A Visit from the Wheelers (The Tim Wheelers)

Shortly after we got home from Yellowstone, Tim (Steve's brother) & Liz and their family came to visit us.  Anna and Matthew were so excited to have their cousins over visiting.  Unfortunately, Anna was so excited that she kept all of her cousins up all night.  She had to be moved to a different room for the other couple of nights.

I have to admit, cooking for 7 kids and 2 adults is tricky.  Finding food that everyone likes and finding a spot for everyone to sit were the biggest challenges.

On Saturday, we all headed over to Seattle.  Pike's Place Market was first on our list.  Boy! was it crowded!  We could barely move and keeping track of 7 kids in the crowd was a major chore.  We saw some major highlights, though.  The gum wall was visited, we saw some fish throwing, and we bought flowers.   We were then going to the Space Needle, but the price was so expensive to go up, that we just drove by.  The afternoon was topped off by a lunch at Ivar's Fish House.  Again, we would have liked to go to one of the restaurants, but they were SO expensive!

Matthew really hit it off with Spencer.  They played and raced whenever they could.  They both declared the other to be his best friend.  Anna, Sarah, & Whitney spent all most of one day playing with Anna's cupcake game.  They wrote dozens of new 'recipes' to make with the cupcakes, complete with pictures.

It was really nice to have Tim & Liz and their kids come over.  We had lots of fun having cousins over.

Firemen's Memorial Park

Every time the kids and I go to the grocery store, we drive by a little park with a jungle gym shaped like a firetruck.  Given that Matthew is obsessed with emergency vehicles right now, he begs and begs for us to stop.  Well, this evening we decided to do it.

It's not a very big park.  There's the fire engine, a set of swings, and then a little way off there's a digging tool, a merry-go-round, and a seesaw.  Still, the kids had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave.  We'll have to go back again.

Wheeler Reunion at Yellowstone Part 3 (the last one!)

Our last full day in Island Park started off slowly.  We were supposed to eat breakfast and then have a big family picture at 8:30am.  Wellll, everyone was getting tired and some people were only just waking up at 8:30.  Instead, Steve and I decided to do some pictures of just us while we were waiting.  First, we asked Ken and then Gina to take a few pictures of us.  As it was getting closer and closer to 9:30 and then 10:00 Gina and I decided to take action.  We set up some chairs in the woods for our pictures and then started herding people to the picture taking area.

We took a ton of pictures.  Pictures of the whole family, pictures of Mom and Dad with the grandkids, pictures of Mom and Dad with just their kids, pictures of just the siblings, just the brothers, and just the sisters.  Finally we were done.  Next on the agenda was opening Christmas presents from Mom and Dad- yes, Christmas presents in July.  But that got pushed later because people wanted to take individual family pictures.

 I've decided that in a large group, usually everyone is waiting for someone to take charge and make some decisions.  I appointed myself that person by calling out that we were opening presents at a certain time.  If they wanted to be there, great.

Christmas presents were...interesting.  We opened them one at a time and there were a lot.  Kids and adults were getting antsy and bored.  Then we all opened up the same CD three times!  I think we were all a little relieved when we were done.

After the presents were put away, Steve and I packed up the kids and headed just 5 minutes down the road to Henry's Fork on the Snake River.  It's a very shallow part of the river.  Several of the cousins walked from one bank to the other.  I don't think the water ever got above their waists.  Steve rented a paddle boat for us to use for an hour.  It was fun but so much work!  It's one thing to use them on a lake, but with the current, we were using all our power to make a little headway upstream.  Some of the other families rented canoes and paddle boards.  Unfortunately, our fun was cut short by a sudden rainstorm.  We packed up the kids and headed back for naps- boy did I need it.

The last adventure of the day was just Anna and I.  We; along with Jeff & Gina's family, John & Tiff's family, and Scott & Kim's family; headed to West Yellowstone for a production of Mary Poppins at 8:30pm.  Anna sat on my lap the whole time so she could see.  The music from the movie is there, along with some other songs, but the storyline is different.  I really liked it all except for the life-size toys that came to taunt Jane and Michael.  The music and toys were kinda scary.  I was afraid Anna would have nightmares.  Jeff bought us a box of popcorn at intermission.  About that time, Anna whispered in my ear, "I think I should have slept at naptime.  I'm really tired."  Despite that, she made it through the play and at the end she took a picture with Mary and Bert and high-fived the rest of the cast.  It was a great time.

Friday morning was spent cleaning up the cabins and heading out.  We left around 11am.  We got as far as Spokane by dinner.  We wanted to stop there and make the rest of the drive the next day, but it was almost impossible to find a room.  The one we did find wanted $200+ for the night.  Instead, we decided to just drive through to home.  The kids fell asleep in the back seat and Steve and I took turns keeping the other awake.  We got home at 1am.  So tired, so we just unloaded a few things that we needed and all

Wheeler Reunion at Yellowstone Part 2

Tuesday was a rest day for us all- in a way.  It was our turn for the cooking and cleaning that day, so I got up at 6:30am to set out our granola, yogurt, and fruit.  I must say, the homemade granola was a hit.  People were coming back for more for the next couple of days.  I had no leftovers.  After cleaning up and with 3 nights of terrible sleep, I was exhausted.  Steve watched the kids and I took a 2 hour nap after he did a trash run to the landfill.

When I awoke, I started work on dinner.  I've decided that kabobs are not a good idea for large groups.  It took me, Liz, and Emily 4 hours to cut up the chicken, green peppers, and onions then thread 100 skewers with that plus pineapple.  Liz then grilled all of them.  In addition, several others were husking corn, wrapping it in foil, and grilling it.  Despite that, dinner got on the table only a little late.

That night, the men watched the Lego Movie with the kids while the women had a book club.  I got lots of great ideas for my reading list.

Wednesday we were back at Yellowstone for the south loop.  We saw a huge herd of buffalo, females and calves, right along the road.  Anna still had a hard time.  "Mom, this is boring.  We saw the same stuff last time."  I guess Yellowstone is for older kids and adults.  We still got to the main event, Old Faithful.  We had lunch and met up with almost everyone else there.  Our final stop at Yellowstone was the gift shop.  Anna picked out a stuffed mountain lion cub and a necklace with a bear print charm.  Matthew chose a stuffed buffalo and a pewter token with a bear on one side and Old Faithful on the other.  Steve and I got shirts and a Christmas ornament.

The evening activity was a family talent show.  So much fun!  We sang Bill and the Button Factory, watched scripture charades, and a synchronized swimming routine.  Steve, the kids, and I sang our good morning song.  I loved singing Roar by Katy Perry with everyone and watching Mom and Dad equate electrical stuff to a baby with a dirty diaper.  Toasted marshmallows topped the evening off.

Wheeler Reunion at Yellowstone Part 1

Wow!  What a busy, fun, exhausting, invigorating week we just had.  It started on the 4th of July when Steve, Matthew, Anna, and I packed up the car and headed out at 8am.  We spent the whole day driving through Washington, Idaho's panhandle, and western Montana to Butte.  It was a good trip.  The kids watched LOTS of movies, played with some new cheap-y toys from the dollar spot, and we all ate a lot of snacks.  We stopped for lunch at Subway and spent some time goofing off in the arcade.  Dinner was at the Cracker Barrel.  Have to say, it was filling but not super great.  We ended up in a hotel in Butte.  Anna slept on the floor in a sleeping bag, Matthew in the hotel's crib, and Steve and I were in the adjoining room on a king-size bed.  Aaahhhh!  Unfortunately, Matthew sleeps as well in a new bed as his mom.  He was up 3 times that night and Anna woke up twice!

We attended church at the local Butte ward and then headed the last 2.5 hours to Island Park, ID.  At 4:30 we ended up at the two cabins that would be the Wheeler clan's home for the next week.  People trickled in and we had everyone, minus Scott & Kim's family, there for dinner.

Monday was our first big day.  We headed to Yellowstone at around 9am with the intention of spending the morning there and then coming home for naps after lunch.  We almost came home early because Anna kept whining about how tired she was and how boring all the stuff was and "can't we go home and play by ourselves?"  Luckily, as soon as we got in the car, the kids both fell asleep immediately.  We decided to let them sleep while we drove to another destination.  They were much happier after the nap and meeting up with cousins at the last stop helped too.

The evening activity was Family Home Evening.  It was about family history/temple work.  A few of the teenage kids told about some of the things they were doing and then we let each family as a question of Mom and Dad while we recorded their answers.  Some of them included "What was your favorite toy when you were little?", "Who was your best friend?" and "What was your first kiss like?"  We all enjoyed hearing what they had to say.

By the time we all got to bed, we were exhausted.  Unfortunately, Matthew was still rebelling to sleeping in a pack-n-play and woke up 4 times that night.  Tuesday dawned with a very tired
Mommy.

Matthew's Park House Tour

People have been asking for some pictures of the new house, so here is the first official tour.

This is what you see when you drive up.  We've finally cleared out the garage so the cars are parked inside now.  It's not a very big front yard.  I love the red door, but Steve would like to change it to a wood one.

It might not look like it from the front, but we have a 3-car garage.  The 3rd bay is tandem.  We'll probably use it mostly for storage.

As you enter the front door, to your left is the living room.  It's probably the most completely decorated room right now.

Further in and still to the left is the formal dining room.  Obviously, we don't have the furniture to properly furnish this room.  It's a little bare.  We're hoping to eventually get a new dining room table and a buffet/sideboard/china cupboard.

Keep going and you'll enter the back of the house.  To the left is the kitchen.  It has tile counters, not my favorite, a gas stove, and a dishwasher I love.

Here's the kitchen looking at it from by the back sliding door.  The glass paneled door is the pantry.

To the right is the family room.  Right now it's a flotsam of different things.  We'll see what I can do with this room.

In between the front and back of the house, to the right, is the guest bathroom.  I've decided I don't care for pedestal sinks.  There's nowhere to put anything and we get water all down the wall.

Also to the right are the stairs up to the second floor.  The door you see in front of you is the linen closet.

To the left of the stairs is Matthew's room.  We're planning on getting him a big-boy bed so all decorating is on hold right now.

Just to the right of the linen closet at the top of the stairs is the kids bathroom.

And to the right of the bathroom is the laundry room.  It faces the front of the house.

To the right of the laundry and also at the front of the house is Anna's room.  She fell in love with the purple walls and butterflies at first sight.

This is looking down the hallway from the kids' end of the floor toward the guest room (left) and the master (right).

The view toward the front door from the upstairs hallway.

The guest room/office/game storage.

This is the master bedroom.  I really like the bay windows at the back.  We have a great view of the greenbelt and the mountains in the distance.  No pictures up yet.

The master bathroom.  We love having the dual sinks and I really enjoy the jetted tub.  The shower has two heads.

Out the back sliding door we have a deck.  It's nice and big.

The shed on the side of the house.

The backyard.  There were roses and blueberry bushes here.  We're getting some ripe blueberries now.  Yum!  Steve didn't take a picture of the two raised beds that I've planted with green beans (I picked some today), tomatoes, leeks, lettuce, parsley, and oregano.

So, there you go.  I hope you all enjoyed all the pictures.

Dogs and Rockets

Matthew decided that sausages taste better with potato chips.

 Our ward has a yearly activity called Dogs and Rockets at Brier Park.  The dogs are hot dogs and everyone brings rockets to set off in the park's big field.  Steve and I are hot dog snobs so we brought chicken apple sausages and whole wheat buns instead.  Everyone in the ward brought desserts and side dishes.  We ate very well.







To one side of the field, the fancy rockets were set off.  These rockets went anywhere from 500-2000 feet into the air.  The kids were running all over the place trying to catch the parachutes.  We set up in a different spot.  It didn't sound like a good idea to us to have explosives with a 2 yo and a 5 yo, so Steve did some research and bought a stomp rocket.  It has 4 'rockets' that you put on the device and then 2 bellows that you stomp on.  Depending on how hard you stomp, you can send the rockets pretty high into the air.  The kids loved it.  They could be a part of making the rockets fly.

We left the activity early.  It started kind of late and was still going strong when we left at 7.  The stomp rockets were a great investment.  We've used them a few times and the kids just love them.

Log Boom Park

We're slowly exploring the area around us.  One of the nice things is the abundance of parks.  Just 5 minutes from our house is Log Boom Park.  It's right along the north edge of Lake Washington.  We took a little walk and watched the Bald Eagles over the lake and in the trees above us.  Then we stopped at the playground.  There's a lot of climbing and spinning toys for the kids to play on.  Finally, we walked out on the pier.  There was a huge heron and we watched the teenagers swimming.  Lots of fun.

Geocaching Adventure

We decided to take the family on a little hike to a nearby park.  Steve did a little research and found 3 geocaches along the trails.  It has been a long time since we went geocaching as a family, Anna was a baby in a backpack, so we decided to go for it.

It was the perfect day for a hike, cool and a little cloudy but not cold.  We found the first cache easily under a log in a black container.  The kids liked putting a little plastic lizard in the box and signing the register.  We then headed to the second.  That's where our luck in finding caches ran out.  It's hard to find caches in the green overgrown brush with bored kids running around.  We weren't able to find the second or the third caches at all.  That's okay, though, we had a lot of fun exploring the trails and listening to the birds.

Baskin Robbins

One of our favorite things to do as a family is to go to Baskin Robbins for ice cream.  It usually happens as Family Home Evening refreshments.  The kids love picking from all the flavors and I love not having ice cream sitting around the house just begging for me to have some.

Here are a couple pictures from our latest visit.

Mess?  What mess?

Eating ice cream takes great thought.

A Visit to the Buffalos

One day, while Steve was out on a walk he met one of our near neighbors.  After talking a little, Steve mentioned that we loved seeing all the animals nearby.  The neighbor told him about some buffalo at a home not more than a mile from us.  So, one day, we took a little trip.

Sure enough there was a large enclosure with about 15 buffalo.  There were even a couple of calves.  The kids were fascinated.  There were signs all over the broken fence stating that we should stay at least 10 feet from the fence because the buffalo are wild animals and have been known to charge the fence.  I believe it since most of the wooden part of the fence had broken rails.