Washington

There are things worth driving 16 hours in a car with 3 children. Washington, my family. The Wilsons know how to have fun and lots of it.

First we went to my 10 year high school reunion. It was..... interesting. Well, I loved seeing Kirsten, it's been way too long.

We spent a day at Lake Tapp's boating. What a beautiful lake!

This scene brings back some fond memories of my dad carrying all 5 of us kids to bed just like this. I tried to hop on too, but my dad said I'm too big, can you believe the nerve?

A day at Ocean Shores. It was a little chilly, but we had tons of fun flying kites on the beach.

My mom's friend Julie was so kind to invite us all over to let the kids ride her horse. They had so much fun!

A couple of days at the beach close by my parent's house.

A day at the Seattle Children's Museum with my mom.

I always get emotional leaving my family, and this time was no exception. I love my parents so much, they are amazing parents & grandparents!

The new baby

And we shall call him... PHIL.

It took a lot of work convincing Nate I need ANOTHER stroller. Well, I didn't think so either until Marcella & I hung out for a day & I compared pushing 2 kids in my double to pushing 2 kids in this bad boy. I was baby hungry in a stroller way.

And I am IN LOVE! We went jogging together as a family last night, me with 2 kids & Nate with 1 in the single jogging stroller (which I was planning on selling, but it sure came in handy last night), and oh the joy!

Thanks Marcella for showing me my life wasn't complete without this. And thank you Nate for only rolling your eyes behind my back. I love you.... even more than "Phil."

A story

Here's a story of a beautiful wedding reception for Nate's cousin & his bride. It was beautiful. The food was amazing, the company was terrific, the view from the balcony was gorgeous.

Apparently, my son had other ideas when standing on the balcony. Bad ideas. He thought it would be a great idea to PEE off of the balcony. In front of many people.

This last picture sums up his mood after getting in trouble for the "incident.

Seriously.

Brilliantly mischievious

This morning Sadie & Carson were having an argument. Carson snuck one of Sadie's grow-bugs (the little capsule with foam bugs inside that grow when you put them in water... don't feel dumb if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

So, I took the bug away from Carson & put it in time out. Both kids were mad. Just how we like to leave things in our house, no one should be happy if I'm not. (a joke.)

Fastforward to this afternoon. The kids are up in the bathroom happily playing in the water. I come upstairs and Sadie says, "I gave Carson 2 of my grow-bugs." I feel an abundance of happiness seeing her being nice to her brother, I even give her a hug & tell her thank you.

So, we sit & wait anxiously for the foam bug to appear from the capsules. And wait.... and wait. Hmmmm... I think, why is it taking so long. I stick my finger in to feel if the capsules are dissolving & when I do I realize that there are beads inside, not foam. My daughter, my brilliantly mischievious daughter has replaced the foam with those melty beads (the ones you put on a peg-board & then melt together with an iron). They fit perfectly together inside of the capsules, I honestly couldn't tell myself until I broke it apart.

So, how do I react to this situation? I have to give Sadie a talk about not tricking people when it might hurt their feelings (because we all know Carson was devistated!). But inside of me I was, honestly, SO PROUD of my daughter!!! I mean, that's brilliant, I'm still laughing inside thinking about it. Someday I will give her props for this trick, but today I'll just blog about it.

Catching up...

In the last month we have:

Celebrated Sadie's 6th birthday P.J. style! All of the kids got to paint pillow cases & then watched a movie w/ popcorn. My kind of a party!

Celebrated Nate's big 3.0.!! I tried to be a good wife, I really did. First I planned this huge "Amazing Race" surprise party, but decided more people could make it to a BBQ instead. He wasn't really surprised, but he was a good sport & acted like he was. In the chaos of the night, I only got one picture, and Nate's not even in it.... hmmm.

Tried babysitting the CUTEST baby ever! I watched her for a week, and it was so fun for me. Not so much fun for Gracie, however. She got super jealous & attention-hungry all of a sudden. My kids were so sad to say good-bye, she is so cute!

A couple of trips to the zoo. I'm still madly in love with baby Zuri, the elephant.

LOVED every single moment of Sadie's dance recital! She is quite the little dancer, I love it! (Considering I can't dance, she obviously didn't get it from me!)

And now I am looking forward to summer! And a little less of a schedule. Is it okay to admit that I am looking forward to staying in pajamas until 11:00 every day without going anywhere? And even then, at 11:00 I'll just slip on a swimsuit & head to the pool with the kids. Sounds blissfull.

The trip that almost wasn't.

Saturday morning we left to go to Lake Powell with Nate's family & my parents. We split up in 2 cars, with Nate, Brent (Nate's dad), Sadie & Carson in Tiffany's car. And then my parents, Mike (a close family friend), me, & Gracie in our van following behind. As we were driving through Spanish Fork Canyon, it started snowing, and it was sticking to the roads. The lane we were in started to lose it's tracks & so we moved over to the other lane. However, suddenly we watched as the other car (with Nate, Brent & kids) started to lose control & slide. They completely lost control & started sliding through the median, toward the oncoming lanes. It seemed like slow motion, and suddenly we saw a red semi-truck coming straight toward their car. I sat and screamed and honestly, lost it. The last thing I saw was the car straight sideways & the semi coming toward it. I thought the worst, & I reacted. Nate said inside of the car they watched the semi coming toward them and he told the kids to hold on, the semi was going to hit them. We had to keep driving before turning around so we didn't see the crash, but luckily they slid just enough for the semi to hit the car right in the front, which spun the car 360 degrees right onto the side of the road. A miracle to say the least.

I can't even describe the feeling of relief I felt when I saw Nate & Brent get out & grab the kids out of the back seat & bring them over to us. They were okay. They were okay! Nate's leg got bruised, Brent had some pain on his side (still not sure if he cracked some ribs or bruised them), and Sadie had a bump on her head from hitting the window. But alive, and okay. We said a prayer and thanked God for protecting our family.

They all got to ride in the ambulance down to the bottom of the canyon. We decided to go ahead to Lake Powell. Carson was pretty traumatized & we thought it would be good for all of us to spend time with the whole family & get our minds off of the accident.

Tiffany's car was totalled. She was so understanding & glad that everyone was okay. Now she gets a new car! Nate & kids in the ambulance. The ambulance ladies were really sweet with the kids. Sadie didn't seem phased at all by the event (she internalizes alot) but Carson was really upset. They gave them both stuffed bears & tootsie rolls.

Lake Powell:

Easter morning (who knew the Easter bunny goes to Lake Powell?)

Sadie had her 6th birthday on Monday. We let her decorate her own cake, and the combination of cream cheese frosting & licorice was actually delish!

Gracie turned 1 on Tuesday. She had so much fun on the house boat, love that girl!

So we had a great time at Lake Powell, and made it home safely.

We have much to be thankful for:

• We are thankful for family.
• We are thankful for seat belts & booster seats.
• We are thankful for air bags.
• Most of all, we are thankful for the protection of our Heavenly Father.
  

Mexico cruise

We had SUCH a fun time on our cruise with my parents! It felt like partying with best friends all week. We went to Cabo San Lucas for 2 days. I LOVE Cabo, I want to move there. (They have a Costco, I could survive.)

We spent the first day going zip-lining and it was a blast! And then Nate decided while we were there he might as well go bungie-jumping too, no big deal right?

I think my adreneline was actually pumping harder than his and I was just watching.

The next day we went kayaking and snorkeling in Cabo. I love Cabo.

The food was great. The company was wonderful.

I did miss the kids, but apparently they didn't miss me too much. They had a blast at Grandma & Grandpa Milne's house, maybe a little too much fun? Gracie wouldn't even come to me when we got back. She snuggled onto Nate's mom & didn't want anything to do with me... sad! (She loves me again now, but I'm glad she loves Nate's mom too.)