Final Roadtrip

One final road trip to the homeland! Can I just say the road has been much traveled in the last year, in 12 months I have made this trip 6 times!!

First stop was my sisters house. I LOVE to hang with my sis! Fortunately for me, my kids do too! I remember back when we would get together with 4 kids between the two of us. Those days are long since past. It has now doubled to 8 little rascle running around.

Here are 6 of the 8 showing off their slap watches they got for doing the awesome scripture scavenger hunt Des and I put together for Family Home Evening! (Complete with secret code)

It was Elleree's birthday so my parents came for the afternoon! I had gone the whole stay without taking pictures and then I went into panic mode, it will be at least a year before the cousins will see each other again:(

So the group snap shots began!

Elleree just turned four and Eli is two and a half!

My mom decided that she wanted to help the girls sew easter skirts while we were there. The girls were super excited! We went fabric shopping, and they picked skirts they liked off of pintrest. Sydnys skirt went well. All we did was cut a large circle, hem the outside, cut a hole in the middle for the waist and sewed on the elastic. (I sewed the green gather at the bottom) Rylie and Abby's skirts were not as successful. We did not calculate correctly and so Sydney ended up with three new skirts :( They are holding the skirts without the elastic, the point at which we realized they were not going to fit.

On the up side my mom was not without a few other projects to take their minds off the sewing sadness. My mom has a wood shop filled with all the wood and saws you could wish for.

Grandma made up her Easter baskets and hid them for the kids just before we left, so I wouldn't have to try and hide 4 wrapped baskets on the ride home.

The weather was pretty rotten all week until Saturday. My dad was in the "feeling good" window of his treatment by then and pulled the four wheelers out for the girls. (Eli did like the ride, he just didn't want to stay for the picture)

Did I mention Ivan came! Love you little brother!!

I have only been going home 3 times a year, so you would think that dropping to once a year would not be so hard. And I imagine that it is easier transitioning like this than leaving straight from living here. Either way it was a tearful drive as we pulled away.

Aaron was in North Carolina, so my family ended up with most of our time, leaving Saturday night and Sunday with his family. It was a short time, but we got a good visit in. We did the traditional pizza before the priesthood session, and ice cream when the men came home. The next morning all of the siblings and their families come for breakfast cake and eggs just before conference. I love this picture of Grandpas audience.

Again, I went into panic mode and started with the snapshots. Looking back now, I still missed some.

Oakley is going to be HUGE the next time I see her. She is already so big just in three months, what a cutie!!