Sun Valley-Day 1

We met up with Blake's family in Sun Valley for a weekend of fun.  We arrived on Wednesday evening and after having a pizza party to start of the vacation, we headed up Trail Creek Road to go on a one mile hike up Waterfall Trail to Trail Creek Falls 



Who doesn't love to climb up rocks?  All the cousins made it on top of this rock; Sophie received a little help

The girl cousins....Brynn, Allie, Jane, and Lucy

 A picture doesn't do justice with mountains.
There were some impressive peaks off in the distance that we saw on our hike

Thursday morning we woke up and went on a bike ride with ALL the kids.  I'm pretty sure we looked like a circus train as we cruised through town with bike trailers, tag-a-longs, kids bikes, adult bikes; you name it.  We stopped at the bottom of the ski resort and tossed all the kids onto one of the chair lifts for a picture

She wore an itsy bitsy tiny weeny yellow polka dot bikini....We got in some swim time before afternoon naps

We also had some R&R after swimming.  We popped in some movies for the kids to watch.  The girl's all gathered in one room to watch a "chic" flick together

Papa took us all out to dinner at Trail Creek Cabin.   Dinner was fantastic and the service was the best I've ever had at a restaurant

More pictures of all the cousins....I can't believe we got all 11 kids to sit still



Family picture at Trail Creek

We wrapped up the evening with round 2 of swimming for the day

Allie, Jane, and Natalia loved running and jumping in from the side

Sophie loves her flotation device.  I don't even know what to call it, but she is able to float, spin around, and swim all on her own.   After an incident of being face down in the water from her life vest that is supposed to flip her onto her back; I am much more comfortable having her swim in this thing.

Sophie is a crazy girl in the water and will just jump in from the side of the pool.  I'm glad she loves to wear the "elephant" as she calls it and can enjoy her summer in the pool along with her mamma

It's A......

BOY!!!  Can you tell we are a little excited around our house;  Allie and Blake were thrilled about the news of this little guy. I was open to whatever; I love my girls and would have loved another one, but it will be so fun to see the boy side of life:)

Allie always gets so animated for me, I love her reactions

Allie drew me a picture the night before we found out what we were having....she was just as much on pins and needles like I was.  I just love kid's artwork.

Hiking through McCall

We originally wanted to go camping for the weekend, but when we saw that the forecast could bring us snow, we decided to head to the cabin for better protection.  Our friends the Fosters decided to join us on our adventure.  We decided since the weather was supposed to be crummy and rainy we didn't just want to sit in the cabin all weekend, so we took a chance on the weather and headed out on some hikes and hit up a hot springs.

On our way into Cascade on Friday, we headed up a very bumpy dirt road to get to the trail head of Skein Lake  

The girls had a fun time along the way looking at moss, flowers, and all the fun things in nature

Allie and Jay had fun climbing up big rocks

We even hit snow....lots of it on our hike.  There were two hikers who were forging the trail ahead of us and when we caught up to them, they claimed there were huge bear tracks in the snow; we never did see the prints or the bear:)

We made it to the top right as a storm was blowing in.  There were freezing cold winds blowing off the water, but we loved how this lake sat right in the bottom of a beautiful glacier bowl topped in snow covered mountains

The group photo-Fosters and Hansens

When we made it back to the cabin that evening we started a campfire and cooked up some yummy tin foil dinners and hot dogs

Saturday, we packed up for the day and headed out for a drive to Bergdorf Hotsprings, McCall, and Ponderosa Park.  Everyone enjoyed the warm water as the snow fell upon us....YES it was snowing on us in June

After swimming we took the Fosters into McCall to experience milkshakes at My Father's Place.  We then headed into Ponderosa State Park to do some hiking around.  We wondered upon some deer, which Sophie loved checking out

Sisterly Love

We love the Fosters...there kids match up perfectly with ours and they are even having baby #3 right when we are.  Sophie, Allie, Alice, and Jay

We hiked the Ridgeline Trail in Ponderosa Park and Allie happened upon this ginormous dead tree that made for a good climbing structure

Family photo op in Ponderosa Park

Lastly we went to explore Lily Marsh, a beautiful marshy meadow in Ponderosa where there were birds flying around like crazy

Blake holding Sophie's hand to cross the bridge.  Sophie was freaked out to walk across this bridge.  She kept looking down through the slats and would start to cry.  It took a daddy to get her across.  What a fun weekend we ended up making out of bad weather that we never saw much of!!!

Capital Classic Race

I can't believe that Allie was old enough to run in the Capital Classic, a race that Blake and I both used to run as kids.  The race course had changed slightly from when we were younger and instead of starting at the Capital Building and running up to the Train Depot, the kids now had it easy and were to run the 1 mile race from the Train Depot down to the Capital Building.

Allie was so excited about the big day.  We wanted her to stay a little distinguished from the other 2,000 kids who were going to be wearing neon green shirts so Allie decided on the pink hair bows

I also told Allie how some racers wear lucky socks or underwear:)  She decided to go with her rainbow hello kitty socks

Blake started up at the top with Allie and ran part of the race along side of her through the side lines (parents were not aloud to be out on the race course).  Sophie and I waited down at the finish line to cheer on the runners

Allie coming through the finish (I do not know how to capture action shots on my camera:)).  There is something about a finish line for any race that makes me tear up.  I love all the smiling, cheering, and yelling that the spectators are doing for the competitors and the competitors are all smiles as they cross the finish line

Allie and her friends that ran the race.  Allie's little friend Hannah got to run with her. The racing itself was divided by gender and age group.  The boys ran first and then the girls were second.  

Showing off the medal and enjoying TCBY; the best part of a race are the treats at the end

Sophie indulging on a cookie

A tradition that must be new is taking a group photo on the Capital steps; Allie is in there somewhere.

Allie ended up coming through the finish line at 13:49 and all we know is she was faster than that.  The officials started the girls clock when the 14 year old girls left the finish line, then they had 15-20 second lags before the next age group runs. We are just proud Allie finished and ran her little heart out!

Memorial Weekend at Horsethief-Day 3 and 4

To start of Day 3 we woke up to a rainy morning, which ended being okay because we headed off to church. There were also lots of indoor crafts going on throughout the day.

Daddy and Sophie on their way to breakfast

During the afternoon we worked on making some boondoggles....those plastic key chains that you knot together.  Blake was trying to get the hang of it and teach his skills to Allie:)

The afternoon was again forgiving to us and we got to head up to the sport court once again.  We ended up digging out a parachute which all the kids enjoyed for quite awhile

Sophie enjoyed the freedom to run around

We busted out the double dutch ropes and and had some competitions between the mom's and dad's.  Due to 2 pregos not being able to jump very long, the girls did not make it very long in the competition

On Memorial Day, we woke up to beautiful sunny skies.  Allie was able to do some rock climbing.

We also ventured out in the canoes since the water was finally cooperating and not choppy.  Sophie wasn't to thrilled about getting her picture taken

Here are all 10 kids that survived 4 days and 3 nights together.  We had a blast with the Givens, Coltrins, and Harris's.  What great memories we had with these families at the YMCA Horsethief Camp!!!