Wester Reunion 2012

We have been planning this reunion for months and it was so much fun! We were able to get two condo units at Steamboat, Colorado. What a beautiful place! We stayed from August 5th to August 12th. Barry and I stayed in the two bedroom with Ally, Luke, Ava, Kira, and Cole. Everyone else stayed in the three bedroom. It worked out good to have the babies together! Barry and I loved the time we were able to spend with our sweet little grandchildren! They were so fun and I loved waking up to their sweet smiles! Ally and Luke are such a big help...taking their roles as the oldest cousins very seriously!

The first day, we went up to an area that has hiking and bike trails and several mountain lakes. It was the bumpiest road I have ever been on. We laughter so hard as we dodged huge rocks in the road. But, we made it through without any damage... Even Cale and Hailey's Honda minivan climbed like a trooper! We stopped at the first lake. Josh and Luke road their dirt bikes and everyone else hiked and snacked! It was beautiful! Then...I could not believe it, but Anne, Hailey, Cale, and Zack road their bikes down the rocky road! The pictures don't do it justice! After the roughest part, Josh and Anne switched off and he and, Hailey, Cale, and Zack road all the way back down to our condo! Amy wanted to ride but Charlotte didn't cooperate!

The next day, Josh, Cale, Hailey, and Zack went for an early morning ride. At about 6:00, Barry drove them up to Rabbit Ear pass and they took a bike path down. They thought they would be gone a couple of hours but were not back until after lunch! When they got back, they all had a few bruises and scratches. It was tougher than they thought it would be! The rest of us stayed home and swam! That afternoon, we went to the alpine slide. That was so fun!

We went tubing down the river that goes through town. That was so much fun! We spent some time looking around town.

Barry and the boys had so much fun flying their RC planes. It has been so much fun for them to have this hobby in common! There was a great little park nearby for them to fly!

One day, the boys rented a pontoon boat to celebrate Barry's birthday! It was so exciting! The kids made cards for Barry telling him that he was getting his dream to go on a pontoon boat and grill hotdogs! They surrounded him as he looked at each and every card! It was cute! The boating day was awesome! We had a storm come in at the end but that just added to the excitement!

Before we left Denver, we planned and shopped for the entire week of meals! It was so much work but it sure was nice not to have to do that major shopping up there! We ate well and just had to go to the store for a few small things. We were amazed by how much food we consumed!

I made cousin T-shirts for the kids. They seemed to really like them!

We are already talking about our reunion next year! It can get hectic at times with so many people... But it is so worth it! I just hope that we make it a tradition!

I remember when Josh was our only child and I was pregnant with Cale, I wondered how I could love another child as much as I loved Josh! When Cale was born, I loved him so much and it was then that I really understood that their are no limits on love! Having Nick and Zack reaffirmed that! Now that I have so many grandchildren.. I am blown away by the deep love I feel for each and every one of them! You never have too many... And for sure you never have a diminished love and concern for each and every one!

Nick and Dana were not able to make it! We missed them! I am so excited to see Hinckley hanging out with the cousins someday!

I wish I could figure out how to separate pictures and text on this iPad app for blogging! Sorry!

Baby Shower

Today I hosted a baby shower for one of my dearest friends, Janae. I made this diaper cake, diaper wreath, and cake pops. Just wanted to share!

Rocky Mountain High!

We made it to Colorado at about 1:00... just in time for Cole's birthday party! It was a "buz year light year" ( what Cole calls Buz Lightyear). After the party, Josh, Anne and the kids went to see their new house! I went the next day and we worked hard unpacking boxes. Here are some pictures from some of the fun time we managed to squeeze in between unpacking!

SLC to Rawlings...getting closer to Colorado!

On Monday, June 25th we began our road trip to Colorado. The first day we drove to Salt Lake and stayed at Anne's dad's and step mom's house. I spent the evening with Zack, Amy, and baby Charlotte. We went to the new city creek mall and ate at the Blue Lemon... One of my favorite places in SLC. Then, we went to their apt and just played with Charlotte. She is trying to crawl. I with I had taken some pictures! The next day, we left at about noon and headed to Rawlings, Wyoming which is the halfway point. We stayed in a hotel and the kids had so much fun swimming, and collecting rocks.

Back to Seattle for a packing party!

So I flew back to Seattle to help Anne pack up the house. We packed for several days and got everything packed up except the things they needed to live their last week in Seattle. I flew back to Boise for a week at home before heading to Colorado with Anne and the kids. On June 22nd they drove to Boise with the help of Anne's fathers wife. Anne and the kids stayed a few days with us before we headed out to Colorado. Here are some pictures of their visit.... Memories of sleeping on the porch, playing with the chickens, etc!

One night in Hawaii is just not enough!

So...when we were checking flights to leave china, we discovered that the flight we had planned to take on Tuesday was looking very full. (We were flying on standby passes from my brother,Larry, who was a pilot for Delta.) it looked like we needed to leave a couple days earlier than we had planned. Because Barry had taken off work until Wednesday, I got a bright idea! Why not go home through Hawaii? I checked flights and it looked good. Barry had some Marriott points so he booked a room for one night. We started our journey to Hawaii by going through Tokyo, Japan. We had a long layover in Japan then flew out to Hawaii and arrived at 8:00 am. Hawaii is such a relaxing place! We got there, rented a car, and drove to one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever seen! We went to the beach for the afternoon, rented a cabana, swam while barry snorkeled( I could not wear a fin cause of my foot), ate great food, and had a virgin pina colada. The next day we drove to the north shore, went to the dole pineapple farm, went to the Polynesian Cultural Center...then headed to the airport for a 9:00 pm flight to Seattle. I'm not sure what happened, but flights were full with lots of standbys, so we did not make the flight. We did make a 10:00 pm flight to San Francisco and I flew from there to Seattle to help Anne pack and Barry flew to Boise.

Meeting Hinckley in China!

Barry and I left on June 3rd for china. We were so excited to just hold little Hinckley! It was a quick trip but we enjoyed every moment. We did the tourist stuff last summer when we went so it was nice to just spend time with nick, Dana, and Hinckley. I was able to go with Dana to Hinckley's doctor appt so I was able to see where he spent the first weeks of his life. They had such a tough time during those first weeks but I'm so happy that Hinckley and Dana are doing so good now! I could not get enough of Hickley while we were there! I just wanted to hold him all the time! I loved singing to him because he seemed to smile when I did... We did get in some shopping and nick took us to the drum tower. We had planned to leave on Tuesday but ended up leaving on Sunday because we were flying standby and the flights looked full for Tuesday . So, we were there about a week. Nick and Dana were leaving to come to the states on Tuesday and barry and I did not want to be stuck in china without them!

These pictures show the apartment they live in, Dana on the street in front of their condo, and some pics of Hinckley.

I love nick and his sweet little family so much!