Best.Weekend.Ever.

If you're a kid. Last weekend was such a fun weekend, especially for our kids. Jefferson had Friday off so we headed up to Crater Lake. The only other time Jefferson has been was over six years ago and the lake was completely fogged over where we literally didn't see any of the lake. Well, not this year. It was blue skies and warm and we had such a great time walking around and picnicing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Then, at the beginning of the summer we made the kids reading charts, and if they completed them we told them we would take them camping. We kind of cheated, and opted to camp on my parent's deck. We rented a new movie for the kids to watch, made a bunch of treats, star gazed, and then I conveniently had to sleep inside with Bentley while Jefferson braved the wild with the kids. They thought it was pretty cool.

 

 

 

To cap off the weekend, on Saturday night my parents offered to watch the kids so that Jefferson and I could go see Batman. We told them that after "camping" the kids would be pretty tired so that they could just watch a little bit of a movie and then put them to bed early. Well, that apparently didn't sound as fun, so my parents set up a movie theater in the garage with the projector and popcorn, then they had snow cones, they went on four-wheeler rides, and then played outside. I think my kids are ready for us to go another date already. :)

Family.

The family... soon to be outdated.

The kids.

  Me and my man.

 The whole fam.

 Grandpa Paul + Gramzee + the grandlittles.

 The grandboys.

 Sibs + spouses.

 Sibs.

 The ladies.

 The men.

 The parentals.

Sunriver twenty twelve.

Another year at Sunriver has come and gone. It's amazing how similar and different every year is as we do so many of the same activities, but every year the dynamic and ages of kids changes. The week was filled with food, family, and fun, as always.
We made a trip to the High Desert Museum, which the kids always love.

 

 The village has been redone since we were there last, two years ago, and we enjoyed a couple of walks there, riding the new kid train, getting cokes, and going to Goody's a few times, of course. 

 

 

I don't have any pictures of us on bikes, but there was lots of bike riding. In fact, Carter learned how to ride his bike without training wheels in Sunriver. It was so exciting! My dad, Ben and Sharon were real sports at helping tote my kids around between two bike trailers and a tag-a-long bike. I pulled them a few times, but wasn't really able to a whole lot with my big ol' belly. One night we randomly decided to go on a later evening bike ride, in fact, I think my kids were already in their pajamas. About half way through we decided to take a detour to Goody's for ice cream, which is always a delight. On the way home it was pitch black outside and we used our phones with their flashlight aps to guide the way. It was pretty funny and fun!

Another night the boys decided to play frisbee with the light up frisbee on the fare way that our house was on. We were just watching from the golf cart path and the sprinklers came on in the middle of the game. We got a good laugh out of it. 

We let some of the "older" kids share a room this year; Carter, Andi, Gray and Calvin. It was a huge, funny joke. Somebody came out of the room at least ten times every night, there was always somebody in tears at some point, and then they were always the fist ones up in the house, but they had fun. Good memories are being formed there, for sure.

My dad is the head of the OAHHS and they had a big banquet while we were there. They LOVED having all of the kids come and made up special goody bags for them. They also had free cartoon drawings, live music, a delicious catered dinner, and an ice cream and s'more bar.

The boys did a morning of golf and lunch. Jefferson is pretty excited to take up this sport and supposedly didn't do half bad for being a non-golfer.

In exchange, the girls did a morning out of pedicures, brunch, and our favorite thing exchange.

Alli's was a framed picture of her new favorite artists. Each print was different. I can't wait to have a wall to hang it on. :) Summer made us each a pair of earrings in one of our favorite colors. I have since made about four more pairs of them. I am in love. Sharon gave us each earrings and nail polish in a cute little box. Much appreciated, since I didn't bring any of my own nail polish in the move. I gave them each a straw cup with my favorite candies in them. Nikki gave us her favorite chapstick and lotion, which I asked her about earlier in the week because it looked yummy, and it is. And my mom, well, she kind of goes a little crazy. She gave us 12 mini sets each of salt and pepper shakers, 12 napkins, and a bunch of stuff from Bath and Body Works because their semi-annual sale is one of her favorite things. It's always so fun to see what everyone comes up with and to add all their favorites to my new favorites. 

We enjoyed a morning at Sunriver's new aquatic center SHARC. It is a blast. Uncle Nic was definitely the hit of the pool. He gave each of the kids about twenty rides on his back and must have been exhausted by the end of the morning.

We always have such a lovely time at Sunriver and love reconnecting with my siblings, their spouses, and kids. And as always, my parents generosity knows no bound. We are sure grateful they make the trip possible for everyone. How many days until next year's Sunriver trip?!