American Girl

For Kenni’s birthday this year, I had a special something up my sleeve.  First, I should explain that my sweet, now eleven-year-old still loves her dolls.  Especially her American Girl dolls!  I gave her mine from when I was a little girl and she played with it for years.  Finally, when she was ten, she got one of her own for Christmas, and it is her pride and joy.  Lately I have realized that my little girl is growing up, and the days of playing with dolls are coming to an end. Which is what brought on the idea to surprise her with a trip to the nearest American Girl doll store, which is in Denver, Colorado.  I had been planning it for over a year.  I asked my friends with daughters her age if they would want to come with us, and a road trip was born!

Ok, so first all the moms got the car all packed and decorated.  Then we drove up to the elementary school to check the girls out of school.

They were so surprised.  A little confused at first, but by the time we made it up to the middle school to get Taylor, everyone was so excited!

Then there was the 8-hour drive……..

But we made it!  My bff Jami was kind enough to let us all stay at her house in Denver.  They had just bought a new motor-home type camper and the girls all slept out in that and they thought they had their own private hotel!

The next day we had a little party at the house and opened gifts…

I had bought each of the girls an American Girl Denver t-shirt on clearance on their website, with a matching t-shirt for their dolls. They loved them.

And then we were off to the store!

We spent a magical 3-4 hours in there.  The girls got their dolls hair done at the doll salon, Taylor got her doll’s ears pierced, they shopped for new doll outfits, accessories, books, you name it.

This is Kenni’s doll, getting its hair done. It really did look nice when they were finished,even if it did cost a bloody fortune!

Next we headed over to a fancy restaurant across the street for lunch.  Much to our surprise, they had doll highchairs for all the girls dolls to sit and eat with us.  Genius!

Then we went to explore the mall and do some more shopping.  Which somehow lasted several hours and then we found ourselves hungry again.

So we went to another fun restaurant and ordered nothing but cake for dinner!  No, im serious……

Ohhhhh it was so good and so much fun!

After a seriously long day of shopping, we headed back to Jami & Spencer’s for the night, had a great time hanging out with them for a few hours, then went to their restaurant they own and had one last meal (around 9:00 p.m.- HEY, we were on vacation!)

The next day it was time to head home

We had so so so much fun!  I think we need to do mother/daughter road trips more often!  Thank you Thank you Jami & Spencer for letting us stay with you!

Bye Bye Denver……

Bear Lake 2012

We made it to the annual Harward family Bear Lake outing this year!  After having missed out on all the fun last year, my kids were super excited to go spend time with their cousins on the beach! It was a little tricky to coordinate, with having such a busy September, but we rushed up there last minute, and then enjoyed a relaxing weekend with the fam.

I only got a few pictures cause I’ve been struggling with a broken camera .  But here is J and her FAVORITE person in the whole world- her cousin L.  These two are so in love its hilarious.

And here is Uncle Andy, Lauren & Kenni going for a Sea-doo ride. Yup, this is all the pictures I have.  Pathetic, I know.  Luckily my mom always takes great photos, so I just have to remember to get them from her for posterity’s sake.  For now, you’ll just have to imagine all the fun we had with your eyes closed.  (Or check previous years posts- cause lets be honest, its mostly the same-old, same-old ). 

Back to school means back to vacationing!

I know, its pretty pathetic, but the kids were only in school three days before we pulled them back out again for the first of many fall vacations we had planned! I really wish they would just go ahead and start school after labor day and then we wouldn’t have this problem. 

Anyway- our good friends the Halls talked us into doing some Motor Home camping at Lake Powell.  While we have been to LP dozens of times, we have never been brave enough to try it in such fashion, so I was a little apprehensive about the errr…..shall we say “red-neck-ed” approach to boating.  But with 5 kids and a small budget (a house boat was not an option), this seemed like our best bet.

Now, I’m not gonna lie and tell you that red-necky it wasn’t, cause it sooooooo was, but it was also really really fun!  We (barely) survived the 8-hour drive down to Wahweap in the Motor Home with the Whitemyers in tow.  Yes, that was 8 kids and 4 adults in quite cramped quarters, but hey, nobody vomitted, so I call that a win.  Then we proceeded to 4-wheel said Winnebego through a massive sand dune right on down to the waters edge and parked there for a glorious 4 days. The Halls and the Draayers (and some really drunk Mexicans….) joined us which made the party complete.  (Well, until those lovely Mexicans started encroaching on our campsite….but that’s another story for another day). 

(Photo of our sa-weeet set-up!)

The Draayers drove up from Vegas and somehow managed to forget their bags so all their attire for the trip had to be purchased at the local Wal-mart. Lets just say their wardrobes consisted of some fiiiiiiiiiiiine merchandise!

Note- Ryan’s bitchin camaro tee.  Yes, this is one of his Wal-Mart gems, as well as his Starter Shorts, which served as swim trunks for the week .  Oh, I’m still laughing.  Good times!

Me & Amberlee on our fine stretch of beach. (Before the Mexicans invaded, of course…..)

This adorable little thing made herself at home within minutes of arriving.  She plopped down in the sand in her jammies and a diaper and got so filthy that people started getting mad at me for letting her be so disgusting!  So, I reluctantly brushed the sand out from her bum cheeks and got her dressed for the day.

Awwwww.  Much better, right?  Don’t worry.  It only lasted about 20 seconds and then……

Yes, this is a home-made mud bath.  Every baby’s dream!  Oh well, at least I tried!

We went sand-dune climbing……

Cliff jumping…..

(Seth’s back-flip sequence)

Tubing….

More Tubing….. Some of the kids also tried water-skiing and wakeboarding, but sadly, since the mom’s were back at camp with the babies, of course there are no pictures

Exploring…..

Four-wheelin trips to the toitey…..

And lots of just sitting around, having a great time!

I can’t wait to do it again!

(Now that is love……)