Winona, Minnesota! (K Family Reunion)

Every other year Jeremy's extended family has a big reunion where they eat, talk, eat, and talk some more. Since his family is originally from Minnesota, (well, after they came over from Ireland) that's usually where they hold it, and Jeremy's never been before. He met several of his great aunts and uncles (there were 8 children in his Grandpa's family) at his Grandma K's funeral, and again at his Grandpa's (2 years ago - I met them too). So when we got there (after only about 4 hours of driving - child's play!) we knew about 5 of the hundreds (I exaggerate) of people there.

The drive was actually quite beautiful. Who knew you just have to drive north in Iowa instead of east, west, or south to see some different country? ;-) Dubuque was very pretty, as was most of Wisconsin that we drove through. I'm sure it's another story in winter, but in summer they're gorgeous. We weren't on freeways, and saw a lot of cool little towns on our way to Winona (right on the Wisconsin/Minn border). The kids did pretty well, but were super excited to stop, especially since our campground included a big sandy playground. I think that would have been the last time we saw Reilly that day, if we hadn't dragged him back for meals...

Here are Reilly and Jaina, pouring sand and gravel over each others' heads.

And a close up of Jaina's hair...

We both had a great time (especially Jeremy) visiting with all sorts of unknown (but often familiar-looking) relatives all throughout the day Saturday. Our one big surprise was how cold it was. We had come dressed for summer (with nothing but shorts and t-shirts to our backs and names) and it was downright chilly. Finally after an hour or two I make the trek into town to find some cheap but warm reinforcements. After some creative clearance-rack shopping, and a couple of souvenir "Minnesota" sweatshirts, we were all set. And I only took one wrong turn (and re-visited Wisconsin for 30 seconds) on the way back. Jeremy had programmed the GPS, but apparently I didn't know where to look for it. :)

Here is our cute little family sporting our new hoodies (that we can now add to our collection of like 15 others):

Here is Jaina in her size 4/5 jacket (smallest one Wal-mart had) with the sleeves rolled up like 4 times...

We had gotten the kids up at 6:30 to leave (they've been waking up at 8-ish since we got back from AZ) and then Jaina didn't get a nap until after 2:30 (she's been going down at 1) when I finally took pity on her and drove around for a bit until she fell asleep. She didn't get ENOUGH sleep though, and was grumpy for several hours after that.

Even Reilly was getting pretty tired by evening. This is his second change of clothes. The first ones were already filthy with sand and bubble soap, and this set contained pants (Wal-mart, again)...

After a few hours of fussing and complaing, Jaina was finally feeling good again.

Good enough to sample the local dirt (we don't have any in Davenport, just gravel, grass, and mud).

It was a really fun reunion, and we enjoyed meeting all of those cool K relatives. He's Jeremy going through a lot of the old pictures he brought with them. They had some great names and dates for him, and one relative (Anne, on the right, in black,) has even done a lot of their geneology. We're definitely excited to get with her on that!

We got to stay at Great-Aunt Joyce and -Uncle Greg's house (now our kids have two Aunt Joyce's and two Uncle Greg(g)'s...) and it was a lot of fun. It was all set up for their grandkids, and as tired (and dirty) as our munchkins were at about 8, I had a hard time dragging them away from the toys to get into the tub. They both zonked right out when we put them to bed and slept well.

The next morning (after staying up til 11 visiting) we visited some more, had yogurt, doughnuts, and waffles for breakfast, and attended the Winona Branch. It was pretty cool. (Most of the K's are staunch Catholics - his aunt and uncle had already been to 7 am mass!) We packed up our stuff and headed home, as Jeremy tried to convince me how cool it would be to live in Winona. :) Definitely worth the trip, but boy are we tired of traveling! Maybe we'll just lay low for a while. Our house could sure use the attention...

Kitchen Crafts

Well, this is about as crafty as we get in the kitchen these days. I let Reilly help me make bread.
We carefully measured all the ingredients, and checked carefully to get them in the right order, and tried not to get anything on the floor (we failed, by the way).
And then the real work began...






For the breadmaker, that is. We got it for our wedding, and just recently brought it back from AZ and got it out of the box for the first time. The original loaf (whole wheat recipe from the instruction book) was a total disaster (that is the one Reilly is checking out as it mixes in the bottom picture) but the second one was really good. This is bread I can do. Maybe we'll get really crafty and shape and bake it ourselves sometime soon. ;-)

Whoops!

I forgot an event. It's located before our "Trip Home" post! :)

The Great Journey Home

We ended up not taking the "short" way back to Iowa, but did a very similar route on the way home... Tuesday night we drove to Mesa and stayed with Phil and Sophie in their cool new house. It was fun to hang out with them, if ridiculously hot in Mesa. We left Mesa at 5:45 Wednesday morning at it was already (still?) 95º... The day was rather LONG. We did have Cafe Rio for dinner in Provo while the kids played at a random elementary school. We drove from 5:45 to about 7 that night, and met some of our friends in Oakley, Utah (between Provo and Park City, basically? feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!) at their family's cabin. It was really cool, and we really enjoyed staying Wednesday night through Friday morning there! Somehow we have no pictures. I guess I just had the video camera out but never the "click" camera (as we call it...) Here are some pictures from that first big day of driving. (I know you're all excited...)
This is when we had switched the kids in their carseats so they got a slightly different view of the car at least. They seemed to enjoy it.
Here is the view of the lake/reservoir? when we were almost to the cabin.
And yeah. That's about it. Except for several more car seat shots. :)
The next day we didn't get on the road until almost NOON. Sigh. Up too late playing cards and stargazing, I guess... We drove from Oakley, UT to North Platte, Nebraska. We almost just kept driving because there did not seem to be a hotel room ANYWHERE in that silly town at 10 at night... Finally, with help from a friend (Thanks, Brent!) we found that out of like 25 hotels, there were two rooms available: one jacuzzi suite for $173 and a random, local hotel room for $43 (with no crib). Guess which one we picked. The kids were actually asleep by the time we pulled in, and we successfully transferred both of them onto little "comforter beds" on the floor. The second time in her post-infant life that Jaina slept not-in-a-crib. Thankfully she was tired enough that she slept all night and never knew the difference. :) We were too chicken to take a picture though.
Being cute and reading a book.
Reilly, at the Husker Inn Saturday morning. (watching Veggie Tales in Spanish while Daddy showered, actually)
There it is!
The outside. It was actually a little cute, and very well cared-for. We were rather grateful for its existance.
Saturday we got on the road around 9 and drove ALL day (okay, only till like 5 or 6) to get home. Towards the end I was having an even harder time than the kids. Reilly finally passed out, and Jaina (refreshed from a previous nap) was entering the crazy-zone. We were so glad to get home!
The napper:
The crazy:

The Wilhelm Family

I almost forgot to post about this somehow! On the Monday after we got back from the mountains, and before left to go home, the Wilhelms (Chris, Isabelle, Aria, Caeli, Kimber, and Joshua) came down from Mesa to visit us. It was so cool of them to come, and so fun! We hadn't seen them since we both moved from Thatcher in summer of 2007. We hadn't even met little Joshua! The kids had a lot of fun, (and so did we) especially when my family was home and Jeremy's family came over too. David was the hit of the party, wrestling and playing with all the kids at once (except Joshua, and usually Jaina)... Here are some fun pictures from their visit...
Chris & Belle
And with little Joshua (who just turned 1!)
My dad, enjoying himself. Maybe he just told a funny joke...
Jaina and Grandma, playing
Jaina and Grandpa K
David, working out?
Happy kiddos!




Our families together. There's a lot of us these days!

Family Pictures

We've been meaning to get us all in a picture for some time now, and it finally happened. We actually didn't know we were taking pictures (Jeremy had forgotten to tell me, then forgotten about it himself) so it was a fun surprise. ;-) Here is us attempting to get the kids settled for a picture:
Here's one that actually turned out:
And a cute one outside:
And the 3 grandkids - Jaina, Reilly, and Chloe.

4th of July on Mt. Graham

We got home from Disneyland early Thursday evening, and by naptime on Friday we were headed up the mountain. It was really nice up there, if quite rainy. We got several really good storms. Actually, Saturday evening, as soon as the dinner started, it started pouring, and there was lots of thunder and lightning. There was finally one so loud and so close (we could see the trees moving about 50-75 yards away where it had struck) that Reilly started crying really hard. David said it was because I jumped so hard that it scared Reilly... The kids really enjoyed playing outside and being around family. The slept fairly well, especially the first night, and we had a few fun card games.
Here is Jaina, just happy to be at the cabin?
Phil and Sophie, entertaining themselves on the couch.
And in the chair...
Reilly, watching his feet carefully, so he didn't fall and slice his OTHER hand open (he did that within a few hours of arriving)...

We went on a hike up to Webb Peak. It was Reilly and Jaina's first time. :) We walked up the road and down the trail. Most of us took turns carting little ones in some baby back packs, and they walked a little. I made sure that my turn was before we started climbing; I could barely pull myself up the hill without a 27-35 lb weight on my back! :)
Sophie and Reilly
One of the "walking" periods
Getting a lift from Grandpa Weech
Sophie, feeling at one with nature?
Resting at the tower.

Hanging At Home

Here are some pictures of us around the house(s) before, during, and after Disneyland.

We got to Arizona just in time to celebrate Father's Day. We brought our presents in carseats. :) Here is Grandpa K's other present. He was pretty excited.

Check out those pink cheeks! After just a few minutes in the Arizona evening sun, Reilly was ready for some ice cream!

And Jaina is always ready for ice cream. This is the bowl she and I were supposed to share...

Here's Jaina looking sweet and cute while she has some breakfast.

Reilly had to have cereal TOO, because that's what Grandpa was eating...

Reilly and Jaina hanging out with Grandma Weech after we went to Disneyland. Yes, Jaina is wearing Reilly's shorts... :)

Reilly really got into coloring while we were in Arizona. I was beginning to wonder if he'd every show any real interest!

Jaina, all dressed up for church with Grandma and Grandpa!

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa K's house

Cute cousin Chloe

And a cute one of Jaina, just for fun...