Summer Vacation 2009... Part 5: Swimming

We went out to the Kamas Recreation Center which is west of Park City one day with my sister in law and her 2 kids. It is a really great indoor pool with a water play ground area, a lazy river and a huge water slide. The kids had a blast!

D and KL

CK after going down the big slide

B after going down the slide

L with my neice whose name also starts with L! She is just a couple of months older than CK and they both share the Lani at the ends of their names. That can get a little bit confusing and had I been thinking clearly, I wouldn't have done that, but oh well!

Summer Vacation 2009... Part 4: The Aquarium

I took the kids down to the aquarium one day. It was pretty small, but that didn't bother us. The kids had a great time and it wasn't so big that everyone was sick of it by the time it was done so we could go back and revisit some of the favorite parts.

Here are the kids:

KL, B, CK, D, L

L a little creeped out by the eel

CK in front of the Jelly fish. They really looked cool!

The kids petting the sting rays:

B, (some unknown girl), D, CK, L

They had another little place that the kids could stick their hands in. I think L is touching the star fish here.

Summer Vacation 2009... Part 3: Temples

The second week of our vacation began with taking Dave to the airport. We were sad to see him go, but work called. We were excited to be able to stay the extra week with family and go to my dad's family reunion the next weekend.

CK wanted a picture with her daddy so she wouldn't miss him.

This is at the airport.

Anyway, me and the kids tried to keep ourselves busy that week. One of the things we did was to see some of the temples. Right after we dropped off Dave at the temple, we went by the Draper temple which is right by our friends house we were staying with. Here are the kids:

Unfortunately, we were still being plagued with sickness. At this point, D was was coming up on the end, but still feeling pretty rotten, and L was just starting to complain. This picture does a pretty good job of showing just how great D was feeling.

The next day, D was feeling much better, but L was really down. However, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple house was going on and I really didn't want to miss the chance to take my kids to go and see the inside of a temple. We had tickets to go that day and it was also the last time the kids were going to have a chance to see their Grandpa and Grandma before they headed back to the east coast. So, we said a family prayer, then I put L in the shower and she really did seem to perk up. So off we went.


I don't know how many of you have been to a temple open house, but they always have a short introductory video that they show before you go into to explain a little bit about our temple worship. We went inside for our video and as soon as we walked out, L threw up in her little ziploc bag which I so thankfully must have been inspired to bring in. We got rid of the bag and on we went (I mean, lets face it, you always feel a little bit better after doing that when your sick, right? At least for a little while...) As we were waiting in the line of people to actually go inside the temple, D started telling me hasn't feeling well again. I really didn't believe him because he had been doing so well and he had been on his antibiotics for a few days so I just knew he was ok. Anyway, we go in and everytime the line stopped, he would sit down to rest. Meanwhile, I was carrying L everywhere. I'm so thankful that we were with the in-laws because they were helping me with the other 3 kids. They had also brought with my 2 neices and they were really helpful too keeping CK and KL close by. We went through the basement level of the temple and as soon as we got back upstairs, it became pretty obvious that the kids weren't going ot make it. I found an exit and I took KL, L and D out. We went into the refreshment tent and got some water and a cookie for D. As soon as he guzzled his water, he started feeling much better. He had been telling me for a while that he was thirsty. It was at this point that I realized he had been dehydrated from having been so sick the fews before and we were in such a hurry that morning, he really hadn't had much to drink. So, as soon as he was hydrated again, he was just so miserable that he had left the temple before seeing the rest of it. By this time, we had gone outside and found a small patch of shade where I laid L down. She had fallen asleep immediately, so I really couldn't take him back in, but he was just so heartbroken. I walked him back over to where we had come out of the temple and told him to back and try and find the rest of our group. I had a hard time sending him in alone, but I figured there isn't really anyway to get off the guided tour path, plus, inside the temple, he is pretty safe. He never actually caught up to them, but he did get to see the rest of it, for which we were both really grateful. When everyone finally got back out again, I pulled out my camera, but unfortunately, the battery on my camera was dead so oh well! Still, it was a great, and certainly unforgettable experience!

Summer Vacation 2009... Part 2: Bear Lake

The whole reason behind our big vacation was a family reunion with Dave's family. It was the first time in 7 years that everyone was together. We had a "really fun" time. I'm "really glad" that we could do it and I "really wish" we could do it more often. (My sister in law mocked me for referring to her family as "really fun" in a previous post... so Jen.. that's for you!)

We went to Bear Lake which is a huge lake that is on the Utah/Idaho border. The water is a gorgeous blue and we had a great time. We stayed in a huge house... The Inn at Snow Meadows. It is usually a B&B so there were tons of beautiful rooms each with their own bathrooms and everyone had their own room. We actually got 2 rooms since we came with the most kids. I wish I would have thought to take pictures of the rooms, but oh well.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our week there.

K has 2 cousins that were born within a couple of months of her. All she could talked about for weeks before going was that she was going to see them. Here are the 3 little girls together.

M, L, CK

KL has a bunch of cousins born close to her too (but that picture is to follow). Here she is with Alex (or as Dave likes to call him, Jr. because they share a middle name. A fact Dave is infinitely proud of). Anyway, I was working in the kitchen and found these two hanging out eating all that was in their reach.

Of course it was much cuter from this angle:

This last Christmas, we didn't do a cousin gift exchange because we decided to do it when they could all be together. Here are all the kids getting ready to exchange presents.

Of course, we spent lots of time at the beach. One of favorite activities was making sand castles:
My nephew J (holding the green bucket pouring in the water) was pretty adamant about trying to create the proper restraints for the water so it wouldn't leak. Whenever the water would start to spill over the proper walls, you would hear him yelling, "Damn it! Damn it!" It was pretty funny because he had no idea why that might sound inappropriate. After all, he was using it in it's proper context. Nonetheless, it was funny to the rest of us.

Just a shot of everyone lounging on the beach

Jr., Kapua, KL

I took quite a few cute picture of the kids walking too and from the beach becuase I just thought it was cute to see them holding hands. Here is B, with my nephew Gable and my bro-in-law Kalihi.

Dave and KL

B and K

Me and D

CK after she decided the water was a little cold.

We had Jet Skies one day. My brother and sister in law went out on it with their little boy and he fell asleep in between them as soon as they set out. The stayed out for a while and brought him back and laid him in the back of the car all the while, he didn't wake up. He is a pretty cute little kid.

One day, the kids decided to bury L in the sand:

B, D, Taylor, Preston and L (the kids who worked so hard to bury her down there)

L on the Jet Ski

D:

(I took him out on it once and he screamed at me the whole time because I was going to fast. I gave him a hard time about that, but once I let him take control, he did fine. He just didn't like anyone else to do it.)

B:

It seems I took quite a few picture of Gable. I guess I just kept finding him doing things that struck me as cute and funny. Here he is eating chips.

Uncle Jon invited the boys out to go and play tackle football in the water:

KL just loved playing with her Grandma Shirley. This is after she drug grandma in to "play" video games. Of course, she really doesn't know how, but if so many other kids seem to think it is fun to sit on those chairs pushing buttons, it must be fun, right?

Jen (my sister in law who put all of this together) got a bunch of water guns for a water gun fight one day. The kids (especially the husbands) loved it.




The last night, we decided we wanted to have a girls night. Unfortunately, Bear Lake isn't hugely populated. There are a few small towns around the lake. We were in Garden City. There was really nothing there to do, so we ended up getting shaved ice. We walked in and no one was in there. We waited for quite a while, still no one. Finally we went next door to a clothing store to ask about what was going on. It seems that 1 person works both stores. She came in and made our shaved ice then left back to the other store. A few minutes later she came in and told us she was leaving for the day, but didn't tell us we had to leave. Apparently, someone else was going to coming to look over both stores. After she left, Stephanie decided she would help out.


We did family pictures one day. We had our individual family picture taken down on the beach. Here is Dave walking back down the boardwalk with the 2 little girls:

There was a park by the beach where we would always park then walk down. After our pictures, we let teh kids play at the park. This Dave (behind the pole), L, and D.

KL's all time favoite activity is the swings. She just can never get enough.

Dave and Gable trading sunglasses.
(really, there were lots of other cute kids there. I guess he was always just around when I had my camera out)

Here are the 5 kids that were all born within a year of each other:

Keanu, KL, Gable, K, Jr.

(By the way, it has been asked of me a time or 2 before why I use the initials of my kids, but the names of other kids I put on here. Generally, my policy is that if the parents of other kids use their full names, I will too, but they just use initials, then I do as well).

The pool table was a huge hit with the kids. One day, I walked upstairs and saw these 2 kids both with pool cues. They could barely see over the top of the table but they were having fun playing nonetheless.

Brennan, Gable, and Brian

Just before we left, everyone gathered on the front steps and we took some pictures. Here are all of the grandkids:
back row: J, Caden, Kai, Preston, Taylor, B
Front: K, Brennan, L, D, Jr., M, CK, Lm, Kalea, Julia, Lei, KL, Keanu
Bike: Gable

Brothers:

Keahi, Dave, Kekoa, Kalihi

Girls:

Katie, Kapua, Me, Jen, Cynthia, Ali, Marcie, Stephanie

Grandpa Allan and Grandma Shirley

KL, CK, Stepanie, K, M

We had one last meal together at a place called Maddox in Brigham City on the way home. Here we are waiting to be seated.

CK, Stephanie, Julia, Brian, Brennan, Kalihi, Gable

They fit 39 of us in there. Not a small feat.

We had to wait a while before our food was ready. Here KL is kicking her feet up on the table.

It was a great week and no one can thank Jen enough for pulling it all together. I really hope we can do it again... sooner than 7 years!