Road Trip 2010 Days 5-7

day 5 (the 4th of July) we attended church in Austin. It was pretty good. I played the piano in Relief society for the first time in my life-thanks Eileen. It went OK I guess. I was shaking pretty bad, but I think I only messed up a couple of times. After Church, we went to Vanessa and Eric's house (Randy's cousin and his wife). They are freaking awesome by the way. Vanessa needed to make some cakes for Cenneidigh's (yes, I looked up how to spell her name) b-day party later that day. Vanessa asked me if I would come help her decorate them. She doesn't need any help--believe me- but I went anyway. I had a ton of fun she made the cakes and the frosting and I got to just decorate. It was so much fun talking and laughing with her in the kitchen while the kids played in the other room. After the cakes were finished we headed back to the church and had Cenny's party. It was a lot of fun.

On DAY 6 Randy and I dropped off the kids with Rick and Eileen and headed to Minneapolis. Kristi, her girls and Paige also left with us. We went to the Walker Art museum because we had been wanting to go see it for a while. Unfortunately, none of us had looked up when it was open and sure enough, it was only open Tues-Sunday. We were there on Monday of course. Instead of touring the museum like we planned, we walked around the sculpture gardens. Randy and I had been there before, but a little bit had changed and it was still fun. After the gardens we headed for the Mall of America. We ate a long lunch and talked. Afterward, we split up with Kristi and Paige headed for the airport to go back to Alaska. Randy and I walked around the mall. I had a list of about 5 things I wanted to buy, but it was nice to take it slow and just browse most of the time. I think we walked around the whole mall and I had a couple of blisters on my feet to prove it by the end of the day. It was really nice to have a whole day without the kids. Thanks again Rick, Eileen and Amanda for your help with that.


Day 7
we wanted to take it easy and have a slow day in Austin. So we headed to the SPAM museum. Rick, Eileen, Amanda, Heidi (and her family) and Micah with her family joined us. here are some fun pictures.

Jake and Tyler with 'Spammy'

Jake and Peter 'making some SPAM' together


Randy and Tyler liked packaging the SPAM as well.

The SPAM cans on a conveyor belt above us. Tyler thought it was pretty awesome.

Lily dressed as a Hormel worker

Tyler dressed up too. Jake would have none of that.

All the kids-minus Tyler by Spammy after we toured the museum. We spent entirely too much money in the gift shop, even with the family discount, but we love our T-shirts and other souvenirs. After the museum we headed to Piggy Blues BBQ-which seemed fitting after the museum- for some lunch with Heidi and Doug.

Lily in front of the restaurant

Jake on a pig

Jake on another pig. He loved them for some reason.

Tyler through a pig.
After lunch I went back to Micah's house and we put Lily down for a nap while I did some laundry. Randy went to clean out the car, go for an oil change and we also had to buy new tires for the van
Peter and Jacob playing a game
Tyler playing battleship with Gideon
All of us hanging out
Randy being attacked by children
Lily bean
Randy playing with the SPAM basketball we bought for Jake at the museum--and lost somewhere in South Dakota. Tyler, Rick and Gideon

After all the laundry was done and nap-time over, everyone came to Micah's and Rick watched all of the children while the adult went out to eat. We had a fun dinner together with Eileen, Kristi, Karl, Micah, Amanda and Eliza. Lisa was sick so she couldn't come. It was a nice slow semi-relaxing day for us.

Road Trip day 4: The Reunion

On Saturday we went to Lisa's (Randy's sister) house and had our "official reunion" day. We had hot dogs, snow cones, chips, played in the bouncy-house, watched family videos and talked all day long. It was hot and humid but it was really fun.Enjoying the snow cones

Lily loved the laffy-taffy she found after the pinata was broken.

you can see the shirt Rick and Eileen made for the reunion. it says 1+1=33 2/3 and has stick figures of all of us

Jacob and peter, who are born only 5 days apart, found out they were "best friends" they had a great time together.

The snow-cone machine and hot dog machine they rented

the bouncy house the kids couldn't stay away from.

Everyone just hung out and talked. It had been 7 years since we have all been together.

Lily absolutely loved the bouncy house...almost as much as she loves her brother TylerShe did this pose when I came to take a picture. Isn't she so pretty? hahaha

I painted my toes for the fourth of July. yes, they are sloppy, but it was still fun.

Randy and his siblings Steve and Heidi. They are holding their three baby girls

Randy rocking the hula-hoop

The three baby girls Roxy, Eliza and Lily

Feeling loved by everyone

After a great day of hanging out, we headed to the park to watch the fireworks. Jacob fell asleep on the way there and because he played so hard, he didn't wake up when we walked to the band shell. We handed him to Lisa to hold. It was so sweet to see him sleeping in her arms. Lily, however found it equally amusing and took the opportunity to "mess with him" as best she could. she stuck her fingers in his nose. It was pretty funny.
Lisa also provided the group with a plethora of glow in the dark paraphernalia. She must have bought out the whole dollar store. The kids loved making different things hang on themselves.
Lily in her glowing necklace and 'tiara'
Jake woke up and I showed him the globe we made him.Checking out the fireworks.
Tyler showing us his stuff.
Our whole group glowed. It wasn't hard to leave and then come back and try to find where we were sitting. It was awesome.

Road Trip 2010

Late last night we got home from the "Great Bremner vacation." There is a lot to tell from our trip in the last 10 days so I will start with our first two days.

Early in the morning on July 30Th we packed the kids in the van and headed to Minnesota for the Bremner Family Reunion. We drove for 12 hours that day. It was a long day and lily had a very hard time sleeping in her car seat. She is used to sleeping on her tummy without anyone else around and it made for a lot of screaming until exhaustion takes over and forces sleep on her.Lily at the beginning of our journey

Lily was crying and as soon as I turned on the camera, she stopped. But if you look close you can see tear filled eyes.

.Sleep FINALLY took over after a 40 minute scream fest...and lasted about 15 minutesJake fell asleep with his shades and headphones onOur happy Ty.
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We stayed at a Ramada Inn in Kearney Nebraska the first night. Luckily we didn't find this little guy on our wall until the morning. Otherwise I wouldn't have slept a wink that night.

Randy loves his picture taken

She finally fell asleep on the second day. So nice!

Randy made me take a video as proof that the children didn't scream the whole time.

Yard Update

We have been working hard on our yard lately. Yesterday and today we put down weed barrier and shoveled 3 truckloads of bark onto the garden areas. I've got quite the sunburn to prove I was out there working for hours. :) Adding the bark sure made a visible improvement on the aesthetics of our yard though. We even got a couple of neighbors (who have never spoken to us in the 3 years we have been here) come over and tell us how nice our yard is looking.

Randy shoveling the last truckload of barkthe front corner

We had some extra bark we piled in the front that we will use by the porch when our retaining wall is finished

View of our side yard It looks much betterThis picture is what it looked like 3 years ago. no trees, no shrubs, just lumpy weed dirt. It is so nice to have sprinklers, plants and a nice grassy place for the kids to play.

T-ball

We are almost done with T-ball this year. Tyler has two more games and then we will be off to MN for Randy's family reunion. We will miss the very last game, but it is worth it.

Randy is a great coach and has a lot more patience then I would have if I were the one telling/showing them what to do. Tyler is lucky to have such a great Dad. Tyler has also improved a lot. His hits go a lot further, he runs faster and can catch and throw with the best of them. I hope he decides to play again next year.