Slip Slidin' Fun in Utah

After the 4th of July, the kids and I headed over to Utah for a little family reunion.

Slip Sliding Fun

Kaycee and Lucy

Sleep overs and rides in Harvey the RV

Emree, Rylee, Olivia, Berkley and Uncle Ben

Josie, Lucy, Emma and Kaycee

Feeding the ducks

See the mama duck with 7 ducklings?
The most I've seen.

The Wendy Mack 5k and Croc Walk
Remember this post?
A 5k that friends of Wendy put on to raise money for the Mack family.
600 hundred participants came!

Marcie, Me and Micki the morning of the race.

The croc walk with our orange balloons
Crocs donated 100 orange crocs - the shoes Wendy wore as an L&D nurse.


Releasing our balloons after touching tributes by her friends and sister.
Glad I was wearing my sunglasses - not a dry eye.

The Invalids
Some us party a little harder than others!
Within 2 months we had two broken elbows and two broken arms.

Sister Reecy - broken elbow - roller skating

Nephew Jace - broken elbow - night games
Mom - broken arm - rolling on an ATV - biggest partier of them all! Just kidding, Mom.
Niece Sicily - broken arm (2nd time) - monkey bars in the back yard.

Saturday Morning Fun

Ready, Set . . .

GO!

The Afternoon Trio

One of their favorite things to do in the afternoon is to take a bath.

It's not long though until it turns to . . .

. . . then the fun of bath-time together has lost it's appeal
and someone's asked to be removed.

Visiting Connecticut - Fun with Cousins

My kids are growing up like I did. No cousins nearby. We usually only get to spend time with Hunt siblings and cousins once a year, so we are thrilled it will be twice (for some) this year.

Our kids and Stuart & Rebecca's kids are all 6 mos to a year apart. Everyone had a buddy to play with - and they LOVED it! It was very entertaining watching them partner up and run around the house together.



I feel very foolish that my camera didn't make it out much the rest of the week while we were back East. (Rebecca, I'll have to snag some pics from you!) While Monday was a full day, we contemplated heading down into the city again on Tuesday. However, more snow was coming. The kids were more than happy to play with one another at home. And, with aunt Rebecca's genius idea, we held our own Winter Olympics. The events included hockey, floor skating - both individual and couples, and free dancing. I can't believe how much I missed without having my camera ready.

Floor Skating

Receiving their medals


While the snow fell the kids bustled around the house having fun.

Wednesday morning while eating breakfast, we watched several (10!) of these guys behind the wire in the backyard. I'm not sure I've seen so many together before. It wasn't long though before one of them found a way to get through into the backyard that they were chased off. (Not to mention we almost hit a couple the night we flew in.)

We said good-bye to Gma & Gpa Hunt and miraculously outfitted all the kids into winter apparel for some sledding. Once again, didn't think to bring my camera. It was pretty chilly, but that didn't stop any of the fun. Clay even tried skiing for the first time. Much harder than he thought! :) Believe it or not, we pulled the kids away after 2 hours!

That evening the Elder came for dinner. What kid (or adult) doesn't love being entertained by singing Elders with a ukulele?!

(Look at those girls right up front, mesmerized)

Thursday, the kids wanted to sledding, again. Bundling up, we headed to Compo Beach, right off The Long Island Sound. Again, forgetting the camera, the kids thoroughly enjoyed playing at the park, and especially collecting shells and crab parts (Clay). It was really pretty - even if it was cold and windy.

After an hour, we headed back to the sledding hill surprised that much of the snow had started to melt, exposing grass. (You wouldn't have known it had warmed up with that nasty wind.) After about 15 mins, the moms called it. Not enough snow, and too cold.

Thursday night, a babysitter came to our rescue and we headed out to dinner with Stu & Becca. It was a delightful evening at a wonderful restaurant followed by taking a drive around Westport. It is such a cool place. Fun shops everywhere with homes that are breathtaking. I kept telling Ryan that I would love to see Connecticut in the Spring. So many trees, I'm sure it's just lovely. And, the homes! Such gorgeous homes.

We had such a fun week. Playing the Wii, kids running on the treadmill with Uncle Stu coaching and supervising, and watching the Olympics after the kids had gone to bed.

Thank you Stuart & Rebecca for having us and showing us such a great time! Just yesterday Lucy says "I miss Matthew. Can we go back to New York?"

I would love to.

The Big Apple - the City part of our Trip

We loved our trip! We left Saturday (the 13th) around 1:30pm and made our way to the airport.

Here we are waiting for the shuttle. I should have zoomed out so you could see all our luggage. We had 3 car seats, 6 back packs and 5 carry-on/rolling suit cases. Oh, and the stroller for Olivia. Getting through security was fun. Actually, it went really well. Both times.

The girls at the airport. The kids put a good dent in the goodies/snacks for the plane ride just waiting to board. They all did really well. Who knew that letting them watch tv for 4 hours would do the trick? :)

We landed just after 10pm Eastern time at La Guardia and headed up to Westport, CT to see/stay Stuart (Ryan's brother) and Rebecca and their family.We had a nice relaxing Sunday catching up and preparing our adventure for the next day.

The next day, Monday, we headed down into Manhattan. The weather was in the 20's with a pretty chilly wind. We bundled up though and made our way down. (Just a note, if you're ever looking for a pretty easy day to visit Manhattan without a lot of people around, go in February, preferably a holiday, with cold, cold weather. It really was great.)

Loaded up, ready to go

Driving into the City
(Note: all pics taken from the car. Hence, the blurriness. Click on the pics if you'd like to see them closer)

The USS Intrepid
(So huge it was almost scary to look at!)

In Manhattan
(pics from the car still)

Ground Zero
(the pic on the right is from above)

On the Roof
We parked and went and saw where Stuart and Rebecca (and their 5 young children) lived for a few years - they moved up to CT only 3 months ago. Really cool to have them show us the ropes of city living and getting around. Amazing, really. Luckily, we also had Gma & Gpa Hunt there to help move 10 kids and 3 strollers.
We went up to the roof of their apartment building.
What a spectacular view!

Here we are on Wall Street

We went over and saw the Bull and then headed over to take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry to see Lady Liberty a little closer.

Waiting for the ferry

On the Ferry
A great view of Manhattan

And, of course, The Statue of Liberty

After we crossed over to Staten Island, we ran (literally) around to get back on the ferry to get back over. Everyone made it back A.OK. Well done.

Once we got off the ferry we headed over to The Riverwalk (is that what's it's called?) the trail that is right beside the river that you always see in movies, on TV or even commercials. It was really neat. I wish I had gotten a better picture. By the time we had made our full circle back to where we'd parked, the lights were starting to come on everywhere. Ah, the city.

As we were heading back to the cars, we passed this:
The 9/11 Memorial
The names and pictures of all the firefighters that lost their lives.
It was really neat to be there.

One of the things I really wanted to do while visiting New York City was to taste the pizza! And, Stu & Becca knew just where it was. We loaded everyone up and headed over the Brooklyn Bridge to Grimaldi's. There was a line out the door! so we parked illegally (still surprised we weren't asked to move) and waited for our pizzas. The kids did really well waiting and it was about an hour later when we tasted PURE GOODNESS! WOW.

Fresh Mozzarella and Fresh Basil with the thin New York crust, baked to perfection.

I've never tasted pizza like this before and may have just ruined eating pizza anywhere else forever.

(this is a picture from their website, but exactly what the pizza looked like. I want it again.)

We ate and finished up in the cars and headed home. Once again all these pics were taken from the car. The building with the white lights on top is the Chrysler Building - I had actually mistaken it for the Empire State Building when we flew in, and the building with the red, white and blue on top is the Empire State Building. Glad we cleared that up.

I absolutely loved all the bridges. So fun to see them all lit up.

It was really a once in a life-time trip for our family. Just incredible to be there together.

Next time, it's just me and Ryan.

Fun in Utah

We went over to Utah for a Livingstone Family Reunion. What was supposed to be a longer weekend trip, we decided to send Ryan home on Monday (to get back to work) and the kids and I stayed until the following Friday.

Including the HUGE slip n' slide in the park! It entertained the kids for a LONG time.

It was wonderful catching up with aunts, uncles and cousins I hadn't seen in years!

Early Friday morning, before the reunion started, Spencer made arrangements for us to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Living so close to the temple here in Denver, our kids were thrilled to get to go inside a temple. It was beautiful.

During one of the breaks Saturday afternoon, I jumped at the chance to go on (my sister) Jeannie and Brent's new boat. It pays to get your Ph D - while working full time and being the Bishop of your ward!! It was so much fun. I learned: I AM A BOAT PERSON. One day we'll have our own boat. Or, at least live really close to someone that does. SO FUN.

Our closest cousins live in Utah. Our kids adore their cousins - on both sides. They wept and whailed for the first hour on the drive home. Growing up, I never lived close to any of my cousins, so thankfully on that drive home, I let them be sad. I knew how they felt.

Nothing beats time with family.