Our first hike with a family of five

Let's just say that hiking with five is a little more complicated than hiking with four... or rather, hiking with a baby is a little more complicated. Let's see, here's the checklist going out the door... sippy cup for Jenna, snacks for everyone, backpack, water for everyone, baby carrier, hats, socks on all feet, tennis shoes on all feet (except baby's), sunscreen, full stocked diaper bag with burp cloth, change of clothes for baby, diapers, wipes, changing pad, bottle filled with water, formula... Now everyone get in the car and buckle your seat beats. We get in the car and drive 20 minutes to meet Robby (who was at school) at the base of the mountain that we are going to hike.

As we start to unload I have a horrible feeling as I hear Olivia just getting fussy... Formula? Formula? Did I remember to grab the formula? Okay, this looks really bad, but it turns out I was saved by a small 4oz. packet of formula that I had thrown in the bottom of the diaper bag a couple months ago. Phew! Only, Olivia drinks 5oz. a feeding. Robby suggests we water it down, you know, 4oz. of powder to 5oz. water. Olivia wasn't thrilled with the idea, but fortunately she was hungry enough that she figured food was food.

Finally we grab the backpack and the kids and leave the diaper bag in the car. We're not going that far on this hike. Only...

Olivia waits to give us a special surprise till we have hiked a decent way up hill. You know the kind of surprise that is smelly. And guess what, we didn't grab the essential diapering items when we left the car. So...

Little Robby...

and Jenna and Olivia and I pass the time by making faces at the camera while we wait for Dad as he galantly hikes back down the hill to retrieve the diapering items to save the poor little maiden.

Our hero!

The little one felt much better with a fresh change.

Finally, we can set off on our hike!

Baby O catches a ride.

What fun!
The girls at the top of our hike

And the boys, too!

And our hero saved the day on the way down, too, when Jenna decided that she was done walking. What are dads for?!

BTW...

I guess I overlooked the few snapshots from the cub scout pack meeting last month in my haste to post Olivia's first smiles. But, I don't want to miss announcing the fact that we are very happy that Little Robby earned his bear badge. Congrats Robby!

Here he is receiving his bear badge.

The theme of the night was magic, so the scout master surprised Big Robby by squirting his shirt with disappearing ink. (You can see a splotch of it on the bottom edge of his left side.)

And here's his new badge (of course I still have an arrow point to add.)

Sewing badges on by hand makes me look forward to the day that we can get a sewing machine that actually sews.

Meet Captain Pink Beard

I've been wondering when this would happen... The other day Jenna got out of the bath and when I wasn't looking got into my blush.

Meet Captain Pink Beard.

Uncle David, Aunt Charlene, Hayden, and Hadley

The day after we got back from Oregon we were so happy to welcome my brother and his family. They were taking a vacation to the Grand Canyon in their RV and drove down to our house on their way back to Texas. It was so good to see them and to meet our new nephew Hadley who is one month old.

This is Hayden, their little red-headed cutie! He really loved our little rocking chair. (It was my chair when I was a little girl.)

And this is Hadley! I was so glad they took this trip and swung by our house so that we could meet him while he was still so young.

Jenna and Hayden had a great time playing together. They were both giggling up a storm.

How sweet!

Jenna really loved playing with Uncle David.

It is so much fun to hold new little babies! Holding Hadley made realize how much Olivia has grown already.

For comparison, Olivia is 3 months old and Hadley is 1 month old.

They're cute laying together.

Uncle David is lots of fun!

Jenna and Hayden decided to play duets together on the piano.

What a sweet face!

This picture reminds me of Lucy and Schroder from Peanuts with Jenna listening to Hayden's music.

A future pianist maybe?!

Olivia had fun being passed around, too!

While they were visiting we discovered that Hayden really liked our Magnadoodle, so Robby slipped out of the house Tuesday morning and bought a magnadoodle of his very own. As you can tell it was a hit!

Blowing kisses

These are more pictures that just make me want to move to Texas to be closer to family!

A last snapshot of most of us (missing is Hadley who was sleeping, Big Robby who was taking the picture, and Little Robby who was at school).

(I just realized that Little Robby wasn't in any of these pictures - that was my bad. He was there Monday night and had a great time showing Uncle David and Aunt Charlene some of his power point skills on the computer. You can actually see part of Robby standing that the computer showing Charlene his stuff in the third picture from the top.)

Oregon: The Wedding Day

Saturday everyone got up early to drive 2 hours to Medford to attend Tommy and Doris's sealing in the Medford temple. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! They were so lucky! I don't think anyone else in the family has had a wet and torrential rainy wedding day like us. I like to think we were showered with blessings, literally! My only regret was that we didn't buy the ring at one of those jewelry stores that refunds your money if it rains on your wedding day more than 1 inch! We would have cashed in on that one! ;)

We start the wedding day photos with pics of the grandkids at one of the local church buildings. We reserved a nursery room and had two very nice high school seniors (friends of one of the bride's sisters) come watch them so that the kids had a place to play while we attended the sealing. It is so much fun to get all of the kids together. I really wish we all lived closer.

Jenna and Eli making faces at each other over lunch.

Baby Will, who was actually sick that day. Poor guy! Although he looks like he was feeling pretty good in this picture.

Enjoying the nursery toys.

And now, this is what we all traveled to see... Introducing Tommy and Doris White. Aren't they a beautiful couple?!

We are so happy for you, Tommy and Doris!

When we went back to pick up the kids I realized that we hadn't gotten a picture of Grandpa with Olivia so I wanted a quick snapshot. Unfortunately for Grandpa, Olivia was really hungry at that moment.

Awww... how sweet, Grandpa gets to feed Olivia her bottle!

These last few pictures were taken at the hotel where Robby's sister Wendy and her family stayed with us on our last night in Oregon. As you can tell from the picture Jenna and Molly really clicked together.

Seeing Jenna and Molly playing together really made me want to move back to Texas (Wendy's family lives within an hour of Grandma and Grandpa's house).

And our last bonus picture was taken the next day at the airport. There is something so facinating about being a kid and watching the planes go by at the airport.

Oregon: The Reception

Friday night we had the fun of attending Tommy and Doris's wedding reception in Brookings, OR, Doris' home town.

Being pampered by Dad is one of Olivia's favorite things.

Jenna's sitting with Grandma (and wearing the dress that Grandma made her.)

Olivia's first picture with Grandma W!

There's something about little girls and their shoes.

Aunt Andra is always happy to have a moment to hold Olivia.

And here's the happy couple!

Oregon (and CA): The Redwoods

Our favorite part about the whole trip (besides attending Tommy and Doris' wedding) was going to the Redwoods in northern California. The house that we stayed at was actually in Northern Carlifornia really close to the redwood grove we went to. It was amazing seeing trees this large. Walking through the forest I felt like we were in some woodland fairy tale (either that or else ewoks from Star Wars were going to jump out at any moment). One thing that surprised me was how much cooler it was in the forest. We would stop at places where the sunlight came through the canopy just to warm up in the light.

One thing that I really enjoyed on this trip was seeing Jenna walk hand in hand with her cousin Molly. They were so cute together. I have been waiting for these two to get old enough to really play together and they finally were old enough on this trip.

Some of the beautiful scenery...

And here we have James with his whip. James was so funny walking around with this tree branch. I wish I had recorded him cracking up everytime he swatted at Uncle Tommy and Uncle Tommy jumped up like he had been hit. Don't you wish you could bottle up children's laughter and keep it nearby to listen to whenever you wanted. (I guess we can do that with videos, but if I could I would keep a bottle of children's laughter in my pocket.)

Grandpa and Grandma... they're the ones that started all this. Now look at us 25 in the family and counting.

We had to get a picture of Grandpa and Grandma and most of their grandkids (Molly was taking a stroll farther down the path and Olivia was bundled up asleep in her stroller.)

Mom and Dad and the kids.

"Wendy head-tilt" time. The funny thing about this picture is that everyone, but Wendy, is tilting their head!

Andra up high!

And now it's Wendy's turn... although, I think it looks more like they're trying to throw her.

Family photo op. We look like dwarves next to this big tree. It was the largest tree in this area of the Redwoods.

My little snug-a-bug.

I wish this picture was clear because I like this picture of Jenna with her Daddy.

And last, but not least, our friend the banana slug. We couldn't leave him out, now could we?!

Okay, so these pics of the redwoods remind me of the two redwood saplings that the housekeeper of the home we stayed at brought us (and then we forgot to take home, oops!) I claim temporary insanity when I said we would take the trees. I thought it would be fun to have a couple redwoods to grow at home, all until the woman said that they like cool, moist places, which our part of Arizona definitely is not! Whatever happened to them? Does anyone know?