San Diego Family Vacation

We had so much fun on our family trip to San Diego.  There were of course ups and downs, but I loved it!  We stopped in St. George for the first few nights and loved the resort there.  We could have stayed for a whole week and not been able to enjoy all that there was to do at the resort and at Zion's National Park.  We spent Saturday at Zion's and it was amazing.  I had never been and it was seriously so amazing.  The pictures can hardly do it justice.  We decided to do a hike called Angel's Landing.  It is pretty famous because the last quarter mile (optional) is a pretty skinny path with a drop off cliff on both sides.  there is a chain to hold on to, but it sounded terrifying and I was definitely not doing it or letting any of my kids do it when we started.  By the time we got to the top something had changed.  Maybe the elevation had gotten to me or maybe the beauty of everything was blinding me to the danger, but I decided that I wanted to do it and to bring Teagan and Eloise along.  Even as I write this I just feel sick to my stomach, what was I thinking?!?  We did it, it was awesome, there were no close calls and I was the only one who slipped a little (nothing too scary).  Every person that we passed praised Teagan and Eloise for being so brave (except the ones that silently judged us for putting our children's lives in danger haha)  We watched grown men and women turn back, Eloise and Teagan never seem to be nervous at all.  We made it to the top and it was so incredible.  The way down I was in the back instead of the front and it all the sudden got a little scarier watching my precious children walking that close to the edge of a cliff.  I was glad when it was over, but honestly, during the hike I never felt very nervous.  Then I got home and looked at pictures and videos and started wondering what I was thinking.  I'm glad we did it.

We drove to San Diego on Sunday and went to the Mormon Battalion, it was so interesting to learn about those pioneers and all that they faced.  It was the perfect Sunday activity!

Monday we went to Lego Land and everyone loved it.  There were hardly any people there so we rarely had to wait more then 5 minutes for a ride.  The kids went on this roller coaster at least 10 times, maybe more.  Logan and Everly were buddies in the stroller, he loved riding with her and was so sweet with her!  Addy and Ellie loved all the lego structures, especially the Lego Friends ones, they are lego lovers for sure.  Everly was adorable on the carousel.  She laughed and laughed and did her hilarious quick inhale throat growl thing that she does when she is excited.

Tuesday was a tennis, beach and pool day.  We met my good friend Erin at the beach and the kids boogie boarded and played in the sand for hours.  I don't think I saw Teagan for more then about 10 minutes all day because he was in the water the whole time.  It was so great to catch up with Erin and see her cute little kids.  The house we stayed at had a pool so the kids loved to play in it while the adults recovered from being on vacation for a few hours.

Disneyland
Wednesday was Disneyland.  We had fast passes and it wasn't too crowded so we got to ride a ton of rides compared to what it is normally like.  It was just going to be us at Disneyland but Jeff and Julie surprised us and came last minute.  I had sent Julie my location through our phones the day before and it was still on so they actually tracked us down and surprised us as we were waiting at Star Tours.  The kids were excited, especially Teagan.  I think Eloise was a little sad that she was going to have to share her big brother.    The kids thought Disneyland was really fun but I realized that we need to watch all the old Disney movies before we go next time because a lot of it didn't make much sense to them.   It was really fun to be there at Halloween time.  Everything was decorated and we even got to see Jack Skeleton in person!  We had a great day, but there were SO many people there and I think the kids liked LEGO Land better which was way more affordable.  I'm glad we went so that our kids can check it off the bucket list though, we definitely made some memories.

Thursday we recovered some more and then went on a harbor cruise tour of downtown San Diego.  It was so cool to see the city from that side and learn some of the history.  We got to go under the coronado bridge which was cool for me.  The kids ran all over like crazy people the whole time, they started getting a little rambunctious with each other by the end of the week.  We went to eat Mexican food down by the Padres' stadium and had to separate into families to try to get a little peace.  On the way home we stopped at Peterson's Donuts in Escondido (the best ever!) and let each kid pick out a donut.  Those donuts were one of the highlights of the trip, so yummy!

Friday morning the Lewis family headed home and we decided to stay for one more night.  My friend Erin Packard, had invited us to sleep there so we took her up on the offer and it was so worth it!  We went and visited Zac's old PT school, St Augustine, in San Marcos.  The kids tolerated the tour and Zac loved taking a walk down memory lane and seeing everything new.  It was so crazy to think how much our lives had changed in 8 short years.  Life really does pass by too quickly!  After that we headed to Torrey Pines Reserve.  It is basically a big cliff that overlooks the beach and there are tons of trails to take to see the view.  We did a 1 mile loop and it was perfect.  It was crazy because all the trails were sand.  So foreign to us Idaho folks.  The view was gorgeous so we did a quick photo shoot.  I love nature and it was fun to get to see hiking that was so different then what we are used to.

Then we headed to the Packard home and hung out for a while.  We decided to go eat at a fun local BBQ joint for dinner that was super yummy.  Our kids were shy for about 5 minutes and then they loved each other and had so much fun together.  After dinner we headed back, put the kids to bed and chatted the night away.   We caught up and laughed so hard and just enjoyed seeing each other again. Hopefully, it won't be 8 years before we get the chance to see them again!

We got up early Saturday morning, ate delicious waffles and then headed out for the drive home.  We decided to just go all the way home in one day.  It was a very long day and we were all sick of the car by the end, but we made it alive.  It was such a wonderful week to spend as a family.  After discussing things afterwards we decided that in the future we will just do family vacations with our family.  The kids all loved being together so much that they couldn't handle 5 minutes without each other and drove the parents insane asking when we'd see them again.  haha  We've decided that we can visit each other at our homes and then the adults can take vacations together (we didn't get near enough time playing tennis!).  We still had fun and it was still a great trip though.  I definitely think we will be heading back to San Diego again!

Random

I'm always trying to get cute pictures of these kiddos together.  They definitely don't make it easy, but they are worth it!  Eloise and Everly have matching dresses that were from Whitney and Joe's wedding.  Eloise is wearing Kate's dress and Everly is in Eloise's dress.  They look like princesses!

Eloise is becoming quite the little mother.  She teaches Adeline how to dance and do gymnastics and feeds Everly and babysits her.  She is going to be a fabulous little mommy one day, she is putting in all her practice now.  (She also loves to boss them around...she's got that skill nailed down!)

We love our bike rides and took several at Snake River Landing this year.  Teagan was usually leading the pack, helping us set an aggressive pace, I followed him and tried to motivate Eloise and Zac took up the rear pulling Adeline and Everly.  Everyone loves being outside and enjoying the gorgeous views and weather that we get to enjoy!

We got family pictures taken and this was the picture that I tok to see if the outfits would work, this is before Adeline chopped off her hair and when Everly was actually happy.  haha  She wasn't exactly cooperative during the actual pictures.

Before and After

We have had some exciting before and after pictures.  Here we have Teagan in a blue shirt right after playing in a dirt hill.  He had a thick layer of dust all over his body, clothes and hair.  It was even in his teeth.  He almost looked zombie-ish with that powdery look to his face.  And bellow that we see him all fresh and clean after a shower. 

Adeline broke my heart and cut her hair a couple days before family pictures.  I hadn't fixed her hair yet that day and it was "in her face" so she cut the front on both sides.  I actually didn't even notice and she put her hair in the garbage.  It wasn't discovered until Teagan got home.  He was throwing something away and casually asked "oh, who got a hair cut today?"  I didn't understand so I walked over, saw the hair and started inspecting the girls' hair.   Oh man, what a bummer.  I went and had Susan Albertson cut the rest to make it match.  I'm wondering if we shouldn't have just added in some layers.  The short hair does look really cute on her though.

We let Teagan grow his hair out all summer.  It was fun and bleach blonde.  He even wore it in a man bun a few times for soccer games which totally cracked me up.  But, the time came for a haircut.  He loved having it cut and couldn't believe how much better it felt.

I guess some before's are better and some afters are better, but it doesn't matter too much what they look like, I still love them.

The New Camping Family!

We feel so blessed to have been given a new camper!  Kurt and Shelly gave us Grandma and Grandpa  Casper's fifth wheel trailer and we gladly accepted.  Zac went right to work finding a truck that would work to haul it.  Once we had the truck we headed to Tetonia and picked it up.  They had gotten everything cleaned out and ready for us and we were all so excited!!!  It took a while to go through all of the great stuff grandma had!  Boxes of dishes, cups, towels, sheets, blankets and so much more!  We didn't have to really get anything to stock it!  The kids love to spend any time out there that they possibly can.  They loved finding treasures like grandma's old pinocle visors, books and the garbage grabber.  Once we got it all ready, we went camping every chance that we got.

Killgore

Our first trip was with the Ivins and we headed north to the Kilgore area.  We had taken the trailer into get it checked out and they said that everything was working great so we believed them, oops.  On the way there we had to go past the sand dunes and we decided that it would be fun to stop and let the kids play in the sand.  There were signs constantly that said "do not park on the shoulder!"  For some reason I didn't think that it applied to us so I told Zac to pull over in a nice gravely looking area.  Unfortunately it was sand, several inches deep and we got stuck pretty bad.  It was also super hot and the sand was burning.  I walked down the road to a campground and somebody came and helped to pull us out.  It was a kind of rough way to start our trip.  haha  We eventually got there and it was beautiful!  The spring flower were blooming, there weren't too many people and the company was fantastic.  We loved going with the Ivins so much!  We did have some major hiccups with the camper and tried not to let the fact that the water didn't work and the battery didn't work ruin our trip.  We forged ahead and definitely did some more thorough checking when we got home.  

Twin Bridges

Our next trip took us with the Heath family to Twin Bridges.  It ended up being the home base of a Renaissance fair which was kind of fun and interesting.  We just camped at the other end and had a great time. We wandered around trails, played Kubb, sat by the fire.  Teased Jared about his fire OCD and just had a really fun time!  So much fun that we decided to extend for a few days and go to Rigby Lake.  Sunday morning we got up, drove our camper to Rigby Lake and parked it there and then headed home for a shower and church.  That night we headed back out and camped for two more nights.  It was a blast!  Brian and Elise came to play at the beach with us for a day and it was so fun to have them there!  We ended up going to Twin Bridges later in the summer with a few families from our ward.  It was really fun and the kids absolutely loved running around wild all night.  The adults played cards all day and we just had so much fun!

Teton Canyon
The extended Durtschi family reunion was at Teton Canyon again this year and we went up early on Thursday to do a big hike with the Grant Durtschi family.  We went up to the wind caves and it was so amazing!  Teagan and Eloise both did the whole thing without too much whining.  Teagan was an all star and basically ran up the mountain with Ethan.  Eloise did awesome and just needed some fun singing and encouragement to finish the last mile.  Adeline did so well.  She got carried a few times, but probably walk 75-80% on her own.  She loved walking with Grandpa Durtschi and he taught her that even if your legs are tired you can still do hard things and just keep on moving forward.  She is still repeating some of his motivational speeches.  Everly was a peach and slept off and on in the carrier.  The next day we did an all day tour of Yellowstone National Park.  That wasn't a highlight, but we still had a blast and got to know some of the extended cousins better!

Island Park
To get to Island park you must climb a huge hill all at once.  By the time we were nearing the top the truck was maxing out at 30 mph and was not smelling good.  It was pretty scary, we were all just silently praying and wondering if we were going to make it to the top before the truck died.  Our prayers were answered and we made it, barely!  We decided to pull off one of the first roads that we found and found a super amazing spot to camp.  There were lots of forest service roads so we did a lot of exploring.  We looked at a map and saw a river and decided to walk to it using the gps on our phone.  That turned out to be pretty hilarious.  We are not a pioneer family and we decided to give up and turn around since we were out of water in the middle of a forest and were loosing phone battery fast.  Also, some kids, who will remain nameless (but you might be able to tell in the pictures) were not having a super positive attitude about the whole experience.   The next day, we embraced our non-pioneer selves and drove into island park and went and played at the "beach" at one of the hotels.  They had water trampolines and a park with sand.  It was a really fun outing.  It was super dry so we didn't have any fires, but we spent tons of time making pony bead projects and cool walking sticks.   We also went and visited a national park (or something, I can't remember exactly) and hiked around looking for wildlife.  They gave us a bug catcher, binoculars, and a magnifying glass and we had fun catching grasshoppers and looking for birds.   It was a great time camping with just our family!

 Rigby Lake

School had started already, but we were ready for one last hoorah and we had a credit at Rigby Lake so we went for one last camping trip.  Friday night cousin Grant had a cross country meet at Rigby Lake so we were greeted by about 1000 middle schoolers running through our campground.   We laughed, we seem to pick busy times for camping...Renaissance fair, cross country meets.  Who knows what's next.  We loved getting to watch him and cheer him on.  Zac spent the afternoon fixing the tennis court nets (he took his toolbox over and really gave it the one over) which was super fun to be able to play!  The Daniels family came and spent the afternoon with us on Saturday and that was super fun.  As we were finishing up our s'mores a storm blew in and we had to clean everything up super fast before it blew away so we just jumped in the truck and went home that night at about 8 pm.  It was perfect because with the storm we all just went into super fast mode and cleaned up all of camp in about 5 minutes.  We got to spend the whole day having fun and we got to sleep in our own beds that night.  We love Rigby Lake!

 Father and Sons at Cannon Pond

I wasn't there, but by the looks of things, Teagan spent a lot of time having fun with his friends in boats at the Cannon's pond.  I'm guessing there was a lot of yummy food, visiting and messing around to be had.  Hooray that Teagan and Zac have each other.

We absolutely love camping!  We had to stay close to home this year because the truck was having some problems with its overdrive and we just didn't trust it.  It also gets about 5 miles per gallon so going far can get pretty expensive.  There are plenty of places close by so we are so lucky.  One day we will get a more reliable truck and we'll be able to travel further to see even more of this amazing world our Heavenly Father made for us!

Happy First Birthday Everly

Happy birthday sweet Everly!  This was a fun time to celebrate Everly's birthday.  She enjoyed all the extra attention and enjoyed that we kept singing to her all day.  I tried to make a healthy cake and it was rejected by all, but luckily I did cream cheese frosting and that was delicious.   

Everly is crawling all over the place and if she is on hard ground she does the funniest little scoot from side to side on her bum.  It makes everyone laugh!  She is waving hi and bye and says mamamamamama for me, Zac or more food (I think it just means "I want").    She loves her siblings, loves being outside and loves to be held.  She is also super funny about food.  A lot of times she will reject bland foods like bread or oatmeal, but give her anything with spice and she will not stop eating it.  Some of her favorites include chicken curry, sausage gravy, chili, and corn chowder.  She usually prefers to eat off of Zac's plate because he adds hinkel hot pepper powder to his and it's extra spicy.  One day we will learn that she doesn't have taste buds and this will all make sense.  She loves to snuggle little baby dolls and stuffed animals and always gives them hugs.  She is pretty darn sweet!  Love you little lady!