Gabby's 9th Birthday Party

 

For Gabby's 9th Birthday we had a family party only, because it is an odd year. When you say family only at our house that is still 30 people which 13 of them are cousins. I was trying to get all the Birthday stuff done in one day. Usually we have a party with Kyle's family and then another party with my family.

Gabby wanted her favorite meal which is chicken fettuccine Alfredo which was a big hit for everyone. We didn't do any games since it was Sunday. We just ate did presents and cake.(I forgot to get the ice cream out) We also made foam book marks for the kids. I had a whole bunch of different kinds of foam stickers and some puffy paints. Gabby loves to read so I thought a book mark would be a good thing for the kids to make. It was nice to see everyone. I think next time family will only be us and grandparents. I'm not sure. What do you all think?

Happy Birthday Gabby!

Tubing Fun at Whistler

Whistler Tubing
Please click on the picture to watch the slideshow from our trip. Don't forget to mute the music first.


We took the kids tubing while in Whistler. Belle and Lydia hadn't had a chance to play in the snow yet. So we thought it would a be a fun thing to do as a family. So we went on Friday afternoon. Darice Summers and her grand kids ended up going with us along with my Mom. The way we went up to the park is we took the Blackcomb gondola up to the tubing park. That was really fun for Belle and Lydia since they didn't go up on the gondola before.(for those of you that don't know about whistler there are 2 mountains one called Whistler and one called Blackcomb they meet at the bottom and you can choose which mountain you want to go up) At the tube park they had six lanes at different levels just like on the ski slopes. We were able to all go down in the same lane at the same time by holding onto each others tubes. There was also this magic carpet that you would stand on with your tube and it would take you up the hill kind of like an escalator.

Guys Day of Fishing

Lets just say after such a fun day skiing. Kyle decided to learn something else he didn't know how to do. My Dad and Dennis took Kyle fly fishing. This is something the guys do every year. The guys day out away from all the woman and children.
We usually don't come up early enough in the week for Kyle to go.
So Dennis had to teach Kyle again something new. Well, so after about an hour or so of fishing. Kyle caught a small trout and wasn't sure what to do with it. Kyle hasn't been fishing since he was in scouts.( I guess it is hard to catch a fish fly fishing) My Dad came over and helped him release it after he took some pictures of course.

Whistler Skiing

We arrived in Whistler, Canada at 11:30 pm. Due to the terrible construction traffic on our way up the Mountain. They are trying to get the roads finished by the Olympics in 2010. Lets just say it added 2 more hours to our drive up there. We would sit for 10-20 min at a time waiting for them to let us pass. We finally made it. Thank goodness my Mom and Dad already were there. They had beds ready for us and the girls just climbed in and went back to sleep.

I had so many pictures of us skiing I had to do the slide show.



The next day was Wednesday and our big day of skiing. It was Kyle's first time skiing. He was pretty excited!! Dennis Summers (in Southworth Ward) took on the challenge of teaching him to ski. He started out on the baby slopes and by 2:00. He was riding the chair up the mountain and coming back down. Turning and stopping pretty well. Lets just say Dennis and I took him down once and we were watching him make his turns and he took off down the mountain. So I followed I went over one hill he wasn't there. So I kept on going down another hill and he was waiting at the bottom. So much for us waiting for him.

While Kyle was having ski lessons from Dennis. I had the pleasure of teaching my 2 oldest children how to ski. My little sister Chelsea was helping me as well as my Dad. Gabby loved it and just wanted to keep going on the very small beginner hill. We had her doing snow plow pretty well by the end of the day. Miley was pretty scared and liked having my sister teaching her better. I had her stopping and starting to turn then she got scared and just wanted to play in the snow. My Dad came and got her to go back up but she liked going straight down fast as long and my Dad was holding on to her. What can I say she is only 7 years old. My Dad took over with the girls for me so I could ski with Kyle for awhile. It was so fun for me to be able to ski with him. It took 11 years for me to talk him into skiing with me. Yeah!

After skiing the bottom part of the mountain with Kyle. He was doing so well, Dennis and I decided to take him up the gondola to the top of the mountain. By then Kyle's legs were pretty tired. He told me his legs were shaking while on the gondola. I said maybe you should just take the gondola back down. He said no. He is such a go getter he was trying so hard for me. The runs at whistler are very long. He started out doing really great and the hills were pretty steep. By the time we were 1/2 way down the mountain his legs were giving out. I felt so bad my heart was hurting for him. After every turn he was falling down. Oh, how I love him.

After that run down. Kyle took the gondola at the middle of the mountain down. I decided to ski with Dennis until they closed the mountain for the day. It was such a clear blue day out. I have some great pictures of the mountains. Our very last run down Dennis and I took a run and there was no one around but us. We look up the mountain and Down the Mountain there was no one. It was so cool. It was a wonderful day.

I will say for the next 3 days I was sore and Kyle was more then sore he could barely move. He was on major drugs.

Play Date Fun

 

To start out our week of fun. We had a play date with the Tailleur's and Hoecherl's. The girls all played while the Moms were able to visit. We had a great time!

Cousins

 


All the cousins.

Reptile Friend

 

While cleaning up in the yard over the weekend. Gabby found this cute little salamander. Kyle decided to give Lydia and Belle a ride in the wheel barrel. It was a lot of fun working together as a family to clean up the yard.