To the Cabin In Idaho

We packed our car tight and headed out of Washington and on to Idaho.  The trip was uneventful as the kiddos in back seemed to be okay with being packed in there.  We were fine with that.  Chris dropped me off at Terryn's house and I got to hang out with her for a day.  We got a little crafty and had a little dance party as well...the usual mom activities.  Little Jack mesmerized me with his big eyes and little mouth.  Terryn calls him her little bird :)

After playing with Terryn, she dropped me off at Chad and Amber's.  Eme and I created Lexis, our turtle complete with a food and water bowl and a bow.  

I only post this picture because David can easily raise one eyebrow, and I have tried and tried with no success.  This was an attempt, but clearly a failed attempt, and I look psycho....but otherwise Nick looks good.

We all gathered at Chad's before we headed out to the cabin.  We all enjoyed goofing off and I caught this silly smile from Liam.

Nick and Christine got some fun toys and Nick was showing Katelyn how to ride the rocking horse and had a cute Uncle Nick moment.  Katelyn seems to really like Nick and will play with him and snuggle up with him.  Katelyn can be picky about who she lets get near her, and she is comfortable with Nick.

Nick will be a good dad....just saying.

We headed out to the cabin. We piled all of us and all of our stuff in the cars and trucks and headed out to the mountains.

Dad set up a nice schedule for clean up and meal prep, so Mom and Amber didn't over do themselves in the kitchen.

We played a ton of games and did a puzzle too.  This shows how much fun we had.....or not.

Katelyn loved chasing her cousins around and didn't seem to mind being the slow one.  They all loved playing together and it was cute to see them all play and laugh together.

We decorated our stockings one night and all tried to get creative.  We raided Mom's stash of craft stuff and went to town.

Nick free-handed the Grinch.  I didn't get shots of the other finished ones but they are all different and fun.

I spent way more time than was necessary and created a penguin stocking holder thing.  I don't know, it got late.

The place got cold sometimes and this little fireplace was a favorite all week.

David's dad and sister were able to join us for this trip.  It was good to have them there and let them see our wild family.

Our little family on Christmas morning....love that little girl!

We attempted to get a cute cousin's shot and Katelyn and Liam weren't really cooperating for the picture and Chad's kids did their best to try to help them :)

Chris and Tricia and Liam were pretty darn cute too!

We HAD to paint our nails.

That little red ball looking thing is a nail dryer and we had to try it out to see how well it worked :)

We got a family picture of the whole crowd.  This looks about right for what our week was like.

We managed to settle down a little and smile.  We seriously missed having Tracie and her clan with us.  They are just too far away!  and...I think it is a little misleading not having Chelsea in this picture...just saying.  I guess she will have her chance to be in future family pictures :)

Mom and Tricia (seriously 30, Tricia...seriously there is no way!) (and Tracie if she were there) have their birthday's a day apart and Mom broke the rules and made her own cake.  David saw the cake when it was done and was shewed away from it multiple times and had to wait ALL DAY before we finally sang to them and ate some cake.  Poor guy!

Like I mentioned yesterday, Katelyn had a day of teething pain and a fever.  She snuggled up with my dad all day when she wasn't in bed sleeping.  She was having a hard time so I took her off away from the crowd to comfort her and let her get away from the noise.  Will was upstairs and Katelyn lit up as she saw him.  He started playing a little peek-a-boo and she forgot all about her tears and couldn't help it.  Will was one of her best buds and brought out lots of laughs and giggles that trip.

We did so much more at this cabin.  There is a lot of stuff that we did while we were there that I saw others taking pictures or videoing so I didn't bother getting my camera out, so we need to do a huge swap somehow with everyone.  Some things that were awesome about this cabin stay...There is a huge slide that was awesome. This was almost better than roller coasters, but easily more dangerous if we wanted it to be.  Abby and I had some bruises that were pretty.  We also decided it would be fun to sled and tube down the hill next to the slide which was equally steep...and fun!  We found another sledding hill that was more kid friendly too.  We had a talent show that showcased some talents we didn't know about.  We had guitar sing alongs.  We had a Christmas program that made cry babies out of most of us.  We had a Family Home Evening that was pretty good too!  We went to church Christmas morning.  We played some "minute to win it" games.  We chopped down a couple Christmas trees.  We played tons of games.  We ate yummy food.  I made everyone eat salad before I let them eat the legendary 5 Cheese Pasta and became the salad Nazi.  We did a fun white elephant gift exchange.  We played ping pong:around the world style.  We played shuffle board on the floor.  We had themes each day for how we claimed our cups (instead of just writing our names).  We stayed up way too late and didn't sleep in because we all love breakfast so much and never want to miss out on the fun.

There really is so much that I don't have in pictures and video, but I know others have it and I am dying to have it! I am trying to think up the best way to gather all the photos and videos from every one...

We flew out and headed home.  We didn't miss that flight :)  Despite Katelyn's day of teething the day before she did fine and didn't seem to have any issues with it!  YAY!  We  made it home and quickly missed having a crowd around to stay up with and laugh at all the quirks and jokes of each other.