Lewis Family Reunion

A couple of weeks ago we went down to my parents in Bakersfield, California for a family reunion. It was so much fun to spend time with my sister, brothers, nieces and nephews. My mom is a music teacher and as tradition she usually gets out these bells for the grandkids to play with. Kenzie and I were a good team and I just realized that our bells match our shirts-- -I swear that wasn't planned. ha ha.

For the weekend, we all went up to a ranch in the Sequoias, stayed in cabins and played. We went hiking, swimming, horseback-riding, white water rafting, and paddle-boating. The kids had even a better time than we did. There favorite thing was just playing outside in the dirt and going on hikes with their uncle Nathan.


I borrowed some of these hiking backpacks for Austin and Cooper, my brother's baby.
They loved them although Austin kept trying to grab my hair, that little stinker. Austin and Cooper were born only 13 days apart. Maline and I both have 3 kids all the same ages pretty much (plus or minus a few months). I wonder how long this pattern will keep up.... what do you think Maline????

The kids most favorite activity was going on "hunts" with Uncle Nate. They all got hiking sticks and Nate was named "chief hunter" and he called all the kids his "junior hunters" and they pretended they were hunting for snakes or other little creatures. One day Nate took the four older kids out and was gone for almost 2 hours. When they finally returned I was amazed that no one was crying, fighting or being carried home. Later I found out that Nate had had to spend 30 minutes helping all of them put their shoes and socks back on after wading in a river.

From left to right: My sister, April. My oldest brother, Alan and his wife, Maline. Me and Mike. My younger brother, Jone and his wife, Angie. My brother, Nate. We were missing my youngest brother, David, who is on a mission in Mexico.

I LOVE this picture!!! These cousins are best friends when we get together. Even if it is only once a year... somehow Makenzie, Jackson, Tyler and Savanna just start up right where they left off. It's been so much fun through the years to have cousins the same age. Makenzie and Tyler are always mentioning throughout the year how they wish they could go back to NYC and stay with Savanna and Jack. Maybe one day we will actually live in the same state again and not on opposite coasts.

The grandkids (minus the babies) -- Christopher is just barely old enough to want to follow and play with the big kids. He just keeps getting cuter and cuter (although he's still pretty hard to get to hold still for a picture). I was pretty amazed with this one.

Makenzie and Uncle Nate found a salamander on one of the hikes.

This picture cracks me up. Up at the sequoias, the trees are enormous and this one had a cave inside. So we all tried to squeeze in and here is my attempt at a picture. ha ha.

One of the big trees

The kids at grandma and grandpa's

So if any of you have been to Bakersfield before, you know that it is hot, hot, hot. All there is to do is go swimming and thankfully my parents have a wonderful pool. My kids are fish when it comes to the water-- they love to be in it so it made for a good time for everyone.

Here's to swimming, laying out, and relaxing.

The foursome.

My brother, Alan, doing one of his many tricks.

This picture isn't from our reunion but from before. We went with the johnson's to a Giants game. It was so much fun but the weather was crazy. It was the middle of July and not only am I wearing a sweatshirt and scarf-- but if I would have known how cold it was going to be I would have brought earmuffs, boots and gloves. You can see the fog a little bit in the background. San Francisco weather is so random!!

Bear Lake and Utah Vacation

So..... yes, I have been a total blog-slacker. I really don't have that good of an excuse.

But I finally have gotten around to downloading and then uploading all of our pictures from our Utah excursion. We had so much fun while we were there. Unfortunately I wasn't all that great at taking pictures while I was there... which I didn't realize until I got home and it was over. I'm still upset at not getting more pictures with friends/family. Oh well. Not much to do about it now. Here are some of the great pictures I got though....

Makenzie and two of her cousins, Meg and Lucy. Cute girls!! I was amazed at how well these girls played together. I guess that must be the beauty of being 4, almost 5.

I love this picture. This is everyone that went to Bear Lake (minus Mike who is taking the picture). Unfortunately, Brian/Heather and Chris/Jeni weren't able to come (missed you). But we had a great time hanging out at the lake, playing games and just getting to know each other really really well :)

Kimber had a great cousin water party at her house. Tyler and Makenzie were in heaven.

I adore this picture of the cousins who came to the water party. Can you believe that they lined up this way by themselves?? It's almost perfectly tallest to smallest.

On one of the days in Utah we drove up to Park city to go to the outlets and stopped at the Alpine slide and coaster on the way back.

Tyler and his closest cousin, Cooper. These boys are so cute together!!

Mike's grandpa had a birthday party and family picture in Toelle. It was a miracle that every single person was able to make it to the picture. It was so good to see them again and to see Mike's uncle and cousins while we were out there.

Happy Birthday Opa!!

Some of the group who gathered for pizza at opa's house before the picture.

One of the very few pictures of Mike I have from our vacation.

One of the very few pictures of Me from vacation. Jeni and I at Uncle Richard's house.

Uncle Richard and Ryan (Mike's cousin) were so nice to let all the little kids (and some of us big kids) ride on their horses. Unfortunately, no one got a picture of me and Mike riding.

Makenzie was in heaven--- she LOVES horses! Thanks Richard and Ryan!! I was so glad to get my horse fix until next year.

Here we are finally up at Bear lake--- Cooper and Makenzie running out of the water. Why?? I'm not sure. Possibly because Kenzie just peed--that happened quite a bit.

Tyler did this literally all day one day. He loved throwing sand into the water over and over and over again. Easily entertained, I guess.

Austin was great at the lake. He loved the sand and water.... until he put some in his mouth.

Mike's dad surprised us all by getting on the waverunner and taking some of the kids out with him. Kenzie loved it!

Ty and coop get their turn with Grandpa.

Makenzie and Maddie had the same swimsuits. Aaaah, cute.

All smiles.

Makenzie's "Gradulations"

Last week Makenzie graduated from preschool. They had a graduation ceremony which Makenzie has been looking forward to for weeks. She was mostly excited for the marching song where they got to play their kazoos. Each one had their name called and got to go up to get their diploma from their teacher. At the end of the night, Makenzie said to me, "Mom, I love gradulations and getting my plomba." (she meant diploma). I can't believe she's heading off to Kindergarten next year (sniff, sniff).

Makenzie playing with her "plomba"

with her teacher, Miss Darlene

A Day of Relaxation

So........ I did it. I finally got my very first massage. And it was WONDERFUL! I have been saving up these gift cards I got for this very occasion -- a few for my baby shower at work, one from a co-worker of Mike's at Christmas. Mike was working from home and said he would watch the kids so he told me to go use them yesterday. I had enough saved up on the cards that I was able to get a spa package- THE OASIS: one hour hot tub room, one hour body massage, 30 minute foot treament and 30 minute facial. The hot tub room was amazing- a whole room to myself that had a resting area, shower, hot tub, sauna and cold plunge (yes, I tried them all multiple times). But my favorite was for the last 10 minutes of my massage she used hot stones. oh my goodness. WOW. I came home feeling like a new woman and a million bucks. Mike said the scent of rosemary mint followed me for the rest of the night :)

Camping at Gualala

This past Memorial day weekend, we drove 4 hours north to Gualala to go camping with some families in our ward and our good friends, the Johnson's. It was such a great time! There was a playground right across from our campsite so the kids would run between there and our campsite all day long. The food was great thanks to Mike and Alex and all of their Dutch oven yumness. There is nothing I love more about camping than the FOOD!!! Just to name a few we had mike's famous chicken dutch oven, tin foil dinners, apple cobbler, peach cobbler, barbecue pulled-pork sandwiches, smores and we even got to try some abalone which some of the men in the ward go skin-diving for. Oh, I almost forgot the breakfasts too- pancakes, french toast, sausage, eggs, bacon and even biscuits and gravy. I think I came home 5 pounds heavier. Another great thing about this trip is that there are so many people in the ward who go that they are able to have a sacrament meeting up here and even hold a primary, youth and adult sunday school class. I had a hard time picking just a few pictures out of the many we took- each of them make me smile. I can't wait until next year to go again.
Gualala is named after this river. The kids loved playing down here- especially Tyler. The beach is rocky and so he spent all of his time throwing rocks in the water and jumping (with his windmill arms) while he watched them make their splash. Next year we might just have to borrow someone's raft to go paddling with the kids on the water.

This is by far my favorite picture of Austin camping. He was a really good sport. The first night in the tent was a bit rough but then it got better when I started putting him down for naps in the car seat in the car where it was quieter. Luckily, someone had mentioned to bring a space heater for the tent since it gets mighty cold up there at night (Yes, they do have electricity and hot showers at this campsite which I love) so he was able to sleep in his pack'n play and not with me.

Tyler was a hoot on this trip. I don't think he ever stopped from the minute he woke up to the minute he fell asleep. He would go from playing in the trees with Max, to playing pingpong, to chasing the girls, to playing catch with Mike, to playing whatever. He would keep on asking me and Mike if we would go play with him and when we couldn't he would go to Amy and Alex and ask them. One day he asked Amy if she would take him down to the river to play and she made the mistake of saying "not right now, maybe later". He never let it rest after that. He probably asked her every 5 minutes if it was later. Finally, I think out of exasperation, Amy told him that she had to wait and talk to Alex about it. Unfortunately, Tyler was too smart for that and went right up to Alex, got his attention and told him that Amy needed to talk to him right away.

Needless to say, Tyler had a great time and can't wait to go again.

Our campsite

My good friend, Amy, who made camping survivable with a baby. She was always there to hold Austin and help rock him to sleep when he was getting cranky.

Austin getting fed.... again. Boy does he eat a lot.

Our campsite and the pretty surroundings. The redwoods were gorgeous. It was wierd to come back to the real world on monday after being in this beautiful area for the weekend.

Mike and I by the river.

Makenzie loves camping. She remembered our camping trip a year ago with my family and got more excited than anyone else did before we left on this trip. She loves getting dirty, she loves to eat, and she LOVES sleeping in her sleeping bag and tent. Every night we would let her watch a movie in the tent on the laptop before bed-- and whenever we went in to tell her it was time to go to sleep she would just say, "ok" and get in her princess sleeping bag, zip it up and close her eyes. The best thing about Makenzie is that she is so laid back and so friendly that she can make friends and be happy with just about anyone. She would go play on the swings and come back 30 minutes later telling me about some new friends she made. And sure enough the next day when we were down at the river, she saw one of her new friends, a girl named Emma, and introduced her to me. I hope she stays this way forever- she is one of the happiest go-lucky girls I've ever seen.

Overall- the trip was a HUGe success and we all can't wait for next year to come.