tahoe to auburn - family reunion 2011

We just got back from a great family reunion in Northern California. We left Sunday after church and headed to Reno; the kids love staying in hotels. Then Monday morning Scott wanted to get some work done and we couldn't check into our campsite at Lake Tahoe until 2, so I took the kids to the park to play and then Costco to get food supplies for camping. We found a fun little park with a pond. They loved the ducks. Plus I was able to call my sister-in-law Callie who had her baby early that morning. Then we all loaded up in the car and drove to the campsite.

We had so much fun in Tahoe. We went on a great little hike up above a waterfall. It was really beautiful and the kids loved playing in the water. It was a really nice campground and other than worrying about the bears at night it was a perfect place. Wednesday morning we packed it all up and headed to my sister Lisa's house in Auburn. There we just swam, ate great food, and played a lot. Everyone went river rafting on Friday while my sister Jennifer and I stayed home and watched all the little kids. Scott had a blast. Plus he was able to go on some great bike rides. We went and saw his brother Brian and their family a couple times...it was so fun to see their new little baby girl.

It was a great week! Here are some of the highlights!!!

In the car; ready to cruise!!!

Camping in Lake Tahoe....BEAUTIFUL.

Walking to the lake from our campsite.

Four of my cute nieces; Elisabeth, Jane, Lulu, and Becca

Gracie on her own private island in the middle of Lake Tahoe....she fell in just seconds after the picture was taken. I was surprised by how not upset she was.

Gracie and cousin Isabel...these two are best buddies!

On our hike to the waterfall

Lily swimming in one of the freezing pools at the top of a waterfall. Along with cousins Zach and Jack (who not only have rhyming names, but the same birthday - they aren't brothers).

The water must have felt good on Davie's little pigs.

Hiking back to the car. Gracie and I brought up the rear...they were all such good little hikers.

We took the kids to Old Town Sacramento one day while most of the rest of the family went to San Francisco. We weren't up for another long drive after driving from Salt Lake to Reno then to Tahoe then to Auburn. We had a great day in Old Town. We went to the candy store, the old school house, the river boat, the trains, and ended with an ice cream cone. Good times!

Outside the candy store....heaven for anyone under 20!

Mardi Gras masks in a window in Old Town Sacramento. The kids thought they were really cool.

Aboard the Delta King River Boat.

I didn't get any pictures at my sister's house in Auburn. We basically lived in her beautiful pool. It was a GREAT week and it went by way too fast. I loved being with my family and my kids had a ball with their 18 cousins.

day 27 — a child I love

I don't just love one child but four! These four children are among my five favorite people the whole world.

follow up

For Uncle Brad's sake (since he seems to be the only one cares) I thought I would put on the follow up story to my UPS story...

After I posted that story I found out that a man in our ward is a manager at UPS and went to my blog to read the funny story. He and Scott work in Young Mens together and one evening he came by for a calling-related matter. The UPS story immediately got brought up. He asks me specifics about the incident and then told me that the experience was completely against company protocol in those situations. The man I spoke to on the phone should have immediately scheduled a pick up, no questions asked. Clearly there really was a language problem. Then he told me that he had copied my blog post and sent it to the powers that be at UPS (I think it was whoever is in charge of customer relations). At this point I was starting to get a little embarrassed; I had not posted the story to make UPS look bad. I posted it because it was just funny. He apologized to me and I kept telling him it was really no big deal...more funny than anything.

Well, it gets even better. About a week later I get a letter in the mail for UPS. In it is an apology for the incident and three pre-paid, first class postage labels to anywhere I want! It was very generous and at that point I was feeling really bad. I had really not intended to make such a stink and I certainly was not expecting them to compensate me in anyway. Well, I never used the postage labels because I felt kind of guilty.

There is the end of story...needless to say, I learned how important it is to watch what I say in the public forum (although my blog isn't public anymore so maybe I can say whatever I want now).

day 26 — A funny (true) story

Wow, this 30 day blog challenge is turning into the 90 day blog challenge for me.

So a funny story....to be honest I can't really think of one. I mean something super funny happened yesterday that I have been laughing nonstop about, but I think it was a "had to be there" funny moment. But there was this one funny story from when I was pregnant with Davie...Here is the link:

http://lafamiliahill.blogspot.com/2009/05/uhhwhat-did-you-say.html

Let me warn you, it is long. But it will make you laugh and astound you at the same time. Plus there is an interesting follow-up to the story. I will post the follow-up in a few days. Happy reading!

goodbye to an era

I have made it no secret that we are done having children (much to my parents dismay). And although I am mostly happy about this there are times when saying goodbye to the baby days are hard. I will miss feeling a little person twirl around inside me. I will miss having the general public be much nicer to me when I am noticeably pregnant -pregnant women can get away with anything (and should in my opinion). I will miss the older generation giving me all sorts of unsolicited advice on everything from birthing to gender-guessing to raising children; I always loved it because it would end in a congratulations. Mothers don't get that kind of patience from older people; instead we just get dirty looks to remind us we are failing at keeping our brood in check while out and about! I will miss having a brand new little person to hold and love and look at. They are so sweet when they are new and I really started to love it by my third (sorry Lily and Adam...it was more of a burden than a pleasure to get up with you in the night. What can I say; age and experience brought new perspective). I will miss the increase of love in our home that a new baby brings - it just seems Utopian for a while and I love it. There are also LOTS and LOTS of things I won't miss...mostly the post-baby weight that also hasn't wanted to come off after the last two (also a product of age, I think). Plus as they get big the house just seems to get noisier; I don't think I take much more noise! So all in all, we are done, and although I have mixed feelings about it, I am mostly at peace with it.

A couple weeks ago we bought a bunk bed for the boys room. And of course Davie saw it and just kind of knew it was for him. He is so smart! So we decided to move him down and so far it has gone pretty well. Now that I had an empty room I decided it would be nice to have a place for people to sleep in privacy when they come to visit: enter the guest room. As I am was moving everything out though I felt a little sad; like I was saying goodbye to some old and dear friends. I know it is silly, it is just stuff, but it is stuff that has been ever so present in my life now for eight years. It is full of memories. Happy memories. So here is my little tribute to the past eight years and happiness I have felt with each new "baby" moment...

Here is my little helper sporting his cool shades! Is there anything more refreshing than a newly emptied closet! I think not! It got filled quickly...which is alright because it is still clean and organized and now the stuff that left those previous places are also clean and organized. It is so nice!

My old red crib. I LOVE THIS CRIB!!!! So much so that I am keeping it for when I have grandbabies! I figure no one is going to want an old, metal, red crib that has gone though nine children (we inherited it from a neighbor who had five children...I had Lily like two weeks later). I took it all apart and it will go up in attic and in like 16 or 17 years when Lily has a baby I will get it out again.
When we moved to Seattle Lily was just six weeks old. Oh she was sooooo cute! We didn't have a lot of money, but I wanted something to hang in her room. So we went to Ikea (that was when Ikea was still cheap...I think there stuff is sort of over-priced and poor quality now) and I found these three little pictures. I love them and I have decided to maybe hang them in the toy room; I just can't bear to part with them. Aren't I pathetic!
The shelf stayed, but the darling vinyl lettering that says "David" had to come down. It killed me to take it off...I loved the way it looked. Plus a couple of the things on the shelf came down like my old sock bunny that a neighbor made for me when I was born! The picture of Davie stayed - cute little fat thing!
This is our $5 changing table. It was ugly, but I made it somewhat cute with all the baskets. Again, when we moved up north we were poor and I found this at a garage sale. She was asking $10 and I had was $5, so she agreed and I was thrilled. It has been a great little piece of furniture. It is now in closet holing a bunch of craft items.
Goodbye baby years...Hello school years (let's hope there isn't too much drama)!

guests welcome...

We moved Davie down to the bunk beds with Adam (more on that later) and so now I have a guest bedroom! Isn't that exciting?! So here is my latest project that went on the empty wall in the guest bedroom....I LOVE IT!!!!

Admit it....you love it too!

knot holes

This is from Adam's Kindergarten Program...it was pretty cute!

ridiculously busy!

May is just the busiest month! It wasn't a busy month until I had children in school. I remember people saying how busy they were during May and I didn't really understand it until this year. Anyway, here are some of the happenings from this past month.

A few weeks ago we got to watch my nieces Lucy and Isabel, my nephew William, and another nephew Sammy for the weekend (I listed them that way because they all come from different families; Renee's girls, Jen's youngest, and Michelle's youngest - Sammy was only with us for an evening). It was so fun. We had a pizza party, went to the park (image Scott and I with EIGHT children under the age of eight...it was quite a sight!), and had a movie party with brownies and popcorn. It was a super fun weekend!

Here are Davie and Lucy in the tub. They loved splashing together!

Here are Sammy, William, Adam, Gracie, Lily, and Isabel all watching the movie (Davie and Lucy were in bed)

Don't you love Gracie's one-woman puppet show. She uses ALL her limbs!

Adam's kindergarten program had a hoe down theme. It was the cutest program. Adam doesn't love to sing, so I was pretty proud of him for singing most of the songs.

Here we are after the program. They made those stick horses and rode into the gym shouting "yee-haw" while "Raw Hide" played. It was great!

The award assembly at school was help last week and Lily received two awards. One was the Bulldog award, which is an award that all the children are eligible for. Both Adam and Lily worked all year to earn this. They have to accomplish different things in several categories; they range from academic achievements to service to physical fitness. The other award she received was the Clove Award of Excellence. This is an award given to only few students. Each teacher picks one student in their class that has shown excellence in academics, citizenship, etc. Lily didn't realize what this was until she got home and I could explain it to her. It was a great honor to receive it and I was really proud of her (she was stoked because they gave each of the Clove Award recipients a $10 gift card to Barnes and Noble).

Both the kids after school displaying their awards. On Friday Lily and I went to Barnes and Noble and she bought two American Girl books.

The kids got out of the school on Friday. I am excited to have to home with me for a couple months. We have some fun plans...family reunion in Tahoe, seeing Grandma and Grandpa Hill (returning from their mission - they have been gone for three years!), swim lessons, and just playing in the sun as much as possible!