CO Thanksgiving 2009, Pagosa Springs

We headed to Dylan’s parent’s house this year for Thanksgiving.  It  was a pretty mellow year,  just a lot of fun stuff for the kids.

For the most part Braelyn, Elle and Kent had a great time playing together!  There was a lot of tattling and whining but I think eventually they might be great friends.

Crazy chocolate faces

 

Elle was obsessed with Braelyn’s make-up. Maybe she has a future in make-up??

 

They played a lot of dress up and took care of the babies too.

Kent and Elle loved jumping on the trampoline.

 

They have an awesome playhouse.  The kids loved to play on it.  It was a little scary because it had a ladder/rock wall, and I went inside for a minute, when I came back Kent had climbed to the top of it which was about 7 feet high.  Luckily, he was just scared at that point so he cried instead trying to get down.

The kids got a lot of experience on motor vehicles, they loved the Barbie Jeep.  Elle isn’t a great driver but we’ve got some time to work on that!

They also got take rides on the Quad.

Dylan took me on a ride and we ran out of gas. Luckily, it had a reserve tank.  We were lucky  to get home because it was very cold and the sun was going down.

The kids also got the first ride on Grandpa’s donkey, no that is not a typo…they have a donkey.  His name is “Apple Jack”. 

He is very mellow and good with kids.  Elle kept asking grandpa where the donkey was.  The third day he went and got him from the pasture.   Once the donkey was there Elle was less interested in riding him.  Once she got on she had fun, but the ride only lasted a couple of minutes.

Kent barely sat on the donkey without crying.  Apple Jack could tell that he wasn’t happy so he refused to even move with him on there.

 

Elle loved getting to spend time with Grandma Sybil; she got to help her make food, watch movies, read books together, and even got to sleep with grandma and grandpa.  That is a true treat and sacrifice.

Elle and Grandma making caramel popcorn.

Funny: Elle had been helping grandma make a cake for aunt Stephanie’s birthday and she had been tasting the frosting.  When we got home from the party this is where we found her:

 

She was hiding under the kitchen table trying to suck as much frosting as she possibly could.  So funny!!

We spent Thanksgiving at Dylan’s brother, Dyrk’s apartment in Pagosa Springs. It was a small space but everyone made it work…who cares when the food is so good!!  It was a beautiful drive there too.

We had a great time in Colorado, besides some battling with sickness.  Elle’s face says it all:

 

and of course as we were driving to the airport she said, “After this do we get to go back to Grandma’s?”

Kent is now saying a lot.  He says “cheese, ouch, uh-oh, apple,  yes, horse,  pease,  ehhh (Elle), me,” and a lot of other unrecognizable things.

Trick-or-Treat

 

We decided awhile ago that we were all going to be characters from “Annie”, this year.  Elle was going to be Annie, Dylan was Daddy Warbucks, Kent was an elephant, and I was a maid.  I know the elephant is a stretch, Miss Hannigan rode it at the end of the movie.

 

Kent was not thrilled to be dressed up.  I know shocking.  I am glad to say that I honestly did not get a picture of Dylan or I.  Everyone said that Dylan looked more like Bishop Stewart, because he was wearing a shirt,  tie and a bald cap.

Before trick or treating we went to the Trunk-or-Treat at the church.  There were a lot of very funny costumes this year.  I regret not getting a picture of Nick Young because he was creepy and almost unrecognizable.

Elder’s Quorum President Tim Hogue and Tabi Hogue

Kelly

Josh Thompson, Julia Minor,  Ginny Thompson

Adam and Luke Alfred, Kacy Bunting, Taryn Kent, Emily Stewart, and Ed Bunting

Elle and Darla

Weston Hyer

The Bunting Girls

Hannah and Tylee

Morgan Young

Luke and Adam Alfred

Probably the only time Kent wasn’t whining!

After the Trunk-or-Treat Dylan took Kent home because he was exhausted.  Elle and I went with a group of kids and did a little trick or treating.  We honestly made it down one block and Elle was done.   Then we went to Jenny’s for some hot chocolate. 

When we got home I was trying to get Elle to bed and she said, “Mom, I don’t want to be Annie anymore, please wash my hair.”  We washed it and her hair only had a slight orange tinge to it in the morning.  We washed it a second time and it was all gone, thank goodness.

Birthday Party

 

Jenny had a party for me before all the Halloween festivities.  It was geared towards the kids.

 

Elle wanted to be Snow White for the party, so we didn’t argue.

 

Kent didn’t wear his costume very long,  he was eating chips and we wanted to keep it clean.  He was definitely glad to remove it!!

Elle and the boys were really enjoying the floating eyeballs in the drinks.  Elle was a little concerned by it.

 

The pinata was great.  The kids loved hitting it.  Elle took some coaxing but when she got into it she was loving it.  Jenny helped Kent some, but he was not interested.  Adam and Luke love wailing on that thing.  It took forever to get it open.  Jenny was very smart, she filled it with fruit roll ups, fruit snacks, and bouncy balls.

 

Jenny then read the kids some scary stories and they were enthralled, it was very amusing to watch.

The kids then bobbed for apples in the bathtub.  They were a little lost at how they were going to get the apples out.

 

They all got one though!

I was a really fun party.  Thanks, Jenny!!

Playgroup Halloween

 

For playgroup the Hyer’s had a Halloween party at their house.  It was mini carnival. 

We had a little game of throwing the balls into the caldron.  The kids thought it was fun but they wanted the candy more than anything.

Payton Lujan

 

Jayda the cat

 

I was trying to get a picture of Jayda but Elle wanted to be in the picture too.

Bria read a book about pumpkins to all the kids.  Elle was loving sitting on Mitzi’s lap with Jaden.  He was eating a sucker and Elle was eying it.  She said to him “Can I have a little lick,” and he held it out to share with her.  They were going back and forth taking turns licking the sucker, it was very funny and cute.

This pretty much what Kent did the whole time, we are struggling with the crankys right now.

Adventures in St. Kitts 2009

We started our adventure with a Red Eye from LA. I don’t really recall sleeping but the kids did and that was what was important. Kent slept so well that he even slept a couple of hours on the airport floor. My mom tried without much success.

Elle kept trying to talk with her and snuggle her…poor mom.

The majority of our group was on our Red Eye and all the rest of the group met us in Miami, including Dylan’s parents. Our group was huge this year, it included: My parents, Jenny, uncle Howard, Dylan’s parents, the senior and senior Bushlings, the Ellis family, the girls from my dad’s office, the Romines, and the girls from Kern River Tours, totaling about 25 people.

We had the opportunity to do a lot of different things this time because we had so many helping hands. We got to dive, go on sight seeing trips, go zip-lining, thanks to a lot of helping hands: Marcie Bushling, Sybil and Clinton, and my mom and dad, and aunt Jenny.

While my mom and Jenny watched Kent we got to go to the fort on St Kitts. It had a beautiful view.

Elle loved exploring all the rooms and walking up and down all the interesting stairs.

More than anything she loved watching Tayah and following her around.

After our visit to the fort we all congregated at a local restaurant called “Sprat Net”. I got to share pizza with the kids. A lot people had fish and they thought it was great!

After dinner we headed to the “Shiggidy Shack” were there was supposed to be a fire dancer. Everyone was excited to see a cool show…until the show started.

All it was, was a greased up dude that rubbed fire on his body.

It was cool when he spit the fire, but besides that, it was pretty silly.

This trip should have been deemed the trip of the lobster. Zach and Emily worked hard on every dive to ensure that they came home with some lobster. We, I mean the group, ate fresh lobster on 2 occasions. Everyone thought it was so good!

This is me holding a trunk fish in my hand. It was so little and cute.

We got the opportunity to go to church, which was fun. It was a little embarrassing walking into sacrament 10 minutes before it was to end, due the incorrect start time on the website.

We got to go on a zip-line tour over the rain forest. It was beautiful and surprisingly not really scary.

The worst part was definitely the smell of the helmets…YUCK!!

John is a very lucky man!!

Elle and Kent got spoiled with love and attention,

and desserts.

Kent enjoyed play time from Grampy Clinton

and even snuggles from Zach, Tayah, Trey,and Jayda’s Grandpa Ellis

They loved to play at the beach,

at the pool,

but more than anything Elle loved playing/being with Jayda. Thank you Jayda and Marcie for making Elle’s trip so much fun.

Sybil got to experience scuba diving in the pool. And she officially earned her nickname “Snorkel Syb”. She went snorkeling 3 different times and I think she really enjoyed it too. Too bad we couldn’t get Clinton out there too.

Dylan and Sybil also went deep sea fishing, where they didn’t catch anything, but Ken Sr. caught an 8 lb mackerel.

Kent and I took a lovely bath together where he decided to take a giant poop. Thanks Kent!!

The last night we were there Elle got 13 braids in her hair…nothing compared to Tayah’s 98.

All in all the trip was great. We had so many great friends to spend time with. The food was great and the friends to help and share it with were even better.

The only damper on the trip was the flight home. Elle had a conniption on the plane. She woke up and had a melt down. She was inconsolable. She would not eat candy or stop crying for anything. My dad had to take her and confine them in the bathroom. My dad had her wiping up water in the bathroom to calm her down. It seemed like it took forever until she finally fell back to sleep.

Disney on Ice

We took Elle and Kent to Disney on Ice. 

 

Elle is obsessed with princesses, so she was very excited.  When the show started Elle didn’t want to watch it, she just asked over and over where Sleeping Beauty was.  Finally Sleeping Beauty came out and all was right in the world.

Kent was really good for the first half, he just sat there mesmerized. After the intermission Kent wanted to run around, he even started to touching a little boys hair in front of us.