Priest Lake Family Reunion

We just returned from our second trip to Priest Lake this summer for my family's summer reunion.  Everyone was able to be there this year except for Ron who needed to stay home and work and for Garrett who is now serving his mission in Atlanta, Georgia (instead of Mexico).  We were blessed with beautiful weather in the 80s most of the week and the kids had a glorious time running around with their cousins and playing in the water.  I will admit that this week nearly killed me. After Emmett slept horribly in his pack 'n play during our vacation last month, I figured that he would do the same thing this month which turned out to be the case.  The big difference this time around is that I did not have Ron to help me during the night or the day times and there would be 22 other people in the cabin instead of the small group that was with us last month.  This meant that Emmett and I had to share our bedroom with the three other kids which resulted in them being woken up multiple times at night and early every morning.  In addition, the large group of people made for chaotic meal times and loud nap times and all sorts of other issues that I had to deal with on a daily basis.  Sticking it out for eight days while trying to be my children's caretaker and source of entertainment took almost every ounce of energy out of me.  I was so exhausted by the end of our week there that I was seriously worried about falling asleep at the wheel during our seven hour drive home.  As a result, my dad made the last minute decision to leave early and drive home with us yesterday which I was so grateful for.  Although my kids had a wonderful time and there were moments of brilliance for me, I definitely made a sacrifice for my children to be up at the cabin with their cousins this week.  I just hope that Emmett will start to outgrow this phase of sleeping poorly when we are not at home as I just don't think I have it in me to keep on travelling if this is what he is going to put me through every single time we leave home overnight.

One of the moments of brilliance I experienced every morning this week was being able to go on a morning water ski with some of my family members.  I was blessed to have beautiful water every morning which almost made the week worth it.  In addition, I was able to convince Lia to go skiing four of the mornings.  I had her practice turning inside the wake and she even ventured out of it the last morning, but sadly it ended it a crash rather quickly.  Oh well. There's always next summer!

Emmett got lots of attention from his cousins which definitely was a help to me.  Here he is relaxing with his big cousins Riley and Trenton.

Emmett with Riley, Trenton, and Bryce.

After talking about it for a few months, our family finally bit the bullet and bought our own water mat.  The kids were all so excited when it arrived via a FedEx truck!  Here are Lia, Ella, and Callie playing on it one of the mornings down at the lake.

Ella did a wonderful job playing with Emmett on the beach several times this week.  Here are the two of them shoveling sand together.

One morning, a few of us piled in the boat and drove over to the public beach past Canoe Point.  Logan and Trenton both enjoyed swimming around with their new snorkel sets.  Here is a cute picture I got of them.

Logan snorkeling around in the shallow, clear water off of the beach.

Ella and Emmett playing inside the little shack that someone else had built and left behind on the beach.

Emmett pointing out to the water.

The large group photo that our neighbor took of our entire family.

All of the grandchildren minus Garrett, but plus Spencer's new wife, Hannah.

The grandparents with their grandchildren.

We enjoyed playing some group games throughout the week.  Here is the table of the older kids trying to pick up as many marshmallows with chopsticks in 60 seconds.

The table with the little kids playing the same game.

Lia picking up her marshmallows.

Rebecca also had the kids play a second game to see how many M & Ms they could pick up by sucking through straw.

This is the one picture I managed to get of a scene that occurred many times throughout the week.  Several of Emmett's bigger cousins would pick him up and place him on stop of the railing post at the bottom of the stairs.  Emmett loved this and would always start clapping.  Everyone in the living room or kitchen that could see him would then start clapping, too.  It was the funniest thing to see him do this over and over again.

After leaving a sometimes fussy Emmett behind to be watched by my dad the first two mornings that I went water skiing, my mom suggested that I bring him in the boat with us. This ended up being a great idea as he was happy as a clam to ride in someone's lap while being in the boat.  As a result, I ended up bring him with me skiing every morning the rest of the week.  Here is the darling picture my sister-in-law took of him one morning.  Look at the mist rising off the water! 

My niece, Sarah, holding Emmett while I water skied.

A shot my sister-in-law took of me finishing off my ski.  Ahhh!

Natalee and I took a large group of kids to the beach on the far side of Canoe Point one afternoon.  Here is a family photo I had Kelsey take of us as a wave came crashing in.  Look at that clear water!

The kiddos that came with us on our adventure.

After swimming over the freezing cold river (that consists of mountain runoff water) and walking out to the sandbar where we wrote all of the kids' names in rocks, we headed back to the beach where I had left the boat pulled up onto the sand.  Here are the kids and me before climbing back into the boat.

Since there were so many kids that wanted to come with us, we hooked up an inner tube and pulled three kids going there and coming back.  Lia and Ella decided to ride with Riley on the boat ride back to the beach.

Another fun activity I enjoyed this week was kayaking with Emmett in the little, red kayak that Eric rescued last year from Lake Sammamish.  He brought it up for everyone to enjoy at Priest Lake and I fell in love with it.  This kayak is so little and lightweight that it just zips all over the place and Emmett loved sitting in my lap every time I took it out for a morning paddle.

Emmett and I zipping along.

Enjoying the beautiful, calm, morning water.

Logan and Riley exploring on the paddle board together.

Lia, Logan, and Riley cruising around.

Lia has become a very proficient paddle boarder these past few summers.  Here she is striking a pose for me.

Two cousins pausing for a picture while paddling along.

Ella going on a boat ride with her older cousins, Kelsey and Brynn.

Logan and Trenton playing on the water mat.

Spencer taking a group out in the boat while pulling a skier.

Lia smiling at me as she heads out to sea!

Par tradition, grandma put on a scavenger hunt for all the grandchildren complete with challenging clues placed all over the property.  My children always look so forward to participating in this hunt each year.  Here are all of the girls posing on the dock after finishing up.

All of the boys posing with their loot after finishing up a few minutes after the girls!

19 Months Old Today!

Well, this little monkey turned 19 months old today while up at Priest Lake for our family reunion.  This is his last month of being in the "teens" before he moves into the 20-somethings.  It simply is just crazy to me how fast these 19 months of Emmett's life has gone.  Although there are some adorable parts to Emmett that are still so babyish, he really is changing more and more into an active toddler every day.  Plus, he is just such a huge baby!  He is so tall and weighs so much that he really doesn't feel like a baby when you pick him up and carry him around.  

Emmett is so busy and active and just makes messes wherever he goes.  He climbs up on things all the time and gets into things all the time.  He is so busy and I am so grateful for the help of three older siblings who do a really good job keeping an eye on him (except when they are having their 'screen time').  I, honestly, could not do it without the help of all of them.  Emmett has continued to learn some new words this month.  He now says cheese, yes, gog (for goggles), up, ow, eat, and this.  He says "eat" anytime he is hungry and will stand by his high chair while saying this word over and over again.  He continues to be our biggest eater out of all of our children at this age and will eat everything that is given to him for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  He also still insists on eating other peoples' food after he is done eating his meal and will eat as many snacks as we will give him throughout the day.  It's no wonder that he is such a big baby!  He also still take two naps a day if I need him to, but also can function just fine on one nap a day.  Emmett continues to need a "pacifier plug in" and/or a brief rocking in the rocking chair most nights in the middle of the night to help him fall back asleep.  However, we have discovered that he sleeps absolutely awful in the pack 'n play as we haven't traveled with him since February when we spent one night at the Great Wolf Lodge.  This has made travelling this summer pretty difficult for me and has zapped me of a ton of my energy which has been lower than normal every since I had to home school three older kids this spring.  :-( 

Emmett continues to love to play with toys and can be found pushing cars and trucks around the house at any given time which is so cute.  He also loves looking at planes in the sky when they fly over head and will stop whatever he is doing to point and look at them.  He also has loved playing in the water this summer and enjoys sitting in my lap while floating in an inner tube, paddling around in the kayak with me, or playing along the shoreline the most.  A funny thing he started doing this month is copying Ella whenever he sees her doing the splits around our house.  Emmett will just stop whatever he is doing to spread his legs as far apart as possible.  He will then stay in this position for several seconds before moving onto something else.  It is so funny!  He has also continued to throw tantrums at times when he is not happy by throwing himself down onto the ground and crying really loudly.  In addition, he has started screaming in a really loud, ear-piercing scream when he is angry with someone or something  Needless to say, this is not a favorite behavior of mine and I will now rebuke him with a strong, "No, No!" which sends him into heartbroken tears. Oh dear.  Although terrible twos are definitely coming, we will take our Emmy any day as we all just love him to pieces and still think that he is the cutest, chunkiest baby around!

Another cheeky shot of my boy who looks so grown up in this picture!

The Third Time was NOT a charm!

Well, the old adage, "Third time's a charm," did not prove to be the case when it came to our family trip to Hawaii for 2020.  After cancelling our Spring Break trip in April and our summer trip in July, Ron and I decided to try one more time and scheduled a third trip for the first week in August.  Although Ron normally goes back to work full time on August 1st, he asked for permission from his boss to take this week off as our last chance to go to Hawaii before school starts the beginning of September.  After spending several hours a third time rescheduling our condo and car rental and rebooking our plane tickets, we waited for the Hawaiian governor's announcement regarding his plan for the month of August.  Much to our surprise, the governor announced the end of June that starting August 1st, the 14-day quarantine would be lifted for anyone arriving in Hawaii who could show proof of a negative result from a Covid-19 test performed 72 hours prior to their arrival.  We couldn't believe our luck as we were scheduled to fly to Hawaii on August 2nd--just one day after this new exception was to be made.  

So for the next few weeks, our family started to really get excited about going to Hawaii as we started to make plans about the things we wanted to do and the places we wanted to go during our eight days in Maui.  It seemed that we were finally going to get a break after months and months of so many things being cancelled.  But it apparently it wasn't meant to be.  Due to the massive spike in Covid-19 cases that started to pop up all over the United States in July due to too many states loosening up on their restrictions too soon, the Hawaiian governor changed his mind on July 13th and called the whole thing off by extending the 14-day quarantine through September 1st.  I was so shocked when I read the headline on my computer that evening.  And just like that our trip was cancelled a third time. And unlike the previous two times, I did not reschedule our trip again.  I honestly feel like a child who has had her hand slapped too many times while trying to reach into the cookie jar to get a cookie.  I have finally been beat down enough times that I am going to stop trying.  We will not be planning any more big, family trips that involve plane travel until this virus is under control and until we can make plans again without government leaders cancelling them on us.  

I honestly am so tired and worn out by now that I have stopped caring as much about going on trips and making big plans for our family.  I am so tired of not having control over so many things on our calendar that I used to be able to control for the most part.  I just feel so beat down that I have started to let it all go.  2020 just wasn't our year.  I don't think that 2020 was really anyone's year.  And so with all of that said, I encouraged Ron to plan a last minute camping trip during this week that we were supposed to be in Hawaii.  As a result, he ended up leaving this morning with the three older children to try to get a campsite in a beautiful campground on Hood Canal that my family stayed at a few times when I was growing up.  Emmett and I were supposed to join them this time around, but after hitting a tired wall like no other yesterday after a very busy and exhausting week at home after a very tiring week at Priest Lake, I decided to stay home with the baby and get some well-needed rest before I head back up to Priest Lake alone with the kids this coming Saturday.  I am hoping and praying that Ron secures a campsite today and that I can actually take a nap while Emmett takes his afternoon nap.  We shall see...

Cousin Camp!

Since Natalee was gone for four days this week helping out with her stake's YW camp (which amazingly was never cancelled) and Chris was at work, I offered to take Trenton and Riley for two of these days.  Since we all ended up in Issaquah on Wednesday, I drove the boys home with us that evening.  We then hosted them for all of Thursday and most of Friday before Brynn picked them up on her way home from work.  Although I was still really exhausted from our Priest Lake trip (thanks to Emmett sleeping pretty badly in the pack 'n play almost every night) and a long day in Issaquah, I managed to put on my "fun boots" and take the kids on a daily outing both days.  The kids also enjoyed many hours playing together in our pool in the backyard as well as having a pizza and movie night on Thursday evening.  Although I was glad to help Chris and Natalee out and provide some fun cousin time for our kids, I was pretty pooped out by the time they went home.  Here are some pictures of our "cousin camp" from the last two days...

Since so many places are still closed (like splash pads and water parks), I had to think of some other places in nature that we could still go to that involved water as both of the days were predicted to be very warm!  On Thursday, I took all of the kids minus Emmett down to Orting to play in the Carbon River.  When the kids and I last went here back in March, the water was crystal clear, so we were all surprised to see that it looked like chocolate milk as it had become full of silt and dirt in recent weeks or months.  Nevertheless, the kids still had a great time playing in the water and I had a great time relaxing on my beach chair.  I actually fell asleep at one point which is something I never do when I am outside playing with my kids!

The children walking in the water while staying away from the strong currents.  Lia was too worried about being swept away and refused to get in the water.

Two best friends walking along.

Riley was great and involved the boys in building an elaborate pool on the edge of the water with rocks, sand, and clay.  This project kept them busy for almost an hour!

Lia was a nice, big sister and agreed to help Ella build and decorate a sand castle on the other end of the beach.

After about two hours, we packed up and headed back to the car before swinging by Dominoes to pick up some pizza on our way home.  Here is a picture of Logan and Trenton that I took as we walked down the trail to the parking lot.

Since Brynn decided to pick up the boys earlier than we had planned on Friday, we spent the morning at Dash Point which is my favorite Tacoma Beach.  It actually turned out to be perfect as it was already so warm by the time we got there!  The kids had a great time exploring the beach at low tide and playing on the playground which was surprisingly open as all of the public playgrounds in our town are still closed!  Here are Lia and Riley with Emmett down by the water.

Emmett with his older sister and cousin.

Ella posing for a picture while playing on a public playground for the first time in 4.5 months!

The kids got brave and walked out quite a ways into the water.

A great, group photo with Emmett even looking at the camera and smiling!

Emmett holding a large clam shell that Riley found.

One of the reasons why I love this beach so much is because the playground is right on the beach.  Here are the boys swinging on the old school swing set with a stunning view of the water!

Sweet, baby Emmett loved being pushed on the swing by Lia.

Riley teasing Ella and grabbing her swing while swinging next to her.

One of the many things that I love about getting this group of cousins together is how much Ella adores Riley.  She absolutely LOVES him and he is always such a good sport about playing with her which I know is not a normal thing for a 13-year old boy.  He will swim with her, play games with her, wrestle with her, etc. The list goes on and on and I just am so grateful for him and for the fact that he is willing to give my 6-year old daughter attention any time that they are together.  I just had to include this picture because it shows Ella looking back at Riley with the hugest grin on her face.  It perfectly captures how she feels about her big cousin!

A cute shot that Lia took of Emmett surrounded by his blonde cousins on our drive home from the beach.

What summer should be...

Today was the perfect summer day.  Since the temps were predicted to be in the high 80s, my kids and I drove up to Issy to spend the day at both Lake Samm and at my parent's house.  After eating lunch at my parent's home, I left Emmett behind for his nap with my dad while I took the three older children down to lake to spend the afternoon with my two brothers, Rebecca, and five of their cousins.  After discovering that the group beach next door had purchased a floating trampoline, most of us decided to make the swim out there to try it out.  Luckily, we were able to get away with our shenanigans as no one from the group beach came down while we were playing on it!  The kids and I had so much fun jumping around on the trampoline and leaping into the water.  It was no surprise to me that Ella was one of the first ones on it and the last one off it.  This is a group photo that I managed to get of Lia, Logan, Ella, Riley, Trenton, and Bryce after I had swam back to the beach.

The group jumping off!

For some reason, Ella did not make the jump with the rest of the group, so here is the funny picture I got of her watching everyone swim back to the beach.

Luckily, Lia agreed to climb back up onto the trampoline with her and jump off a few more times.

Sisters preparing to make one last jump into the water before swimming back to the dock.