Nancy plays catch-up: Take 1 (July)

Hola, mi amigos! So, I've been called out lately (Pat!) on my lackadaisical attitude toward my blog. I could give excuses but we all know that's all they are--so let's just get down to it. I'm back and I have some catching up to do. I'll warn you now, that I'm not paring down any of it! These posts are going up for my own selfish reasons so that I can enjoy them forever. Of course there are some of you out there with genetic ties to the little people in these pictures that will pore over every word and image I create. But as for the rest of you...well, these posts are almost 1/2 a year old, so thanks for humoring me!

Aside from the reunion pics, I haven't updated since JUNE! We had a busy July though--which come to think of it, makes sense!

We celebrated the 4th of July with Matt's ENTIRE family in town. It was the first time in years that we were all together. We enjoyed the parade, the fireworks and a fun party with them all. (And thanks Andy for sharing your pics with us!)

Nicole, Corinne, Ethan and the dogs getting ready for a walk/ride.
Claire and Lainey riding in style.
Dutch oven dinner on the deck with the whole gang.
Just hanging out while the food cooks.

Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen

Grandma Felt, Calvin and Paige

Ethan, Spencer and Calvin (Spencer is SOOOO happy when there are boys to play with)
Paige and Ethan

Cowgirl Paige

Claire and Charlotte

Some of the cousins on the trampoline (AKA: the calm before the storm)

Claire and Lainey with Uncle Jake

Lindhardt Family Reunion 2010

We returned home Wednesday evening from our big trip of the summer. My (Nancy's) family had our bi-annual reunion. This reunion was hosted by my brother Doug and his wife, Haley, who live in Colorado. They found an incredible cabin in an absolutely beautiful location in Estes Park, CO, which is just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. The reunion started on Saturday, but Doug and Haley invited anyone who could take an extra day, to come a day early and join them for a Rockies game at Coors Field. We, along with my brother Tom and his family went to the game with them. Haley's dad sacrificed his 4 tickets so that we could enjoy the game up close, so we all rotated between those seats and the other seats that we bought. It was our first MLB game (as so many people found out--thanks again for all the freebies!) and we had a great time!

Nicole and Cooper--what a fun pair!
Coors Field
Spencer with Aunt Haley
Matt and Nancy

Corinne, Kaiya, and Anna
My brother, Doug--the one responsible for it all! (And yes, that is a compliment!!)

Saturday, our 3 families packed up all the food and caravaned to Estes Park. By dinner time all 7 families plus Grandpa and Grandma had arrived and settled into our wonderful cabin that was able to accomodate all 42 of us. That evening Matt and nephew, Brian followed a trail just down from our cabin and met up with these two gentlemen:
They came back to the cabin and got all the cousins and several parents to come with and see them again. By the time we got back to them, only one was there and he didn't seem to care one bit about all of us tromping around near him trying to get a closer look.

The next day, Sunday, we held our own sacrament meeting. We had several talks and a special musical number by the grandkids. We also learned quickly why Mormon chapels don't have giant windows like this one. The view can be very distracting... :)

Sunday afternoon we went down to the field and played a delightfully, painful game of kickball. Delightful because we all laughed a lot and had fun together. Painful because only a lucky few walked away uninjured.

Sunday dinner: Triple L pulled pork sandwiches and corn on the cob from Grandpa's garden.

Monday we all went for a small hike around Bear Lake inside RMNP. It was just right for everyone, young and old.

Here are some of the cousins:
Jill and Nancy with kids on the trail.

Paige wading at our picnic spot.

We each took turns providing a meal--Matt and I had the picnic lunch Monday.
Monday evening we held FHE back at the cabin. Here is a picture of Grandma during the lesson. I told you the windows were distracting! I have to wonder if after being with her 40 descendants for 48 hours at this point, was she wondering here, "What have we done??"

Here is Corinne acting out a scene with her cousins for Uncle Mike during the FHE "game show".

The show stealer of the night award goes to Abbie and Uncle Paul. She had a loose tooth and decided it would be fabulous if her Uncle Paul pulled it out for her during the talent show. EPIC!!

Tuesday we all went into Estes Park and took a few runs down the giant slides.

After the slides some of us drove into RMNP again and took the Trail Ridge Road to the top. That is a stunning drive and well worth doing once (or more) in your life!

Here are some more of the cousins (including Spencer the Pirate!)

Matt and kids at the top

Tuesday afternoon Corinne, Paige and some of their cousins went to the craft cabin and painted ceramics. They came home with masterpieces. (Haley, thanks for taking such great pictures--hope you don't mind that I stole a few!)

And lastly, here are Grandma and Grandpa. Thank you so much for a great reunion and a wonderful family to enjoy! We love you very much--you provide this family with much joy! ; )

Swim lessons are OVER!!

After four weeks of swim lessons...yes, you read correctly...four weeks of daily driving to the pool 20 minutes away, and taking towels, floaties, lunch and a change of clothes for 5 kids, we are finished!! Well worth it, of course. The kids all improved so much and none of them drowned, which is a bonus. But I am glad to check that off of the summer schedule.

Birthday Time!

We celebrated two birthdays in June. Claire turned 2 on the 19th and one week later, Nicole turned 12! We had a lot of fun with both of them. Claire has learned how to hold up two fingers and she LOVED blowing out the candles on her cake. On Nicole's birthday she had a big party with 20 friends. They played games and ate snacks until it started getting dark and then they walked to the town square and played a big game of capture the flag. They had a lot of fun! On Sunday Nicole went to Young Women's for the first time and loved it. Exciting times!

Here is Claire looking at her new book.
And here she is, so proud of herself for blowing out all the candles!

Her favorite summer pasttime--sitting in HER spot on the porch and chain-sucking otter pops!

Nicole blowing out her candles.
Playing a game of fruit basket.

Memorial Day

Last Thursday was the last day of school. The kids had a great year and are very excited for all of the summer fun to come. Yesterday we celebrated Matt's birthday. We had lunch with family and then took grandpa's canoe to the reservoir in the evening. No fish, but the kids loved being out on the water.

On Friday, I loaded up the kids and went with Grandma and Grandpa to put flowers on graves. We visited cemeteries from Ogden to Mink Creek, so it was a long drive. But the kids did great (thanks to a stop for lunch that included a play area), and I really enjoyed the day. I love that my Mom and Dad have always made it a priority to visit graves on Memorial Weekend. Here they are with the kids at my Grandma Lindhardt's grave.

Here is my Grandpa Lindhardt's grave. Spencer wasn't about to let the rain stop him from helping with the flowers!
We hoped the rain would clear out by the time we got to Mink Creek, but no such luck. Here is my Grandpa and Grandma Baird's grave. And as a side note: Mink Creek is BEAUTIFUL right now! Everything is so green. It was fun to see.

I love this next picture because of the story behind it. However, I will warn you it's a long, boring story. I'm putting it on mostly for my own sake, but if you'd like to read it, you're more than welcome! As many of you know, Matt and I were fortunate enough to find out, during our engagement, that we are related! Thanks to that good pioneer blood and plenty of polygamous ancestors we have the same great-great-grandfather. (Actually he is Matt's G.G.G. Grandfather--he's a generation younger than me!) Anyway, this grandfather, James Morgan Keller, had 5 wives. One of them is my GG Grandmother and another one is Matt's GGG Grandmother. Do you follow so far? So, a couple of years ago, Mom and I were putting flowers on graves here and we noticed that James Morgan Keller is buried next to only two of his wives. Guess which two?? It was a touching moment for me to think of these two grandmas up in heaven looking down on my kids---their shared grandkids--at their graves. Sort of a full circle kind of moment. So this year I remembered my camera. On the left is my grandma--Anna Christina, in the middle is our grandpa--James Morgan Keller, and on the right is Matt's grandma--Karen Valentine.

If you made it this far, I'm sorry for the gigantic narrative, and I am well aware that I have invited any and all redneck comments and kissin' cousin jokes so bring 'em on!

Wellsville Mile

"A little rain can't hurt you!" Isn't that what we tell our kids? Well, this morning Corinne found out how true that is! The annual Wellsville Mile, which, if you've read my other post on this subject you already know that I am more than a little bit fond of this tradition, was held today. It was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but it was a little bit rainy that morning so they postponed it until today. The poor kids had to run in a downpour. And if you think that was bad, you should have seen all the poor parents who had to watch in a downpour! We all survived though, and Corinne was very happy with her performance. She ran it in 9:26 which is about 45 seconds better than her best practice time. She also came in 12th in her heat of over 100 girls! She'll get to run it again next year as a 5th grader and she's already looking forward to it. Good job cute Rinnie!!

All smiles at the starting line.

Running strong and being paced by a HS track team member.

Warming up after the race. She was even too wet and cold to want her drink or ice cream they handed out!

Here is a video of Corinne crossing the finish line.