Family Fun

We decided to take advantage of a little school break in January and drove down to Florida to live it up. One of our stops was Sea World. This is my husbands magical world. He always told me that if he didn't have a family he would be a marine biologist. He loves the ocean and animals in it. Shamu.

And if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you'll find Mike in a big yellow slicker and Charlie in a red shirt. They went for the splash zone. The girls and I were not so adventurous.
Charlie, Jane & Maggie



Mike signed us up for a little one on one with the dolphins.

We were able to hit Sea World on two different days. The weather was perfect. We loved the shows. We ate dinner with the sharks. They had some great rides that we had to miss out on because Charlie wasn't quite tall enough.

nickelodeon day of play

We went downtown to DC and celebrated with Nickelodeon for their "get active"

Day of Play.

They had set up in front of the White House and you could join in many different sports and activities. We did obstacles, tennis, hockey, soccer, hula hoop, dancing and football. Mike, Maggie, Jane & Charlie

Charlie and Dad
We got to see Big Time Rush!!
It was the highlight of the kids day for sure.
Jane was on top of my shoulders when the band came out and she started yelling, "Kendall! Kendall!" I couldn't stop smiling it was fun to see her so excited.

Patrick, Miss LeighAnne, William
(we ran into our neighbors that we love)

William, Miss LeighAnne, Jane, Maggie and Mike

Last But Not Least

Back to Utah where we had a cousin swim and my sisters house. Julie (my niece) and Jane

She will be the one who receives our children if we die. This is not a joke. I'm dead serious.

(and for the record that is our official last will and testament.)

Momma and Kevin (nephew)

He will want me to say that he is my most handsome nephew but I will not say it without compensation.

Fortunate for us Mary brought Mom down so we could see again. She braved the cousin swim but was probably sweating bullets.

Taylor (great nephew), Mary (sister), and Mallory (niece, she just might be one of my favorite people to spend time with in the world.)

Dad finally joined us and we went to stay full time at Grandma and Grandpa Croslands.
The girls robbed some of Grandma's manikins of their hats.

Jane and Maggie


Grandpa Ivan and Maggie on our July 4th celebration

Grandma Helene and Mags
We partied with the Croslands until I'm certain that they were saying, "seriously, just go home already." It seemed that we had a barbecue every night.

Uncles Andy and Matt

They came the day before we left. We don't get to see them enough and I'm always left wanting more time with them.

Charlie, Uncle Richard, Baby Boston, Jane Grandpa Ivan and Mags

partying at Aunt Leslie's. Boston is the youngest grandchild and he just celebrated his first birthday.

Ada and Uncle Richard

This is the only picture that I got of her. She is the first Great Grandchild in Mike's family.

She is a delight.

She's posing with her Grandpa (mike's brother)

Kate and Charlie

Charlie thinks that Kate is his cousin. They share the same Aunt Anne and Uncle Richard but not related. Kate lives in China and Charlie thinks that is so cool. Every time he sees that something was "made in china" he thinks its awesome.

Jane, Aunt Anne and fake cousin Abigail

Mike and Charlie

We had a great time out on the boat with family. The trip was another great success. Back to real life.

Idaho

The kids were in heaven while visiting family in Idaho. You'll see why from these pictures.Back row: Mason, Braden, Courtney
middle row: Aysha, Allie, Annika, Brinley, Jane, Charlie

Front Row: Allie, Aimee, Dakota, Adam

Cousin parties galore, it was awesome. On this day we went swimming at the Meridian pool and then had dinner at Michelle's. The cousins played with puppies and ran around outside.

Jane, Courtney, Maggie
Jane has two favorite cousins on my side of the family. Courtney is one of them.

My cute nephews Jim and Zach. Both humble and sweet. Oh wait maybe just one of them is humble but both are pretty sweet.

Jane, Allie, Maggie, Charlie, Brinley

Jane on the zip line (only attempted on flat ground)
My brother put up a zip line from the top of his house down to the bottom of his yard.

Maggie screaming her guts out. Only on flat ground.

Charlie had a hay day on the zip line.

Introduced the kids to Dad

Aunt Michelle's dog, Lady, had eight golden retriever puppies before we arrived. Perfect. Enough for everyone to play with.

Spencer, Charlie and Lady

Charlie and Spencer bathed in mud. Then they thought they were invisible of course. I believe the quote out of my sons mouth was..."Aunt Michelle, my mom would never let us do this at my house."

I would like to rebuttal with.... The only mud to be had would be from someones flower bed.

Maggie

Jane, Brinley and Mags

The girls tried it the very next night. I think that they had forgotten that we made the boys hose off in the freezing cold hose. They finished off the hosing with a warm bath.

We also enjoyed visits with my sisters, Nona and Mary and Mom had us over for visits and swimming. Many more cousins than I took pictures of but boy, we had fun.

Part Deux

Charlie trying out a flip at Aunt Debi'sCharlie, Grandpa Ivan, Jane

We were able to spend Father's Day with Grandpa. He wasn't feeling well and had me worried that he might not live much longer. I'm happy to say he is feeling a bit better. We love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Crosland.

Maggie and Aunt Michelle at the Strawberry Days Rodeo

Cousin Brynlee and Jane

These girls were a joy to watch at the rodeo. They did NOT like calf roping and would let out great cheers when the cowboys missed.

Aunt Fancy Nancy, Aunt Tamara and Cousin Lindsey.

We had a fun BBQ at Aunt Tamara's the night before. Lindsey has a boyfriend that kept all of us entertained (even after he had left.) Funny dude.

Next Stop....Beautiful Boise.

Summer Trip Part 1

Made it to Denver. We didn't have enough time and Fancy Nancy's house. Only two days before moving on to the next stop. Colby and Brady caught wild baby bunnies for us to play with. I regret to say that after all of the man handling, most of them have gone to see their maker.Brady
Charlie, Brady, Maggie and Jane



Charlie

They LOVED playing with these bunnies.



Our next stop was Utah.

We stayed with my sister Debi and her family

Jakelle, Jane, Mallory
Mallory had the great idea that we should go ice skating. I wasn't totally convinced that this would be a great idea with three little ones. Turns out that I was wrong and she was right. All three kids loved it and by then end they were getting pretty darn good.


They had these neat little walker contraptions so the kids could skate themselves

Jakelle, Mallory and McKenzie

all of my great helpers

Kimber and Maggie

Jakelle, McKenzie, Mallory

Jane, Charlie and Maggie

Beginning of Summer

Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. Summer is on it's way out and I'm just beginning to post about it. Here we go. This picture of Mags just has to be included because it's classic

Charlie got his cast off the last week of school. Three days before we began our cross country voyage. It was super stinky.

Just in time to entertain himself in the car for hours

The night before we went on our big trip we found this guy in the street. We brought him home and played with him for a couple of hours before letting him go.

Typical day in the car. I was surprised once again that the drive really isn't that bad. We have a system and it works. Each day goes a little something like this.... start early, begin with quiet, then have singing time, then coloring or school work, next is present time (little wrapped gifts from the dollar store) eventually we stop for lunch and a break then finally they get tv and electronic time. Each day is about 10 hours of travel.

On our first stop Jane fell out of bed in the night and punctured her lip. Mike thought she needed stitches, I figured she'd be fine.

After three days of travel we reached my sisters house in Denver