While in Washington...

I told you this was going to take a long time to post all the vacation. We were gone for over 3 weeks, so there was a lot to report!

The first day we were in Washington we went down to Portland with my parents to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) Very cool. I remember going when I was a kid, but it was in a different location and a lot smaller. It was great to get in with our Amarillo Discovery center pass for free. Love saving the big bucks!
This is Brad, when I told him "It's not about you--it's about the kids" This was a common theme for the trip. Hard to remember sometimes, when we're tired!

Here are some random pics from OMSI:
Grandpa and Samuel

Audrey, Eric and Stephen (2 chipmunks) and Samuel

Grandma, Brad, Jacob and Audrey

Audrey, Jacob and Stephen



That night we spent with my brother, George in Vancouver and Brad flew home to work the next morning. The kids and I went to Fort Vancouver and then headed back up to my parents house for the weekend.
The weekend began with Samuel throwing up on the way up to my parents. Then, Stephen started throwing up on Sunday, while I was holding him in the Chapel at church. Yum! By Monday morning Eric was sick and so the three big kids went in our van with 5 cousins and 2 uncles to Mt. St. Helens. I was sad not to go with them, but we had our own special eruptions going on at the house!


At the mountain

Family Totem

To Washington!!

Wow! This trip came 1 1/2 weeks after the New Mexico trip and during that week and a half I sold nachos and hot dogs with my dear friend Heather for 5 days at a fair! Good times! I miss you Heather!

First day the kids and I drove up to Denver. Brad met us up there that night after work. He had to bring his car so that he could fly home and back again. Anyway, the first night was lovely getting to see my sister Jen and her family and also our friends Matt and Sarah who just moved to Denver from Amarillo. We had a lovely evening and then took off early the next morning to head to Utah.

We drove into Utah on July 24th, Pioneer Day. We went up to BYU campus and walked around. We were a little disappointed that the Bookstore was closed and most of the buildings, but it was still great to see all the old and new!



That night we drove out to Eagle Mountain to stay with our friends Kirk and Joy. We had a great time with them! We miss you guys! The kids especially enjoyed the Primary Pioneer Parade and playing Legos with Gid.




Sunday we went down to Springville to attend church in our old ward. It was so great to see so many people who we went through so much with! After church we got to see our dear neighbors and take a tour of our old house. That was fun! Audrey and Eric were so excited about it. They ran upstairs and started looking through things. When I told them not to touch things, they said, "but all of this used to be ours!" I had to of course tell them that only the house itself used to be ours. It was funny.
Monday morning we were able to go to the Mt. Oquirrh Temple Open House. It was a great experience for the kids and for us!
Then we went to visit my Aunt and Uncle in South Jordan. They fed us a great lunch and it was so nice to visit with them!

That night we headed to Nampa, Idaho to stay with some friends. Unfortunately, were also going out of town that day. They graciously let us stay at their house anyway. It was wonderful of them to be so kind. We felt right at home and were able to get a good start in the morning and finally make it to my Parents home that afternoon!

The Land of Enchantment

First vacation of summer. We went to New Mexico for the Ferrell Family Reunion in Ruidoso, NM. We decided to do a little sight seeing while we were there.
First Stop: Carlsbad Caverns

The kids enjoyed going down the 700+ feet into the caverns. These were pretty amazing. I had been a couple times before (pre-marriage/kids) and it was still really cool! It was totally worth the drive and can't beat the price. Kids under 12 are free!


We all enjoyed using the restrooms down in the caverns. Brad made the boys pose for this one. Our Nephew Clayton came along with us. Always fun having extra kids around!

We had a great time in Ruidoso, unfortunately we didn't get the camera out, we were having too much fun at the reunion I suppose. We stayed in a great cabin with a hot tub and game room. Wish we could have stayed longer! The entrance to the street where our cabin was was built like a castle gate. The kids thought that was pretty cool!

On our way to Ruidoso we stopped in Roswell to ride the train through the zoo, and spotted some lovely space invaders!




On our way home we went through Lubbock to show the kids the Temple there. They haven't seen too many temples since we've moved to Texas and they thought it was pretty cool!

It was a great end to a great trip!

Summer's over!

I have so much to blog about, but first, I will send my kids off on their first day of school! Then we can recap the last month of summer vacations!
Feels good to be sending 4 kids off to school. I always fool myself into thinking that this will be so easy now that I only have 2 at home with me. Well 3 in October. It probably won't be easy, but the change is always fun and exciting for a while.

With all the excitement of the first day of school, of course, I forgot the camera!

Audrey

I have to say that still to this day Audrey's Birthday is remembered as one of the very best days of my life. I have loved giving birth to all my children, but I think the day Audrey was born was the best day:
I woke up Sunday morning early with contractions and after waiting for a few hours for them to get closer together we drove to the hospital in Provo, UT. My sister met us there and took the boys. We were brought into this wonderful room with huge windows that looked out on the Wasatch mountains. The sun was shining brightly and everything was perfect. The previous months had been the hardest of my life with Brad being diagnosed with cancer and wondering what I would do with my three small children. Knowing that I was having a little girl was so exciting, but I worried a lot!
Brad finished his chemotherapy just a couple of weeks before and his hair was just coming in again. In fact, it was a toss up as to who had the softest hair. Audrey had so much hair, every time they would bring her to me from the nursery she would have it done differently!

Now 6 years later I am still amazed by the wonderful blessings in my life and I still love to have my little girl! She continues to be one of the greatest blessings that I enjoy and I know she will be a great mentor to her baby sister! Happy Birthday, Audrey!

Still figuring out this Blogging stuff!

I did a new post, but it got buried because I started it before other things I have posted. Please scroll down and check out our post on "Relay for Life"
We need your support!

Ben's 9!

Can't believe that we have a nine year old, but I guess 7 kids 9 and under does sound a lot better than 7 kids 8 and under, so we are glad that he had a birthday!
No big parties, just a lot of fun. We took just Ben and Jacob to Wonderland Park the night before his birthday. I couldn't ride most of the rides, but Ben and Jake were not afraid to ride anything. Unfortunately I forgot the camera, their faces were priceless! My favorite moment of the night was when Ben and I rode the "Fantastic Journey" ride. It is a hauted/spook house ride. He always talks about this ride and really wanted to ride it. I looked down at him half-way through the ride and he had his eyes closed and his head down. It made me laugh.
Ben is a great kid! I don't know what I would do without his easy-going personality and willingness to help. He is a great big brother and is growing up so nicely! He got a bike for his birthday. He has been needing this for a long time and was really excited to get it! We have a great bike riding neighborhood with hills and dips and hardly any cars. Now if we could just prevent it from getting too hot!