New Mexico Vacation

We got to escape the heat and spend Labor Day weekend in the mountians of New Mexico. My parent's friends have a cabin near Las Vegas that they invited us to stay in. Mom, dad and Jeremy took Gracie and Caden with them on Thursday, and Jason, Brenna and I came on Friday.

This is the cabin. It's such a neat place. The shorter part is a real log cabin in the shape of an octogon. That part was built in the early 70's. The rest was added in the 90's.

Jason was ready to help Jeremy chop wood for all the camp fires he wanted to sit around.

Brenna did pretty well except that she wouldn't sleep. She hardly napped more than an hour, and woke up every night. Needless to say, we were all tired.
She likes her bed at home. She slept 13.5 hours the first night back in her crib!

Dad and the older two picked lots of apples for the apple cobbler dad cooked in the Dutch oven.

He peeled the apples, and the kids ate them.

This is Cindy. She really liked Brenna, and Brenna liked her, too. (most of the time)

She had her laughing pretty good!

These are the beams of the ceiling in our room. I love this look.

The kids loved riding the tractor, of course! Me and the kids got to ride in the bucket, too! Dad raised us up to pick an apple out of the tree!

It was cool enough for jackets in the morning and evening. You could see your breath in the mornings, too.

That exercauser is a life saver... or more accurately, a back saver!

The stream was pretty low, but there were still a few little trout in it.

It's a pretty little stream.

S'mores time!

Gracie ate two, and she stayed pretty clean.

You can't really tell in this picture, but he had marshmallow ALL over him!

Caden's first time to fish! He really wanted to use his fishing pole, but it wasn't set up for worm fishing.

Mom tried to help him cast.

Dad helped Caden catch his first fish!

Gracie was more interested in picking wild flowers.

Caden's 1st fish! A cute little brook trout. He was kind of scared of it at first.

Gracie finally wanted to fish, too.

Here we all are!

I think our first family vacation with five was a success! But I'm glad that it will be a year before we have to make the drive again!

Black and White

This N That

I think if she could talk, she would say that she agrees with her shirt! She gets alot of love from her big brother and sister!!

They wanted to help me make a cake for Jason's birthday.

Here's the reason why.

They love that batter!

They all took a 3 hour nap... that was nice!

He's becoming a funny sleeper, too!

Jason modeling one of his new shirts - he's so cute!

Brenna taking her first bites of "solid" food.

She wasn't too impressed. She cried so we decided to wait a little longer on the solids.

She's taking her time on one big milestone. She has shown NO desire to roll over. But she loves to chew on her toys and talk to anyone who will listen... even if it's only herself! :)

Chubby babies!!

Look at those rolls!!

Brenna - August 2010

Caden - June 2008

Gracie - November 2006

I think Gracie and Brenna have Caden beat on the chubby part. I love my rolly-polly babies!

Grandpa Al's 92nd Birthday

We made a trip down to the Rio Grande Valley to see my Grandpa Al on his 92nd Birthday. We knew that the drive would be really long for the kids so we decided to add a day to spread out those long car rides. Mom picked me and the kids up on Thursday morning and we headed off to the Valley. Dad and Jeremy came the next day. We picked Wendy up in San Antonio and she rode with us the rest of the way. So we left our house at about 8:30 Thursday morning and got to my grandpa's house about 7:45 that night. A VERY long day.

Friday we stayed at the hotel all morning the then went to Target to get a few things we forgot. Of course, I forgot a few things in my hurry to get all our stuff and the kids in the car. Then we hung out at Grandpa's house for a while and went swimming that evening at the hotel.

Saturday we had Grandpa's Birthday party at my Uncle Herman and Aunt Edna's house. The kids loved playing with their older cousins on the Wii and playing outside (even thought it was about 99 degrees outside - I stayed in with Brenna).

We headed back Sunday morning about 8:45 and got home about 7:30 that evening, another long day. We did get to see my cousin, Leta, and her hubby, Kevin, and their daughter, Emily, in San Antonio. They were nice enough to let us eat lunch at their house and relax a little bit before heading on. Emily is only 4 days older then Gracie and they always have fun playing together.

I have to say, for the kids being 4 years, 2 years and 4 months old, they did pretty well. We did have to stop every couple of hours to let them stretch thier legs which added a few hours to the trip. But, that was kind of nice for me, too. I'm not a huge fan of sitting in one place for a long time.

Thanks again for the duel screen DVD player! That was a life saver for the older kiddos!! I'm not sure how many movies they watched, but I didn't care as long as they were entertained! I don't think it was ever turned off for very long!

I did get some pictures of our adventure that I want to share.

Leaving San Antonio. At this point I'm thinking "what have I gotten myself into?"

Mom, trapped in the back with Brenna!

We moved things around. Wendy and Gracie in the back, Caden and Brenna in the middle, me and mom in the front.

At Uncle Herman and Aunt Edna's house. He loved the stairs, of course.

My cousin Nick and Brenna.

Me and Aunt Edna

Playing Wii with the big kids

The birthday boy with his favorite - German chocolate cake!

Make a wish!

Me and Jeremy

My cousins Olivia and David

Wendy and cousin Issac, AKA muscle man.

Dad and Grandpa Al

Aunt Malinda and cousin Chris

Brenna and Uncle Herman. Looks like they are both thinking "who are you?"

Grandpa Al and most of his grandkids and his great-grandkids. We missed Christy. She wasn't able to make it down there.

4 generations

Grandpa likes babies

They slept on the pull-out couch bed. Notice who had all the covers? That was a battle every night.

We took Brenna's crib mattress so it would feel more like home. I'm SO glad we did because she slept great! I think it was worth the hassel of hauling it down there.

Overall it was a good trip. Very hard at times, but it was great to see my mom's side of the family!