Cousins Christmas 2012

 We got the call after swimming that Twin Lakes was up and running. There was no damage to any of the cabins or places we use, except one cabin that was recently vacant for us - the family that was taking it was planning to camp, so they went back to camping.

Instead of rushing and trying to get to Twin Lakes before dark and not missing the last ferry - yes there's the awesome ferry ride in order to cross the Spokane River at one point. It only runs certain hours of the day. So we opted for Cousins Christmas since all the cousins 18 and under were at Grandma's already. We played the M&M game til Rozann came back with her kids, then it was party present time!

Aubrey and our newest little addition Riley - born in April to my nephew Derick and his wife Kayla

Dallin is too old for the game and decided to play by his own rules of 'get my own cup full of m&m's and eat them.' Mo was a big fan of this game - forget sharing with all those other kids, Dallin will share with me. Busted!

Mo got some sand toys which we use year round here

Lucas got a vintage 35mm camera, which broke after the first picture and he was heart broken. I tried to explain that not many places if any take the 35 mm film anymore and you can't see the picture on the camera after it's taken.......luckily he got a pair of binoculars too to go bird-watching.

Abbey got that cute blue backpack in front of her and some other things along with a giant chapstick....who doesn't love GIANT chapstick??

it goes on so easy.....

We gave to Aubrey the die-hard BYU fan and gave her custom made BYU smash-journals.

Mo stole someone's headbands - pretty.

Lea got the pillow she's holding - Rozann made it for her and she loves it! She was worried Lea would hate it. They gave their daughter Ashley a new pillow (plain white, in the package) as a present to which the response came 'that's it? a pillow?' It was quite funny as they had intended it to be. She was getting new bedding and anyway.....

Dallin soon became the horse and almost lost his face.

Merry Christmas - happy day! We're heading out tomorrow (from this picture) and someday I'll actually get caught up to current events on this blog and not 6 months ago - I'm only 2 months behind - no biggie.

While we wait....

Twin Lakes is our every year vacation with my family. They've been going since before I was born. We go with 3-4 other families and have grown tremendously since those first few years of about 30 people to 150+ each year.

We always go on Saturday. Friday night a microburst or mini-tornado ripped through the Reservation/Resort taking out the power and the water. We decided to hold off on going up on Saturday and leave Sunday morning if the power was restored. I don't mind camping without power - I do like a water source to drink from and wash my hands in and flushing toilets - although I don't mind washing my hands in the lake. The other families were heading up as they were driving from long distances and had food in their cars that would survive in the cabins, but not sitting in the cars. My brother Ryan and a couple nephews went too and were staying on South Twin. So the question comes - now what? We're all ready to go, but nowhere to go.

We play with bubbles in Grandma and Grandpa's big, green yard.

 Tanner, Liz (holding Taylee), Ashley, Calla (holding Mo), Shay, Lucas, Lea, Brianna

 No word from Twin Lakes, so now what. Kids are getting restless - adults are getting anxious, but still going to the stores and buying things. Let's go swimming! Rozann took her kids to visit her parents and their Woodward cousins. Kraig and his kids came over to swim.

 motor boat, motor boat....

 trying to get everyone under the water - Lucas has his feet in the air.....

 working on our diving board skills:

 the pencil

 the jack-knife

 the 'this-is-how-I-get-my-sister-wet-while-she's-taking-pictures bomb'

 Grandpa even joined in the fun.

 Cannon-ball?

 Abbey looks like a flying squirrel with that shirt on - we found a sunshirt after the sunburn in Tahoe

 what do we do next?

 the girls: Rachel, Lea, Liz, Calla

it's their turn.

 we need to work on our form a little...

 Kraig showing off. :)

 Abbey would sit over on the side and wait for my brother to get out and decide he wanted to go off the board again, then she'd get up and follow right behind him. She loved following Kraig around. I have to agree, he's pretty great.

New splashpad

We gladly took the chance to try out the new splash pad with our older cousins who might be 'too old' for it.

 Lucas made sure Calla enjoyed the nice cool water.

 Aubry and Mo

 Lea joined in on the fun of getting Calla

 Abbey slipped on the Basketball slide and hit her nose - I quickly snapped a picture then found the nearest towel to clean her up.

 Lea, Lizzie, ?? (only because I don't know who she is - she just wanted to join in the fun), Calla and Mo - they ran through several arches of spraying water. Mo loved this!

 Kristin, Aubrey and Shayla - I thought it was hard to take a decent picture of children.....

 Cousins!! Calla, Lucas, Ammon, Aubrey, Liz, Abbey and Lea

 waiting for Mo....

 there he is! Ouch to Abbey's sunburn from Tahoe.....

 We went 4 for 4 kids crying while we there. :)

Lea slipped and scratched her leg.

Abbey got the bloody nose

Mo fell and bonked his head

Lucas let go of the monkey bars at the park and got a sliver in his hand from the bark. I was able to pull it out with my fingernails.

All in all, it was a successful and beautiful day at the park!

Grandpa's toys