Close-r to family

Moving away from family was really hard but we found out that we would only be 5 hours away from my brother Andy his family we were really excited.  They are stationed in Tennessee for the moment and we wanted to take advantage of that so we tried to get together as often as we could.  they came up near the end of July to hang with us.  Cousin's are the best!  We did a lot of playing in the backyard.

 We went to a local splash pad.

 Love this face

 And these faces

 And these

 And all of these faces!

 I think we succeeded in wearing the kids out!!! Thanks for the great time BJ!

Tucker Reunion 2013

After returning home on a Sunday night, we had 4 days to recompose ourselves to get ready for another reunion, this one was a little closer to home.  The Tucker Reunion was in near Huntsville, UT.  We decided a long time ago that we wouldn't try and schedule a place to stay up there since we didn't know if we'd be here when they were planning it.  Randy's parents only live 30 minutes from the "main home" most of the family was staying at so we opted to stay with them and drive up every day.  We only went Friday and Saturday because Randy needed to work that week.  The house we hung out at was ginormous.  A great reunion house in Liberty, UT.  It had a huge sitting area, plenty of room for the brood that was there.  The funny thing is that friends of our that we knew in Wisconsin, after moving back to Utah, bought a house probably 1/4 mile from where we were staying.  It was a fun reunion  Here is the gang, well most of it anyway.  Masie had a really bad afternoon and was napping and I wasn't about to wake her up for a picture.  I wasn't in the mood to torture myself like that.

 After she woke up, we got a family shot.

On Saturday we went into Huntsville and took a tour of the David O. McKay home.  It as a really interesting home.  It started out with just 2 rooms and was expanded on periodically.  The McKay's always had people coming and going that they had 4 kitchens (1 of them now is bathroom).

 They also had these sleeping porches.  They weren't always closed in.  They were for the summer when they had the most company.  There were like 4 of them.   Also you could tell they kept adding onto the home because there were weird steps to get in and out of different rooms everywhere.  It was really cool.

Peej and Malia before the tour started.

 Our tour guide was a grandson of David O. McKay, so we got real first hand experiences from him.

 When President McKay was younger 2 of his sisters died within a few months of each other from different things.  They made this memorial for them to always remember them.  I thought it was cute.

 And I thought this was hilarious.  Just read.

 The front of the home.  It's a really big home.  I loved exploring the place.  Even if Masie screamed through most of the tour.

Back at the house there was someone always in the indoor pool.  This pool was awesome.  The kids had a blast.  Our family never got over to the reservoir which was fine since this pool was perfect for us. Micah flipping.

 And squirting.

 And the kids fighting over the big inflatable turtle.

We had tons of fun. . .again.  So glad we were able to go.  Till next time Tucker's

Schmidt Reunion 2013

*WARNING* Picture overload, again.  This year my mom wanted to try and get everyone together this year at their new home in Montana.  She planned on doing it the last week/1st week of August because she knew we all couldn't be there at the same time, and she was right.  There was a window of about 12 hours (8 of which we were sleeping) that we had all of the grand kids together. . . at the same time. . . in the same place, but never all of the adults.  It was a good try and we had a blast together anyway.  This was the best we could do for a family picture.  Andy, Jon, Bacon's hubby and James were not there at this time.

Here are all of the grand kids. . .for the few hours they were all together.  I love that Kyra is holding a picture of Uncle James, apparently he's one of the kids, lol.

One of the 1st things we did when we got there was go to a lake nearby and jet skied and played in the water.

 I love this sequence of pics of Billy. . .

 He always has a belch coming out.

 It was a nice day

 Bacon even loved it.

 We had some spectacular scenery.  Even if it was hazy with forest fire smoke.

Later on we went to a local park with a splash pad and a fun playgroup.

 Cousin fun.

  

 Audrey loved trying to stomp on the fountains.

 Masie stomped around in the puddles a little as well.

 After the park we took turns floating down the river.  This was the first group to go down.  They said it was a lot of fun. 

 The next day my mom took us to a "Sapphire Mine," more like a ladies home who owns land in the sapphire mines and has dirt brought back to her home for us prospectors.  It actually was really cool.  You could buy different levels of dirt, the more you paid the higher the likelihood of actually getting real sapphire.  Randy and I found quite a few.  Even the owner was impressed when she gave us an appraisal.   

 

We also we required to come up with a family talent.  Here we are getting ready for the show, well really one of the few shows we did since we were not all there at the same time.  

And here is Scooby Photo bombing. . .NERD!

Grandpa with "Money"

Billy and Bacon in there matching gear.  Billy found this shirt for Bacon and got it for her and couldn't resist and got one himself.  

 We were really excited when we found out that our cousin Lenora was going to join us.  She's amazing and we love having her around.  They danced for us. . .

 And then made us dance for them.  She taught the boys The Haka

 Love that face

 And the ladies a bunch of different moves.  It never gets old.

Then the next day we went to another lake and the boat was working, so we boated and jet skied and played in the water.

 Well it worked most of the time.  They had to change a spark plug out.

 Again, had lots of fun with family.

 Masie wanted to be in the water but she had a really bad diaper rash before we left and when I took her into the Doctor before leaving he said to keep her out of the water till it cleared up.  It didn't clear up till the last day we were there, go figure.  She had fun in the dirt and the sand though.

 Bradley had fun on the jet ski, and so did his hair.

 Diana was trying to eat "Money," it was pretty hilarious.

 These to still love to hate each other.  They are funny to watch.  It will be fun to see these two grow.

The next day we spent in Missoula exploring.  We went to Fort Missoula.  It's always fun to see old places.  This is NOT a silo.  It was a place to burn. . . I can't even remember, but it was pretty cool when you got in there.  There were little holes all over the top of the structure and with the light seeping in, it looked like constellations.  It was cool.

 McKenzie being goofy.

 Walking on the tracks looking so forlorn.

 There was a cool watch tower as well. The kids had fun walking up and down this.  Oh and this fort was used as interment camps for Italians and Japanese during WWII.  It was crazy.

 We also went to the Elks lodge and counted all of the elk in the place.  I can't remember how many there actually were, but there were a lot.  Masie really like these big stuffed animals.

 She wanted to just hug them.

 So we found one more her size.  This girl loves soft things.

 After that we went to the carousel downtown.  The kids had fun riding it, even the older one's.

 Masie wanted to ride too, I wasn't in the mood to make myself dizzy though so we opted not to take her.

 On the 2nd ride Malia mistakenly chose a non-moving horse (why do they even have these).  She was bored the whole ride.  Her face was classic every time she passed by us.  I couldn't resist.

A few of the nights we played some minute to win it games.  This one was to wrap our partner as fast as we could in a roll of toilet paper.  

 Clara was definitely the cutest.

Another was to see who could shake ping pong balls out of a tissue box as fast as possible.  This was just hilarious to watch.  I wish I had it on video.

 "Anaconda Squeeze"

 Masie loved the bark chips.  She wouldn't stop running over there.

 Another game was to put shower caps on 2 guys. . .

 Cover them in shaving cream. . .

 Then divide in 2 teams and throw Cheetos at their heads and get the most stuck to their heads.

 Randy's team won!

 Next was to put 2 tennis balls in pantyhose and tie them around your waist. . .

 And the knock over the cans as fast as you could.

 The last game was to put together a cut up cereal box as fast as you could

 Clara loved those balls, lol.

The last game was to see who could get all of the gumballs from one side of the soda bottle to the other.  It was funny to watch the kids shake as hard as they could.

It was a great reunion, I was sad for it to end.  It was a lot of work for my mom, but she did great, even being sick for most of it.  We learned a lot on what to and not to do for next time.  Till the next Schmidt Reunion, farewell and adieu.  Love ya!