Let me catch my breath

Finally! A minute to write. We got off the plane at 10PM Sunday and Monday at 8 AM I got started on my new adventure in life. I started babysitting 2 little boys from 8-6 2 or 3 days a week. And since day care rates are pretty on par with most of the East coast up here, I am saving money for airplane tickets. Its a good thing these boys (ages 3 and 1) are nothing like my own (read calm, quiet, easy to keep track of) or it would never work. But as it is still 2 extra mouths to feed I am busy.

It is weird, though. I seem to have gotten more done on the days they were here this week than the days they aren't. I keep a better schedule with the extra boys here because I know I am getting paid. We are doing fun things (except for the day that Champ at the homemade play dough and had to be taken outside every hour to pee all the salt he ate out of his system) and I have fun things planned for next week too.

But I finally have a minute to get some pictures of our trip up.

Me and Naomi.

The crew from Perry gear up for the Be-Awesome-est slip in slide in the world!

Liz, Steph and Lanae at lunch in Sharon's back yard.

Livs and Marin loved being together again

and wore princess outfits on the swings.

Ice cream in the avenues at the store Ben nicknamed the Oompa Loompa store. Don't ask why.

Ben cooked us some delicious Dinosaur Bar B Q. The grill master!!

Me enjoying 5 Guys Burgers and Fries or as Ethan and Carter called it 5 Slimes Boogers and Flies. Trust me, a compliment coming from an 8 and almost 12 year old.

Olivia loving her time with Nonna.


Olivia squeezes Aunt Courtney

Baby Brooke got lots of attention. The boys had her in stitches playing Peek a Boo. When we Courtney showed us how Brooke can roll over, Olivia spread out her own blanket and laid on it and proceeded to show us how she could roll over just like Brooke.

Carter was such a good baby holder. Look at those cousins!

The Smith girl cousins

Olivia followed Aunt Katie around and helped her do dishes every night. While the boys pestered Ben with stories of the Swine Flu and saving lives from the hospital.

Ethan and M were great buddies this trip. In fact all of the cousins played so well together and mixed it up with everyone.

Please pay no attention to the giant booger coming out of Twin P's nose. Ok pay attention, it was super gross.

Fearless Olivia could swim the entire width of the pool by the end of the week with no floaties, just the lure of the half collapsed pink noodle as her prize.

T and Ethan warming up after a not so hot day at the pool.

M P and Carter are always a ham for the camera.

Grandma Moncur's swimming pool is always full of kids when the cousins are around

Olivia tries to get Aslan to move. He wasn't listening so well with 2 of his harem in heat. Look for puppies at Yellowstone Mastiff this August!

I love this guy. This is Aslan, who actually came from an Alaska kennel. His father is the only son of the current European Mastiff champ in the United States. He is not even a year old and weighs like 190. He won't stop growing until he reaches age 3.

Olivia reminds me so much of cousin M. They are fearless, love the dogs and kitties, and are obsessed with horses. Only M has her own and Olivia is here feeding them.

This is Twin B and the baby cow that needed bottle fed this year.

The Walk for Bridger was a huge success! Lovell really outdid itself and continues to show support for our little Bridger and his upcoming Bone Marrow Transplant. All the tests are still coming in as a green light to go forward. There is a lot to prepare for, and still a lot to worry about but thanks to everyone in Lovell, Dallas, and Edwards, CO a chunk of the financial worries are taken care of. LOVE YOU!!!

M and Carter have been best buds since birth. carter is older by 7 weeks and we have pictures of him at 9 months playing peek a boo with his younger cousin and making her laugh so hard. These two walked the 3 miles for Bridger and talked the whole way. Whenever Carter wasn't playing DS with boys, he was holed up somewhere with M in deep discussion over important pre-teen topics.

And the main event of the trip was Ethan's baptism. Our church baptizes by immersion at age 8. It was important to Ethan to do this with all of his cousins there to celebrate the day with him. So we asked for permission to do this ordinance in Lovell. Everyone but Bridger and his Mom and Dad were there as well as my mom and brother Jared came up from UT. Thank you all so much for travelling, rearranging schedules, and making such an effort to share this day with Ethan. He was thrilled beyond words. And when you ask him what his favorite part about the trip was, he answers, "My baptism day."

Ethan was baptized by his dad. Here they are dressed in white, in preparation for the ordinance that is about to happen. No I am not pregnant, just fat.

Twins A and A were baptized last year. They are Ethan's best buddies. He has been talking about his own baptism and how these two girls would be at his since their event last year.

We all sang Happy Birthday to Ethan since ours was a small affair in Alaska. No birthday is complete without all the cousins chanting CHA CHA CHA Hi-YA at the end of the birthday song.

Rub a dub dub 5 kids in a tub. Olivia, Marin, G, Twins P and B all needed a bath at least once a day. And often all together.

Mitch made a super cool rocket launcher out of PVC and a couple o fvalves and an air compressor. All the kids made rockets out of construction paper and tape and man did they fly. An entire Sunday afternoon was filled with this activity.

The amazing 19. It is a good thing CaMee lives here too and has another house to spill over into. It is nothing short of chaos to have this group around.

Now this is the group to look out for. After 6 years of NO GIRL BABIES Olivia leads the pack of the next group of 5 girls. The littlest is Kate, who is only 3 months so she is inside where it was safe. One evening I found all 4 of these little girls in the chicken coop without any shoes on. When I asked Olivia how they got the gates open, she told me their partners Twins P and B helped them. Of course they did. Those 2 boys are the original mischief makers.

All the girls made flip flops for the 4th of July. Aren't they cute!

Carter and P goofing for the camera.

Ah yes, here are Twins P and B. This is where Ethan was the King. He was dubbed this by hte boys who told him that was what he was. This was after a bath of all 3 boys covered in grass and P and B picked all the grass off Ethan's back for him. The boys followed him around and did everything Ethan asked most of the week too.

Carter, are you playing with the camera?

The kids with Great Grandma and Grandpa McNiven.

Ah yes. JaDee's cousin Don took JaDee to Yellowstone in his plane one morning. Don is a flight instructor and a very good pilot. We met them at the airport and Don was awesome enough to give us all rides in this little thing. Even Olivia!

And even me. Don even let me "fly" once we were up and away. It was pretty cool.

Ah yes, the chickens.

Livs and Grandma collecting eggs.

Olivia washed all 14 eggs by herself that morning and didn't break a single one. She is such a good helper.

There you have it. Our Be-Awesome trip to the lower 48. Loved every minute. Shopped at J. Crew with my sis, ate yummy cupcakes at this place (I then spent a whole afternoon trying recipes to crack the cup cake mystery for my own sweet tooth back in Alaska. I think I got it all figured out now).

Love you all and I am working on getting to WY for Thanksgiving! Cross your fingers and maybe Bridger will even be there too!