Family Pictures 2012

Last weekend we had our family pictures taken.  We went to Jensen Nature Park in Syracuse.  I’m very happy with them.  Thanks to Terra Cooper for taking such awesome pictures!

Cook Family

 

Allred Family

More adventures in Bear Lake…

Thanks goodness for the cabin.  Our summer would’ve been a real bore without it.  This past weekend we invited my mom and sister, plus Mike and his family to Bear Lake.  Here are some highlights from the trip:

Eric and I celebrated our 11th anniversary! 

We played some fun games.  We are loving Settlers of Catan lately, and we tried Headbands.  We taught Owen how to play Settlers and none of us were very happy to get beaten by him on his first try.  Boo. David was the funniest at Headbands.  He just loved being included.  Ellie kept cheating and looking at her reflection in the window so she could win.

We did some boating and swimming at the beach.  The beach was kind of disappointing.  It’s not as beautiful as it used to be, but the kids still played in the water and built sand castles.  David was especially good at decorating our castle.  He did a lovely job.

Almost everyone tried the tube, and swam in the water.  Jeremy wake-boarded.  Ellie had a 40 min turn on the tube and wouldn’t get off!  Eric finally had to dump her… 

 

Sometimes at the cabin, you just have to have a nap. 

We also celebrated Olivia’s 17th birthday this weekend.  Happy Birthday Livi!

Each year in honor of Shark Week, Jeremy makes a cake.  This year there was a little extra frosting, so this is what we did…

Moustaches!

Busy Weekend

We had a busy weekend…busy but fun.  Eric had the day off on Friday and I kept him busy with mandatory family fun.  After Ellie got home from school we headed over to my parent’s house to fly kites in their back yard.  David has been asking all week if it’s “the perfect day to fly kites.”  Finally it was… up until Ellie got her finger wrapped up in the kite string and David accidentally let go of his kite and I had to chase it across my dad’s garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday night, the kids got to sleep over at my parent’s house with their cousins who were visiting from Cedar City.  A great time was had by all.  Especially by myself and Eric. 

On Saturday, we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt with the Allreds.  We had it early this year because of the visiting cousins.  It is one of my favorite traditions.  Unfortunately, David and John were especially un-photogenic on this day.  And the picture I took of all 13 grandkids was terrible.  Bad lighting.  Oh well.

Here are some cute pictures of Ellie, and some nice shots of the back of David & John’s heads…

And…the terrible shot of the grandkids.  Blah.

After the Easter egg hunt, Eric and I went to The Hunger Games.  We both really liked it.  We thought it was true to the book, more or less.  We didn’t like the shaky camera tricks.

On Sunday we spent the day with our cousins again.  We’re all worn out.  To top things off I’ve been fighting a cold all weekend.  It’s hard to get back to reality after such a full weekend.

Bear Lake

A few weeks ago we invited the Allreds to come visit the cabin with us.  It was a fun trip.  There was a lot more snow than our visit earlier in the season.  We got to go sledding, to the Bear Lake Chocolate Fair, sit in a hot tub, and just relax.  Jeremy and Josh even jumped in the freezing cold lake.  I think they must be crazy!

Here are Ellie and David having their faces painted at the Chocolate Fair.  David was feeling shy.  The Fair had about a million booths all selling wonderful things to eat, crafts, jewelry, you name it. 

The kids must’ve had a good time because this is how they crashed each night.  They love having “sleepovers.”

My cousin Claire was able to join us at the cabin.  She is from Alabama, and this was her first time sledding.   The kids all adore Claire.  They hardly give her a minute to herself.

The boys went down the hill all by themselves.  David even hauled his sled back up a couple times.  They had a blast. 

Absolute Madness.   Here are the boys after their freezing cold jump.

It was an awesome weekend.