Neglected

The blog has been neglected. It's not the only thing. There are plenty of things that get neglected around here. I really try to ensure that my kids aren't among those things. So, for the blog I can only do what I can do and that tells you where it lands on the to do list. I've wanted to put a little tid bit here or add a picture there but we all know where good intentions take us don't we? Here are some random pictures of our goings on lately. . .

Acting out the Nativity on Christmas morning.
We had a wonderful holiday.

Hot tubbing at the hotel pool on a little Seattle getaway after Christmas

Valentine's Day

Basketball season has come and gone. I love basketball because: 1) It's great exercise. 2) It's a fun winter activity. 3) If we are lucky it's like each child having 3 play dates a week (2 practices, one game) with a bunch of friends for six weeks. 4) It's super fun to watch them discover the game and enjoy themselves. It's pretty much good clean fun for all involved. This was Nathanael's first year. He can be a spaz (a "cool" word from my youth that is the perfect description of Nathanael) as evidenced below. Kate likes to play, though she has yet to understand why people get so worked up about this game. There is not a competitive bone in this girl, unless of course Nathanael is trying to beat her to the car. Then she transforms before our eyes. This year she was a great defender. She would stay on her opponent like no other. Who really cares where the ball is? In the picture you can see that the girl with the ball is behind her, but her eyes are glued to her opponent. Ethan had a great year. He's all arms and legs right now and can have a hard time making all those parts work together!

Just made a basket

She's not letting that girl out of her sight

Basketball 2010

Henry being protected from some ball playing in the basement

St. Patrick's Day

It's started again. . .

We spent three days of our Spring Break in Seattle. We saw old friends, went to the zoo & Pacific Science Center and hung out with The Joe Ellsworths. Thank you Joe and Sam!

Elijah talking to the bears

Ethan, Nathanael and Kate catching a cat nap after the zoo

The butterfly house with two babies; one exhausted,
the other covered with spit up.
I hope I didn't just sit on an endangered butterfly, but I had to sit down.
My soul keenly feels Elijah's expression.

Ethan and Gunner playing chess, life size


Easter Sunday 2010

Happy Easter! Since our spring break was this week we didn't have any soccer games or other activities on Saturday so we were able to be home and listen to conference. It was awesome! Conference is always so good. I feel especially motivated to read the talks more often during these next few months.

I'd like to think I will revisit our little corner of cyberspace more often, but I guess that remains to be seen.

Aspen Grove

Oldroyd Family Reunion
Aspen Grove, August 2009

The Whole Fam

The Original Six

The Ellsworth 6 and 8/9ths

In August we went to Aspen Grove for my family's reunion. It was in the planning stages long before I knew I would be nearly 9 months pregnant at the time of the trip! There was a bit of hoopla right up until the day I left as to the wisdom in going, so close to my due date, but I did my homework and was prepared for anything. Had our baby been born during that week it would have made quite a story! And yet, he baked for another month! More on that later. . . I had the luxury of flying to Utah while Jason drove 11 hours with the kids. They spent the night in Burley with Bonnie Z and Co. while I had a little reunion with some long-time, fabulous friends at the Cheesecake Factory and later spent the night in Park City with my parents. I felt pretty spoiled.

Aspen Grove was a ton of fun. Everyone got a vacation--everyone. We ate in the cafeteria so all meals were prepared and cleaned up by the staff. That was seriously one of my favorite parts of the trip- no food prep or clean up for a week! There were activities available for all kids (ages 0 to 18, set up in age groups) for six hours or more each day. They went swimming, hiking, made stuff, climbed on the rock wall, sang songs had just had a ton of fun. It was awesome for the cousins to have so much time together doing so many fun things. For adults they had lectures, crafts, pottery, paintball, high ropes course, geocaching and sports tournaments to name a few. There are trails everywhere if you wanted to hike. In the evenings there were more activities. There was never a dearth of entertainment.

We lodged in the rustic cabins, bathrooms and shower up the trail just a short walk. Jason and I thought it was great. Other members of our family thought the cabin/bathroom down the road thing was like real camping. In the end we all had a really great time. On the way home our kids were begging to go again next year.

Our Rustic Cabin, 12A, came complete with carpet, a heater, two bedrooms (ok , so saying two bedrooms is being a bit generous. . .) and a loft, sheets and blankets for the beds, a dresser, a desk and a rod for hanging clothes. Rustic? I think not. Well, maybe rustic in comparison to the Marriott.

Birthdays

While there we celebrated Elyse's 18th birthday (she's the oldest grandchild) and Mom's 70th birthday with a few gifts, good company and a Costco cake. . . Yum.

Aspen Follies

The Aspen Follies were pretty darn fun. Lots of games for the family to do together. I mostly waddled around, watching the fun. But even that was fun.

High Ropes

The high ropes course was not as easy as it looked, unless you were under 18. The kids who were old enough to go made it look like a piece of cake.

Other Good Stuff

Next to the high ropes course they have a rock wall for younger campers. All of our kids are scared of heights (I believe they inherited this from their Dad) so about half way up the wall they would look down and decide that was plenty. I'm not sure that Kate got three feet off the ground.

The pottery area is set up over the river that runs near the camp. Just sitting in the room is relaxing! I made a little salsa bowl that is now waiting patiently to be fired in a kiln. It's on my list of things to do. That very, very long list. . .

Frontier Night

Frontier night was super fun. They had all-you-can-eat snow cones which put huge purple, blue, and/or red smiles on all the kids faces. They also handed out some old time candy, had face painting in the village, stories in the teepee and archery in the woods. Jason caught a candid photo of our own semi naked archer. Pretty sure his attire isn't up to BYU dress standards. . .

Hiking

Some members of my family thought it sounded like good clean fun to hike Timp while we were there. On Wednesday those brave souls headed up the mountain, Jason and Ethan among them. Ethan was wearing his last years school shoes that are so well loved that they have about as much traction as a banana peel. And lets not mention Jason's non love for heights. All day I was fighting the little devil on my shoulder telling me to worry, worry, worry. Jason and Ethan took their time, whether that was due to their fitness level or their desire to smell the flowers and watch the mountain goats I don't know. Jason decided they would stop just below the summit (less than a mile from the top) because of the steepness of the trail and Ethan's lack of decent shoes. Ethan wasn't very happy but he got over it and they had a good time. I was glad Jason kept his promise of bringing Ethan back alive and well. ;)

The pool was a nice attraction when we had warm afternoon weather. But it wasn't quite as warm as we had anticipated since Utah had a cold front come through during the beginning of our week there. They had lap swim in the mornings that I really wanted to do but each morning I chickened out because I didn't want to walk over in the cold to swim and then be really, really cold walking back to 12A. So I was totally lame and didn't lap swim once. But we had some good clean fun in the water while the sun was shining. The kids' activities involved swimming almost every day so our kids got their fill of the pool.

Family Dance

On our last night there was a family dance (which at 9 pm turns into a teen/young adult only activity). I wasn't sure if we even wanted to go. I knew Kate would have a good time and probably Nathanael. Ethan was Mr. Cool- I don't want to dance! It didn't help that Jason told him that if a girl asked him to dance he had to say yes and go dance. The thought of dancing with a girl was a little too much for him to manage. Elijah was exhausted and was losing what little self control he possessed. We went in thinking we would stay for a few minutes and leave. The dance turned out to be one of the funnest activities. It seemed like every other dance was a line dance. The BYU student staff were really great dancers and entertainers and we had a great time watching them. It has been years since I've heard Macarena and it was so fabulous to watch all the kids do their best to learn the dance and jump right in with everyone. Of course no dance is complete without the old standby, YMCA. Even my mom got into that one. There were lots of songs that I have never heard, proving I am old and out of touch. Oh reality bites! It was a great end to a fabulous week.

Holiday Goings On

On Saturday, January 3rd this is the ONLY thing I wanted to see, minus the need to shovel a driveway full of snow of course. We were on the end of a week long road trip and we were ALL pretty darn sick of the close quarters of Jason's truck. But that's the end of the story. So here's the beginning. . .

Our holidays were filled with unexpected fun.

Before Christmas we got a bunch of snow that actually stuck around this town (unexpected in amount and duration). We get snow, but usually it warms up quick (like a few days ago the high was 61?!?) and the snow goes BYE BYE. This put a kink in my shopping plans because who wants to carry a baby in and out of stores in that kind of weather? Especially since I only had a few things to buy and I still had PLENTY of time left. Notice the lack of road behind our fence. Kennewick is not equipped to deal with lots of snow so we had about 18 inches that sat on our road and got packed into a sheet of ice for over a week. A snowplow did finally find our little side street, but by the time it came along it was more like nails scratching a chalk board than snow removal.

Then Nathanael missed his entire last week of school (definitely unexpected) due to two hour delays each day in our school district (snow and more snow). When there is a two hour delay, morning kindergarten gets canceled altogether. He vacillated between LOVING sleeping in and being bored/missing his teacher. I am clearly not as fun as her and I got a little grumpy. The last minute Christmas shopping I had put off would have worked tons better with an infant that can't yet speak than with a six year old coming along.

But in the end the stockings were hung and the
presents wrapped and we had a wonderful Christmas.

Two days later we hit the road for an Arizona wedding (unexpected because Jason was going to fly down alone but that didn't work out so we all piled in the truck and left). The roads were scary in Oregon and Idaho but once we were in Nevada the roads were good and the temperature kept rising! Gotta love that.

A fun pit stop along the way.

The Happy Couple. . .

The wedding was the highlight. It was so great to finally meet Patricia (Patricia you are fabulous!!) and see Pat snugged up with a chic! It's wonderful to have her in the family.

Family Fun (all pictures with all smiles is boring)

The next two days were spent basking in the AZ sun, swimming, setting up for the reception, taking pictures and, if you are a kid, living in bliss. Imagine an acre of land, plus the open area beyond with a canal, lots of dirt, sun and no adults telling you to keep yourself clean or not to eat dirt. What could bring greater childhood happiness?

Grandpa + his fifteen grands

The reception was beautiful, the weather was nice, the food was yummy,
the band was festive and there was some pretty sweet dancing going on.

Patricia's wonderful parents, Miguel and MarleneJason and Eli

Patricia and the girls
Twirly Girly

The family festivities were lots of fun and ended too soon, especially considering the six of us had to climb back into that little truck cab again. But it was good while it lasted. . .75 degrees when you're used to 10 degrees is swimming weather!

On the way home Ethan was throwing up or sleeping
(thank you to whoever invented ziplock bags),

Elijah was grumpy or sleepingWe hit snow sooner than expected,

and Kate took over Jason's iPod.

At 9:00 pm Saturday night our house was such a welcome sight!