Summer 2015

Our summer has been pretty uneventful, we spent most of it just relaxing at home.

 Adam took the kids fishing a couple times and on a couple hikes and swimming.

He also took them to lava hot springs for his family reunion and to visit with family.

The kids enjoyed swimming like they always do. Adahleigh even jumped off the lowest platform, and the older three enjoyed the slides.

He also took them on our yearly outing to kah-nee-tah to swim and sleep in tepees with there cousins, grandma p, and most of there aunts and uncles. While I got to stay home with two day old malia and grandma w and catch up on some sleep!

Adam decided it was finally time to put in a sprinkler system which lasted most of the summer with early mornings and late nights. Our grass is beginning to be green and not so patchy, so next year the kids may have some grass to run around on. 

We ended our summer with a trip to the valley over Labor Day weekend. It was Adams long weekend and he had plans to go to the temple Saturday with the youth in our ward so we decided to make a weekend of it at his moms. The kids enjoyed spending time with there cousins. Miles and Erin were planning a day trip to the coast so we tagged along. We stopped by a casino on the way for lunch at their buffet. Adahleigh  was ecstatic to be going, her favorite restraunt is chuck a Rama, and to hear this is just like it but bigger and better she couldn't wait. All the kids ate their weight in jello and pizza and topped it off with ice cream. 

We finally made it to the beach where the kids played for the rest of the day, Malia enjoyed her first beach trip tucked away in the moby. 

The weather at the coast that day was very nice. 

Jer enjoying both ends of his cones at lunch.

The kids all trying to build a dam to stop the water. We didn't get many pictures for Adam dropped his phone the ocean when we first got there and I spent part of the time taking care of Malia and going shopping for some rice for Adams phone. 

This little man loved the beach and getting dirty and just getting to run!!! We all enjoyed are end up summer trip to the beach.

We spent the rest of the time celebrating birthdays, having an outdoor movie party, the kids thinking they wanted to swim but  realizing it was just too cold. 

We headed for home the day before school started to get things ready and to get the kids ready for bed at a decent hour.

We enjoyed our lazy summer and for all the family we were able to visit with throughout it. 

We are slowly adjusting to getting back into school mode, but the kids are all enjoying school and doing well.  

Malia Rhys

We left for the hospital just after 11 on the night of the 14th, after what I thought was my water breaking. After a few tests and waiting around they finally admitted us. She was finally on her way! 

Malia was born August 15 at 6:57 am. She weighed 8 lbs & 21 1/4 in long. She was very content most of the day, when she wasn't sleeping or eating she was wide awake. Adam left mid afternoon to go home and get the kids and grandma w to come meet "baby sister" ( this was her name at the moment because we had yet to decide on a name for her). They each had a turn to hold there new sister! 

After only a few minutes of being there, Jerrick was sitting on the bed with me when he turned to me and told me to get my shoes on it was time to go home. When I asked him if baby sister could come home with us, he said no she has to stay here. Needless to say they have become best buds and he is a great big brother to her.  

The rest of the time was pretty uneventful, Malia slept the rest of the afternoon, and Adam took kids home and spent sometime with all his brothers and there families who were visiting for the weekend. Her first night was a little rough with constant crying and little sleep, once we finally got her to sleep it wasn't much later the nurse came in to wake her up to take her vitals and prick her heal to get some blood. She couldn't get enough blood so she had to prick both her heals. Eventually later that day putting a line in her arm for a blood draw because the blood kept clotting so they couldn't use it for what they needed to test it for. She slept most of the day. And of course we had to wait around most of the day before being released to go home. That night she cried most of the night with little sleep. I think she got it out of her system, she's a pretty good sleeper now. 

She is now 5 weeks old.

 She loves to eat and enjoys her bathtime. She sleeps well at night only waking 2 or 3 times to eat. 

We have managed to survive the last few weeks of church, she enjoys being  wrapped in the moby so my hands are  free to wrangle the other four so we're not to disruptful during sacrament meeting. 

Reptile Zone -Bend, OR

This is an old draft that never was posted after we started it.

This is our all time favorite pet store ever. We really enjoyed Mckee's in Pocatello, because of the petting zoo that it had out back, but the Reptile Zone is like your own reptile collection. The owner lets and encourages you to get the animal out and handle them.

The kids love going and seeing all kinds of reptiles. 

These photos are from our first year back to Oregon, as is obvious by how young the kids look and the absence of Jerrick.

The Reptile Zone has actually moved to a different location since these pictures were taken.

Here's a more recent picture from the Reptile Zone. We still enjoy going as often as possible to see and handle all the reptiles there.

Disneyland

   Once again we have allowed the blog to fall behind, so we'll continue where we left off. Our first full day of activities in Anaheim we spent the day at Disneyland. This was after having enjoyed a peaceful Sabbath with Aunt Utahna and Renee. We enjoyed attending church with Utahna in the morning and an afternoon of visiting.

   Ashley picked out Disney appropriate outfits for the parks, and even did the girls hair to go along with the Mickey theme. The kids were so excited that it was hard to get them to sit still long enough to get them fed and ready.

  We didn't end up taking a ton of pictures in the park but here are a few of the highlights. The lines for most the rides weren't too bad, and the kids actually did an excellent job be patient to get on the rides, including Jerrick.

   The tea cups were fun for some, but not for all. Keisha really enjoyed them spinning and kept saying faster, faster and Charlie was the opposite and didn't want them to spin at all. Of course we only listened to Keisha and got them going as fast as we could. No one got sick on them so that's what's really important.

   Some of the lines were so long we avoided waiting at all. The girls did want to get a picture with Tinker Bell, but the line was probably an hour long. Instead, we too a picture in front of the fairy cove and if you zoom in you can see Tinker Bell in the background.

The Marvel exhibit was of course a huge hit with the kids and the all chose their favorite Iron Man suite and got a picture in from of it. They also really enjoyed the interactive part of the exhibit where they got to test out the virtual Iron Man armor.

After a full day of activities the kids were still going strong for the most part. We forgot to get a picture out in front of the park on the way in, and had split up on the way out, so the girls where the only ones to get a picture in front of the Mikey lawn.

Spring Break

     We have once again fallen behind on our blog, so going back to the end of February we finally were able to take our first big family vacation, which with all the fun we had I'll break into a couple posts. This year we decided to take the kids to Disneyland. We made it and early spring break trip for them since Adahleigh didn't actually have spring break until mid March. We went earlier to avoid some of the crowds and the pricing is better before the first of March.
     We first told the kids about the trip at Christmas, they were excited but didn't really know what to expect. Over the next month we planned out with them which rides they wanted to go on, so that helped them get more excited for the trip. We figured with four of them to chase around we needed a little extra help, so we invited Grandma Phillips and Aunt Karli along to help out.
     We left out Friday (Feb 21) after Adahleigh was done with school, since the school was already giving us a hard time for her missing too much. We broke the 13 hour trip down into two days, and met Grandma and Karli in Sacramento.
     We stopped and got everyone dinner at burger King in Klamath Falls, so their bellies would get be full and they could get to sleep for the next few hours till we made it Sacramento.

    The Next morning we had breakfast and took the kids to a local park so they could burn off some energy before getting back in the car for most of the day. The weather in Sacramento was great at 70 by 10 am, compared to our regular 40 high for the day. Keisha has become quite the acrobat and likes to show here skills off.

     Charles also wanted to show his hanging skills, but would do it from the monkey bars.

     She also has a grip of steel, which she can dangle for long periods of time. She made it across the rings several times, but once the camera came out she couldn't get all the way across.

Valentine's Day

     This year for Valentine's Day I was able to  leave work for an early lunch with Adahleigh at her school. This was definitely the highlight of my week if not hers.

     She's funny about getting dropped off at school, she doesn't want anyone getting out of the car to help her. She's even told Ashley a couple times to get back in the car when she's getting dropped off. I thought she might act a little put out with me being at school because of this, but she was excited to have me there and introduce me to her friends. Her friends were just as excited to see someone's parent there, but it also could've been because I brought cake and they all wanted me to share with them too.

      She liked having me there so much she asked me to stick around for recess. Due to the rain we've been getting it was indoors, but I was able to sit down and play memory with her and her classmates.

      This year for valentines she made superheros and butterflies out of suckers for her classmates. She was really trying Ashley's patience on getting them made, because she kept harassing her to do them when she was busy with other things. The other kids didn't help out much with the situation either since they keep getting into the suckers, or destroying the ones already made. Jerrick was the worst since he now has realized he can climb the chairs to get on the table.

Snow Games

    Last Week we were able to enjoy the winter wonderland. The snow this year has been pretty scarce, until just this week. Over a 2 day period we got roughly 18" of much needed snow. In the last 2.5 years that we've been here we usually get 3-6" occasionally and it doesn't accumulate, so the kids haven't had very many chances to play in since there isn't enough to do anything with. It also wasn't frigid temperatures, so  we could stand to be outside for an extended period.
    On Friday Ashley build a snow fort with the kids, and Adahleigh, Charles and Keisha tried to make a snowman but got the balls too big  (a good 2.5-3' around) for even Ashley to stack, so they just left them unstacked in the yard. Jerrick was sleeping during their adventure, so he didn't get to participate at all.
    On Saturday, I had the day off, so we spent half the day in the snow. Amazingly, everyone stayed and played in the snow, unlike the usual spending 15 minutes getting them dressed and then them deciding they're too cold after 2 min. I went out and dug a maze out in the snow so everyone could get around easier (I remember my dad doing this one winter in Salem and we played fox and geese in the maze). We ended up playing tag and having a snowball fight.  Once everyone but Adahleigh decided they'd had enough and had gotten cold, we went and built a couple snowmen on our street. Adahleigh bailed out just before finishing the second snowman, so we didn't get any photos of her with the finished product.