Birthday Camping (7/20)

I'm so behind on my blog! Back in July we went camping for my birthday. I think it took everyone by surprise that I mentioned doing that for my birthday. Drew and I hadn't been camping since I was pregnant with Autumn. So it was long over due to give it a try.

On Fri. my family went up and got to the campgrounds early in the afternoon.
Autumn was really excited.

 It was the second to last weekend of summer before school started so all the campgrounds were pretty packed. Drew immediately set up the tent, we ate lunch which was sandwiches and chips, and we got everything situated right before it started raining.

We all went into the tent and talked, played games, and at one point Autumn asked us all to be quiet and she immediately passed out and slept for an hour and a half. Thank goodness for technology because that kept the younger 2 totally entertained.

We just hung around waiting for everyone else to get up there. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and gorgeous weather.

Mark and Christy's family arrived at the campsites around dinner time. We grilled hamburgers and hung out. Drew made his dutch oven peach cobbler and we used that as my birthday cake.

 It was really fun to have campsites right next to each other. The kids had so much space. We built a great fire, and while all the other adults tried to put kids to bed I watched the fire go out and when it started to rain I went into the tent.

It rained the whole night, and I was miserable. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep. Thankfully my kids slept till 7/7:30 and were all in really good moods.

In the morning Mark made pancakes and bacon, and they also brought donuts and cantaloupe.

We tried to take pictures of all the kids, but a few weren't having any part of that.

 This one is my favorite. The next picture speaks for itself, I love the faces on each of my kids:

Then we went "fishing." Well Drew went fishing and the rest of us watched the kids splash and play. Or if your Mark, he sunbathed.

 Cannon came, he helped keep the kids entertained. They loved throwing sticks in the water and watching him swim back with them.

 These boys are so imaginative. They were putting their sticks in the water and pulling them out quick and said they were fishing.

 

We went back to the campgrounds and we ate lunch and then packed up our site. While Drew was loading the van these two boys found something very entertaining to do. It grossed me out, but boys will be boys.

 

 I wouldn't consider myself sold on the idea of camping but I did have more fun and enjoyed myself more than I thought I would. If I could sleep in a tent and on an air mattress then camping would be awesome. I am so thankful to have some family near by and have them join us camping. It would've been much more boring with out them.

Autumns 1st Talk 8/19/12

Today at church Autumn gave her first primary talk. She was so anxious and excited for her talk. She was most excited to use the microphone. During Sacrament Meeting she kept asking after every little thing if it was her turn to give her talk. She asked after the opening prayer, after the sacrament, after the first speaker, etc... She was definitely prepared and willing to speak in front of everyone. Drew said she spoke clear and loud enough for everyone to hear. A few of my friends complimented her talk and how well they understood her. She was very proud of herself!!

Her topic was "I should do things on the Sabbath that will help me stay close to Heavenly Father." When I sat down to write her talk I asked her what things we did on Sunday, and what we didn't do. Hoping she has recognized that Sundays are special. She had some great comments and so I put them in her talk.

"There are many things I can do on the Sabbath to help me stay close to Heavenly Father.

Our family likes to sings songs out of the Children's Songbook. I like to look at pictures that go along with the songs.

Our family also likes to read stories and look at pictures from books with scriptures stories in them.

My dad works on Monday night so we do Family Home Evening on Sunday night. We sing songs, read church stories, discuss scriptures, and pray.

To help me stay close to Heavenly Father on the Sabbath I do not go outside and play, or go to any stores. I spend the Sabbath Day at church and doing quiet reverent things with my family."

I held up the visual aids which were the children's songbook, old testament stories book, and a picture of a family during F.H.E. I am very proud of her. She did great and I now know she doesn't have a fear of speaking in front of large crowds. :)

1st Day of School- 8/6/12

I am still in awe that I have a Kindergartener. I was emotional all weekend. We went to Meet the Teacher on the Thurs night before school started and I could hardly keep myself together. So it was no surprise how anxious and nervous I was all weekend for school to start. Monday morning did not go how I had invisioned it. I did make a big breakfast, but we had to wake Autumn up at 7:30 so that we could leave by 7:45 and it just felt rushed. I did get a quick picture before we left.

Since my morning picture wasn't all that I wanted it to be I figured we could make up for it after.
This picture is when I picked her up after her first day. She was so excited to see all of us.

When we got home I did the picture that I planned to do in the morning but we didn't end up having time to sit down to have her write out what grade she was in. I have loved all the ideas on Pinterest for first day of school photos and I admit I am a perfectionist and would've loved doing something cute and clever with perfect penmanship, but there is something special about a childs handwriting, so I decided against all the ideas I had seen and originally planned and went with this. I admit I got onto her for writing too big, but then apologized because did it really matter? She still got all the letters on there. And it's her writing. I will treasure seeing how her writing skills change over the years.

I get to walk Autumn to and from school, I truely feel extremely blessed to live so close to her school that I can walk her to and from. There is about 10 houses in between the school and our home. The heat is pretty intense on our walks after school and she drags her feet but I feel like we talk more and get those few minutes to communicate about her day that we wouldn't get if we were in the car. She is loving Kindergarten so far and we are enjoying what time we get with Autumn in the afternoons and evenings. We definitely miss her when she's not here.

Hardy Reunion 6/1/2012

Drews sister decided a few months ago that we should start doing family reunions with just his immediate family. Her in laws own a cabin in the white mountains, so she set a weekend and every one came up. The cabin provided us with a free place to stay, and all we had to worry about was food and cleaning up before we left. The reunion was so much fun, I am so glad we went. We loved every minute of it. It makes me wish someone in my family had a cabin that I could enjoy more often. :) (Or maybe Drew and I should start saving for one.) I don't really care for the outdoors, I don't like to be dirty, can't stand bugs, and camping isn't my thing, but this was just right. We were out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature (no internet/cellphone service), in a beautiful cabin that accomidated Drews parents, the 5 children (with 3 spouses), and their 9 grandchildren. We've been back up to Drews parents place since the reunion and the entire way Autumn kept asking if we were going to the cabin, it's definitely something she loved as well.
The cabin-

A homemade swing set kept the kids entertained-

Uncle Clark could get the kids swinging really high-

A real tree house, there were a bunch of broken boards and tons of ants but the kids liked it. There was also a zipline that went off from it, my kids were too little for that-

We did lots of rides on various 4 wheelers-

There was a table large enough to let the grandkids eat first, then the adults would eat-

The first night the adults stayed up and played Apples to Apples-

A huge fire pit with benches. Drews dad was making his dutch oven potatoes-

Aunt Candace brought bubbles for the kiddos-

These girls are 3 months apart, and I have a feeling they are going to be best buds-

Trek, Bailey, and Lyla- only 4 months separates the oldest from the youngest.

We did family pictures-
Drews younger sister and her fam-

My fam-

Drew's older sisters fam-

Drew's younger sister and younger brother-

Drew's parents-

Everybody-

Drews parents and his siblings-

The siblings-

All the adults-

The grandparents with the grandkids-

After pictures we hopped in the 4 wheelers and went to Pottery Hill. We went looking around for old pieces of pottery, some people found some real treasures...



 After that the littlest ones needed naps, so most of the adults went shooting.

 Uncle Josh has an awesome 4 wheeler for kids. Weston and Autumn loved it.

 Then we had the Hardy Family Olympics- which were mainly Minute to Win It games. It was fun, and funny.
Stacking the cups-

 Who can pull out the Kleenex's the fastest-

 Shake the ping pong balls out of a tissue box-

 Move an oreo from your forehead to your mouth-

 Stack 6 Ding Dongs on your forhead-

 And the olympics ended with a round of horseshoes-

 That night we decorated frames with all the kids-

 And there was a ping pong tournament.

We had a great great time. It was nice to spread out, and have so much space around us. The kids had the best time. They ask about going back all the time. We are blessed to have such a wonderful family and to have made such amazing memories that weekend. We can't wait and are already looking forward to the next time we get to go up there.