Harding Family Reunion

I love Bear Lake... I love the sound of the waves in the morning, the bright stars at night, the cotton snowing all around you, the cold water, and most of all... I love to see my family.  The Hardings are my Grandma's brothers and sisters... so most of the people there are my Great-Aunts and Uncles and their posterity.  They are people that I grew up playing with once or twice a year and even if I don't know every detail of what they've been doing or don't like a decision that they've made, they are my family and I love them for being there in my life from the beginning of my life until now...

This year Jer had a conference during the reunion... I wanted to go up anyways, and I probably would have been fine on my own but the whole trip was so much more enjoyable with the help of my parents!  I'm so grateful for your thoughtfulness and willingness! 

As much as I hate pictures of me... I hate pictures of me in a bathing suit 5 weeks after having a baby... but I thought this picture showed the craziness of everything going on...

This is the kids playing duck, duck, goose in the tree house that my dad built up there a couple of years ago.  My favorite part about watching them is that BamBam, who is 5, was the oldest one playing... and the only one playing that knew the rules... so when he tagged someone as goose and everyone would get up and run after him he would say, "I didn't goose you!  I didn't goose you!"

Ada

My dad

My mom feeding Evelyn

Grandpa pushing Sammy on the swing

Ada and my cousin's son Braiden (did I spell that right?) They're only months apart in age... and the funny thing is that they both were kind of scared to go in the water without an adult holding their hand or standing right next to them... until they had each other... then they swam out as far as they dared and then back to shore together several times... way cute!

Matching... pretty sweet!  (Braiden was using Aubrey's life jacket)

Sam was a little shy of the water, but after the first freak out session with getting used to the sand... he was as happy as anything digging and throwing dirt.

Sammy

So earlier today, I was feeding Evelyn on my bed and Sammy came to my door, gave me one of those impish grins, closed the door and then asked from the other side of the closed door if I was, "All done crying?" Which is his way of asking if time out is over.

At this moment

At this moment:  Ada is in time out for peeing in her panties and lying about it twice today... Sammy is in time out for whining (crying under his bedroom door and saying, "I'm all done crying!"), and Jer is bouncing the baby so she stops loosing her binkie and being mad about it.

Robertson Family Reunion

 Crazy family time!  Well, of course it's going to be crazy when you have over 60 people in one house (with 3 bathrooms)... and 36 of them are 16 and under.  It's been fun though!  Loud, crazy, everything that you ever get from a family.  Between trying to get my kids to have enough sleep to not break down over the 4 day long reunion, keep Sammy away from all the various yummy foods that he sees (sick Sammy is the last thing I want), trying to keep an eye on the baby (some of the younger kids want to play with her, but don't quite understand about new babies), keep kids out of the pool when I'm not in it, keep them from drowning when I'm in it, play games with nieces and nephews, keep Ada from hitting when she's mad, keep my kids from getting bitten by mosquitos galore, dealing with Ada's finger burns from sparklers, and having both my kids get bitten by one of the two year olds in the crowd... we had our hands, arms, eyes and stomachs full.  It was a blast!  I had fun talking to all the moms, having John and Diane's family stay with us, and having Jacob, Emma, Lizzie, Amber, and Joseph stay the night and play games with us too.  Thanks all for the reunion!  Looking forward to next year... even if it takes me a year to recover from this one!

Loving his baby "Elelyn"

I think they'll be good buddies for sure... Ada will hold her for a total of a couple of seconds at a time... Sammy will hold her until I take her back.

Jer's favorite... getting ready for the pine wood derby. Unfortunately Jer's car didn't work out this year... and I haven't had time to make a car for myself since we had kids... but Ada wanted a horse car and Sammy wanted a train... I did Ada's and Jer did Sammy's.

91 year old Grandpa making his car too.

This years contestants

Yep... it's sideways, and I'm too lazy to turn it... this is Ada's "horse car".  It did pretty good, but definitely not built for speed.

And this picture was just for her expression... Love it!

I tried to get Sammy to show me his train and this is the best I got... but Jer did an awesome job and it got painted blue so that it's like Thomas the Tank Engine.

Grandpa and grandbaby number 33

Me and some of my friends... Ruth (niece), Riley (cousin), and Lizzie (niece)

The sleeping corner...

G-Gma and her name sake Jane Evelyn (91) and Evelyn Joy (1 month)

Gathering the crowd for our talent show

Swimming is always a big part of the reunion... at one point we had between 25-30 people walking the same direction in the pool, we got a current going that was strong enough that if you lifted your feet it would carry you for a while.

Marg and her kid fireworks... she helped them do snaps, snakes and sparklers!  Thanks Marg!  They loved it!

Cousin Amelia! Cutie!

One of the activities was to go hiking... originally we were going to go to Bridal Veil falls... so that's where Jer and I took the kids... and it turned out that they'd decided on Stewart Falls instead... so that's where they went... whoops!  I'm glad we didn't go on that on though... it was pouring rain for a little while and I was carrying Evelyn in my baby pouch. 

Ada was not afraid of just diving in... it was pretty late (8pm) so the water that is usually cold anyways because it's snow run off was colder because of being late and because it started to rain anyways.  (Notice... I'm actually in this picture too... I've got Evelyn in the sling and I'm trying to convice Sammy to walk in the water... as soon as the water went above his water shoes he was done... it was too cold for him.  But he did enjoy throwing rocks, that's a popular option.)

I just loved how the light was reflecting off the water as the sun went down.  Way neat!

She even sat down in the water... what a nut!

Love my family!

This is what Evelyn did the whole time!

Here's one of the other two

I did finally find a couple of Ada's baby pictures... here's one of Ada at 1 week old and Sammy at 3 weeks old that really look similar.  And one of Ada a little bit older... just cause I think she's cute...

Check this out!

Not only do my first two kids look like me... see here... but check this out... it's like they're the girl version and the boy version of whatever mix they are of us... Sammy has Jers nose and Evelyn has mine... but you can tell they are ours.  Now... I wish I had just the right picture of Ada at this age to add to it, but we lost all her pictures when our hard drive crashed... some of them we were able to get back from stuff that we'd sent to others, but not really very many. 

Evelyn 1 month old

Sammy 1 month old

Happy Anniversary Jer!

So it was our 6th anniversary yesterday.  Can you believe that it's been 6 years?!  Last year we all had the flu and had to cancel our plans, the year before we had a 3 week old baby and didn't really do anything... and this year... we have a 4 week old baby, but thanks to my mom and my sister Sharon we actually did something!  Neither of us were really perky and energetic... but we had a date!  We went to Christopher's Steakhouse and Grill... really hoity toity... yummy too.  Then we went and bought books at Barnes and Noble.  Went home and slept for a whole 9 1/2 hours without kids waking us up!  HEAVEN!  I'm still tired, but not ready to fall over!  That's always nice.  Just think Jer, in another 6 years we can do this again! (Just kidding!)  I love the things that the last 6 years have become!  What good memories we've built together and what good kids we have!  I hope I have the patience to keep them on the right track and I'm glad that I have you forever!

Married June 30, 2005 for all eternity in the LDS Mount Timpanogos Temple by my Grandpa and Sealer Glen Ellis

Randomness

Quick note on having three

Everyone has been saying how daring I am for going out with my kids... three of them... on my own.  Here's my opinion... So far I think that Ada's been my hardest.  She was a very easy baby, but just the whole getting used to being a mom instead of a student or working was an adjustment for me.  Sammy was an easy baby, hard toddler, but easy baby... that wasn't a hard adjustment.  Evelyn's an easy baby... not a hard adjustment... my house is messier, but I expected that both because of the baby but also because of the fact that Ada and Sammy are really starting to make believe together which equals a bigger mess. 

So honestly, I don't feel like have more children has been harder... I feel like doing things for the first time is harder... (Potty training Ada, hard.  Dealing with not being able to breastfeed (also with Ada even though the other two haven't really worked out either), hard the first time... easier to accept with the other two times.  Learning how to discipline our kids, experimenting with Ada first... hard... easier with Sammy because we've already been through it with Ada.)  Poor Ada.  Now I know what my parents meant when they told my oldest sister that she was their guinea pig... Ada gets put through the hoops on everything... and I expect more from her because she's older and understands more than Sammy or Evelyn...