Last Minute Road Trip

At the end of August, Jennie Barney and I started texting and it came up whether or not we were coming to Utah during Fall Break.  We had thought about it but planned a family trip to California later in October so Matt couldn't take more time off.  But once Jennie mentioned it, I couldn't get it out of my head.  It had been nearly two years since we've seen the Barneys and we've both had babies since the last time we saw each other.  I asked Britt if she was interested in tagging along with me; she has friends that live near where we'd be traveling to.  She was onboard so I made a plan to spend Fall Break in Utah with the Barneys!

It's a 12 hour drive from our home to theirs, which was pretty daunting with five kids in tow.  I busted out all the stops.  I prepared a travel bag with new pads of paper, mini markers, brand new crayons and colored pencils, Color Wonder, new reading books, trivia books and grade appropriate Brain Quests, travel Bingo and new DS games for the older three.  The iPod touch was charged for Preston and the DVD players were all hooked up.  I started the trip off by handing out a laminated License Plate Game sheet with stickers and that kept the kids occupied for a good while.  I promised them that if they found 20 different states, I'd get them an ice cream cone.  Surprisingly, we saw 28 different license plates just between here and there!  I was amazed at how well they traveled.  We made several stops for gas, food, potty breaks but we made good time considering.

The weather was remarkable and a welcome change from our 90 degree "Fall" weather!  The kids played outside for hours and hours!  

We were able to meet up with Trenda Tuesday night for a yummy dinner at Zuppa's.  We chatted and laughed til the place closed down!

The next day, we met up with the Poulters again at Gardner Village to hunt witches!

A little nibble for the baby girl

It's hard to believe that we met 8 years ago when optometry school started-  we just had the twins, the Barneys just had one kid and the Poulters were pregnant with their first.  Look at the crowd we have now!

It was so fun watching Hayden and Josie play together!  They were born just three weeks apart!

Thursday afternoon, we headed over to the rec center and spent a couple hours swimming.  Hayden was a mad woman, splashing and crawling all over the place!

Friday morning, we woke up to an overcast, rainy day.  We decided to drive up to Salt Lake City to the This Is The Place Heritage Park, hoping that the rain would subside.  Once we got there, it was evident  that that was not happening, so we decided to spend the rest of our day indoors at the Gateway Children's Museum.

Preston said some pretty funny things while we were there.

While at WalMart picking up some groceries, just him and I:
P- "Are we still in Utah?"
Me- "Yes, buddy, we are."
P- "This WalMart is in Utah?!?"

P- "I want to move to Utah.  Can we pick up our house and move it here?"

P to Jennie, while helping her dig potatoes in the garden- "This one has a weinie!"  I think that was a bit of a shocker to a mom of all girls! haha

P to Weston- "You guys have like a hundred temples here!!" (true!)

The week went by way too fast and it was time to head home.  We picked up Brittney from her friend's, then stopped to visit Grandma & Grandpa Sorensen in Payson.  Just before getting there, we did have a little barfing episode with Preston, poor buddy!

We also were able to stop in Cedar City and visit with Aunt Charla while she made us lunch, which was nice.  As we drive up through Cedar Breaks, we started to see patches of snow and Brooklyn begged to stop so they could play in it for a minute.  Being the fun mom that I am.... (Preston was asleep)

 Finally got their ice cream reward on the way home!

(we also saw Alaska, not marked here)

It took 16 hours to get home with all our stops and visiting with family.  My buns hurt from sitting so much and I pretty much fed the baby and crashed for the night, leaving Matt to unload everything from the car and make sure the other kiddos were in bed.  It was kind of a little confidence boost to drive that kind of a trip!!   We're already planning on going back again next Fall, when Matt can join us and hopefully squeeze in a couple sessions of General Conference too.

Boys will be Boys!

We have church at 2:00pm so there is lots of time for horsing around in the morning.  I have warned the kids, I don't know how many times, NOT to jump from the stairs down to the ground.  This past Sunday, Gavin decided to jump from the fourth step up and he immediately started crying when he hit the floor.  I got right up and ran to him because it was one of those "I'm hurt" cries.  He couldn't stand on his foot so I freaked out thinking he broke it.  Gavin is not really a rough and tumble kinda kid so I was really surprised that he might be our first with a broken bone.  I texted Matt and told him we needed to take Gav in to Urgent Care.  I got Gavin settled in the chair with some ice and let him rest a bit.  I tried having him walk again but he cried saying it hurt.  By the time Matt got home from his meetings, Gavin would put some pressure on it but was curling his foot up and only walking on the outside edge.  I could also already see a small dark purple bruise forming above his big toe.  Off they went to Urgent Care and I took the other four kids to church.

You can the bruise ^^^ above the right big toe

The good news is that it WASN'T broken, just badly bruised.  Matt said that everyone was dying over Gavin's cuteness with his white shirt and tie on, haha!  He got his foot all wrapped up with a prescription to take it easy the next couple days.  When I got home from sacrament meeting to stay with him so Matt could go back, Gavin was telling me all this information that he learned from the doctor, how he had a hematoma and so forth.  What a smarty pants! I gave his teacher a heads up to keep an eye on him at school.  He's already doing better!

Waiting to be checked out

Resting back at home

LeBaron Family Reunion '12

Friday night after Matt got home from work, we loaded up the car and headed up to the cabin in Strawberry for the LeBaron Reunion.  Thankfully, Matt had some brotherly help getting the tent set up in the dark.  The kids stayed up waaaaaaayyyyy too late, but thankfully, they fell asleep quickly.  I wondered how Hayden was going to do in the pack n play and it didn't take very long to find out.  I had her layered with a onesie and a fleece sleeper, but she doesn't stay covered up and *I* was cold if I wasn't under my sleeping bag!  She cried and cried on and off, all night long.  I kept her in my sleeping bag with me which meant that I didn't sleep hardly a wink.  The sun came up way too early and the kids were rarin' and ready to go.

Hayden in her boy jammies

These girls giggled the night away together in this tent and were awake bright and early

The theme of the reunion was "Go Far With Family" with an Olympic twist.  

We participate in some games.  There was a tournament soccer game that everyone rotated through.  A couple kids got slammed in the face with the ball by hard-kicking adults, including Preston.  Poor buddy!  He kept saying, "It was an accident!" while crying his little eyes out.

There was also distance events including javelin (paper airplane), shotput (cotton ball) and discus (paper plate).  The ongoing event was the "marathon."  Each person was given a pedometer to track their steps over the weekend.  The kids just ate this up!

I can't forget creating and cutting of the boards for our last three kiddos!  It was fun to come up with a design that will go on the wall at the cabin, symbolizing each member of the family.

We had the opportunity Frisbee golf any time that afternoon to add to our team/family points.  I am HORRIBLE at frisbee, but Matt's pretty good so he drug me along the course.  And I actually didn't do so bad this time!

We have a picture identical to this, probably 8 or so years ago.
{edited to add the pic from July 2003, 9 years ago}

There was also a bit of crafting going on with the lady-folk.  I made a knotted knit headband for each of my girls. :)  The kids made their annual plate, and I'm especially excited for Hayden's first plate.  We spent most of the rest of the afternoon chatting with people while the kids ran free.  After dinner, we headed home.  The kids were bummed to miss the closing ceremonies and getting the medals they won, but Grandma was sure to bring them home for us.

Grandma brought silly string for all the kids!

 And Hayden enjoying a snack in the "vintage" pink highchair, a picture for posterity's sake

Grandpa LeBaron's health is failing and it's really sad to see him losing awareness of who the people are that love him most.  I make sure to take pictures of him and Grandma any time I get.  I know Hayden and maybe not even Preston will remember the great man he has been, but I'm grateful to be part of such a wonderful, loving family.

Kisses for Grandpa {love}

Other RaNdOmS

One morning, right at the end of August, I got a call from Matt, shortly after his workday should have started.  He calmly told me that he wasn't at work yet, that he had been involved in a car accident, but was ok.  He was rear-ended in one of those chain reaction scenarios, him being the 3rd of 4 cars involved.  I'm so glad that he wasn't seriously injured, but his poor brand new car. :(

Matt has been dying to take the kids to Organ Stop Pizza, so on Labor Day we headed up to Mesa for a little dinnertime fun.  The kids were absolutely mesmerized (after Preston freaked out because it was so loud) and we enjoyed listening to the music while eating mediocre, overpriced pizza.  One of our  requests was actually played - Star Wars!

Brooklyn got stung by scorpion in the house.  She cried and I'm sure it hurt, but it must've just got her barely because by the end of the day, she said it felt fine.  Matt was on an overnight campout with the deacons so *I* had to be Supermom and save all my children from this nasty devil!  I put on my brave face and smashed the scorpion and flushed it down the toilet.  These things give me the heebie-jeebies!

Blake finished the 7th Harry Potter book, which means he read the whole series (4100 pages) in less than 2 months!!  I was afraid he might actually have withdrawals when he finished.  Naturally, we went out for ice cream to celebrate. :)  Blake has now moved on to the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series (15 books, I think?).

Since turning 30, it appears my body is going through a crisis.  I found my first patch of gray hairs and my face is a complete mess of pimples.  Never in my life has it been this bad, not even as a teen!  It's rather embarrassing because I don't even own any face makeup to cover it up.

I love hearing the kids play the piano, especially when they sit down to practice unprompted.

I {love} Preston