Sunriver

We did one big family vacation this summer, a road trip to the great Northwest -- Oregon.  It had been 2 years since our last visit and we were ready to make the big drive to visit my sister and her family.  We loaded up the car and all of bikes and drove 12 hours.  The kids did really well on the long trip with just a few fights of who got to sit on the middle bench.   Every trip we try and see if we can use headphones for the movies.  In the past Morgan wouldn’t leave them on.  Too much stuff on her head with her sensory issues but she did so much better this trip and left them on for almost an entire movie.  We’ll take any progress we can get!

We made good time with just a few quick stops for bathroom and food breaks, but decided to take some extra time to play on the beach on our stop in Arlington, Oregon.  

We made it to the Rushing Resort just in time for Cheer Camp.  My nieces run a cheer camp every summer in their backyard.  It’s very well organized which isn’t any surprise to anyone who knows Kennedy.  She’s gonna run the country one day.  Mia, Morgan and Hadley signed up and were excited to learn a new cheer, stunts and dance.   Morgan enjoyed it for the first few minutes of each day and then she was done and sneaking back into the house to watch her favorite movies on Aunt Heidi’s computer.  They did a performance for all of the parents at the end of the week.  I loved Mia’s dance to “Call me, maybe”.  She did the cutest ‘running girl’ and knew all of the words to the song.

Of course we did the traditional hike together.  Scott promised me this one wouldn’t be as scary as Beacon Rock and I wouldn’t feel like I was going to fall off the mountain.  I've always said I like hiking but I think I’ve finally accepted that I don’t like it at all.  I have such an extreme fear of heights and falling off the edge of a trail that it just doesn’t go well with hiking.  I do enjoy the exercise and the scenery, just not the trails to get there.

This hike was only a mile (which equals 2 hours when hiking with Morgan) and ended at a beautiful waterfall.  It was definitely worth the hike and the scenery was beautiful.  Everything was covered in green moss--the trail, the rocks, the trees.

The best way to get Morgan to walk and not ask to be carried every 20 seconds was to put her in charge of walking Bailey.  Poor Bailey got more love, from Morgan, then she wanted on our vacation.

We spent an afternoon at Horseshoe Lake.  It was warm and a perfect day for swimming and playing.  Jack, Ryan and Cassidy swam the width of the lake over to the docks on the other side.  Will enjoyed getting buried in the sand with the boys own little sand creations/castles on top of him.

Portland is known for their blackberries and there is an area in my sister’s neighborhood that is full of blackberry bushes, we decided to walk there with the kids and pick some berries for a cobbler.  The pickings were slim and we were still a few weeks early.  Mia was the lucky one who got to try the first berry to see if it was ready to eat or still a little sour.  Love her face.  Mine did the exact same thing when I tried one.  Sourest berry ever!

Getting ready for our next road trip . . . Sunriver, Oregon.

The second half of our vacation was spent here in Sunriver.  We rented a huge house that fit us all in-- 11 kids, 4 adults and 1 dog.

The deck overlooked the golf course where Gavin spent most of his time (with some of the kids) on this trip.  I think he and Scott went golfing 5 times together.  That may be more golf than Gavin has done in the past 5 years combined.

We spent a few days at the new pool.  Griffin tried going down a big water slide for his first time and loved it.  I had to force him to go down the first time.  There was a huge line of people watching as I pried his fingers loose from the slide and carried him far enough down the tube and let go.  Luckily he loved it!

We drove into Bend on Sunday for church.

And of course, it isn’t a trip to Sunriver without a few bike rides and deer sightings.  

We didn’t play as many games, go to the pool or bike ride as much this time around because we were inside watching the Summer Olympics together.

We finished the trip with more golf.  After the real game of golf ended, we all got to go do 'put put’ on part of the golf course.  It was all fun and games until Griffin got hurt by a miniature golf club that was being balanced on Cassidy’s hand and fell and hit Griffin in the head.  Fortunately he’s one tough kid.  He cried for a minute but once we got the bleeding to stop, he wouldn’t let us put any ice on it and never complained about it again.

As much as I love vacations and traveling, there’s nothing that compares to coming back home.  After 10 days and 2000 miles on the road, we were all glad to be home again.  And Mia let us know that she never wants to go anywhere that long in the car again.  

Jack's Batman Birthday

Jack and Ryan had scout camp at Bear Lake last week which meant Jack wasn't going to be home for his 15th birthday.  The first time to not be with one of my children on their birthday.  I wasn't sure what to do to help him feel like it wasn't just another day at camp but my friend came up with the idea of doing a 'favorites bag' for him.  I got a U of U string backpack and filled it with his favorites . . . Dr. Pepper, salt and vinegar chips, beef jerky, charleston chew, chewy sweetarts, cookies and cream drops, and 5 brand spearmint gum and a birthday card.  His leader surprised him with it on his birthday at camp.  

He planned what he wanted to do for his birthday this year and wanted to take all of his friends to the new Batman show (Dark Knight Rises) and then come back to his house for dinner and night games.  He always comments that he never got as good of birthday parties as his little brothers and sisters parties so I started looking through Pinterest for ideas.  I found an invitation intended for a little boy and started laughing when I said, "look Jack--we can just change the 'Tyler is 5' to 'Jack is 15' on this one."  He started laughing and was all for the little kid, cutesy birthday invite.  We emailed them to his friends, never mentioning the invite was supposed to be a joke.

He got to open his presents the day after his birthday after he got back from camp.  He only wanted a few things this year.  Big things . . .  Skullcandy headphones and Microsoft points for the Xbox.  He was excited about the cash he received in the mail from both sets of grandparents.  I somehow managed to get his scrapbook done in time for his birthday too.  He laughed at how much he has grown and changed over the past few years and at his crazy long shaggy hair.

Here’s the link if you wanna see how cute his book turned out.  I’m slightly biased.

He has a great group of friends who all came out to help him celebrate his big day.

It was strange taking them to the theater to see this movie after the unimaginable tragedy in Aurora Colorado the day before.  It made it all that more real to me.  Jack would've wanted to do the midnight show with his friends on that same early morning, his birthday morning, if he would've been in town.  My heart goes out to all of the victims and their families.

They couldn't stop talking about the movie on the ride home.  Apparently it was the best movie they had ever seen.  Two (or thirteen) thumbs up!

He had more friends join the party after the movie in time for gifts, dinner and night games.  He loved all of the gift cards and used most of the iTunes gift cards within 24 hours.  On Batman soundtracks.

They ended the party with night games and running around the neighborhood playing 'Fugitives'.  The party winded down around 11:30 which officially makes this party the longest birthday party yet.  Almost 8 hours.

The making of a cake got lost in the shuffle of getting home from Park City and heading off to Oregon the next day.  Luckily my niece, Karsyn, is the 'cake boss' of Vancouver and made a perfect Batman cake for Jack to help celebrate his birthday.

In honor of his 15th birthday, 15 things about Jack:

1.    He's a smart kid and school comes easily for him.  I never saw him study last year but he managed to stay on the honor roll all year and pass his World Geography AP test.

2.    He loves music and plays the piano, trumpet and guitar.

3.    He grew about 6 ?  inches last year and is now taller than both of his parents.  5 ft 10.5 inches tall.

4.    He got his first cell phone for Christmas but still prefers to text on his iPod.  His texting preferences have changed from Kyle to a girl.

5.    He is going to be a big high school student in one more month.

6.    He went to EFY last month for the first time and gave a beautiful testimony in church the first Sunday after he got home.  He was sitting next to me and said, "I don't know why but I really feel like I need to go up and bear my testimony today."  I'm so glad he did.  It was a surreal experience to hear my boy give such a beautiful testimony of his Savior, Jesus Christ.  To be uplifted and strengthened by his testimony after all of the years of sharing our testimony with him.  I had a glimpse of what it will look like in a few years at his missionary farewell.

7.    Basketball is his favorite sport.  He made his school's basketball team last year.

8.    He got his braces off this past year and has 'perfect teeth'.  Just ask his orthodontist.

9.    He's now old enough to get his driver's permit. Yikes!

10.   He's finally reached the age where he no longer needs to be reminded to shower, brush his teeth or put on deodorant.

11.   He still needs to be reminded to make his bed and clean his room.

12.   He went on his first helicopter ride last week at Scout Camp around the lake.

13.   Still spends most of his free time on Xbox and playing Minecraft.

14.  He's a goof ball (just ask Aunt Heidi).

15.  He's a great example for his younger brothers and sisters.

Happy Birthday Jack!  We love you!

Mini Vacation

I couldn’t resist a quick getaway when our neighbors invited us to join them in Park City this week.  We stayed at The Canyons Resort at the Hyatt.  It was beautiful.  All of it.  The hotel.  The weather.  The mountains.  The friends.  The view.  I was ready to move in for the rest of the summer.

We did lots of swimming.  Mainly in the hot tubs.

Finally got the boat our for the first adventure this summer.  Everyone was all smiles and excited until the boat died minutes after backing it into the water.  Gavin paddled us over to the dock and Stacy got the boat tied up.

After several attempts to get it started, Gavin noticed the kill button was on.  After fixing that minor technicality we were good to go and back on the water.

Griffin was excited to try waterskiing this year after hearing his younger friend say she was going to do it.  He was all smiles and couldn’t wait . . . then he got into the freezing cold water.

And the smiles turned into high pitched screams.

Morgan loves the boat.  And asks over and over for her turn to ride in the tube.  Once she’s in the tube there’s lots of “wahoo!”s and  “this is awesome!”

The Canyons Resort has a free concert every Friday night at the resort.  It was a beautiful night with great music.  The kids had fun dancing, hula hooping, playing in the sand and riding the free standing chair lift.

Morgan was a little freaked out by the see through floor while we were cruising through the sky but loved it when she wasn’t looking down.

Park City is one of my favorite places to visit in the summer.  And it’s only 20 minutes away.  What a great few days to get away and enjoy our mountains.