Hollywood Studios

For our first day in the parks, we visited Disney's Hollywood studios.  This was pretty much a perfect day!  The weather was hot, but not ridiculously so.  A short rain in the afternoon brought a welcome cooling effect.  We loved the Tower of Terror, Rockin' Rollercoaster and many other rides and shows.  Several of us got to meet Mickey and other characters.  So much fun!!!

All of the characters were so good about letting Lexi and Conner "see" them with their hands.

We were all in the front row of Tower of Terror.  Everyone except me seemed to know when the picture was coming.  What the heck is that expression on my face???

Apparently I knew when this shot was coming!

Goodbye Hollywood Studios!

Best. Trip. Ever!!!

In spring of 2016, Christi and I sat down with the kids and we discussed the possibility of a really neat family vacation.  Everyone was super excited about the idea.  The two most popular suggestions were a cruise or Disney.  We decided it was something we could all work towards.  The older kids committed to contributing $300 each and the younger kids would contribute $150.  So without making a final decision on what we would do, everyone started working towards the vacation.  As we got into winter, the only thing we asked Santa for was help with our trip.  On Christmas morning we got an awesome surprise!  Santa was going to help us to do both!  A cruise and Disney World!!!  We were so excited.  Because of all our adoption trips to China, we had enough frequent flier miles and hotel points to fly everyone to Florida for free and to stay in a hotel in Orlando for free.  WOW!!!

We had to leave early on the morning of Monday, April 3.  Our flight left at 5:15 am.  (When you use miles, the flights are free but not convenient!)  We boarded the plane, and just before we were supposed to pull away from the gate, the pilot announced a 5 minute delay...which turned into an hour delay...which turned into everyone deplaning and having to re-book.  With our group of 11 people, they couldn't get us all on one flight. I ended up going through Houston with six of the kids and Christi took the other three through Chicago.  But we all got to Orlando that night, which was somewhat of a miracle:)

 On the plane and ready to go.  This was before we had to deplane

Back in the airport:

My group in Houston eating dinner.  This restaurant had pleasant memories for me.  Christi and I ate here on the way home from a trip we took together a few years ago.

Conner got to help his group fly to Chicago!

It wasn't a great start, but we figured something had to go wrong on 13-day trip so it was good to get it out of the way up front:)

Summer Work Trips:)

I occasionally have to drive to southern Utah and stay overnight for work.  During the summer months I always take some of the kids with me when I go.  Usually we head to Cedar City.  We swim in a hotel pool and go out to dinner and see a movie.  But last week I went down to Moab.  I dropped Xander, Lexi and Sophi off in Ferron with Grandma and Grandpa Nelson.  The kids were so excited to be able to stay with them for two nights.  (To any of my children who are reading this, remember how awesome it is to have grandparents who live within reasonable driving distance!  Don't move across the country once you have kids!!!)

Of course it was a wonderful getaway for all of us.  While I was overnight in Moab, I hiked out to one of my favorite places on earth: Corona Arch.

Bowtie arch is a "pothole arch," meaning the water pooled above and eroded through over millennia.

Corona Arch

To give you an idea of the scale of this massive arch, here are two pictures of it with people directly underneath.

The people are the tiny dots towards the right side of the arch opening.

Also, this complete awesomeness was filmed at Corona Arch (sadly I was not one of the participants;)

Meanwhile, the kids were kept entertained with a visit to the community pool, Millsite state park and the complete joy of staying with grandparents.  Sophi and Lexi got in some sewing with Grandma:

Lexi made a pillow for her stuffed animals.

Sophi made a sleeping bag for Cooper, her new, very lifelike, puppy.

 And Xander was schooled in the finer points of shooting BBs by Grandpa:

And since six of the kids were gone on trek, Christi had close to three full days with just Elli at home.  Not exactly a vacation for her, but a bit of a respite:)

Family Night with the Greens:)

Every Monday night our family gathers for an evening together.  It is something our church has advocated for years, and it something the kids really look forward to each week.  (Admittedly, the older they get, the less they look forward to it.  But honestly, even the older kids usually enjoy it and they are always really good sports about it!)  We open with a song and a prayer, we have a lesson and an activity and a treat and close with another song and prayer.  Sometimes the activities are really short, sometimes we go to a park or a movie.  But it really is nice to have a night where everyone knows we will be spending time together as a family.

Yesterday had been a hard day at work and I really wanted an activity that would take my mind off of those stresses.  So I came up with this: anyone who wanted to could put their name in a hat.  (Those who did not want to participate just watched the hilarity:)  We would draw one name as the winner, who would then get to spray one of the other people with the hose for 12 seconds.  But we wouldn't know who was going to get sprayed until the water hit us.

Parker won the draw and the rest of the brave souls (Lexi, Sophi, Xander, Jesi, Christi, Taylor and me) lined up in the back yard.  Parker walked back and forth behind us, sometimes squirting the water near us, to ramp up the tension.  At the beginning you can hear Graci narrating the events to Conner.  Then you hear poor Lexi asking Xander "who got squirted?" because she kept hearing Parker tormenting us with the hose.  I also love Lexi's squeal when Parker gets even vaguely close to her.  Park did a great job of making us all squirm and definitely chose the victim with the biggest payoff:)

Parker ready to dish it out.

All of us lined up and ready to take our medicine!

Best dance moves ever!!!

I love our family💖

-Jer

Lost!

Sweet Sophi is absolutely enamored with her stuffed animals.  She has dozens of them and has named  and cares deeply about each one of them.  She plays with them and pets them.  She ties ropes to laundry baskets and gives them rides around the house.  She defends them vociferously if any of her siblings treats them in an unkind manner.

On Thursday I took Sophi, Xander and Lexi to Ferron.  They stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while I went down to Moab for work.  On our trip down we stopped at McDonald's.  I told the kids they could each get a $1.00 drink and something from the value menu.  Then Sophi saw the display for the current toy available with a Happy Meal.  It was a Beanie Boo!  Sophi delights in these darling little palm-sized animals, and I was wise enough to just give in before it could become a power struggle.

Me: "A Beanie Boo comes with the Happy Meal?  Then of course you can get one!"
Sophi: "Yay!"
Xander: "Wait, if Sophi can get a Happy Meal then why can't I get..."
Me: "Suck it up, buttercup!"

And so Sophi's life was enriched with a 2.5 inch tall stuffed penguin named Waddles.  She loved Waddles in Ferron.  She loved Waddles on the drive back home.  Then tragedy struck.  Waddles was gone.  We don't know where he wandered off to.  We have searched the car and the house with vim and vigor, but Waddles is nowhere to be seen.  Sophi really struggled with this Saturday night.  Tears were shed.  Prayers were uttered.  All to no avail.  But her indomitable shone through.  The next morning, Sophi was determined to enlist the aid of all those around her to find her beloved pet.  Much as someone might do if they lost a cat or a dog, she created posters and plastered them up around the house:).  These are four different posters she made:

They are on the fridge, the microwave and two walls.  Dear Waddles remains top of mind with all of us.  If you notice a very small penguin that looks like he doesn't know which way home is, please call!

-Jer

In the desert west...

...we don't deal with hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes or many other natural disasters.  You may, however, take the garbage out one evening and find a visitor right next to your house!

Xander was the first to see it and called us all out. It was kind of eerie to see Sophi's little shovel in the dirt practically next to this 3-foot-long rattler!  Thanks to our jack-of-all-trades neighbor Bob Harris for wrangling this thing for us:)  BTW...in 20+ years of life in Utah, this is the first rattlesnake I've seen in a residential area.

Bob gave the snake to a another family in the neighborhood who had the intestinal fortitude necessary to skin and preserve the snake for posterity.  They brought it over for us to look at.  I can't believe how unafraid Lexi and Sophi were.  Yes, that is Sophi's cute little foot showing me the severed head. Xander was pretty proud that he survived a face to face encounter with the thing while it was still alive!

Fun times!

-Jer

Xander's First Overnight Backpacking Trip

A couple of weeks ago I had the fantastic opportunity to go with Xander's scout troop on an overnight hiking trip.  This was Xander's first backpacking campout, so we kept his pack relatively light at 22 pounds.  We went to Fifth Water Hot Springs in Diamond Fork Canyon.  The hike itself was beautiful.  We went in about 3 miles with an elevation gain of about 800 feet, so not too steep.  Once we set up camp, we enjoyed soaking in the natural spring water.  It was a bit slimy, but lots of fun!  Xander did very well and is excited to try some more aggressive trips with Dad and his older brothers later this summer.  I love the outdoors!

Learning from the scoutmaster.

That's my hammock:)

I wish it could capture the beauty of the falls.

I love the snow capped mountains peeking out in the background!