Breckenridge

After a whirlwind in Utah, everyone; including the Jolley's, the Jones's, Sadie and the girls and I headed to Breckenridge, Colorado.

Breckenridge you ask? Well, my parents have a timeshare, and to get us all together they thought it would be a good idea to find a fun location in between Missouri, Arizona and Utah. So Breckenridge, Colorado it was.

Its funny because after they booked it, everyone decided to go to Utah first defeating the purpose of finding a central location.

Well, I guess the concept still applied to Travis, because he got the week off of work and met us in Colorado! So thanks for thinking about that Sid and Tam. Well done!

Where do I even begin with this place? The kids were in paradise because we were all in one big huge hotel together. They probably could have just stayed in the hotel all week long and been happy. The hotel had huge pools, a huge theater room, a free gondola ride,  a game room and mountains all around.

We did start the trip off with a tiny little hike around a lake. It was .75 miles, which is the perfect distance for 5 children.

My kids are really starting to like each other. Sometimes they hate each other, but I'm going to choose to focus on the liking each other part.

 

Here is the beautiful hike

When the hike was over, we discovered the bravest chipmunks ever.

They were so cool, they would come and eat out of our hands.

The coolest part of the trip for the kids was definitely the pool.

 We may have broken a rule or two in the pools... but look who was involved, innocent, teacher's pet Tamara!

One day, we took the gondola to down town and we found a creek to play in. Does that sound funny to anyone else? Anyways, it was a fun creek to play in nonetheless.

And then one of the kids found a hat store...

 Can you tell what kid it was?

Here are more great shots, this store really entertained us, I don't think we bought anything though. Oops! But if anyone was watching this display of entertainment, I'm sure lots of hats were sold on our account, so hat store, you are welcome!

 For some reason, my kids decided to wake up at 6 am every morning, so we decided that instead of waiting for everyone else to wake up at 8:30 we would go out and hike. This was my favorite part of the trip, maybe I'm a bit of a tree hugger these days?

Our hotel is the furthest one on the right... we went far that day!

Brooklyn, I guess that is what you have to do when you wake up so stinking early!

One night, we went to an outdoor concert

Brooklyn got up on the stage and started boogieing

 I had to be on my horse a lot because she would either try to get up on the stage and take over the show, or once, she saw a beer can and started running for it, I seriously sprinted to that can and snatched it up just before she had the chance to get drunk. Everybody was watching!

The week went by fast! Each day we celebrated a different holiday. One day was Christmas, Valentine's day, Cinco de Mayo, birthday, etc. It was pretty crazy! 

Here are a couple random shots

My kids miss their cousins so much! They are such great pretenders. They taught Avery all about Harry Potter, spells and magic. One night Brayden and Avery pretended to be the Mom and Dad and they went on a date and they went dancing on their date, we found them slow dancing... we really need to have that "no dating your cousins" talk with our daughter! 

It makes me sad to live away from them. Maybe one day soon we will be close!

Thanks for the fun memories family!

Utah part II

This is the part when the Jolley's arrived from Phoenix.

All we did was swim and BBQ.

Avery told me if she could live anywhere in the world, it would be Grandma Tam's house.

 

I wouldn't object. 

For some reason when we are at my Mom's house, our kids always take baths in her kitchen sink. Maybe its because her sink is bigger than our tub?

Avery and Brooklyn were in Heaven because all they did was play with their cousins.

I was in Heaven because I didn't have to entertain them at all.

I kept asking Brayden if he would just come and live with me in Kansas City so I could get things done, and for some weird reason he kept declining.

Strange kid. I love him!

So, if you didn't hear, Utah was on fire when we got there.  There were like 3 wildfires while I was there, and 1 was a little too close for comfort.

A little too close for comfort, luckily no houses were taken out on this one!

We also went on a couple of hikes, which is one of my favorite things to do in Utah.

I'm trying so hard to get my kids into hiking.

Its just cool OK

Now I am going to talk about the 4th of July

Everyone knows how much I love this day.

It is my favorite.

I have spent the last 2 years away from my sweet husband.

What the crap?

We still made the best of it and I will tell you why.

We woke up, went on a hike, went out to breakfast, came home and swam all day, got ready and went to the Sandy city parade, and watched fireworks while slurping up a slurpee.

How can any day be better?

 I just love all of my cousins, they are the best! And my uncle Scott rocks!

 I love my Grandma, she makes Utah home for me

Yes, I happened to be related to this...

 Scary

Do you think anyone else made a cake/pancake/toast with strawberries and blueberries? 

Well, I think they did because they were out of blueberries at the store and I had to buy the organic blueberries which were one dollar per blueberry. I hope you liked it people!

Utah is a fine place. I'm always so happy to see my friends and family. 

Oh yeah, and friends, sorry I always forget to take pictures! I'm just so enthralled in seeing you and catching up that I don't even think about taking pictures until after. I promise I'm not making friends up, I have some.

And Mom, thanks so much for being my husband while my real husband was gone. You always made sure I got my exercise in, my naps in and my friend time in. You are the best!

Utah part 1

We (minus Travis) went to Utah! I flew with Brooklyn and Avery was lucky enough to drive with Mumu and Grandpa from Kansas City (or maybe I was the lucky one, not having to fly alone with two wigglies!)

We met up with the Charles clan at a park in Park City.

I took my camera, hoping to get a couple of good shots of all the cousins, etc. I don't even know why I bothered to take my camera, because I have two sister in laws that can sure snap a shot! So I'm just going to say that I took about 5 pictures, and stole the rest from them. They are amazing!

The only bad thing about stealing their pictures, is that most of them were of us, and not them. 

Actually, most of them were of Brooklyn. She is sort of cute right now, so there were about 50 great shots of her that I just had to post. 

I feel kind of bad, because this post is to show that we actually saw our family, but what you are going to see is a mural of Brooklyn shots.

Sorry.

I just had to be that mom for one minute. 

OK now to the original point of the post.

The Charles picnic

I feel that the truest friendship is one where you pick up right where you leave off, no matter how horrible you are at keeping in contact.

This is how it is with Avery's cousins. The minute they saw each other, there were no awkward pauses, just friends wanting to play!

They got down and dirty fast...

 ...We see that nose pick Maddox, and Declan, sorry Avery is so forward and tried to kiss you so much, you are just so dang cute! She will learn one day, that its not OK to date your 1st cousin. And Liam, thanks for being so nice to little Brooklyn. And Dom Dom, you may not know it right now, but you and Brooklyn are gonna be best friends! And little Aiden, thanks for all the smiles. You are one sweet and special baby!

Oh yeah, and the adults weren't awkward either... we jumped right into talking about who was going to win the bachelorette, and then we had an intense volleyball game. Of course the Wilton's won, big surprise BYU volleyball alumni. Its like playing a basketball game with Michael Jordan. I will say though, Wes and I gave them a game though!

Thanks for the pizza, salad, pictures and fun talks you weird in-laws.