So, after we got a little settled in here in Utah, we got to go on a really fun trip with Faith and Tyce to Tyce’ grandmother’s cabin in Bear Lake. The first day we went on a little hike and the next day we tried to go swimming, although it ended up being rather cold and rainy so we ended up playing games for most of the day. Then on the third morning we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground (yes, it is June!). And even though I was rather cold, it was a very fun trip. We are looking forward to many fun trips with you guys in the future!
Showing posts with label Cabin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cabin. Show all posts
24 June 2008
14 March 2008
Long Lost California Photos
So, I've been having a bit of a rough week. Since we got back to Milwaukee almost two months ago I have been doing such a good job of always doing the dishes immediately after they are used and keeping up on cleaning the house a little bit here and there all the time so there is never a big mess that will take hours to clean -- and it feels really nice to have it clean all the time. This week we got extra busy, even though I was thinking that things couldn't get much more busy with Michael being gone early every morning and me taking the kids back and forth to school all the time, keeping up with the housework, and running all the errands. But our van got totaled and we were looking for a new one. We found one we really liked that was in our price range, but the bank that the car dealer tried to get us financing with turned us down for the loan of a few thousand dollars that we needed after we used the pay-out from the totaled van. Because Michael doesn't have a job and we therefore have no income (and no, they don't count the student loan money that we live off of as income), we are considered "high risk" and they wouldn't give us a loan. I was concerned that we were not going to be able to get a loan anywhere, and that the van that we liked would get sold to someone else while we were trying to figure out the financing, and then we would be stuck without anything because the other guy's insurance company would only pay for a rental car for 4 days after our van was totaled. Anyways, we ended up going to our bank and they didn't give us any problems (although they did give us a nice high interest rate -- but we aren't too concerned about that since it is a small loan and we should have it paid off before too long). Anyways, we got our "new" (2001) minivan, and we love it! But I was rather stressed out this week with the whole process of trying to get it paid for and all the other little things that had to be taken care of (and several that still do) with the van being totaled, getting a loan, and getting the new van. So, all the normal everyday things got put on hold and I was yelling at the kids a lot more than I know I should have been the last few days. Today has been better. One of the things that got put on hold was the cleaning, so in a matter of one or two days the entire house looked like a hurricane had gone through. We suddenly had four-day old dishes sitting in the sink, the kids had gotten food all over the floor that hadn't been swept in days, there were little piles of "stuff" all over all the furniture and countertops, there were loads of unfolded laundry, and toys, clothes, blankets, and other assorted things were spread all over the floors. So, besides being stressed about the car stuff I had also lost that good feeling from having the house nice and clean. It took two days to do all the dishes, scrub the kitchen floor, pick up all the stuff around, and get it looking nice again. And then, when I had a minute to "relax," I started thinking of all the unfinished things that I would like to catch up on. (Yeah, sounds really relaxing, huh?) One of those things is getting caught up on posting all the photos and videos from our trips and from after that on the blog. I keep thinking I will just not worry about the photos from January, since that was so long ago, but then I look at them and think, how could I not include the pictures of Kolby's first time skiing and all the other fun stuff we did? So, I am still going to try to catch up. I think I'll just make a few big slideshows of all the photos, though, instead of taking the time to upload each one separately, then hopefully I can get caught up quicker. (By the way, I am feeling a little better these last couple of days. Not so stressed, even though I still feel like there are still a ton of things that we need to get done. But I feel a little less like I am drowning now, and even though it’s probably only about 30 degrees outside I have bright sunshine streaming in through my window at the moment, so maybe this depressing winter will actually come to an end sometime in the next few months. At least we have another good day to look forward to – Match Day is only 6 days away. Next Thursday we find out where we are going for residency. And then that night we are going to go out to dinner to celebrate (hopefully it will be a celebration). [Anyone up for babysitting four adorable little boys that night for us?] :)
These are the photos of our trip to my parent's cabin in Mammoth Lakes, California in January (Mammoth is six hours north of San Diego, near Yosemite). We always have so much fun in Mammoth. Camden was being especially cute the first night up there when the cabin was not yet heated up and I wrapped him in a big down blanket on the bed -- he was all smiles. My brothers, Matthew and Aaron, had a lot of fun playing with the boys. And the one picture of the three older boys shows how deep the snow was on their back deck -- just about as deep as Camden was tall. I love the photo of Camden folding his arms for prayers -- I had to take a picture of this before he starts growing up and is big enough to reach his arms all the way across his little belly; I just love that he rests his little arms across the top of his chest when we tell him to fold his arms for prayers! And then there are the pictures of Kolby skiing, of course. That was so fun! And Kolby was lucky to have my dad as his ski instructor. And then the last photo is of Eli in his uncle Aaron's old "moose hat." Pretty cute!
These are the photos of our trip to my parent's cabin in Mammoth Lakes, California in January (Mammoth is six hours north of San Diego, near Yosemite). We always have so much fun in Mammoth. Camden was being especially cute the first night up there when the cabin was not yet heated up and I wrapped him in a big down blanket on the bed -- he was all smiles. My brothers, Matthew and Aaron, had a lot of fun playing with the boys. And the one picture of the three older boys shows how deep the snow was on their back deck -- just about as deep as Camden was tall. I love the photo of Camden folding his arms for prayers -- I had to take a picture of this before he starts growing up and is big enough to reach his arms all the way across his little belly; I just love that he rests his little arms across the top of his chest when we tell him to fold his arms for prayers! And then there are the pictures of Kolby skiing, of course. That was so fun! And Kolby was lucky to have my dad as his ski instructor. And then the last photo is of Eli in his uncle Aaron's old "moose hat." Pretty cute!
23 January 2008
This Past Week
So, we just got home from skiing in Mammoth Lakes, California over the long weekend. Michael returned to San Diego two days ago with my dad and Aaron because he had to leave for his New York City interview early yesterday morning. Mom, Matthew, the boys, and I stayed an extra day and returned last night. Mom and Matthew went skiing in the morning yesterday and mom came home and watched the boys for me so I could ski in the afternoon. There was nice new powder on the mountain and Matthew and I had a lot of fun skiing through the trees. (For anyone who likes to ski at Mammoth, we found a really fun run yesterday -- if you take lift #5 up and go off the back side of the mountain, after you get past the first part of the run that is a little steep, go through the trees over on the right side of the run and it is a very nice run, especially if there is a foot or two of powder on the ground).
Oh, and on Monday we had a lot of fun because Kolby got to go skiing for the first time. Kids under the age of 6 ski for free at Mammoth, so we took advantage of that. He was so cute in his ski clothes, helmet and goggles and all. And his little skis were so tiny. We rode up the gondola to get to the ski mountain, and that was a major highlight of the trip for him. Once we got on the hill, he had a lot of fun. My dad gave him a little ski lesson and he did well for his first time. He went up the little rope tow lift on the bunny hill a couple of times before he said he didn't want to do that anymore and we went on a chair lift up higher on the bunny hill. He saw some little jumps on the way up and said he wanted to do that. Then we went up Schoolyard lift and had a last good run down that hill. It's a good thing that my dad is such a good skier, because he was able to ski with Kolby and then kind of hold him up on the steeper part of the hill and get him to the parts that he could try skiing on his own. At the very end Kolby got tired and we took off his skis and Dad skied down to the bottom of the hill with Kolby on his shoulders -- I wish we had a video of that part. We did get some clips and photos of Kolby skiing which I will definitely post later on. That sure was a fun experience to see him ski -- Michael commented that he is looking forward to when we can ski with all of our boys.
Anyways, we left the cabin last night around 7pm and got to the house a little after 1am. We got the car unpacked and the kids in to bed, and I went to sleep around 2am. Isaac woke up to eat at 4am, and I woke up holding him on my lap on the couch at 5am and found the empty bottle sitting on the floor at my feet. Then, because Isaac has had a bit of a stuffy nose the last couple of days, he woke up at 6am and I got him to go back to sleep by giving him his pacifier. Then he woke up again at 7am, and since I could hear Camden starting to talk through the baby monitor I gave up on the idea of sleep and just got up. So I'm kind of out of it today, but that extra day of skiing was worth it all.
I wrote our weekly update on Sunday afternoon, so here it is:
Well, I am writing this on Sunday, January 20th, even though I won’t have a chance to post it until we get back to the house in San Diego and have internet access. Right now we are in Mammoth – about 6 hours north of San Diego – at my parents’ cabin. We got up here late Friday night and Michael arrived yesterday evening with my dad – Michael had an interview he was flying in from and Dad had a business meeting yesterday morning, so they came up later. It’s nice being up here. I think the thing I like the most about coming to the cabin is that there is no school or work or other errands to run, so everyone is together hanging out the whole time. There’s about 8 feet of snow on the ground outside, and some of us got a chance to go skiing yesterday. In the morning I went with Mom and Aaron while Matthew watched the boys and then Mom traded in the afternoon and Matthew joined us. I love to ski. We had a lot of fun, especially going off some jumps and doing quite a few black diamond runs. Matthew and Aaron have both passed me up – they are both faster and better skiers than I am now since I’ve been out of practice for a while (and I am more cautious than I used to be). But I think I did a pretty good job of keeping up.
Before we came up to Mammoth, we also had several other fun things happen this week. Last weekend we went to the stake conference meeting at my parents’ church. We really enjoyed the Saturday evening meeting, which focused on parenting. One of the speakers had five boys (so we felt like we could relate to lots of the experiences he shared). One idea that he shared was to not only have one night each week devoted to family time, but to have another night each week devoted to individual time with each child. We liked that idea, especially with all of our boys being so close in age. I think we are going to try doing that once we get back from vacation – one night a week one of us will take one of the boys out and let them pick a fun activity to do. That should be fun.
Since we last wrote, Michael has had several interviews. He has been to Cincinnati Ohio, Dayton Ohio, Spokane Washington, Gainesville Florida, and Rochester New York. He had good experiences at all of these interviews, and it looks like it is going to be difficult to choose how we are going to rank all the programs because there are so many good ones to choose from. And I am glad that Michael only has one interview left to fly to – he is going to New York city this week. Then the only others he has left are a transitional year interview in San Diego a few days before we leave, and one last transitional year one in La Crosse, Wisconsin that we are all planning on driving to as a family the day after we get back to Milwaukee.
On Monday Erin Devenberg, my best friend from high school, came and visited. She and her mom came and stayed for lunch, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with them. It was great to see her again, and she got to come back for another short visit on Friday morning before we left. I can’t believe it had been over four years since I had seen Erin before that – she had never even seen any of the boys before – but she moved to Redding (in northern California) several years ago and we just hadn’t been able to make it to San Diego at the same time since then. It was nice to talk and catch up on each others’ lives.
I have also had fun playing ping pong with Michael, Matthew, and Aaron several times. Mom and I had fun looking at some model homes and going on several fun shopping trips. I’m sure that there are lots of other fun things we did since we last posted, but I’m drawing a blank right now. Hope you are all doing well.
Oh, and on Monday we had a lot of fun because Kolby got to go skiing for the first time. Kids under the age of 6 ski for free at Mammoth, so we took advantage of that. He was so cute in his ski clothes, helmet and goggles and all. And his little skis were so tiny. We rode up the gondola to get to the ski mountain, and that was a major highlight of the trip for him. Once we got on the hill, he had a lot of fun. My dad gave him a little ski lesson and he did well for his first time. He went up the little rope tow lift on the bunny hill a couple of times before he said he didn't want to do that anymore and we went on a chair lift up higher on the bunny hill. He saw some little jumps on the way up and said he wanted to do that. Then we went up Schoolyard lift and had a last good run down that hill. It's a good thing that my dad is such a good skier, because he was able to ski with Kolby and then kind of hold him up on the steeper part of the hill and get him to the parts that he could try skiing on his own. At the very end Kolby got tired and we took off his skis and Dad skied down to the bottom of the hill with Kolby on his shoulders -- I wish we had a video of that part. We did get some clips and photos of Kolby skiing which I will definitely post later on. That sure was a fun experience to see him ski -- Michael commented that he is looking forward to when we can ski with all of our boys.
Anyways, we left the cabin last night around 7pm and got to the house a little after 1am. We got the car unpacked and the kids in to bed, and I went to sleep around 2am. Isaac woke up to eat at 4am, and I woke up holding him on my lap on the couch at 5am and found the empty bottle sitting on the floor at my feet. Then, because Isaac has had a bit of a stuffy nose the last couple of days, he woke up at 6am and I got him to go back to sleep by giving him his pacifier. Then he woke up again at 7am, and since I could hear Camden starting to talk through the baby monitor I gave up on the idea of sleep and just got up. So I'm kind of out of it today, but that extra day of skiing was worth it all.
I wrote our weekly update on Sunday afternoon, so here it is:
Well, I am writing this on Sunday, January 20th, even though I won’t have a chance to post it until we get back to the house in San Diego and have internet access. Right now we are in Mammoth – about 6 hours north of San Diego – at my parents’ cabin. We got up here late Friday night and Michael arrived yesterday evening with my dad – Michael had an interview he was flying in from and Dad had a business meeting yesterday morning, so they came up later. It’s nice being up here. I think the thing I like the most about coming to the cabin is that there is no school or work or other errands to run, so everyone is together hanging out the whole time. There’s about 8 feet of snow on the ground outside, and some of us got a chance to go skiing yesterday. In the morning I went with Mom and Aaron while Matthew watched the boys and then Mom traded in the afternoon and Matthew joined us. I love to ski. We had a lot of fun, especially going off some jumps and doing quite a few black diamond runs. Matthew and Aaron have both passed me up – they are both faster and better skiers than I am now since I’ve been out of practice for a while (and I am more cautious than I used to be). But I think I did a pretty good job of keeping up.
Before we came up to Mammoth, we also had several other fun things happen this week. Last weekend we went to the stake conference meeting at my parents’ church. We really enjoyed the Saturday evening meeting, which focused on parenting. One of the speakers had five boys (so we felt like we could relate to lots of the experiences he shared). One idea that he shared was to not only have one night each week devoted to family time, but to have another night each week devoted to individual time with each child. We liked that idea, especially with all of our boys being so close in age. I think we are going to try doing that once we get back from vacation – one night a week one of us will take one of the boys out and let them pick a fun activity to do. That should be fun.
Since we last wrote, Michael has had several interviews. He has been to Cincinnati Ohio, Dayton Ohio, Spokane Washington, Gainesville Florida, and Rochester New York. He had good experiences at all of these interviews, and it looks like it is going to be difficult to choose how we are going to rank all the programs because there are so many good ones to choose from. And I am glad that Michael only has one interview left to fly to – he is going to New York city this week. Then the only others he has left are a transitional year interview in San Diego a few days before we leave, and one last transitional year one in La Crosse, Wisconsin that we are all planning on driving to as a family the day after we get back to Milwaukee.
On Monday Erin Devenberg, my best friend from high school, came and visited. She and her mom came and stayed for lunch, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with them. It was great to see her again, and she got to come back for another short visit on Friday morning before we left. I can’t believe it had been over four years since I had seen Erin before that – she had never even seen any of the boys before – but she moved to Redding (in northern California) several years ago and we just hadn’t been able to make it to San Diego at the same time since then. It was nice to talk and catch up on each others’ lives.
I have also had fun playing ping pong with Michael, Matthew, and Aaron several times. Mom and I had fun looking at some model homes and going on several fun shopping trips. I’m sure that there are lots of other fun things we did since we last posted, but I’m drawing a blank right now. Hope you are all doing well.
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