunts, uncles, etc anymore because our own families have grown so much.  But we were able to fit in an evening get-together with Linda Ottley and her kids (5 of the 6).   Everyone was very happy to see each other, and it was fun to teach the girls who everyone was and try to help them understand their family lines a bit more (although I think we are barely scratching the surface of how it all works and how everyone is connected).

 

Summer Days at Gam & Pa’s

Since our camping trip was cut short, our back up plan was a swim day together.  Kids love hanging out together.  It’s quite a bunch of kids…ranging in age from 1 to 15, but they all seem to get along great!  Jeannine and Neal are very patient to have that many people in their home.  We try to keep all the kids outside in their wet clothing since they have real wood flooring.  It’s amazing how big the family has gotten…I can remember when I first met Tucker, we’d get together and play games and there would at the most be like three or four little kids.  Games are much harder these days!

 

(Mindy is an expert on technology, esp Mac products…so we love getting help from her and I can’t wait for her to help me incorporate it into my career eventually!)

More Utah Friend Days

KANDELYN and SARAH

 

Kandelyn moved from Kingsburg to UT three years ago now, and we have managed a get together the past three summers since then.  This was a shorter trip for us than in years past, so I was glad to still be able to see Kandelyn…and Sarah (moved from Kingsburg almost four years ago).  It is so fun to see these girls, catch up and see what life has thrown each of us as we get older and (some of us) add more kids to the bunch!  Sarah was without her five boys this time (she is packing and moving and her parents had them), and I am so happy she still came.

 

 

 

TIFF, SOLOMON and ELIZA

I sure love Tiffany and her cute kids.  There is something very home-y about Tiff’s house that makes you want to snuggle up on the couch and stay there.  I’m not quite sure why I never remember to take a picture of she and I…and Heidi (who came over too)!!  Shame on me.  But the kids had fun!

How Lucky am I?

Not always easy…but always worth it…that should be my motto during my trip to Utah! I absolutely love seeing my dear friends when I am there.  Friendships are very important to me.  Our time may be semi-chaotic (with all the kids) and limited…but not any less valuable!  How lucky am I to have such special friends?

 

This was a day where we gathered at Brittany’s house in Layton.  My sister Carly, Tiff, Brittany, Karli and myself.  Plus our 13 kids ;-)

 

Ame had made some amazing limeade slush and the girls had a lemonade stand.  I think WE drank all of it though!  Yummy.

  

 

 

 

Kids played, made a mess of Brittany’s house…and danced to “Just Dance 2” – which was SOOO fun.  Then, Jordyn was able to have a sleepover with Ame.  I love that my kids can make their own friends and special memories like this from our visits. 

 

Thanks Brittany for hosting us ALL!

 

 

Camping! Summer 2011

I would never be able to truthfully say that I LOVE camping.  But I like it enough, and since we all enjoyed our camping trip last summer, we were excited.

But it definitely isn’t a “hop in the car” type activity.  It is amazing the amount of effort that goes into a camping trip for nearly 30 people.  Especially when it’s a trip within a trip, like it is for us.  I mean, the food alone is insane!  Maybe we need to learn to be more “live off the land” type of people, but we’ve got lots of picky eaters and lots of kids…we we wanted to make sure no one starved. 

 

 

Before we left, Lyndsy brought up concern about any water that may be near by our camp site.  We told her that it didn’t look like there would be any…but we still had a “rules” talk with all the kids before we left.  So imagine our surprise when we pulled up to find this full and fast river running completely through our entire camp site!

 

 

We had to be on high alert of all kids every second because this river flow was pretty fast and there had already been several drownings in UT by this point of the year.  It was beautiful, but definitely gave me anxiety!

 

We settled in and set up camp.  I think we put up like 8 tents between all of us?  Some of the older kids (Emmi & Maddie, Taylor & Jaden) had their own tent.  The weather was beautiful and it was a very relaxing first day. 

 

Lexi was very sad to be on crutches…so Mindy was kind and shared her iPad with her to entertain herself.

 

Bella (Gam’s dog) Lilly (Gertson’s dog) and Sammi (Hintze’s dog) all joined us as well.

 

Peyton sure loves her big cousin Emmi! (Emmi is 15 now)

 

 

    

 

The kids loved watching tucker chop the wood with the ax.  It sounded a little obscene (but hilarious) to hear Maddie and Emmi yelling “SWING THAT AX” really loud to cheer Tucker on.

  

Mindy and Lynda Ann prepared a great set up for us to make our own foil dinners.  They were absolutely delicious!!

Boston is so dang cute.  And Jaden loves exploring!

Mindy and Annie preparing dinner.  Love the hat!

This is so beautiful…the smoke from our campfire went downstream and hovered over the river to create this cool look.

Lots of mini-hikes for the kids

I’m sure Jeannine will hate me for putting this picture, but I think it is one of my all time favorites.  It’s scary, cute and funny all wrapped into one :-)

I was petting Sammi and she would hop up and hug me any time I started to walk away.  So funny!  And Peyton is sporting the Fruit Loop necklaces they made.

 

They the entire group (except myself, crippled Lexi, tired Peyton and baby Boston) took off on a 2 mile hike to some waterfalls.  They were gone nearly two hours.  Literally the MINUTE they returned, it started to rain.  After a minute, it was pouring.  After a few more minutes, we realized that this was NOT stopping any time soon.  It was 5:00 pm, dinner time and monsoon-type raining.  Decisions had to be made. 

Before we knew it…we were throwing things in cars, packing up wet tents, picking up soggy trash and trying to get the heck out of there (one whole day early!)  It took us two whole hours before we were loaded up and leaving and we were soaked!

 

Everyone kept great attitudes about it though.  We got a warm nights sleep inside our homes, and then gathered the next day to swim and cook our dinner at Gam & Pa’s house.  Our alternate plan ended up working out great!