Oh my gosh it has been so long since I last blogged. I was in Utah for about 4 weeks, slept in 5 different houses, and had a total blast! We took about a gazillion pictures, and I had a lot of trouble narrowing them down--which is why I am going to divide up my "Utah" post into a week by week breakdown. Eventually I am going to get around to creating actual books out of my blog, for the sake of family history, and I couldn't bear to leave out any part of that trip. We made wonderful memories and I was able to spend lot's of one on one time with so many people that I love. I hope the pictures are at least semi-entertaining to my little handful of readers :)
Wesley was able to take off a week of work for the trip, so we left on Friday August 19th, at 4 pm. We only drove to Vegas that night, and continued on early the next morning. The trip got off to a rough start because Wesley and I were both still recovering from bad colds, (mine was a sinus infection--thank goodness for antibiotics!). Also, Mia was cutting her very first 2 teeth, and she cried for most of the drive. (We actually ended up buying her a new car seat while we were in Utah, upgrading out of her infant carrier. Since then, her car crying days have magically disappeared...kinda wish we had done that before the long drive. darn.) BUT we survived the trip and thanks to my glorious Z-pack antibiotic, by sundown on Saturday night I was feeling a million times better.
My sister's husband Nathan was able to use his grandparents ranch house in Provo canyon for our Schindler family reunion. We were so grateful to have such a big house and beautiful scenery for our vacation!! Saturday night we all converged on the ranch. My parents had even driven out from Virginia with my brother David in tow. It was such a wonderful reunion that first night! We were all so pumped to see each other again--all of us Schindler girls were so crazy and excited to be together (while of course, the men were in full blown car-unloading/organizing mode around us).
The week went by too quickly, but each day was spent to the fullest. Jake and his cousin Sawyer loved playing with grandma and grandpa, loved all the attention from everyone, and enjoyed getting to know their very special Uncle David. I love my family so much. It's hard sometimes that we all live so far away from each other, but the reunions are always a blast, and I appreciate the individual relationships I have with everyone. I'm so grateful for cellphones and I-chat--seriously how did we live without those things before? sheesh.
Anyway, here are about a million pictures.
We held church up at the Ranch on Sunday so that we wouldn't all have to pile back into our cars the morning after we arrived. It was an uplifting experience, and I love that we took the time to do that together.
So there is a tame deer that lives on the ranch--he even has a collar. One evening he came up to the fence, and the kids were so excited to pet him and feel his fuzzy antlers. When Jake first spotted him, he got big round eyes and said "HEY LOOK!!! IT'S A REINDEER!!!!"...He then proceeded to ask the "reindeer" if he would mind passing along his Christmas requests to Santa. Over and over, Jake reminded the deer that he wanted a "guitar for Christmas...a real one like mommy's." SO CUTE.
One night we drove up to Kaysville and had dinner with our dear old friends the Stotts. It was an awesome night, I'm so glad we made it happen! Thanks Meghan and Tyler!
Jake loved playing ball with his Uncle David--it made me so happy to see them interacting.
Mia got to spend some quality time with David too :)
My dad is awesome, and he came to Ranch week with a trunk full of guns--water guns that is. Jake and Sawyer (and let's face it, all the adults too) loved having super soaker wars!
My mom brought a bunch of goodies to make "surf shacks" with the kids--but it ended up turning into a full scale competition between all the adult couples instead. Syd and Mitch took the cake with their shack built on the water instead of the sand.
The boys got along sooo well all week. definitely kept themselves entertained ;)
I think Mia's new teeth must have been bugging her, because for about 2 weeks, every single time she smiled she would curl her lips under, like she was guarding her new pearly whites. At least she was still smiling though right? such a tough little chick. Also, so glad that she was happy to be in her playpen. We took it outside most afternoons and she loved being surrounded by toys, while being able to watch all the fun! and I loved being able to keep her sensitive, eczema prone skin off of the grass.
every night after the baby girls were in bed, we played a couple rounds of badminton. after they were all asleep we watched movies and played cards--it was awesome to hang out without the kiddos for awhile.
shirts vs. skins? probably good that the girls were on the shirts team ;)
I love my sassy little girl!
It was so nice to spend time with my little brother David--I think he really enjoyed himself, loved being out doors, playing next to the blow up pool and lounging in the paddle boat.
Jake really misses his Aunt Syd since we moved away from Utah, and he loved being able to see her again!
Jake and Sawyer had so much fun with their Omi, who brought all kinds of fun activities with her to the ranch! Wesley and I felt like we were really able to relax and enjoy the vacation--Jake had endless entertainment wherever he went, and I loved seeing him enjoy himself so much!
The paddle boat was definitely a hit with the kids.
The water was totally frigid but the boys still loved swinging back and forth on that rope swing!
Mia loved being passed around by everyone.
Jake, Wes and I had a blast on the 4-Wheeler. There were some awesome trails, Jake especially loved driving through the little creeks :)
Nothing sweeter than a grandpa with his little granddaughters
she LOVED his whiskers :)
Mia kept spitting in his face--luckily he thought it was pretty cute.
Dad totally dominated at archery.
Everyone took turns cooking, and it was nice to enjoy eating together, especially with such beautiful weather and surroundings.
Wesley took time to show Jake and Sawyer some cool things
..including one of his own childhood favs--making a fort out of a box fan and a sheet! :)
Big thanks to my sweet husband for using some vacation days to come with me for this reunion. He was such a good sport and so helpful with the kids, it was a joy to spend time with so much family at once.
Stay tuned for the Ranch--part 2. We had this giant slip-n-slide and I loved all the candid shots from that--but will save uploading those for the next post!
2 comments:
Great post, Kristie! Even though I wrote a similar one and I was there and have seen every picture numerous times...I still LOVED reading it! It was a great week...
That was a very fun post to read and look at all the pictures!! (Somehow I don't have a lot of them!!)
What a great week that was. Thanks for bringing it back to memory!
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