Summer vacation 2012–week 6

Our original plan was to stay in Idaho for about 7 weeks.  But with Derk’s broken ankle it really made things difficult, and we decided to head home a week early.  I didn’t get many pictures this week because I was really busy taking care of Derk and the kids.  We got some last minute fun in, though, and do have a few pictures to share. 

We took another trip to Silverwood with Grandma and Grandpa (Derk came, too, but had to be in a wheelchair).  Asher and Grandpa went on lots of water slides together!

We spent a nice day at Farragut with my dad, siblings, and nephews.  This was neat for me because I came here as a little girl and got to think about the fun times my family had here all those years ago.  I love taking my kids to places I went as a child and watching them do the same things I once did.  The cousins had a blast blowing bubbles, digging in the sand, hiking around the lake, and playing in the water with Uncle James.  We also had a nice picnic.  It was a nice day, especially since Derk came with us.  He had to just sit in a chair and read/relax the whole time, but it was nice to spend time together outside.

And we had a last family get together at my mom’s.  The kids swam away in Nana’s pool with Uncle James, and the rest of the adults sat around enjoying the weather and chatting (and if you’re Derk, glaring at your wife for daring to take your picture…).

Cambria has been practicing her swimming all summer and was doing awesome this last time in the pool!

And here are a couple of pics from our trip back home.  I am normally SO sad to leave, but with Derk being hurt it was just really hard and crazy.  We all needed to be HOME.  Packing up the car was really tricky because Derk obviously couldn’t help me load up much.  His mom helped me quite a bit, but even so it took me until 2:30am to get most everything packed up.  Luckily Derk was able to do some driving that first day, but I had to drive a lot more than usual (actually, he normally drives the entire trip).  Once we decided we were taking off a week early, I had to check the Cache Valley cheese factory’s website to make sure we would pass through when they were open!  Yes, the cheese really is THAT worth it!  We ended up leaving a day later than we wanted to JUST so we could stop and get some “squeaky cheese” as we call it.  The kids were so good that Derk promised them they could pick whatever they wanted as a treat when we first stopped for gas.  Next time we’ll make sure to choose our words a little more carefully because Asher + a huge can of Mt.  Dew = HYPER!!!!!!  And lots of bathroom stops.    As we drove the thermometer in the van started slowly creeping up, and once it hit 100* we knew we must be getting close to home. 

It was definitely the most eventful summer vacation we’ve ever had!  We’ll never forget all our memories from this year.    It’s sad that our summer is almost over now.  Derk has about 2 more weeks until he goes back to work, and then the kids are back in school shortly after.  I love having everyone home with me all summer long.  But with such a crazy summer, it’ll do us good to get home and back into a routine!  Thanks to all our family for such wonderful memories from this summer!  We love you all!

Summer vacation 2012–week 5

While we are all here together, Rebecca had the idea to do an annual cousin camp that would be 2 days of fun activities for all the cousins to do together.  She put all the original plans together, even making up a spreadsheet to outline which adult would be helping her with which activities.  And she designed shirts for all the kids to wear!  They sure had a wonderful time!!  There were relay races, lots of craft projects, a service project for Grandma and Grandpa, memory books, even a fun skit at the end that Rebecca asked Kyrie to write (which Kyrie LOVED!).  What a fun idea and such wonderful memories for all the kids.  You’re awesome, Rebecca!  There are literally hundreds of pictures of cousin camp between all of our cameras, so here are “a few" of my favorites!

 

Kyrie, Asher, and Cambria.

Abigail, Lauren, and Dallin.

Zariah, Maleah, Anoni, and Quinten.

All the cousins in their cousin camp shirts, minus Quinten.

LOVE this picture of Asher and Dallin.  They are so handsome and sweet!!

While everyone was together, we also took some family pictures.  Here’s the WHOLE Stephens clan!  And to think…all this started with just Scott and Jean – crazy!

 

Here’s Grandma and Grandpa with all 10 of their grandbabies.

And here’s our little family.  There were 2 different cameras going at the same time, so we’re looking different directions.  But at least we’re all smiling! 

 

This week was quite an exciting week for the Stephens clan!  Aside from being busy with cousin camp and everything else going on, we also had a whole slew of injuries!  Many were minor (scrapes and bumps from playing), but there were 3 major ones – Dallin tripped on my laptop cord and had to get stitches in his forehead, Abbie was jumping on the bed and ended up falling off and severely breaking her arm in several places, and Derk broke his ankle on a water slide at Silverwood!  The x-ray is of Abbie’s arm - you can see the fracture on the bone on the left, and the bone on the right is supposed to be connected up there at the top but was completely displaced.  Poor thing has to have surgery and be in a cast.  Dallin was a trooper getting his stitches, and I cuddled him as much as I could once he got home – I felt TERRIBLE that it was my stupid computer that he got hurt on!  And poor Derk fractured his ankle and will have to be in a walking boot for at least the next 6 weeks.  He couldn’t walk at all, and I was really grateful to Kevan and Eric for helping me get him to the urgent care.

We celebrated the 4th of July.

We ended the week by spending lots of extra time with my sister, Katie and her family.  They ended up having to leave for her husband’s business, so we won’t see them any more this summer.  We made the best of our last days together and spent as much time as we could hanging out.  We went to Starbucks, shopped, and hit Silverwood one last time together.

 

This week was by far the busiest we’ve had, but we sure had lots of fun!

Summer vacation 2012–week 3

For some reason I didn’t take many pictures this week!  I mean, I took a lot of pictures, but I only have pictures from our trip to Manito Park in Spokane.  We drove out there with just the 5 of us, and we really enjoyed it.  It’s such a beautiful place, and I especially love the Japanese garden! 

When we were walking by and saw this bench, I instantly had a flashback to being here last year and taking a picture of the kids in the exact same spot!  So of course I had to get another picture of them here again.   I can’t believe how much they’ve all changed in the past year!  2011 is on the left, 2012 on the right.  Bri has changed the least I’d say, but Kyrie has definitely lost her little girl chubby cheeks and looks SO much more grown up!  Asher’s face thinned out a lot as well, and you can even tell he got taller.  It’s amazing to see how they change, but it makes me so sad at the same time!

I couldn’t get over the beauty of the flowers!  I don’t even think my pictures really do justice to how perfectly amazing they are.  The softness, delicacy, and beautiful lines of the petals amazes me, and I love the contrast between the shape, texture, and colors of the flowers with the green leaves in the background.

I really loved the staircase in this picture!  From where I was sitting, it looked like you could just walk straight up into the clouds.

 

At the rose garden, there was a large tree that had been cut down, and Derk stopped to teach the kids about how you can count the rings and figure out how old the tree was.  Asher and Bri were especially fascinated by this.  I love watching Derk teaching the kids!  He’s so passionate about learning, and it just makes my heart happy to watch him sharing his knowledge with our children.

Bri was very fascinated with the petals on the roses as well and was SO excited to see some petals on the ground that she could pick up.  The second picture is really neat because she found this petal that looked like a heart (she is very into hearts right now and draws them on everything ).

A couple random pictures throughout the day.

Derk and Kyrie went to check out the greenhouse, and Asher and Bri wanted to stay outside and take some pictures.  They were so cute using my camera, so I had to get pictures of them taking pictures! 

Beautiful girls!

This next picture makes me laugh!  Asher is big on wanting us to call him “Ash” right now, and he tells me frequently that he’s upset his name doesn’t really have a nickname (I have told him that out of all of us, mine and Cambria’s names are the only ones that can really be shortened, but he’s still upset with his name, lol).  Well, we were walking around and looking at the flowers, and he found this flower and insisted he get a picture because part of the flower’s name was Ash.    Side note: my boy has THE most beautiful eyes!!  And he was in desperate need of a haircut- yikes. 

 

Before heading back into Coeur d’Alene we stopped at the park.  Unfortunately we got rained out pretty quick, but the kids had fun for a few minutes burning off some energy.
The sky was pretty incredible!  I snapped these once we were back at Mom and Dad’s for the night.  It ended up being a really cool storm with lots of cool lightening and pouring rain.

And here’s little Bri passed out after a very busy day!