Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Sumer of Fun-Week 2

Last week, Gwen and Tessa got to attend Princess Camp. They have been so excited for it!! Each day a different princess came and taught them something and they did some kind of craft or activity. They were excited to see Cinderella there on Monday. They learned all sorts of fun things from her and made cute pumpkins. Gwen can tell you why her name is Cinderella now. They had such a good time!
 Monday night, we went to Ma and Pa's house to celebrate Uncle Danny's birthday. 
(Mommy was sick most of the week, so our activities were minimal.)

 Tuesday Belle came to Princess Camp. Gwen loved picking out her outfits the night before and being a different princess all week long. 
 This summer we are focusing on learning some new skills. Adam made sloppy joes for us this week and he is getting better at reading recipes and preparing meals. 
 Gwen is learning how to set the table properly. She is loving her new big girl chores!
 One thing Tessa will be working on is washing dishes. She thought it was so fun. I will take full advantage of her enthusiasm while it lasts!
 Wednesday Rapunzel came and taught the girls a fun ribbon dance which Gwen loved!!
 Then we met up with our friends and spent the afternoon at Salem Pond. The kids had a ball in the water and Mommy spent most of her time trying to keep Caleb from going out to where the other kids were. He just wants to be free and play like they do. 




 Wednesday afternoon, Mommy taught Adam and Tessa how to play Clue. There is something relaxing about playing a good board game!
 While the girls were at camp on Thursday, Mommy and the boys went out for a fun treat. Adam loves Waffle Love and Caleb is a fan now too! He loved eating spoonfuls of whipped cream. 


 The girls got to play with Snow White on Thursday. 
 Thursday night we were planning on going to the Manti Pageant. Right when we got in the car to leave, our air conditioner broke and something funky was happening with the break lights. We just spent money last week fixing something else on our car and over $900 fixing Daddy's. So this was not a happy moment. We drove it straight to the shop because we didn't want to drive anywhere if the breaks were broken. They took a quick look for us and confirmed that our brakes were safe, but they couldn't get the air conditioner or vents or anything that blows air to work. So, we roughed it and drove to Manti with the windows down and a prayer that we would be safe. (Something funky was also happening with our ignition switch.) We took a different route this year and drove through Fairview to visit the graves of some of our Nielson ancestors. Daddy told us stories about them and we talked about all the sacrifices they made to join the church and come to Utah. We were suddenly very humbled and realized that spending a huge chunk of money to fix our cars wasn't such a big problem. Others have had it far worse and much more difficult trials. 

We made it to Manit, had a picnic dinner, and enjoyed the Pageant!






 Family time is the best time!

 Friday was our last day of Princess Camp. Mommy got to go with the girls and we had a really special Tea Party with Elsa and Anna! The girls showed us all the fun things they had made all week and showed us all the dances and songs they learned. It was darling!



 Gwennie was in tea party heaven!


 They had such a fun week and said they can't wait to do it again next year. 
 The boys were playing with Ma while we were having our tea party. When we picked them up, Tessa was so excited to hold Andrew's snake. It wrapped itself all through her hair and sleeves and we couldn't get it out! Well, Andrew couldn't get it out. I refused to touch it. I told Tessa I would shave her head before I touched the snake. After a few minutes of tugging, Andrew was able to free Tessa. She thought it was awesome. 
 Friday afternoon, I took the car in to get fixed...again. Thankfully, Adam is old enough to leave home with the kids for a while now, so I walked home as fast as I could. It was hot though!

 Tessa has been dying to learn how to sew, so on Friday, I helped her learn some basic cross stitching. She is working on her name and loving it. 
 Since we were car-less, all of our weekend plans fell through. We wanted to go to the air show, and had a cousins wedding reception to go to, etc. But, Ma and Pa rescued us on Friday night and came and picked half of us up (the other half were in Eric's car) and took us to BYU to hear the bell concert. It was a beautiful evening and those bells are just amazing! Pa even treated everyone to ice cream afterwards. 
Saturday was yard work and extra chores since we were stranded at home. The kids swam in the backyard this week and have been reading and keeping up with their summer packets from school as well, so no one is bored at our house. That is for sure!

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Nielson Family Reunion 2016

This past week, we got to spend a couple of fun days with our Nielson family. We sure wish everyone was closer so we could see them more often, but we enjoyed our time together last week. 
On Wednesday, we headed up to Pine View for some water fun. However, it was so windy, that we couldn't really play in the water and the sand blowing in our faces was out of control. Caleb hates the wind, so he slept most of the time we were there, probably just to avoid the wind. 

 Mamma got a giant raft that the bigger kids loved playing in. 




 Gwen and Clementine had fun playing together. 

 Tessa was so happy to see Paige. They collected tons of bottle caps. 
 A buried Gwennie. 

 Since we were in the Ogden area, we stopped by our old apartment on our way home to show Adam where we lived when he was a baby. Eric and I have such happy memories of living here. 
 Thursday night, we went to see The Little Mermaid. Gwen loved playing with Aunt Angel and taking selfies.
 Mamma and Ellie

 We had quite the group.

 The 4 year olds had fun playing together. 
 Making videos with Angel had them laughing so hard!
 Saturday we headed up to Heber. Riding in Uncle Matt's jeep was a highlight of the week. The kids absolutely loved it!

 While playing a game, Tessa's snaggle tooth got knocked out by Wynn. Tessa was so glad Wynn hit her in the mouth with a pool noodle. She couldn't find her tooth in the ground, but the Tooth Fairy still came that night!
 Most of the family did a zip line. Adam really wanted to to do what his cousins were doing, but his fear of heights was getting the better of him, and he was in tears not knowing what to do. He was really worried about crossing the bridge at the top of the ladder. He said it looked really unstable. We assured him that we would never let him do something that wasn't safe and after a few minutes of letting him cool off and some alone time, he decided he wanted to do it. 
 He went slow and the sweet missionary at the top had to remind him to breathe a couple of times, but he did it and he loved it! We were proud of him for conquering his fear and trying something new. 
















 Daddy did the zip line too! Mommy chased the little people around. 

 One last jeep ride with Paige. 
 Tessa and Paige took the younger kids on an expedition in the woods. 

 To say we were worn out would be an understatement. We put over 700 miles on our car last week alone. It was busy!
 Sunday we went up to Aunt Sunny's house to celebrate Gammy's 90th birthday. It was fun to see so many cousins. 

 Gammy sure loves these kids and told me about cards and letters that they have sent her that still make her smile. They are so lucky to have so many wonderful grandparents who love them!
I wish we had taken pictures with all of the cousins and with Mamma and Bampa and pictures of Daddy with his siblings. There was so much going on, I never thought of it. Hopefully next year we can get pictures with everyone together. It was nice to have some time to see everyone though. Until next year....