MA & ME

*Just a funny picture of Elise from the trip

I hate blogging about big trips. It is overwhelming. There are tons of pictures and so many details and I get paralyzed trying to decide what to include. The better the trip, the harder it is for me to blog about it. I took almost all of these pics from Carrie's blog. 

So we were all set to leave on Friday, August 3rd, for Boston. All was well until on the way to the airport we realized I had misread our itinerary and our flight was taking off in 30 minutes so we had no chance to make it. We spent an hour or so at the airport trying to figure out if we should/could fly standby. It was a mess and it ended up being a costly mistake- both monetarily and time-wise. We had to pay to fly out the next day and we missed the Red Sox game that the whole family went to. Boo!

*Elise was feeling the airport stress and she started chewing on her toes

We woke up 7 hours after our arrival at my parents house to take family pictures. I posted the most important picture already- the grand kids with Nana and Papa. After church that afternoon we caravanned (nope, not a real word) up to Bethel, Maine, for our week-long stay. Here are the ABC's of our trip:

A- Adventures
Carrie and Anthony took the kids on adventures, AKA walks, each evening. One night they even found a frog.

B- Bocce Ball

*The pool made me incredibly nervous because it had no fence around it.

C-Cousins

*Elise really liked that she was bigger than Weston & Elise





D- Dinner
Breakfast and lunches were just kind of a free-for-all and then each couple took a turn making dinner one night. We all ate together and it really wasn't too bad considering the group of 13 adults and 5 kids.

*Elise took to making this weird gesture a lot at mealtimes. Funny girl

E- Erin's Cafe
My parents treated us all to brunch one day in town. We attempted to take pictures to document the grandkids' matching outfits.





F- Firepit

The house had a firepit, which they didn't even mention in their ad. Sadie learned how awesome campfires are.

G- Grandma & Grandpa (Nana & Papa)

We got in lots of awesome time with Nana and Papa. They played so much with the kids. Will loves playing marching band. Sadie quickly grasped how fun this activity was and learned to turn any toy into a trumpet or drum.

 

H- Hot bathtub

Sadie's favorite activity of the whole week may have been getting in the "hot bathtub". Other people didn't love it as much when the toddlers got in since we turned the temperature way down.  

I- Inside Activities

Inside there was tons to do. My siblings and in-laws spoiled my kids with lots of attention. Not pictures is Hillary playing prisoners with the toddlers, which she did for hours, even when she was really sick. I've somehow convinced Sadie that only Hillary can play this game so I don't have to.

 

*I really love puzzles, like a lot- that's not a joke.

J- Jam Session
My dad brought out some old trumpets for Will and Sadie to play with. Sadie actually got some decent noise out of it

K- Keeping Dry

It rained a few days in Maine. The girls looked longingly outside while we tried to keep dry.

L- Laser Tag

One of those rainy days we went over to play laser tag at the local "Fun Center". The toddlers came with and played in the arcade. Watching them play air hockey was hilarious. The ride home in the pouring rain up a dirt road on a hill was not as hilarious.

M- Maine

The house was in Bethel, which is more of a winter, ski-town so we got a great deal on an awesome house.

N- Natural Waterslides
We did a short hike up to some natural waterslides. Although it wasn't long, the terrain was not very toddler-friendly. Sadie tripped a lot, but she never actually fell, so I considered it a win. We put all the babies in backpacks and climbed on up. The water was freezing, but most of us braved it and got in. 

O- Olympics

At night we usually had the Olympics on. It was great to be at the house, kind of away from the world, but we could still watch the Olympics. I really love the Olympics.

P- Pool

The weather was great the first half of the week so we spent a lot of time in the pool. It was a bit chilly since it wasn't heated, but it was fun to scream every time you got in. :)

Group cannon ball

We thought the babies would love the giraffe pool. We were wrong.

Sadie was in her element, swimming around in her puddle jumper. I love puddle jumpers (Elise is now using one and she LOVES it- more on that in a different post).

Daniel took Sadie swimming one night. I thought he was nuts, but she loved it.

Q- Quiet Time
Sadie fell asleep a couple times during her afternoon quiet time, which she never does at home. 

R- Rental House
The house was perfect. Very clean, which lots of space and lots to do. The front doesn't show how huge it is. It slept everyone comfortably, which tends to be the most important thing in our family. If people don't get sleep, things get dicey.

S- Shrieking
Weston did this funny shrieking noise all week. It was like he just wanted to be heard. Meredith said he stopped when they went back home so it really was just a reaction to all the noise of everyone. 

*And this is just a funny picture that kind of looks like they are screaming

T- Tray Painting
Another rainy day activity my mom planned was painting these wooden trays. I took forever to decide what to paint so I ended up painting multiple layers when I kept changing ideas.



U- Upsetting Baths
This one is a stretch. Will did not want to bathe with his cousins and he let it be known he was not agreeable to the bath. And of course, I took a picture.


V- Views
The view from the back porch was so pretty. Maine is a beautiful state to visit, just not one I would want to live in year-round.


W- Wrestling
The bed in Anthony and Carrie's room was apparently perfect for wrestling. There was no yelling of  "from the fruit of their loins!" (that was a favorite line of older John children to yell during wrestling matches), but they had a great time. We were convinced someone was going to fall onto the hardwood floor and cry, but it was all giggles from these two. 

X- eXhausted
The "x" is always the hardest in alphabet things, isn't it? Choose between x-ray and xylophone most of the time. We were fairly tired once we got back to Boston. Anthony fell asleep like this on a chair.

Y- Yummy

The toddlers found out how delicious s'mores are, especially when you use Reese's pb cups.

Z- Ziplining
Another day activity was zip-lining. We went in 2 shifts and took turns watching the kids. I loved it, which is kind of surprising because I am afraid of heights, but I felt so secure that it was just fun.

 

*Group 1

*Group 2- with a random couple

At the end of the week we made the drive back to Boston and had another day there.

*Bryce just loves posing for pictures for me

On Monday afternoon we flew back to Utah. I took this shot of downtown Boston during the few minutes on our trip that it was actually in our view.

Our flight to Denver wasn't terrible, but it was just long. And long flights with 15-month-olds feel even longer. On our second, much shorter connection from Denver to SLC, both our girls fell asleep. We had to wake them up after we landed.

Like Father Like Daughter

Thanks Daniel.

An Evening With Louie

The other night Daniel went on a mini-date with Sadie while Lou and I hung out at home. We decided to play outside. 

First she stopped to touch the bushes for a minute. In an effort to get her to look at me I asked her to give me a five.

 She walked all the way over to me with her hand up high. One of my favorite pictures ever.

Then we stopped at the neighbors yard to pick up a few fallen apples.

After I convinced Elise to throw the apple away we turned back toward our house. She waved every time a car went by. I tried to get a picture of it. You can kind of see the wave in her shadow.

Then Lou decided our townhouse neighbors needed a visit.

Finally, we played on folding chairs in our yard. Elise got super frustrated when she got stuck sideways and she was done with it.

She perked up when she found a lollipop in the cup-holder.

The End.

 Compare to this post I did when Sadie was just a few weeks older than Elise is now

Awesome

We just got back from a 9 day trip to New England. It was fun and tiring. And it was all kicked off with us missing our flight due to my stupidity.

We took some family photos less than 8 hours after we made it to Boston (24 hours later than planned). Here's a preview of that awesomeness:

 

Papa and Nana with Sadie (3), Elise (15 months), Weston (9 months), Lauren (10 months), and Will (2 1/2)

*Does everyone agree that Elise looks exactly like her Papa, or is that just us?*

Summer Activities

We had a lot of fun in the past week or two. 

1. The girls rode in the car cart together. It only lasted 5 minutes. Elise climbed out the side and she was then buckled into the cart seat.

2.  We hit up the Spanish Fork splash pad with the Faucettes. After a little snafu in finding the splash pad and then the kids being cautious about getting wet, everyone had tons of fun. 

Hunter laid down and pretended to sleep a lot of the time. Elise was very concerned about him.

This little boy followed Elise around for a while and stood really close to her. I couldn't stop laughing.

Sadie hates getting her face wet, so I was thrilled when she finally decided to jump into the sprinklers. 

The babes hung out under the canopy and posed with sunglasses.

Kaylie and I took about 50 pictures of these two with the sunglasses, so only posting 2 here is an amazing display of self-control.

3. Played with bubbles. This is almost a daily activity. 

Playing with bubbles is like playing with chalk- it keeps the kids occupied for a while, but everyone gets so dirty that I really don't like doing it. 

Elise started wearing shoes outside and she loves it for the most part. 

4. We played in the basement on the really hot days.

I took a picture to document the girls playing together well again. 

5. The old reliable- the kiddie pool. Most days we play in it with our neighbors, the Sullivans. 

First, Elise looks exactly like my dad in that photo. Second, here's another photo of the girls interacting positively, meaning, no one is crying. 

6. Sadie and Elise watched movies while laying on the floor together. Another positive interaction?

7. We watched the Olympics. I spent 10 minutes trying to get a good picture of the swim commentators who stand awkwardly close and frequently face each other as they speak. I got an awesome one with them gazing into each other's eyes, about 2 inches apart, but I erased it and kept this one by accident.

There are 2 in there...

I cracked an egg and two yolks came out. It blew my mind.