An Evening at the Lake

Miles missed our first trip to the beach because he was taking a nap. So Saturday night was the first time he'd ever really been on a beach and experienced sand. It was quite entertaining- for both of us. Here are Miles' thoughts as I perceived them. (I'm psychic like that!)
"What the heck is this stuff on my hand?"
"Wait, and it's on this one too."
"Oh well, might as well see if it tastes good."
"Hmm.. not too bad, maybe the other hand will taste just as good."
"Man this stuff is REALLY good!"
"I think I'll eat some more." And that's what he did for most of the night.
Isaac finally agreed to try out the lake water and LOVED it. Okay so he mostly loved that he could touch the bottom as only go as far as he wanted. Maybe we need a shallow deep pool.
After a while Miles gave up on eating sand and decided to crawl around. This was hampered by his annoyance with the feeling of sand on his knees so he more elephant walked on his hands and feet.
Love the butt shot.
Ethan and the other cousins enlisted the dads and uncles and even grandpa to hoist them up so they could have chicken fights.
And then the adults wised up and said no more so the kids gave up and built sand castles again.
Ethan and Isaac were once again enthralled with building and spent the rest of the night doing just that.
Isaac found rocks to add to the base and protect the castle from the lake tides.
These two were pretty impressed with themselves. I'm impressed with the great comb-over Ethan has going from the lake water.
The original reason for going to the beach that evening was because the resort was sponsoring a free smores roast. My boys were so in love with sand building though that I literally had to drag them away one at a time to roast mallows and eat them... and then they ran back the first chance they got.
See this boy? He's eating and running back to his sand castle.

Saturday morning Mini-games

When you add new family members to a family, sometimes you also end up adding their traditions. Taylor's family are big golfers and he has over the years made mini-golf a tradition at my family reunions. It started with just a few of the guys and then they added some of the older cousins and now it's just everyone. It's not a true competition since no one can really concentrate with 13 babies/toddlers/kids running around and playing whenever and wherever they want, but it's fun to have the whole group together.
Ethan has a pretty good handle on putting thanks to Taylor's dad.
We're still working on Isaac's form since he kept insisting on hitting with just the tip of the club upside down. A fun round for everyone though- even Miles ended up getting to hold a club so everyone was happy.
This resort truly had everything. The movie Dirty Dancing was even filmed here. So after mini-golf, the cousins headed over to the croquet area where Uncle Jim patiently instructed everyone in how to play.
And my children completely ignored him and decided to play their version of hockey with a ball and a mallet.
Honestly- a ball and a stick. That's all my boys need to be happy.
Meanwhile the dads played horseshoes and the moms sat in the shade with the babies. A very nice morning.

The Family Pictures

Since almost all of my mom's family was together for the first time in 10 years, of course we had to make an attempt at taking a family picture. Easier said than done with 85+ people. Each family chose a color and then added a family logo with Wade and a tree on it. Then the real chaos began.
This is just my kids and their cousins. 1 crying, 1 clapping, 1 refusing to remove a hat, and only 4 of the 13 actually paying any attention to all 12 of the adults trying to get them to smile.
Oh well, at least Miles was into it. Or into the clapping at least. This child LOVES to clap. Tragically his clapping and squeals of joy distracted a few other cousins so they weren't looking. What can I say? He's pretty cute though.
Our attempt at a family photo. Miles is clapping again- and LOVING it!
A nice break playing on the golf carts while the other families took their pictures. The parents wised up and took the keys out of the ignition after several kids got run over (just kidding).
My grandma and grandpa Wade with all of my mom's grandkids.
Sorry no shot of the whole group. There was only one camera that got those pictures and mine wasn't the one. Hopefully I'll get a copy soon though and can add it to the blog.

Hangin at the pool and lazy river

Last year our family reunion was in Pennsylvania and it seemed like all our activities required lots of driving and thus lots of planning and rearranging for such a large family. So this year we were thrilled to be at a resort where there were tons of activities within walking distance. It was so nice to leave one parent home with a sleeping baby and then all the rest could go play and join up later.
Most of Friday was spent at the resort's fabulous pools (3 of them) and lazy river. Isaac laughed the entire way around the lazy river he was so excited that the water was moving him.
And when they got bored of all the water (have you noticed my kids do that a lot?) they played soccer with the beach ball.
Then Ethan joined all the older cousins, uncles and even his grandpa in cannonball contests.
The splash is quite impressive.
Apparently cannonballs are exhausting (or swimming to the side afterwards maybe) so Ethan got in a little sun bathing too. Forgot his sunglasses though so his hands had to do.
Isaac meanwhile spied Grandpa in the lazy river and decided to hitch another ride.
This is the only shot I got of our whole family once Taylor and Miles showed up. Tragically Ethan is in full-out posing mode and blocked both Taylor and Isaac (now that's hard to do!).
Miles rode the lazy river in style and loved every minute of it.
Swimming was followed by some much-needed naps by all 3 boys- yeah! And some nice leisure reading by the mommy. Yeah again!

Cooling off at Lake Lure

After all the hikes we had lunch and then a brief rest while the afternoon thunderstorms passed, and then headed down to the resort's beach on Lake Lure. My boys were neither interested in the playground or the water, but LOVED the sand. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT!
Their attempts at building a castle weren't as impressive as the older cousins but they're 5 and 2.
Isaac spent most of the time dragging buckets of water out of the lake and then dumping them to see if it would wash out the castles.
The weather was still hot and muggy but hey, as long as my feet were in the water, I was happy to take pictures all afternoon and the boys were happy to play all afternoon.
And drag buckets of water (inspired by Isaac).
Ethan finally joined the other cousins and grandpa in swimming.
Isaac never did but we all came home hungry, exhausted, cooled off, sandy, and ready for dinner and bed. Yeah! A perfect day.

Chimney Rock, North Carolina

We love living so close to Taylor's side of the family in Salt Lake, but my family is really scattered across the country. There's a brother in New York, a brother in Cleveland, sister in southern Illinois, parents in Chicago, sister in Washington State, a brother in Provo, and then aunts/uncles/cousins/etc in almost every other state that exists. Every year we look forward to getting together with my siblings and their families but this year my mom planned an extra large family reunion and got together everyone on her side that could make it (her 2 parents who are both 80 + 4 of her siblings and their kids and grandkids- can you say a LOT of people). She found this great little resort community in the mountains of North Carolina so we all flew/drove in and had a great time.
Thursday morning we got up bright and early to hike up to Chimney Rock. This is where the final scenes of Last of the Mohicans was filmed if you've seen that so it was very dramatic.
Ethan and Isaac were very enthusiastic in their climb up these initial 20 steps (not so much for the following 500+). Enthusiastic enough that they even climbed the rocks.
Where of course the view was much better.
And the backdrops were gorgeous.
Taylor was a trooper and carried Miles the whole was up in the backpack/stroller thing plus all our water and snacks. It was 87 degrees when we started with full southern humidity. We were dripping just standing in the parking lot at 8am. Yuck!
Nice view though huh? Actually I have to be honest. You just take an elevator up to the point with the flag (+ 20 steps or so). Then the hike up to the real top begins but if you're a wimp like me you can at least get this high.
All the non-wimp people who made it to the very top.
Miles riding in style and comfort. You know it's hot when even the baby is sweating just sitting in his carrier.
A short break along the way to explore some caves. You know a 2 year old couldn't resist climbing on rocks even after climbing so many stairs.
Of course he got carried most of the way down though. Grandpa's a sucker for that cute face!
Apparently the climb was exhausting for Miles as well as the rest of us and he passed out in the stroller.
Great-grandpa treated all the kids to ice cream. I love Isaac's "are you kidding, you think I'm really going to smile for you after all those stairs" face.
After the first hike everyone decided to do another hike down to Hickory Nut Falls. I stayed with sleeping Miles and enjoyed the AC in the ice cream parlor. Sometimes it's really tough to be the mom. :) Ethan and Isaac enjoyed splashing in the water I hear though and they all came back cooled off and very muddy.

Rub-a-dub-dub

... three boys in a tub.
I just love that all three of them have the same "why are you messing with us- we're playing right now" expression on their faces. It's a bit of a tight fit for all 3 of them but there wasn't a single fight- just lots of splashing and laughing and bubbles!
And they gave me the same look every time I tried to interrupt and get a smile. No smiles. No saying cheese. We're playing here mom. Get out.