Ensign Ranch

My family is having a reunion at Ensign Ranch this summer, recommended by me. However, I had never been there. So, we decided this would be a great weekend to check it out.

I was worried about the temperature, but it was quite a bit warmer than I had thought. Nights were pretty chilly, but there were some days we wished we were wearing shorts and T-shirts!

There was tons to do!

We went canoeing a few times. FREE!

Yes, Dan's boat looks a little low. It had a small leak in it. :) 

This rope swing sure looks fun....but it was a little too chilly to try it out.

Lots of critters to find! 

It was only in the upper 60's or low 70's, but we had to try out the giant slip in slide. Brinly went down twice and was done. It was COLD. Chelsea, Michael, and Dan went down several times. Hopefully in July it will be much warmer, and we can spend a lot more time here!  (FREE!)

They had these cheap-o tubes for sale for $3 a piece. They weren't required, but there are some rocks under the tarp, so they certainly made things more comfy!

Sorry for the poor quality, but I wanted to show you how fast you can get going on this slip in slide!

There was a huge rock wall, but we would have had to have our own certified rock wall climbing instructor in order to go on it. Which, we did not. :) Hadfield family: Anyone want to get certified so we can have this as an event/option? (FREE!)

Of course for Michael, the best part of the trip was making fires. Dan gave many many lessons on building fires. It took them a while to understand they had to start little with tinder and tiny sticks, before they could dump on the logs.  (FREE! :))

We played (okay, not me) "Hot Lava" on this camp fire setting that was across from our campsite. 

The trees you see in the above back ground, are actually this:

Pretty eh? Lots of people brought their bikes and road all over the campsite with them. 

There were plenty of wrestling matches. I beleive this one was called "She's my sister!" Brinly and Michael were trying to smother Chelsea with kisses and repeatedly said "She's MY sister!" 

Ensign Ranch is a popular place for handcart treks. 

Hadfield family: We have reserved 4 of these for a few hours on Friday, so start working out now! $10/cart)

We had these beauties for dinner, or at least the appetizer. Fishing is free by permit, but if you keep the fish, it is $2 per fish. 

This could be fun for the family variety show...although it is out in the open and we might get some extra audience members!

Chelsea managed to get her hair stuck in the zipper. Not quite sure how....

The final afternoon, we went on a horse-led ride. I was surprised that they wanted the parents to lead the horse. SOME of us have NO horse experience whatsoever. I was afraid the horse would take off, or get feisty and would buck my child off, but everything went smoothly. The horses sauntered on a nice slow pace, and the only challenge was trying to keep them from snacking on the grass. 

($3 for a 15 minute ride. They also offer a trail ride for 8yrs and older for $15 for a 40 minute ride, plus 30 minutes of instruction. We should sign up for this when we first arrive, as the spots fill up fast!)

Brinly LOVED this. She even said "Gracias Horsey" when she was finished. She was also excited to show me that she could ride with out holding on!

The rest of this is mainly for Hadfield Reunion info:

These are the family cabins we have reserved. There are seven of them. I was surprised at how large they were. 

(The picture below is one I stole from someone's blog on the internet, as mine turned out VERY blurry). The main floor has a kitchen type area with a refrigerator, microwave, and a picnic table cut in half and placed next to the walls. Also, a wood stove. The Door to the left is the stove is a fairly large room with a queen bed and twin bunkbeds. (pictured bottom right) These beds are furnished with a mattress. 

See what I mean by blurry?! But as you can see, you could still put up some cots, or mattresses between the beds.

Each cabin has a large loft. A whole family could easily fit up here, although there are not any mattresses up here. 

If we ever come here again for a reunion, we might want to get these: the summer cabins. They are more bunk-style, but are close together, have lots of picnic tables, and even a small play structure. I think this would have been ideal. I checked with the office, but it is already taken for our days of the reunion. 

HADFIELD family: The family cabins are nice (although quite rustic!) but are spread out quite a bit. I was hoping they would be closer. I was thinking we could still reserve four of the closer ones, and double up with families, or some could bring tents and set up around the cabin. What do you think? Do you want to be spread out, or closer together? 

Overheard at our house

Michael finished his first season of coach pitch baseball. 

To celebrate, the team met at a pizza place for dinner and to receive trophies. 

Michael is ALL about trophy's right now.

When I finished teaching piano, and told the kids it was time to load up in the car to go to Michael's baseball thing, he got SO excited.

He ran around squealing and then said 

"Chelsea!! Aren't you so excited to see my teammates CLOSE UP?!"

Chelsea: "Haven't you seen them close up?"

Michael: "No. We're always spread way out on the field!"

Apparently Michael likes the closer, sports, better. 

Overheard #2

Another morning, Michael was reading independently. He is really starting to like reading (thank goodness for ending that battle!). He was trying to read one of Chelsea's chapter books. I was in the kitchen cleaning. I could hear him trying to sound out words. Finally, he gets frustrated and throws the book down and says "They didn't put finger spaces in this book! I can't read THIS!" And ran upstairs to find one that DID have finger spaces. 

Changes

I should have started with a picture of Brinly's crazy hair. She has been throwing tantrums every time I try to fix her hair. Her hair is so fine that I have to wet it to get a grab on it, and then it breaks so easily that I hated to put it in hair bands. She screams when I try to wet it with a spray bottle, and I was tired of the daily fight.  I knew I had to cut it. It's so hard to do that, since I know how slowly our hair grows. 

I set up the hair appointment on Thursday, for the following Tuesday. Saturday night, she miraculously let me put her hair in sponge rollers. 

In the morning, she had these beautiful curls!!! 

She calls them "boingys"

It made me want to call up the salon and cancel her hair appointment.

 (My pretty girls ready for church)

It was hard for me to keep my hands out of her curls during church!

But after her Sunday nap, her hair was nappy again, and reality set back in.

Here is the before 

It actually looked pretty good this morning, so I hesitated again with the decision to cut it.  But with summer coming, I knew we needed something easier...

Side note: The hair dresser sprayed her hair with water like CRAZY. It was dripping wet. 

She didn't even BUDGE. what's up with that?!

The After:

  

It looks like there is a funny long section in the middle back, but it's just  piece that has flipped out a little. 

Although I'm sad the longer locks are gone, it looks so much better now. Hopefully it will grow in fuller and we will once again, have longer hair that she will actually LET me do!

It's about time for a post...

Inspired by all the recent blog posts by family and friends, I decided I better give at least an update, although pictures will be random! :)

Michael got to go on a field trip to a near by farm. They had several baby animals for the kids to hold and pet. They fed bread to the pigs, cows, goats, and a llama! The final stop was the chicken coup, where they each gathered one egg for the farmer. 

Here is my first picture I've taken while pregnant. I think I was 18 or 19 weeks. And Yes, I was as tired as I looked!

 

Here are some fun shots of the new baby at the 21 week ultrasound. The tech cooperated and the baby's gender will still be a surprise. I'm going in again in 8 weeks for a second ultra sound. 

This is my favorite shot. He/she has his arms up ready to fight! It must have heard his siblings and is practicing some moves...

For Spring break, we went to the Lincoln City, a town on the Oregon coast, with some friends. There were lots of places with tide pools where we found tons of fun critters.

These cute little girls are all just months apart and were super cute playing together. 

For lunch one day, we went to the famous Mo's crab shack. Brinly loved the clam chowder! She would say "More please, AHHHHH" and open her mouth big and wide.

Michael was cracking us up while we were waiting for our food. He was just off in his own little world, singing songs, making faces, doing who-knows-what in his brain. 

One of the hi-lights of the trip was this giant sand dune on the coast. It was quite the work out to get to the top, but once there, it was a total blast!

 Here is a crystal that Chelsea grew...for months....just sitting on our kitchen counter....growing. 

It was a lovely. :)

Miss Brinly is getting bigger, even though I don't like to admit it. She has learned all sorts of big words. We are really struggling with the potty training, so she has multiple baths each day. We talk about how Daddy doesn't go potty in his pants, and Chelsea doesn't go potty in her pants, etc. We were running some errands one day and I asked if she needed to go. 

She said "No. I don't need to go potty. I don't pee in my pants. I Responsible!"

If only that were true...

The elementary school and muffins with mom day! 

For my birthday, the kids got up the morning of, at 2 AM (with Dan of course) to bake me a cake. I must be getting to be a heavy sleeper, because I didn't hear/smell a thing! Love my thoughtful family!

The Activity days had a special brunch with mom, where the girls taught us all about the manners they had learned at their previous activity. 

This last weekend, we went to Walla Walla, a gorgeous town about an hour East of us. I was impressed with all the fancy restaurants lining main street, and the fun restored old homes! Our friend Annalise was staying with us for the weekend, so that made it extra fun. Brinly is snuggled on her lap under the blanket. 

We went there to watch the lighted balloon festival.  The balloons stayed on the ground, but it was neat to see them all lit up. The kids kept having contests about which was the favorite balloon.

It was a fun, quick trip, but we had to head home right after the lighted balloons. I had the lucky task of speaking in sacrament meeting the next day for Mother's day.  :)

Michael's closet

Yeah, I don't think Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4 of the New York trip will happen. I'll try. No Promises though..... I find I ramble too much, and these posts end up MUCH longer than anticipated. 

I have felt so sluggish and tired this pregnancy. It's probably not different from my other pregnancies, but having 3 OTHER active kids who have activities and places to be, more laundry, bigger meals, etc. I'm just plain pooped!

I have had ZERO motivation to do anything. I focus on getting showered and dressed, kids off to school, the laundry done (it takes me 4 days instead of the 4 hours it used too). Dinner has been on Dan lately, and the house is a wreck.

But NOW I am in the second trimester and am feeling much more like myself. 

So, I tackled a project I have been wanting to do for over a year now. 

Michael's closet. 

This was AFTER I had started tidying up a bit. The blue bin on the top of his shelf is for outgrown clothes that we are keeping, but it's so high, I just toss the clothes on top, until they start falling down on me again. The garbage bag is full of hand me down clothes from awesome friends. The lamp shade...I don't have an explanation for. Then he has some sweaters and shorts. 

The bar is too high for him to reach, so he just tugs on the shirts until the come down, OR the hanger breaks. The shoe organizer was working. *YES! The sweater organizer was for me to put each day's clothes, so getting dressed isn't so much an issue. Then he has the pack in play tossed in there, and a few random toys and hats on the floor. 

Let's just say, it was bugging me. A lot little.

So, I spent a day planning. Okay, months of searching for ideas on pinterest and other closet organizers on the web. Drew up my plans on graph paper with exact measurements. 

Michael's closet has this 45 degree angle in one of the back corners. It was a little bit of a challenge for me to work with, since I wasn't exactly sure what the angle was at first. 

As with MOST of my projects, this one took longer, had lots of setbacks, disappointments, and frustrations. 

1. I went to Home Depot Friday morning, got my supplies, and went to work. I thought I could easily get it done before Michael got home from school. 

2. Then, I put a huge hole in the wall, trying to take apart the old closet. I was using a block behind my hammer to pry up nails, like we had done in my closet and the girls closet, which had worked fine. But this time, the ENTIRE block went through the wall. So, I got to spend the day patching, texturing, priming, and repainting the closet. Actually, it took two days, since I had to wait for the plaster to dry, and take a dried-out can of interior paint (let to us when we bought the home) to be color matched. I had previous tried this at home depot 3 times, but the color was never even close. I finally just took it to the original paint dealer and they got MUCh closer. My other option was to paint the entire closet another color. 

3. FINALLY, Monday I was able to start building. I wanted to do three rods on the left, but I realized it just wasn't practical. The new baby will share this room with Michael, so I was hoping to have the top rod for baby clothes, the second rod for Michael's shirts, and the bottom rod for pants and shorts. His room is not very big, so my goal was to eliminate the use of his old dresser. ANYWAY, I had to rethink the closet and get over my discouragement that my plan was not going to work. 

4. My measurements were so exact with the shelves, that I forgot to account for a few milimeters width of the metal clips for the adjustable shelves. I was so proud at how square I had made my cuts with the use of just my circular saw too! ARGH. The shelves were litterally a saw blade too big to fit. Luckily I have several friends with awesome tools, so I called one up and she helped me make my mitered cuts and shave off the fraction on the shelves. 

5. Okay, enough of my griping. Here is is finished. (I think I will put a shelf on top of the first rod, but that would require a 45 degree cut, which I don't have the greatest tools for. 

 Here it is with all the stuff in it. The blue bin is now on the floor where I can easily toss outgrown clothes. Next to that is his new laundry hamper.  The other bins are for shorts, athletic gear, and pajamas, with an empty bin left! The smaller cream bins hold underwear, socks, undershirts, and ties. 

The top blue bins are empty, except for one that holds his sweaters. Even though it was more frustrating, I'm glad it's done and I'm very happy with it. Michael even is excited about it, which really helps!

Now that my mojo is back, I'll have to find some more projects!

New York part 1

Dan and I had the opportunity to take a special trip to celebrate out 10 year anniversary. 

My vote was for somewhere warm. 

Dan wanted to go to New York. His argument was that every Christmas movie you can think of was filmed in New York, so where better a place to visit during the Holidays? I was more worried about the crowds and the cold, but then he told me we could go see wicked, and I was sold!

Dan's parents and sister Katherine and her family watched our kids for us so we could go. There is no way we could have gone if it wasn't for them, so Thank you!!!

After dropping off the kids, we flew out of the Seattle Airport on a 7:00 AM flight, Friday morning

6 hours later, we arrived at JFK.  At least one of us enjoyed the long flight. :)

We debated about how to get to our hotel, but finally chose to just take a cab. Although it would be the most expensive choice, we didn't want to spend the time with a shuttle van, or get lost on the bus or subway. 

Big Mistake.

I didn't think we would make it to the hotel alive.

We waited in line at the airport and got into a taxi like this one:

It was 5:00 NY time, a.k.a "rush hour". Lots of traffic. Apparently our cab driver didn't get the memo. He drove 70-80 miles an hour the entire time. How did he maintain this speed in rush hour? Lots of honking, slamming of breaks at the LAST second, and lots of off and on ramps. 

He must have been very confident, this 19 (?) yr old boy driver, because he was texting the entire time. 

I was terrified. Sweaty hands, white knuckles, nausea, terrified. 

When we finally arrived at the hotel, I could barely walk, my knees were so wobbly. We vowed never to step inside another taxi again. I realize it is a different culture, but I will NEVER do that again. 

We stayed at the Hotel Wellington. It came as a package deal with our flight, so I was pretty proud of my find. 

The lobby looked great. The pictures on the website looked decent. Not 5 Stars, but good enough for what we were willing to pay. 

From the lobby, we were directed to the East wing:

Notice the two elevators on either side of the doorway? I think that was the main hotel. We were directed down the hall, and through another door way. 

Then down these stairs, and our tiny elevators were on the right. You could maybe fit 3 or 4 people in them. I think this was the servants quarters originally. 

There were about 5 rooms on our floor. We never saw anyone on our floor, and only heard someone once or twice.  Our room was pretty small, and the bathroom was tiny. "Romantic" I guess you could say. It wasn't as clean as I had hoped, but we weren't paying $$$ either.  

After we explored the hotel, we decided to walk around NYC. 

The location of our hotel was fantastic. We were next door to Carnegie Hall (although we never saw anything there, or went inside), and only a few blocks from Times Square. 

It was cold that night. I wore long johns, two sweaters, my coat, gloves and a scarf. I never wear a scarf. I was barely able to stay warm. :) 

The lights and the action was awesome though.

Although some of the advertisements I would have preferred not to have seen. 

We returned to our hotel, rubbed our aching feet, but excited to explore more of the city in the morning.