I realize that this is a marathon post and that looking at other people's pictures is not that fun... but my pictures are fun and rest assured that I took A LOT more pictures than I am posting. We had not been back to Cincinnati since our move to Oregon, so at the end of May I packed up my kiddos and I and flew across the country. They did a great job on the planes for me, it was the first time I flew with them alone. Once we got there it was a party right away. We did a lot of swimming. Camie and her family were there too, so we got lots of great cousin time. Here are the girls on the first swimming day (Ellie is a sorta cousin).
Sweet little Wyatt loves the water, he is such a happy little/big guy.
Our second day we took a giant trip to the zoo. Lots of us! Our cousins' cousins are in Cincinnati for the summer, so they came too. Papa was great at keeping together the 4 year old boy team.
Here is our crew on the zoo train.
The 4 year old boy team sat together on the train.
I love this little boy, his big blue eyes make him irresistible and his tiny voice even more so. Lydia was a good big cousin keeping track of him.
The whole group (I was taking the picture).
This sweet little baby was so good for the whole HOT trip to the zoo (her mom has 4 kids 4 and under and is so good and calm about keeping it all together).
One of our nights we went to a Reds game (thanks Papa for the tickets and Nana for the idea.) Lydia and Claire had a great time taking it all in (especially the treats).
Clayton and Jacob had a great time too. Here is their picture with Mr. Red, the girls got a picture too, but it is on Camie's camera.
Cousins at the game together.
Jacob spent most of the game like this, we have a lot of pictures of him covering his ears at the game... he doesn't like noise, but he really was having a good time.
By the way, Jared joined us in Cincinnati after a couple of days, so he was here for the game and was so excited to share a baseball experience with his son.
We even went to the game on fireworks night, so we stuck around for a great fireworks show after the game (with much more ear covering by Jacob).
Then we did more swimming. Jacob scared himself at the beginning of the week in the pool and would not be away from the stairs or the edge for most of the week.
Claire loved the water.
Nana and Papa even borrowed a bouncy house from a friend for a swimming day. Camie and Wyatt enjoyed it as much as the gaggle of kids.
Ellie found a great outfit for the occassion.
Andrew and his sweet girlfriend Elizabeth were so popular with the kids and spent a lot of time playing games with them on the trampoline and on the grass.
Jared even got some uncle bonding time with Wyatt.
The men were in charge of the bouncy house clean up... doesn't it look like they are working hard.
Andrew graduated the Sunday that we were there. Congrats Andrew!
Grandpa Russ even came down for the occasion.
He is a popular uncle (Clayton was there too, but was done with pictures).
He is headed off to BYU in the fall.
On Memorial Day we were able to make it to the ward picnic of our old ward, it was great to see so many people and get involved in the game of softball.
After the hot picnic we went back to Nana castle to cool off in the pool with lots of friends.
We love the pool.
And Jacob finally discovered that he could float and swim with his floaties and started to really enjoy the pool, he thought he was enjoying it before, but he had much more fun once he was no longer confined to the stairs and edge.
We were so happy to see so many friends while we were there, we didn't have our camera for all of those occasions, but we saw so many friends that we have really missed. Thanks Nana and Papa for having us... we can't wait to come back in August!
Cousins are fun for swimming at the froggy pond with.
Cousins are fun for riding bikes with.
Cousins are fun for having baths with after all the other fun things.
We had lots of fun with our cousins... more pictures from our Cody trip to come.
We hiked to a beautiful little lake called Bloomington Lake with quite a few family members. It was a beautiful hike and a beautiful little lake with glaciers feeding right into it.
Four of the biggest tallest guys in the family went cliff jumping and then hopped on a log to swim across the lake, the log was pretty much submersed.
Jacob hung out with Papa to watch a lot of the action.
There was an awesome rope swing there that I had a lot of fun on. Lydia was so brave and surprised us all by walking right up and swinging right out without any hesitation, I barely had time to snap a picture.
Matt, and Jared, and one of Jared's cousins hiked out to jump off the cliffs too. If you can zoom in and look really close there is a tiny Jared in mid air.
We spent a day at the beach playing in the sand, boats, and wave runners. These handsome architects constructed this castle.
Andrew and Keith had to pause to admire the beauty. There were a couple impressive sand castles built by our family.
Jacob who is usually very nervous was very brave about the wave runners and really had a great time on his rides. Jared and I also sneaked away for a ride on the boat and I got to ski on some choppy water and we both got to try some wake surfing.
Claire liked the beach too much for those other things. She spent most of her time filling the mote of uncle Matt's sand castle and decorating it with sea shells.
I had to document Bethany's sweet husband Jake helping her in and out of the boat.
Jacob also really liked swimming in the water at the beach. He was a trooper considering he had spent the entire day before trying to recover from a wicked stomach flu and then the night after the beach relapsing with the stomach flu.
Claire got it that night too, so we spent the night in watching "All Dogs Go to Heaven" and "Ratitouille" because that was what was on the tv. Most everyone else went to the "Pickleview Playhouse" for a show that was apparently really hilarious. Unfortunately the stomach flu did not stop with our kids, rumor has it that over 40 of the 70ish people ended up with that nasty bug. It was a strong one, but we all really managed to have a lot of fun around it. Can't wait for 2012!
Our check-up was today and we are going to just keep on with more of the same for 2 months. We are working on a snake poster now!
Sweet little Wyatt loves the water, he is such a happy little/big guy.
Our second day we took a giant trip to the zoo. Lots of us! Our cousins' cousins are in Cincinnati for the summer, so they came too. Papa was great at keeping together the 4 year old boy team.
Here is our crew on the zoo train.
The 4 year old boy team sat together on the train.
I love this little boy, his big blue eyes make him irresistible and his tiny voice even more so. Lydia was a good big cousin keeping track of him.
The whole group (I was taking the picture).
This sweet little baby was so good for the whole HOT trip to the zoo (her mom has 4 kids 4 and under and is so good and calm about keeping it all together).
One of our nights we went to a Reds game (thanks Papa for the tickets and Nana for the idea.) Lydia and Claire had a great time taking it all in (especially the treats).
Clayton and Jacob had a great time too. Here is their picture with Mr. Red, the girls got a picture too, but it is on Camie's camera.
Cousins at the game together.
Jacob spent most of the game like this, we have a lot of pictures of him covering his ears at the game... he doesn't like noise, but he really was having a good time.
By the way, Jared joined us in Cincinnati after a couple of days, so he was here for the game and was so excited to share a baseball experience with his son.
We even went to the game on fireworks night, so we stuck around for a great fireworks show after the game (with much more ear covering by Jacob).
Then we did more swimming. Jacob scared himself at the beginning of the week in the pool and would not be away from the stairs or the edge for most of the week.
Claire loved the water.
Nana and Papa even borrowed a bouncy house from a friend for a swimming day. Camie and Wyatt enjoyed it as much as the gaggle of kids.
Ellie found a great outfit for the occassion.
Andrew and his sweet girlfriend Elizabeth were so popular with the kids and spent a lot of time playing games with them on the trampoline and on the grass.
Jared even got some uncle bonding time with Wyatt.
The men were in charge of the bouncy house clean up... doesn't it look like they are working hard.
Andrew graduated the Sunday that we were there. Congrats Andrew!
Grandpa Russ even came down for the occasion.
He is a popular uncle (Clayton was there too, but was done with pictures).
He is headed off to BYU in the fall.
On Memorial Day we were able to make it to the ward picnic of our old ward, it was great to see so many people and get involved in the game of softball.
After the hot picnic we went back to Nana castle to cool off in the pool with lots of friends.
We love the pool.
And Jacob finally discovered that he could float and swim with his floaties and started to really enjoy the pool, he thought he was enjoying it before, but he had much more fun once he was no longer confined to the stairs and edge.
We were so happy to see so many friends while we were there, we didn't have our camera for all of those occasions, but we saw so many friends that we have really missed. Thanks Nana and Papa for having us... we can't wait to come back in August!
