Our weekend away

We spent this past weekend in Park City at my sister-in-law K's parents' cabin. We had almost my entire family: 9 grown-ups, 9 kids, and 2 babies, all in one house for 2 days. (We just had one brother and his daughter that couldn't make it.) We had SUCH a fun time! On Friday afternoon, the women left to go shopping at the outlet mall in Park City while the guys stayed back with the kids. I spent too much money, as usual--but Sariah and Dallin are set for fall clothing. That night, we came home to dutch oven dinner cooked by my brother V. Once it got dark, the games started. Aunt K brought Twister, which proved to be a favorite of the kids and adults too--we even had an adult Twister tournament. (Which I bowed out of.) The little ones played Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, and Go Fish, and once the kids settled down to watch a movie (which was about 10:00 at night), the grown-ups sat around to play a card game called Pounce.

We didn't get a lot of sleep that night, and most of us were dragging the next day. The kids took turns being driven around by their uncles and aunt on 4-wheelers, and everyone else played games and tried to stay awake.

It was such a nice getaway in the midst of all the organ conference prep I've been doing. (I did have to drag myself to the church to practice on Saturday night when we got home.)
Uncle S reading stories to Sariah and baby A.

Dallin going for his first ever 4-wheeler ride with Uncle W. (Luckily, everybody stayed safe and all my fears about an ATV accident didn't come to pass this time around!)

Sariah was happiest just running around on the deck.

Dallin enjoying his dutch oven dessert.

twister with the cousins! Look at Dallin--he was so agile. Everyone commented on how well he could hold his own at Twister.

Sariah finally gets a turn to play! (The bigger girls didn't really want her in the middle of their games, which I can totally understand!) This was frustrating for both her and them.

The loft proved to be a popular spot for the kids. Here are Dallin and cousin B trying to avoid getting their pictures taken.

Sariah hanging out with the big girls, E and A, on the back deck. She thought she was something special to be one of them!

Sariah got plenty of entertainment just pushing chairs around on the deck.

Daddy and Sariah waiting for Sariah's turn to ride the 4-wheeler.

Sariah wanted to ride the 4-wheeler really badly! Aunt K took her out for a short and slow spin on the road. Sariah was excited about the 4-wheeler, but she did NOT want to wear a helmet AT ALL. It took her awhile to accept the fact that no helmet would mean no ride. Doesn't she look cute in her 10-sizes-too-big helmet? She had a blast! She's still talking about it today.

Cute story about Sariah: (Those of you who have seen the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks will appreciate this.) James saw a squirrel and pointed it out to Sariah. As soon as she saw it, she got really excited and squealed, "Chicka-wow-wow! Chicka-wow-wow!" From that time on, all the little creatures she saw throughout the weekend were "chicka-wow-wows".

Times like this make me so grateful for my family. We had so much fun, and nobody was mad, or had any issues, or anything like that (other than the kids being a bit cranky on Saturday--normal kid stuff). It seems like so many families have so many problems, but ours has been able to be relatively immune from any of that.