This summer instead of our usual trip to Utah we decided that it would be fun to go up to Washington and visit the Muhlesteins. It worked out so well too because a whole bunch of the other siblings of mine decided to come, along with my Parents, so it ended up being a fun family reunion. We knew it was going to be a long trip so we headed out really early thinking that the kids would sleep for the first couple of hours because they did that on our last trip, but of course no such luck. Then about a hundred miles into the trip we had to stop to check on the pads that we had strapped to the top of the car and realized that they were standing almost straight up, so no wonder that we had gotten horrible gas milage.
This trip fell at a really bad time for me pregnancywise and I wasn't feeling too well traveling. We had to stop at McDonalds because there was no where else to stop. Nothing really sounded very good to eat but the smooties looked good, so I decided to get one. Miss Anne decided that I had gotten it for her and she literally did not let me hold the cup. She would share with me as long as she was holding the cup. She ended up drinkg probably the majority of it too. Little Stinker! But so darn cute! The drive through Oregon just about killed us! The speed limits there are sooo slow!! We also got stuck in horrible traffic through Portland because they have a horrible freeway system there and it ended up adding another hour to the thirteen hour drive. With five little ones it pretty much stunk! But we stuck to our only stop twice, the kids are such troopers on trips!
It was fun to relax the next day and just be together with family. We went to a park and let the kids play and then we went down to the private lake that the Muhletstiens live on and let the kids just play in the water.
The trampoline that the Muheltsteins have was the favorite thing to play on. Especially the blob. The blob is the other thing attached to it that the kids would go and sit on annd then one of the big guys would go and jump on it and launch the kids.
It was so pretty there. We just loved it. The weather was just perfect too while we were there!
Annie is a little goofball. thankfully she did pretty well just hanging out.
Another thiing everyone enjoyed was the canoe. It was fun because we could get a whole bunch of kids in.
Russy had fun wading around in the water.
One of the evenings we got all the kids together and Aunt janae taught them a whole bunch of night games. It was really fun for the kids. They have loved playing those same games since we got home too.
We had a fun day going to Microsoft and visiting Brett and having lunch there. It was really nice and the food was cheap. Plus there were free drinks. You know the kids thought that was pretty awesome!
Another great thing about having a family reunion with my family is that there is going to be great food. And there was! Annie throughly enjoyed her strawberry waffle.
Probably the single best thing about this trip though was seeing all of the cousins together. They have so much fun together and always just pick up where they left off. I love that they have such a good time together!
We decided to take a trip to Pike Place Market, which maybe wasn't the best idea with alll the little kids our group had. Next time I dont think we will go there. It was just so crowded and not much for the kids to do. Plus Chanelle and Toms vans window got smashed in and Toms laptop stolen right in the middle of the day in a place full of people. It was crazy.
We did manage to find a place to get ice cream for the kids and they enjoyed their very expensive cones.
I thought I would get one for me and just share with Anne but you can see how that turned out. She would get mad if I even tried to get a lick!!
After this day Seattle is not one of my favorite big cities. We drove around trying to get to a park to hang out until the game started but the traffic was so bad we just drove through traffic and then decided we better just head to the game.
Russy sure was excited to see this pepsi sign. He has just a bit of an obsession with peps.
The kids had so much fun with their cousins at the Mariners game. There was unlimited popcorn and drinks and the kids went to town. Jake had so much he threw up when going to bed that night. It was a good thing he was the only one and that he made it into the bathroom becuase he was sleeping on the ground with all the other kids. That could have been disasterous!
Russ and Anne were kind of hard at the game and I cant say that Kevin and I had a whole lot of fun, but it was really worth it to do it for the older kids.
One of the days we had had a pretty busy day, and I had spent a lot of time making Nellies cake, so I was pretty tired. The Muhlesteins had planned for us to go that evening out on Lake Sammamish (which is a much bigger lake) and go boating and jet skiing with some friends of theirs. It honsetly did not sound fun at all because we were kind of beat from the day, but I am so glad we ended up going because it may have been the most fun we had on the whole trip.
There was a small beach there for the kids to play at, with a ton of sand toys so Russy and jane had some fun doing that.
Aunt Judy was so nice and she didnt really want to do much so she hung out with Annie and kept an eye on her for us when we went out.
The kids had a lot of fun on the boat.
I love this picture of Kevy and Russy, it just totally shows their relationship. Russy just worships his dad.
I love this picture of Grandpa with the kids. Russ and Jane had fun sitting on the back of the boat with Grandpa.
Russ and Jane even went out on the tube with Aunt Janae and Jack. Because Jane went Jack decided he wanted to go too. They went pretty slow so they were safe and they absolutely loved it but there was one part where Janae almost lost Russ, that was a bit scary!! I took Annie on the boat too and I think it scared her pretty bad. She held on so tight to me and closed her eyes, i almost thought she fell asleep becuase she was so still when the boat was going. But as soon as it would stop she would pop her head up. I cant ssay I didn't love the snuggles. She is the opposite of a snuggler and I have never gotten ones that good before.
These two little babes sure do love each other. Russy is so sweet to Annie and he will talk to her so sweet and he calls her things like precious baby, it kills me it is so cute!
Russ adores his boy cousins. Whatever they are doing he wants to do too. Carson was throwing rocks so Russy went ove ther and started doing it too.
Nellie had her birthday the week before but we decided it would be more fun to celebrate with cousins. So I made her cake up there. It is always much harder to cook in someone else's house so it ended up being a lot of work. Especially since I made homemade filling as well.
Nellie never can decide what she wants, so she didn't know what kind of decoration she wanted on her cake so I just came up with this. I think it turned out pretty cute.
I had made a buch of cupcakes too thinking the little kids would want the cupcakes and us aduls could have the cake, but unfortunately everyone wanted the cake and there was barely enough for everyone.
I had to take a picture of this on the way back because it was too good. I cannot think of the last time that Nellie took a nap, but on the drive home she was out. The kids sure played hard on this trip. We had SO much fun and we are so glad we made the horrible drive. It was very worth it!
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