Harrison's visit (from Jessica's blog)

Once again I am a blog thief. I think it will be fun to have other people's perspectives in our journal.
Thanks Jess for letting me steal! For some reason it is cutting 1/2 of it off but I'm hoping that when I print my blog book it will look ok.

Bakersfield Part 1

Our summer vacation this year was to go to the "Remund Resort" (Uncle Brett and Aunt Nat's house).  We were excited to have 6 days to spend with all the cousins. Brett took some time off from his VERY BUSY job and Natalie spent lots of time preparing wonderful meals to make it nice for us. THANK YOU to both of them. Considering we had 8 kids between the two families, it went remarkably well and I even got several hugs from Ms. Sydney (this is kind of a big deal if you know this busy girl). Lots of great memories were made and I'm excited to show some of them.

Tricks in the pool right after arriving. We flew to LAX and then rented a mini-van and drove to Bakersfield.

This trick is "criss-cross, applesauce" in case you wondered.

Friday morning we got up early and started our journey to the Sequoias. These are some of the biggest trees in the world. It was a bit of a drive but well worth it.

We stopped on the windy road to take a picture of Brett and the girls (Nat and the little twins stayed home).  "Moro Rock" is in the background and we hiked there later in the day.

Our group!

We took a bus up to one of the hiking areas. Mckenna had a good time getting to know her cousins.

There are no moving these trees....they just carve a hole through them!

Hunter counting the rings to see how old the tree was.

We hiked around a meadow and the kids had some adventures along the way.

There were a lot of huge boulders mixed among the trees. Hunter is trying to show his muscles in this one!

Hiking up to Moro Rock was super scary! I'm afraid of heights so I was nervous of Brett holding Mckenna like that. 

Almost to the top

This little girl was hot and sweaty. 

Dinner was at Red Robin after we drove back out of the park.

Bakersfield Part 2

We were glad the girls had a swim meet while we were visiting. Their meet was out in the boonies in a town called Taft, California. I seriously felt like I was in some small desert town in a movie. It was HOT! I mean like over a hundred degrees. I guess we are wimps because after like 20 minutes the kids started saying they didn't feel good, they were hot, and their stomachs started hurting. We watched one race and then left for an hour to get a slurpy while waiting for the second race. Madi and Saige both did really well. I couldn't get over all of the kids that swim in the swim meets! 

I love her determination...This is Saige, by the way.

Look at Madi go!

Do we look a little hot?

Once we were back home we went straight to the pool. Sydney and Dalton joined us this time and Sydney was a dare devil.

On her own she walked to the highest part to jump off. She just jumped with no one to catch her. 

Cute Dad!

I love how she just leans into her jump.....no fear! 

I got such a kick out of this little girl.

And here is Savannah......our shining star!

Brett and the kids built a fort. It was the best fort ever (according to the kids and Brett). He used bar stools and a ladder. The top part on the upper bunk bed was called the "skytop-hightop". The "family room" was on the bottom bed and it had a laptop that played their movie. Under neath the desk was the "basement". The kids even slept all night in the fort.

Look at the hand hanging down...

Sunday we went to church and took Sydney home since she hates nursery. After church we had dinner and then Brett took the kids to the park on the golf cart. We really wanted to play corn hole and in the process of the adults playing, the little ones got into some trouble. The pictures will explain.

I think Saige cleaned out the chicken water by dumping it in the dirt and Sydney decided to sit in it to play. 

What is she thinking?

I'm not quite sure who has the idea first....Syd or Dalton but they both get into their fair share of trouble.

This boy is obsessed with vehicles. 

Powell and I loved playing so we are in the process of building our own corn hole game. Notice what a good job Nat did at painting it. 

Mckenna joined in the trouble by running through the sprinklers in her Sunday clothes.

Trouble

Trouble

And more trouble.....The only trouble we are missing is Charli

Bakersfield Part 3

Monday morning Powell took the kids to McDonald's for breakfast. When he got back we took the kids to the park near their house. They had a good time playing and splashing in the splash pad. When Brett got home from work he took us to the lake in his new boat!!!! Hurray. It was so fun to have all of the kids ski.

Nothing like some egg mcmuffins with bed head!

It started with laughing and ended with crying....that's how it goes some times with those two! 

I'm sorry.....I just can't get enough of this girl. What is she thinking? She has a handful of bark.

Ok.....looks like she wants the bark on the pole. Makes sense, I guess.

Dalton is such a darling boy. My favorite thing is when he laughs. His mannerisms remind me of Madi. Look at those big eyes. We sure miss him!

The little ones all could push the buttons to make the water come on.

Brinley was so brave to try skiing. She didn't get up but she tried once and I think that is pretty good for a five year old.

Powell was holding the rope while Madi was out skiing. The idea with these learner skis is that someone in the boat holds the other end and then lets go if the skier crashes. Powell got the idea that he would sit on the back of the boat and as Madi came up out of the water, Powell went into the water. He sprung because he was afraid of hitting the propellor. I wish I had got it on tape. It was so funny seeing him and Madi out in the water holding the two ends of the rope. 

Madi skied for a long long long time. It was her best time ever! You can see how happy she is about it.

Savannah made a good effort

The Captain of the boat.

Mckenna was super good while we were boating.

Hunter got up on skis for the first time. Wahoo!

TUESDAY WAS OUR LAST DAY TO HANG OUT AND SWIM!

Natalie brought home their favorite do-nuts. Yum.

A visit to Bakersfield would not be complete without some ice cream from Dewar's. 

They are showing their muscles.

Last day of 2nd Grade!

I can't believe my little tiny babies are going to be third graders! Where has the time gone?

 Moving up song. An RBG tradition. This year...

"Where oh where are the dear second graders,

Where of where are the dear second graders, 

Where of where are the dear second graders,

Safe now in the new 3rd grade.

They've gone out from the phonograms, 

They've gone out from the phonograms,

They've gone out from the phonograms,

Safe now in the new 3rd grade."

 Rylee and Saige

 Madi

 Saige and Kendall

 Mrs. Thompson & Madi

Saige & Mrs. Holliday.

They always get SO sad to leave their teachers but they are SO ready for summer break!!

The Brown's

The day that Kelsi left we had some first-time visitors! My aunt Ruth Ann and her family came to stay! We have been begging them to come and stay since we moved in. We knew their kids would have so much fun swimming. My girls had SO much fun with their girls. Her two youngest are 4 and 7 so they get along great. 

This is Quincy (the youngest) and she was a hoot! Loved listening to her. My favorite thing that happened was on Sunday. She was in my primary class and when I told my class that this was my cousin from Utah she jumped up out of her chair and broke into song singing, "Utah. People working together. Utah. It's a great place to be!" She sang a few more lines and did some actions with it and then sat down like nothing had happened. It was AWESOME! I found out later that it was a song/dance that Abby had to do in a school program. When I told this story after church Ruth laughed so hard she was crying and the kids were So embarrassed! Loved it!!

These girls had too much fun together and we were so sad when they left us!

We played some corn hole and had a great time. Gavin must have liked it because he went home and made some boards!

Off to Disneyland for the first time ever! I think I was more excited than they were! I love how Quincy is posing. I'm so sad I didn't get a picture with Ethan and I. He just left a few days ago for the Mexico City East Mission. 

I was beyond impressed with their family. I have always looked up to Ruth but seeing how she is as a mother really made me want to do better. Her kids didn't fight one time the whole time they were here. They totally get along. They genuinely enjoy being together. They don't back-talk. They are polite and offered to help with everything. It was also so nice to see cutler doing so well. He has had major health problems for a few years and he looked better than I had seen him in years! I don't know if you will ever read this but thanks SO much for coming out of the way to see us and please come back soon!

Also-thanks for fixing my dishwasher Gavin! It's purring like a kitten:) 

He told me that my dishwasher was the cleanest that he's taken apart. Brett said, "that's because she washes the dish before putting them in there." What can I say? I am my mothers daughter.