Our weekend really started Thursday night. We got to attend Christine’s (a former young woman from our ward I got to know when I was secretary a few years back) wedding! It had been quite a long time since we have been to a wedding and I have to say it was a lot of fun. We got to dine with some good friends from church and witness a glorious event. I LOVE weddings there is so much love and joy. Its hard to believe it’s almost been 10 yrs since ours. (scary). Christine is seriously one of the happiest girls I have ever met. She lights up a room.

The gorgeous bride and her new man!

Marc and I

Summer and I

The Wights, Gutierrez, Marshalls, Thackers, & us

mmmm delicious
Friday night was a pirate party at the Thurmans. Marc and I last minute dug through our halloween bin lucky to find some asian wear and we become oriental trading pirates which surprisingly worked out nicely! We probably went a bit to over the top with the makeup etc because there were a lot of people not dressed up! (come on guys this is your annual pirate party is it not) O’well it’s an excuse to get dressed up anway! We got to chat with friends take fun pictures, feast on finger foods, and watch the 2nd Pirates movie. Fun times!

Marc and John pose in front of the display

Wade and Sara

Brad and Jenny

Candy “wenches” Christy and Jessica tempting us!

What good looking pirates! Nice…. Summer & Bryan

Um yeah we are supposed to be pirates!

The guys

Double pirates. Whomp checking out his photo on his phone.

Saturday we went to the  beach for our church activity corn roast put on by Brian and the activities commitee but mostly Brian! Vaughn even got his little feet wet. The kids could all go out into the little waves pretty far because of the sand bar.  It was awesome! Maren did some boogie boarding with her friend Grace and all the kids played in the ocean for hours.  The corn was delicious and then we had smores!  I had been craving smores the entire summer.  We all had a great time with our friends and got to know some more people from church.  

  Heres Bryan cooking away the afternoon!

  Maren catches a great wave

  The next one was a little rough

  Vaughn likes the water too

Kaili and Haven got pretty brave in the ocean

  Kai sure loves her daddy.  She wants me to work instead!

Marc and I together (no kids??)

The “I love you picture” (Summer says)

Vaughns asleep yipee!

Maren Cate Claire Kate and Keri

yum yum

Packing up (now Marc knows what I do)

Thanks for the invite Zimmerman’s we really had a great time at your cabin! So this is how it all went down: We arrived about 10pm Friday night to meet up with our friends the Zimmerman’s and the Barbers. We were all excited to get out of the car after the twisty turning roads on the way up the mountains. Both Marc and I got queezy but luckily the girls were plugged into their movie and didn’t notice! We unloaded the kids ran around and played while the guys went to get some groceries. Then war broke out between Logan and Owen! At least it looked that way as they wresled and hit each other. Before I knew it the time was past midnight Maren, and Jayne were still awake in their sleeping bags. Kaili fell asleep around 11:30 and Vaughn was passed out so we played a few rounds of Blokus staying up past 1am. The next morning the kids were up early we had pancakes and went on a nature hike/walk to the wilderness discovery center. The kids got to pet some donkeys and feel a ton of animal furs. Then we went to the alpine slide and drove the race cars. The kids LOVED it. Kaili screamed the whole way down the mountain on my lap. I took her down pretty fast too!

Only half the day was gone and we had already done so much so we went back to the cabin to chill and make lunch. John (”the cookie monster”) broke out the cookie dough I had made for the trip and cooked a couple batches. They went fast! When Brad and Marc woke from their naps in the living room they asked for cookies but —-you snooze you lose! Right? I snuck 1 even though I am supposed to be dairy free for Vaughn still. We decided to pack the day with 1 last outing to the bowling barn. But this proved to be too much at least for Kaili and some of the younger kids. We bailed out early and took Kaili home for a nap. She was a wreck. The girl gets exhausted by 7 everyday. She really needs her sleep! All the parents agreed the kids needed to go to bed earlier so we ate an early dinner and cleaned up for bed then Haley found the Hannah Montana concert on the Disney channel which proved challenging getting the girls away from the TV and into bed. I think it was after 9 and I was feeling the exhaustion from lack of sleep the day before etc. But we finally got the kids to bed and spent some adult time playing card games and the name game– We haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. The guys regressed back to their pre-teen years and laughed till they fell over and cried!

Sunday we took it easy and played at the park then cleaned up and loaded up our cars! The kids all loved swinging on the bench outside, riding bikes, playing makeover etc. Even though I get irritated with the mess and the noise I really did enjoy watching the kids have so much fun together….. I learned my lesson this weekend that I need my sleep or I turn into mean mom and I just can not function well. I must have passed out just a few minutes after getting into the car to drive home. We had planned to walk around the Village but Maren and I were pooped. Marc told me we slept the whole way home. He had some great bonding time with Kaili as she talked the whole way home!

All of us at the Discovery Center

Jayne, Maren, Haley, Paige, Owen, & Kaili

The lazy kids, Reagan doesn’t count of course.

Owen with the donkey! The kids loved these “mini horses”

The kids touching the animal fur and listening to the bizarre wilderness dude

Marc tried putting this on Maren. Haley didn’t mind it at all.

This is all too fitting. LOOSE THOSE HANDLE BARS PLEASE!!

Kai finds a soft place to rest!

The kids discover

Paige and Maren find butterflies

Paige and little Brock

Kaili pretty much always complain of being tired so here’s the soulution

Logan’s an undercover bear, ROAR!

Vaughn is the cutest!!

Owen, Logan, Jayne, Kai, Haley, Maren, and Paige (when our babies grow up they’ll have to muscle their way on the swing)

Maren loved going fast with her dad

Brad & Logan. The Zimm’s behind

Kaili and I in our attempt to race Marc and Maren (the only bummer was “no racing aloud”)

Maren awaits her victory!

I wish you could see his Chopper hat…. he fit the stereotype.

Brad doesn’t know his own strength!

Laughing till we cry. Some fun adult game time.

Jessica joins in the kids circus!

yippeee!

A lazy Saturday morning was disrupted by a phone call from Aimee telling me my old BFF, Jane,  from 5th grade was visiting and we were all meeting up in a half hour.  Mind you it was already 9:30 and usually I am up with the kids around 7:30 ish but summer time has made me a little bit lazy in the mornings and I NEED my sleep to get through the draining days.  I decided to make it happen. So I literally rolled out of bed and brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes and headed down to get the girls dressed and sort of fixed their hair.  We made it out the door in record time.  Even my brother Connor, who doesn’t talk a whole lot, mentioned to me this is what I should do everyday and I agree.  I think when I have something planned for later in the day I find myself running in circles getting breakfast, cleaning up, feeding Vaughn, more cleening up, dealing with the girl fights and drama, then getting frustrated again about the mess and when it is time to leave I can’t seem to get out the door!  This way if we wake up and go we don’t have drama we just get dressed and go and have breakfast on the way……..hmmm problem solved.  Though I will ultimately never have make-up on or feel put together but the _ _ _ _ with it!  This new approach sets me free from the constant anxiety about getting out and being on time and feeling the need to leave the house some what clean!

On the way we picked up some Panera bagels, cinnamon crunch my fav.  Then met Aimee & kids, and Jane with her youngest baby at Mcdonalds.  YES you heard me Mcdonalds ! (for anyone who knows me well knows this is a big step for me to allow my kids to eat at Micky D’s, as my dad calls it).  Kaili got her hash brown and oj, Maren got her hot cakes, and I enjoyed a delicious bagel amongst some best friends!  What a fun morning.  It has been a couple years since I last saw Jane.  She’s been living in China for a few years but recently moved back to the states with her family.  We grew up together in Hawaii and have known each other since we were practically babies.  She has 3 kids now.  Jane, Aimee and I all had our little babies with in 2 weeks of eachother.  It’s fun to see all my long lost friends in the mommy stage.  It is a busy one so I am happy to share time with good friends who are experiencing the same trials as I,  as well as the precious moments we are blessed to have experiencing life with our little ones.

Jane, Aimee and I

our babies all the same age!

Kaili, Ashlynn, Maren and Daniel

Kaili and Ashlynn cracking eachother up!

Cute Maren (always fixing her hair)

Seriously, Kaili what is up with the weird faces lately ?

The only way I could get Maren to look was if she wore my sunglasses.

The girls love their unlce

We have had a very eventful, very fun, very busy week with “uncle Connor” in town! We have been to the beach a few times, wild rivers, the fair, out to eat, shopping, swimming at the pool, movies , family BBQ etc. I have enjoyed my brother here. He has been a big help with the girls. I have appreciated the quick trip to the store, dinner out with friends, and today he took the girls to the park so I could clean the house and catch up on some laundry. Connor is a little shy but we got to spend some time together with out the girls the other day and did some school shopping for him. We found some amazing deals. My little brother is easy to please and some times you almost forget he is around he is so quiet. Which I have to say is so opposite from all of us Hemeon’s. I hope his quiet example rubs off on my kids. Ha ha. I rarely seem to get a quiet moment at home until the kids are all in bed and then I am exhausted!

There is so much more to say but I better go to bed so I can try to be “nice mom” tomorrow because we have quite another eventful day planned meeting friends in the morning then later in the day a BBQ at the beach for our good friend Karly’s 30th birthday.

I have so many great pictures it was hard to choose so bear with me here.

The girls are growing up so fast. I was surprised they wanted to and are able to ride a roller coaster alone!

Yummy Churros and the Cute baby Calf

My favorite exhibit was the Bonzai!

Kaili sneak attacks Maren. The had fun on the mini bumper cars. They rode 3 rides and played 3 games but

wanted more. I had already spent almost as much as it would have cost to get the wrist bands, darnet!

FYI to any of you who go to the fair I suggest getting the $20 unlimited ride wristbands!

The girls wouldn’t leave the fair with out their cotton candy. But I am glad we left and

had dinner at Wahoo’s instead of eating the super expensive nasty carnival food.

We finally got Connor in the ocean. Only once so far but we will try again tomorrow.

Maren and Kaili were so stoked to see their friends Paige and Kate at the beach!

Isn’t he a cutie pie!

Kaili and Sailor were the silliest girls at the beach.

Avery Maren & Cate

Couldn’t pass up a stop to see the worlds biggest slipper

I enjoyed some time together with Connor who is 16 years younger than I so we really

do not know each other very well but we do have skin color in common. Yup, we both have

the cursed white skin when all of our other sibling are so dark. When he was a baby people

used to think he was mine! Yikes — I was a bit mortified being 16 at the time but that’s what

you get in Happy Valley when there are so many young mom’s! Now when I visit I can’t help

but notice all the moms who truly do look like teenagers. CRAZY

After a long weekend of roller skating, beach day surfing for the girls, family over for Sunday BBQ I feel rejuvenated!!  Why, you may ask? Because this afternoon Marc took the girls and my brother Connor to Wild Rivers.  They were gone from 1:30 - 8:30pm.   He even fed them bathed them and put them to bed.  I arrived back home after 9 and they were asleep.   I was sooooo STOKED!  I really needed a day to catch up on bills, make phone calls, run tons of errands etc.  It was such a great feeling to get so much accomplished and spend some TLC time with little Vaughn.  He is my not so “little” bundle of joy!  He is the happiest most easy going baby!  I am very lucky.

I’m sure all mom’s with multiple children feel the same way I do about being worn down!  It is just impossible especially during the Summer break to get anything done, not to mention you are needed by everyone in the family at all times and it gets so overwhelming.  I am not one to sit back and just enjoy the day if my house is a wreck I get anxiety about cleaning up the mess and taking care of my children.  I really do wish it didn’t bother me so much and I could relax.  I am SO READY for school to start!  I do enjoy beach days and fun activities to hang out with my kids but sometimes I am totally drained and have run out of patience, energy, and ideas for entertaining!  I think I would be a HUGE fan of year round school!  That way you could actually plan vacations ahead of time and they may cost less because they would not take place during the busy season.  I also think I would look forward to time with no schedules and opportunity to just chill with my children in smaller time increments through out the year!  I know tomorrow will come and my list of thing to do will pile up once again but at least today I am feeling great about today!

The pictures

Maren did alright paddling out this time and standing up!

She chooses neither goofy or regular!  Both feet do the trick.

  Kaili is a bit hesitant

She feels most comfortable standing up the board hits the beach.

Uncle Connor is comfortable sitting and holding Vaughn

big boy cousins.  Ewan and Vaughn

Aunty Laura’s first time to see Vaughn.  Happy late birthday to you, Laura!

the girls settle down a bit in front of the T.V. They played really well together!

Maren’s buddy, cousin Alex

Kaili’s buddy, cousin Hannah

gathering to watch Jason’s pictures from Europe.

Maren’s melt down when Alex had to go!  Can this girl be any more dramatic, seriously!

We got a tiny bit of exercise this morning on a run/walk/bike to the park.