Traveling

Word got around to my extended family that I was going to make the 12 hour road trip out to Utah by myself with the kids while almost 32 weeks pregnant. So one day about a month before I was going to leave, my sweet uncle who lives in Utah called me and said, "Hey Nats! My girls have been dying to see Wicked out there in San Francisco. I was thinking of sending them out there this fall, but what if I had them come out there this summer instead? Then they could help you out with the road trip on the way out to Utah!"

Win-win, right? Well.... it was definitely a HUGE win for me!

We had a BLAST with them in town. My aunt and 2 of her daughters came in town on a Sunday night. Monday we took them to the beach for them to enjoy an authentically cold Nor Cal beach experience.

(Left to right: Sarah--Senior in HS, Aunt Annie, and Emma--Sophomore in HS)

Apparently the kids didn't get the memo that it was FREEZING!

This is classic Cole:
Fearless in meeting new people--especially loves strangers.

And I love this shot of Annie right after she got soaked by a wave. Did I mention that it was freezing!? I know I would have been crying too!

I don't know which aspect of this picture I love more... the shocked look on Whitney's face, or the drowned rat look on Annie. Such a great moment.

The next day my sister came up with the most brilliant plan: she would watch all of our (6!) kids while I took the girls on the San Francisco tour. I say brilliant because I know I got the better end of the deal! ha ha. Really! Usually my sister and I will take our visitors into the city and make a big scene with all of our kids. But this time it was SO different. The gals and I were able to zip through the city without the stress of buckling kids in/out of carseats, worrying about naptime, or losing anyone along the way. I can't wait to repay my sister next time her relatives come in town b/c she has to experience the city kid-less. Such a difference!

I am so bummed that I didn't bring my camera along because we hit up some great sites: Lombard Street, Chinatown, the Wharf (complete with clam chowder in a bread bowl for lunch, sea lions, and all the touristy things), Ghirardelli Square, the Golden Gate bridge, and even the Full House (remember that old TV show?) houses.

Visiting the "Full House" Houses was Sarah's idea, and it did not disappoint. It was my first time to that park, and we got there in the late afternoon while the sun was casting the most beautiful light on the homes and city. So sad I didn't have my camera with me. Credit for the photo above goes to Wikipedia, by the way.

After the Full House viewing I dropped the girls off downtown so they could get a bite to eat for dinner and then see WICKED! I zipped home to greet my munchkins who had had a blast at my sister's house all day. (I guess when you call it a "Cousin Party" and have an organized day of activities like my sister did, then it turns into a day of fun instead of a day of being babysat!)

Annie, Sarah, and Emma said the show was great. Since I'm such an awesome hostess, I told them how to use public transportation to come back to my place at midnight. And then I showed them my awesome hostessing skills again by waking them up at 6am the next morning to hop in the car with me and drive 12 hours to Utah. PAR-TAY!!

The road trip could not have gone any more smoothly. Sarah and Emma were total CHAMPS with the kids in the back half of the car. Those girls supplied treats, DVDs, camp songs, and literally hours of entertainment for my kids. I could not have done it without them. My Aunt Annie saved me by helping me drive, getting the kids Happy Meals (MAJOR treat!), and treating the kids to ICEEs. Is it any wonder why our road trip was so great?!

The very best part of the whole visit was the special bond that my kids were able to form with these 3 ladies. Just yesterday Annie was talking about her birthday party and who she is going to invite: "Whitney, Cole, Aunt Annie, Sarah, and Emma!" It's been almost a month since we've seen them and the kids still and talk about them and sing the songs that the girls taught them.

What a blessing to build the love, friendship, and bond with extended family! We can't wait to see them again.

Trip to Denver

After dropping off my aunt and cousins in their city, we drove a few more minutes down to Grandma Nelson's house! The kids saw the "G" on the mountain near her place and immediately declared it to be "Grandma Mountain." (Thank you Google images for the picture!)

The kids got out of the car and ran around for a few hours before we put them to bed. The next morning, Linda (Grandma Nelson) and I took the kids on an 8 hour drive east to Colorado for a Nelson Family Reunion. Linda was so kind to not only drive her car out to Colorado, but she also did all the driving. Have I mentioned before that this gal is a total animal?!

Some of our Colorado highlights include:

* Staying with this beautiful family for about a week!

(Kris, Marlie, Wesley, and Jackson) 

While we were there, Marlie had an ultrasound and discovered she is having a baby girl in December. We are excited for our second female Nelson cousin to join the crew! :) Marlie was the queen hostess with me and my kids, our other sister-in-law, Danica, and her kids, and her mom all in her house. 7 kids under one roof--the oldest was 6. Yes, Marlie is the bomb!

* Tyler flying in for a quick weekend visit and going to a Rockies Baseball Game with everyone. Tyler and his brother picked out each others' outfits. Hence Tyler's purple and orange clothes...

* An Amusement Park

* The Family Reunion, of course!

* Seeing this cute family that we haven't seen since Annie was 3 months old!

Zack graduated dental school in May and recently moved his family from Pennsylvania to St. Louis where he started up an orthodontic residency. Yay for another dentist in the fam! We had never met their little girl (Cami) before, and she did not disappoint! So much fun being with them.

* Spending time with just the siblings/spouses. Linda was always offering to babysit kids so we could spend time together as adult siblings. It should be against the law to make a pregnant lady laugh as hard as I was laughing while we were all together. Way too much fun.

* Hanging out at Marlie's pool:

* Visiting the local Butterfly Pavillion:

This was our 3rd time to Colorado as well as our 3rd time to this museum. The kids LOVE this place!

They especially loved holding Rosie the tarantula:

I have never held that spider, and I never plan to! No thank you!

After 6 days, Linda and I made the 8 hour trek back to Utah together with only 2 incidents: Annie throwing up and me feeling sick. Yuck.

Playing in Utah

My mom's extended family (the Kjars) would be throwing a big reunion/60th wedding anniversary celebration for my grandparents exactly 2 Saturdays after the Nelson reunion. So my in-laws let me and the kids hang out with them for a few days in between our return from Colorado and the time when my family would be coming in town to hang out together.

Unfortunately I was feeling under the weather and didn't get very many pictures of the fun things we did with Grandma and Grandpa Nelson. But we're grateful that we have memories in our hearts of:

* Little Pup--Grandma's dog that the kids tortured and took on walks every minute of every day.

* The Dinosaur Museum--Grandma took Whitney and Cole while I stayed home sick and Annie napped.

* Linda taking me up to Salt Lake one night for a girls' night out for dinner and a beautiful violin concert.

* Grandma's community pool--the coolest place with a lazy river, HUGE slides, a great toddler play area, and one of those surfing machines. Can't wait to go back next time we visit.

* Jumping on the trampoline and enjoying the beautiful summer weather

One morning we left Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's house to drive up and visit with my dad (Grandpa Harrison) and my grandma (the kids' great-Grammie Harrison). After playing with them, we drove down to a different town to meet up with my mom and step-dad (Grandma and Grandpa Decker). The next morning while we were driving up to see Nana and Grampa Kjar (their great-grandparents), the kids were asking all sorts of relative questions: "Do Nana and Grampa have Little Pup?" and "Will we go fishing with Grandpa Harrison?" I think they were just a little bit confused on which grandparents we were seeing when. Oh well; when you're in town, you got to pack it all in. Sorry for any confusion, kids!

Here are some of the Utah memories I have in pictures:

* Visiting with my Dad and Grammie Harrison at Sugar House park 2 different times:

Grandpa Harrison was the coolest grandpa around as he bought the kids ice cream from the ice cream truck and introduced my kids to KFC for some great picnicking memories. My kids were so proud of themselves for eating "chicken with bones in it!"

Here's a picture of the 4 of us siblings with my Dad and Grammie:

Thanks to my sis-in-law, Ashlee, for the picture! :)

* Having fun at the house my mom and step-dad rented for us all to stay in for a week. We set up a homemade slip n slide for the kids in the backyard. It was pretty funny for us adults to watch the kids run along the tarp, slip, and then say, "OW!" in a surprised/that-wasn't-fun tone.

* My Texas family surprising me and my brother and his wife with a dual baby shower one evening:

They sent my brother, his wife, and me out to run some errands, and when we came back and they had set up this! The kids all jumped out and yelled, "SURPRISE!!"  With this being my 4th kid, I haven't really thought about getting any new things. I have just assumed that I had everything that I needed already. I thought it was so sweet of my mom and step-dad to shower us with new things for this little girl. Thankfully I had my van to haul all my loot back to California.

* Seeing my brothers again. They both live in Texas and the 4 of us siblings just don't get together often enough!

* Attending the Kjar (pronounced "Care") Reunion. This was one of my final days in town, and by then I was feeling better and up for taking more pictures.

There was a Western Theme and plenty of crafts and activities for the kids. Here is Whitney showing off her stuff.

At the back of the lodge, there was a hill where my mom and others set up a massive slip-n-slide. Obviously a hit!

Is my Aunt Annie not an angel for taking Annie down the ride? Clearly not something this 34 week-along pregnant lady was going to do. 

Speaking of things I was not doing... watching my kids might have been on that list. Every time I turned around, someone else was watching my kids, and I couldn't be more grateful for all the help.

I had a great time catching up with all my cousins that I haven't seen for years; it was such a blessing to be getting over my sickness and to have so many helping hands while Tyler wasn't there. Sarah and Emma are amazing selfless girls!!

One side story: we went up to my grandparents to swim at their pool one day before the reunion, and Cole saw Aunt Annie, Sarah, and Emma drive up. He ran to their car and shouted, "YOU CAME BACK!!!" I'm telling you, these kids will not be forgetting this family's love and kindness anytime soon!

We played musical chairs with different age groups:

Nana and Grampa ended up being the last two left in the adult group of musical chairs, and Gramps spontaneously broke out in dancing with Nana instead of dooking (sp?) it out for the final chair.

Please look at Nana and Grampa's posterity. Everyone was able to make it but Tyler and my other cousin and her family with 4 little kids. Nana and Grampa's 6 kids are along the back row; siblings sitting in chairs in their birth order, and their spouses standing behind them.

P.S.--4 of us are pregnant in this picture. Guess that means there will be even more great-grandkids for the next reunion. I can hardly grasp my head around celebrating 60 years of marriage--let alone having a HUGE posterity like this! I think it's amazing.

By the end of the day, the kids were ready to get in bed and even go home to California. It had been TONS of fun, but I think everyone was missing daddy and needing their own space. I found Cole multiple times here:

waiting for me to come to the car and get on the road.

The kids and I headed out at 6am on my 8th anniversary to make the 12 hour trek back home. Thankfully my sister and her husband caravanned (is that a word?) with me. It was comforting to have an extra driver to help out if I was feeling tired, and the kids loved switching carseats around for parts of the drive. When we got home that night, Tyler greeted us with this:

I thought it was so cute of him! He knows the way to my heart--via cookie cake. Too bad my anniversary gift to him was a hug and hyper road-filmy kids. Eh... it's just 8 years, right?

Okay, that's it for now. After a post this long, you can tell that I am obviously in nesting mode as I try to catch up before the baby comes. :)