Monday, July 25, 2011
Addie Musson...
So while Laura Lee was up with the girls, we had the chance to take some pics of Addie in her ballerina costume, in the backlands of good old BC...gorgeous!
iPhone images...
Little Kate and her ice cream at a quick stop on the drive up north.
Kira and I
Hannah and Addie having pool time in the bath on a rainy day.
Jaxon building his model.
Papa and Addie
Little buds Addie and Isaac, watching a movie on the iPad.
Laura Lee making her famous pazookies!! (Chocolate chip cookie dough--baked, then topped with cake batter ice cream and hot fudge..heaven!)
Mormor and Isaac
A treat from Tim Horton's!
Still working on those pazookies!
The finished product...
Me eating a little bit of heaven!!
BC trip begins...
When our time at McCall was over, I packed up the kids, and with Laura Lee in the car behind me we drove up to Maple Valley, WA. We spent the night at my cousin Kira's, and after playing there for a while the next day, drove up to Maple Ridge, BC. The first week, we had a lot of rain. The kids were dying for a chance to use the water park though, so at the first chance of sun, we jumped on it. Here are some pics of the kids at the water park, and then some shots of Papa's gardening helpers. 
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
McCall, Part 2!
So, I am sitting here in my parents kitchen. We arrived earlier this evening around 8:30 p.m. My sister-in-law, Laura Lee, drove herself and her 2 cutie kids to McCall on Saturday and spent the night there so we could caravan together up to my parents in BC. We made a pitstop at my cousin Kira's in Washington and spent a night there also. It was really fun, and besides a couple hiccups during the drive all worked out great, kids were mostly good and we survived. Jared had to drive back for work and my bro Marc also had to work. So its a girls trip! With kids. So technically doesn't count. Anyway, I want to start taking pics of this trip so wanted to finish up with the McCall images. McCall was amazing this year. Very, very relaxing and desperately needed. We all had a blast. I'm glad I was able to come up to BC directly afterward, or I might have been super depressed to go home to reality.
So the last Saturday of our stay was busy! We got up and went on a chairlift ride up the beautiful Brundage Mountain. There was a little remaining snow which the kids were ecstatic over, and the view was breathtaking. Its hard to capture in pictures, but we tried. After that we had a late lunch at the Pancake House. Hannah ordered a cinnamon roll (as did Jed) and was determined to eat the entire thing. I sure don't know where her little body put it, but she almost did eat it all. After that we played in the pool and on the beach, and took a few last minute photos of our families on the dock.
Here are some of the end favorites. The first few pictures are of Friday...a traditional Jed breakfast of buttermilk pancakes, followed by fun with cousins and lollipops and ice cream. Nothing better!
And a few fun iPhone images from along the way...
So the last Saturday of our stay was busy! We got up and went on a chairlift ride up the beautiful Brundage Mountain. There was a little remaining snow which the kids were ecstatic over, and the view was breathtaking. Its hard to capture in pictures, but we tried. After that we had a late lunch at the Pancake House. Hannah ordered a cinnamon roll (as did Jed) and was determined to eat the entire thing. I sure don't know where her little body put it, but she almost did eat it all. After that we played in the pool and on the beach, and took a few last minute photos of our families on the dock.
Here are some of the end favorites. The first few pictures are of Friday...a traditional Jed breakfast of buttermilk pancakes, followed by fun with cousins and lollipops and ice cream. Nothing better!
And a few fun iPhone images from along the way...
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
More McCall...
Today was packed with activities but I'm going to let the pictures do the talking cause I'm too tired to elaborate!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Major Catch Up!!!
We are on vacation in beautiful McCall, Idaho. Its time to catch up with the blog. I vaguely remember what was going on in my previous entry, but I do know that May and June were hard months. The first week of June, school was out, and it was pouring rain. The kids all had fevers and croup and so we were housebound. It was incredibly depressing!! I think that started my downward spiral of a month. Oh, and May 28th I had a wedding shoot--which I don't normally do. I think that wore me out so much and then I wasn't thrilled with the end results, so I had a bit of a meltdown the next day. It stunk.
Before anything else:
General conference time--bingo with their babies...
All sick at the Doctor's office!
My workout buddy (the popsicle is so he'll stop bugging me for a few minutes).
Using my new iphone:
I also had several shoots in June, so I felt overwhelmed with editing those plus having fun time with the kids in the afternoon so they didn't play video games all day. AND at the beginning of June I started a new work out plan to get me ready for this McCall trip. So the pressure of having to eat perfectly and work out every day and edit and be a good mom really caused my mind to go a little crazy. I think now that I was experiencing anxiety in a physical way and it wasn't good. June ended with a week of bad tummy problems which caused me to cut back my workouts, my supplements and ease up on the food perfection..and I think that was a blessing. I got things done, spent more time with the kids, and healed mentally and emotionally a lot. We spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa Cooper's pool with the cousins. We are lucky to have such great cousins (and aunts and uncle and grandparents) nearby. The kids have had few playdates with anyone else but their cousins and we love it cause its easy.
Mason's first lost front tooth:
Mason's scraped nose:
Got to see Cars 2, lunch first at Quiznos...
Father's Day this month was nice also, we had pre-cooked chicken, ribs, etc from Oliver's, and salads and fruit and bread and pies for dessert. It was great and I think the dads were happy. The kids all made Jared cards and gave him lots of love that day. He's an amazing dad. Getting the opportunity to think about Father's that day made me really grateful for who he is. He does so much for the kids, and enjoys it (for the most part). I really think Jared will be the one who keeps our family close through the teenage years when it can typically be a hard time. He is so connected to each child, and if he feels a separation, he fixes it. Immediately. He always makes time to snuggle with each one, and really can see each of their unique spirits. Its so comforting to me to see him adore the kids the way he does. Although, before we were even married, I knew he'd be like that. Its one of the main reasons I married him. I also feel so blessed for my own dad and father in law. Both huge influences on my life. I really admire my dad and love being able to spend time with him when we do. Which is actually next week! Well, in a couple weeks, since he will be at a scout camp the first week we're up there. But I'm pretty blessed by the fathers in my life.
So. Then comes July. July 2, I had another wedding. So we weren't able to leave for McCall til Sunday. By the end of June, with all my tummy problems, I decided to postpone 3 shoots til August and that took a huge load off my shoulders and helped me to be able to accomplish all that I needed to before we left. I did a lot of packing Friday night prior to the wedding. Saturday morning I did a quick workout, and then left for the wedding around 11:30 a.m. Jenny (Jared's sister) was assisting/second shooting that day so it was really fun to have her along. In fact I still need to go through her images and get editing those. So after the looong day of working in seriously like 95 degree heat....(the wedding was at 2 p.m. for crying out loud! In the bride's parents back yard. Sooo hot.)....I drove home at 9:30 p.m. and packed some more. We were able to leave by about 9 a.m. the next morning, which was pretty impressive! I had also had a housekeeper come Friday, so I got to take "clean the house" off my list of things to do. I was actually really looking forward to just sitting. Sitting in the car for 12 hours sounded nice. And it was great!! The kids did awesome. Watched a couple movies, played the wii for a while after we stopped for lunch, and we ate so much junk that we didn't even need to stop for dinner. We got here around 9:30 p.m. (which was actually 10:30 Idaho time). Jenna had her kids stay up and wait and so the kids got to be all excited together for a while before finally settling in to bed. I have decided to use my iphone a TON for pictures, cause I will get them on the blog here so much faster, rather than uploading them to edit before blogging. I will do that too, but for the quick version..I have the iphone pics. Today we got up and went to The Pancake House for breakfast, but it was an hour wait. Then we went to Brundage Mountain to ride the chair lift, but it was closed. So we came back and did what we do best. Swim, jet ski, and relax.
(Boat pic courtesy of Jenna's iphone!)
Off to see the 4th of July fireworks..before everyone got scared!
Before anything else:
General conference time--bingo with their babies...
All sick at the Doctor's office!
My workout buddy (the popsicle is so he'll stop bugging me for a few minutes).
Using my new iphone:
I also had several shoots in June, so I felt overwhelmed with editing those plus having fun time with the kids in the afternoon so they didn't play video games all day. AND at the beginning of June I started a new work out plan to get me ready for this McCall trip. So the pressure of having to eat perfectly and work out every day and edit and be a good mom really caused my mind to go a little crazy. I think now that I was experiencing anxiety in a physical way and it wasn't good. June ended with a week of bad tummy problems which caused me to cut back my workouts, my supplements and ease up on the food perfection..and I think that was a blessing. I got things done, spent more time with the kids, and healed mentally and emotionally a lot. We spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa Cooper's pool with the cousins. We are lucky to have such great cousins (and aunts and uncle and grandparents) nearby. The kids have had few playdates with anyone else but their cousins and we love it cause its easy.
Mason's first lost front tooth:
Mason's scraped nose:
Got to see Cars 2, lunch first at Quiznos...
Father's Day this month was nice also, we had pre-cooked chicken, ribs, etc from Oliver's, and salads and fruit and bread and pies for dessert. It was great and I think the dads were happy. The kids all made Jared cards and gave him lots of love that day. He's an amazing dad. Getting the opportunity to think about Father's that day made me really grateful for who he is. He does so much for the kids, and enjoys it (for the most part). I really think Jared will be the one who keeps our family close through the teenage years when it can typically be a hard time. He is so connected to each child, and if he feels a separation, he fixes it. Immediately. He always makes time to snuggle with each one, and really can see each of their unique spirits. Its so comforting to me to see him adore the kids the way he does. Although, before we were even married, I knew he'd be like that. Its one of the main reasons I married him. I also feel so blessed for my own dad and father in law. Both huge influences on my life. I really admire my dad and love being able to spend time with him when we do. Which is actually next week! Well, in a couple weeks, since he will be at a scout camp the first week we're up there. But I'm pretty blessed by the fathers in my life.
So. Then comes July. July 2, I had another wedding. So we weren't able to leave for McCall til Sunday. By the end of June, with all my tummy problems, I decided to postpone 3 shoots til August and that took a huge load off my shoulders and helped me to be able to accomplish all that I needed to before we left. I did a lot of packing Friday night prior to the wedding. Saturday morning I did a quick workout, and then left for the wedding around 11:30 a.m. Jenny (Jared's sister) was assisting/second shooting that day so it was really fun to have her along. In fact I still need to go through her images and get editing those. So after the looong day of working in seriously like 95 degree heat....(the wedding was at 2 p.m. for crying out loud! In the bride's parents back yard. Sooo hot.)....I drove home at 9:30 p.m. and packed some more. We were able to leave by about 9 a.m. the next morning, which was pretty impressive! I had also had a housekeeper come Friday, so I got to take "clean the house" off my list of things to do. I was actually really looking forward to just sitting. Sitting in the car for 12 hours sounded nice. And it was great!! The kids did awesome. Watched a couple movies, played the wii for a while after we stopped for lunch, and we ate so much junk that we didn't even need to stop for dinner. We got here around 9:30 p.m. (which was actually 10:30 Idaho time). Jenna had her kids stay up and wait and so the kids got to be all excited together for a while before finally settling in to bed. I have decided to use my iphone a TON for pictures, cause I will get them on the blog here so much faster, rather than uploading them to edit before blogging. I will do that too, but for the quick version..I have the iphone pics. Today we got up and went to The Pancake House for breakfast, but it was an hour wait. Then we went to Brundage Mountain to ride the chair lift, but it was closed. So we came back and did what we do best. Swim, jet ski, and relax.
(Boat pic courtesy of Jenna's iphone!)
Off to see the 4th of July fireworks..before everyone got scared!
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