The stuff memories are made of

This last weekend we had our annual camping trip with my mom, brother and sister in love. As usual it was a wonderful time! I figured I would just give a few highlights of our trip.

We had quite a bit of rain on Saturday and huddled in our tent until our ingenious men rigged us up a canopy made from tarps. The smell of rain mixed with campfire smoke was amazing! I’ll always remember that smell!

We passed some time by playing charades. The little ones trying to come up with ideas were very cute! It’s very funny watching them imitate animals or trying to pretend they are one of us!

We heard from other campers that the fish were really biting and people were catching their limit each time they went down. I guess the fish just wouldn’t play with us because only Shannen and Shadd caught one.

Lynette made a wonderful breakfast for us Sunday morning and we are all craving it again. It was an egg scramble with peppers, onions, potatoes, and turkey sausage. It was so yummy!

With typical Ney fashion there is no road trip that is complete without someone throwing up. Ugh! Shylie ended up getting sick on the way home. I really need to find something to help with car sickness because it really gets old having to come home and clean out her car seat!

Our camping season has come to an end and we are already looking forward to next year. Next year we are hoping to all coordinate vacations so we can actually have more time. I’m so blessed to have the family I have and to be making memories together that I will ponder and think about years down the road!

Just click the play button to restart

Camping

We were able to get away last week for what was our first camping trip of the year. Usually we have already had a trip but this year has been odd and we are just now getting around to camping.

The weather was gorgeous and it was so nice to escape “life” and have a chance to just be together and regroup before diving into school next week. I was able to get in some reading, make all my kids reading lists for the new school year and even listen to some wonderful podcasts on my IPod. We all had a wonderful time and the babies even did great.

We had such a good time we are actually hoping to sneak another trip in at the end of the month and then next month we are so exited for our annual trip with my brother and sister in love. I can’t decide what I love more, having my feet in the sand at the beach or camping in the middle of beautiful pine trees! Its pretty much a toss up!

Disneyland

Back in March we did a community service day for the Give a Day, Get a Day Disneyland program. We spent a few hours on a lovely Saturday morning  working at a local park and earned free tickets to Disneyland.  Not a bad deal!

On Thursday we loaded up and headed to Disneyland to finally use our tickets.  It was a long week trying to get ready as I had come down with a horrible head/chest cold.  I was on the couch up until the morning we left.  My big girls did everything. (Thank you girls!) We left about 4 hours late on Thursday due to me being so sick. 

This was the first time most of our children had been to Disneyland.  Shyloh and Shelbie had been to Disneyland when they were 3 and 1, but they really couldn’t remember anything.  Shyloh and Jeff had gone on their honeymoon so she knew what to expect.  The kids were very excited!

We arrived in Anaheim about 6pm and I crashed in the room and everyone else went and checked out downtown Disneyland.  When they came back we ordered pizza and the kids swam in the pool for a while.

Thankfully I woke up Friday feeling a bit better and made it thru the day okay.  Everyone was so excited to get into Disneyland.  It had been 15 years since Duane and I had been there so it was even new to us.  I have to admit that I am really not a huge Disneyland fan.  I really could care less if I ever go again or not, but to get to see how excited the children were was really fun!

The little girls really didn’t like Disneyland to much and after a couple hours they kept begging to go back to the “camping spot” (our hotel room).  We all decided that Disneyland is not a very child friendly place for little ones who get scared easy.  Most of the rides all have a part where it is dark or scary.  They even were scared of the Peter Pan ride because it was dark inside.

We are very careful to not let our little ones watch anything that may cause them fear. (Our bed is just not big enough for us and several scared kids!)  We don’t let them watch the Disney movies with all the scary witches and the ones full of witchcraft.  We avoided all the rides based on those movies.

The day was redeemed for the girls when they went to a "princess coronation ceremony”. They had their picture taken with Cinderella and that made up for all the rides they hated. Then they each bought a Cinderella doll with money from their grandparents so after that they seemed to like Disneyland better and stopped saying they hated it and wanted to go home. LOL

The bigger kids all had a blast!  We all left Disneyland around 5:30 and went and had dinner.  After dinner Shyloh and I took our tired, weary prego bodies back to the room with the little girls.  We put them to bed then flopped on the bed and watched a little tv until we fell asleep.  Everyone else came back to the room around 1am.

We all had a nice time but decided that one day is way to short and you just can’t cover everything.  We never even made it to Toon Town for the little ones and that may have made a big difference in how they felt about Disneyland.  We are planning on participating in the Give a Day, Get a Day program again in the spring and next year we are going to upgrade our tickets to a two day pass.

  A Darth Vader made of legos in downtown Disney

A little swimming after a long day of driving

The entrance of Disneyland

The Coronation Ceremony

                The highlight of the day! (At least for two little girls)

Finding Nemo ride

Camping and computers

There is a very good reason why my little corner of cyberspace has been quiet. We headed out last Thursday up to the mountains where there is no phones, appointments, Internet, or anything else man made, but only the beauty and quietness of God’s creation. It was a wonderful and timely get away. Before we left we dropped both, yes I did say both , of our computers off with our computer guy to work on why we were gone.

We got one of our computers back today so here I am trying to peck out my thoughts on our little vacation before I forget.

Our trip started out rather interesting and had the makings of going South real quick. The week before we left I had 5 children go thru a day of the stomach flu. I thought everyone was fine because no one else had gotten it for three days before we left. Well, I was wrong. About 3 am the first night Shylie threw up. Let me just tell you how horrible a tent can smell when someone throws up in it! Ugh! Thankfully I had brought our Complete Virus with us so I gave her 5 doses immediately. She threw up once more then fell back to sleep and was fine in the morning.

Once again I thought we were safe, but a few hours into the next morning Shelbie started not feeling well. I started her on some doses of Complete Virus right away. She started feeling better and decided to eat some lunch. Bad idea! Within a few minutes she wasn’t feeling well and got sick. We did another round of Complete Virus and she slept in the tent for a couple of hours then woke up feeling better. I am so glad we packed the CV in our first aid kit! We ended up using it on my sister too when they came up and her stomach didn’t feel quite “right”.

Saturday my best friend and her sweet family came up to spend the day with us and Micah and Lynette also came up and they stayed the night with us. It was great to have all my favorite people with us!

We spent most of Saturday just hanging out at the Lake. Mike and De Anna rented two paddle boats so the kids had a great time paddling around the lake. My kids get along really well, but they loved having their cousins there with them! We had a great time hanging out later in the night around the campfire. Shyloh brought up about 150 glo sticks for the kids. They made bracelets, necklaces, hats, and a couple of them figured how to tape them to there bodies to make silhouettes. That night we hung a bunch in our tent and it looked like Christmas!

Our weekend was wonderful. Lots of relaxing, swimming, fishing, snake hunting (um, I wasn’t involved in this!), and hanging out around the campfire. Shelbie and I even snuck in some quiet time to listen to another fabulous sermon from Paul Washer!

We came home Sunday afternoon and quickly unpacked and jumped in the pool to cool off. Thank goodness for take n bake pizza’s so I didn’t have to come up with dinner ideas. Before I went to bed that night I had already conquered 7 loads of laundry! We all slept really well that night!

I must say I really loved going all week with no computer. I realized how much it sucks up my time for more important things. When you have free time and no computer it is amazing what you can come up with to do.

The rest of our week has consisted of swimming, a wee bit of school planning, (I’m going to kick that up a notch next week!), a little bit of school shopping, (did you check out Staples deals this week?? And Dollar Tree didn't disappoint again with some fun things!), and enjoying my garden। I really am amazed at how quick the summer is going। I still have so much to get done before school starts and so many fun things I want to do with the kids.

Vacation week pt.5

Okay, so your probably getting tired of these posts. Sorry, one left! Part of the reason I blog is for all of our out of state family and the other reason...for me! It's my way of journaling our family so we can look back on life. Sooo....

We finished up our week with a birthday party for all our May birthdays. We celebrated Lynette's, Jeff's, mine, and my mom's. We bbq'd some very yummy kabobs that Shaylah and Shannen helped me put together. We all exchanged gifts and then we hung out visiting.

Sunday was actually my birthday and Mother's day. The kids and Duane showered me with some fun gifts. The little girls each made me a coffee mug and a travel cup that they colored and decorated themselves. I also was blessed with flowers to plant, some picture frames, a pretty candle holder, a dove figurine, windmill cookies, (my favorite kind) a rooster clock, and a birdhouse. Duane got me a new sewing machine and also an iPod. We had been saving up for a family iPod for quite some time now and we were almost there. He chipped in the rest and surprised me for mother's day. I was totally surprised with that one. I'm technologically challenged so I'm going to need Shyloh and Shaylah to teach me how to work it. I told all this kids they can each have their own play list! They are excited for that too!

(Do you notice Lolly in several pictures? We had many more pictures than this and she would run over by me anytime someone got ready to take a picture. LOL Silly girl she is!)

The week just wasn't long enough. We enjoyed each day having daddy home. Duane and I were able to sneak out in the mornings several times and just take Shylie with us on a long walk. There is something wonderful about uninterrupted conversation. To talk about our dreams and hopes, things concerning the children, and even just the weather. It's just about being together. We are already looking forward to August!
A week just isn't long enough!

Vacation week pt. 4

We also went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom when Duane was off. We always try to color match when we go places. It makes it so much easier to keep an eye on our group and not lose little ones. Shyloh suggested that we do tie dyed shirts this time. The night before we went we had a tie dye party! Even the little ones had lots of fun putting on the rubber bands and pouring on the color. We only wish we would have realized sooner that the kit came with gloves inside it. Half of us had stained hands. It took several days to get hands clean. We had a blast making them and the kids have already asked to do it again. (Great idea Shyloh!)

We headed out the next morning, late as usual. If we need to leave at 8:00 then it is pretty much a guarantee that we will leave at 9:00. It's okay though because it's not when you get there, but rather all about the journey. Actually I think we say that just to make us feel better! Half the van slept through the journey.

We spent most of the time in the little kid area this time. The little girls love that part of the park, but I think that even most of the bigger kids (and Jeff) had lots of fun in Toon Town! Next time we will most likely hit all the shows.

Everywhere we walked we had comments on our shirts. Jeff had to be talked into wearing them by Shyloh as he isn't a tie dye fan at all. He reluctantly agreed and within a couple of hours at the park he realized how fun it was. We had more comments than we could count and it was so easy to spot "our people".

By the time we left the park we were all starving. We headed down the road to Taco Bell to eat and then grab a coffee for the ride home. Once again most of the van slept through the journey! We made it home about 10:00 and carried everyone in and they all slept in their tie dyed shirts!
(We had to many picture so I just put them in a slideshow. Just click the "X" in the corner to replay.)

Vacation week pt. 3

We took the kids to the river for a picnic and fishing one day. We found a lovely spot. It was so peaceful and serene. Shyloh and Jeff joined us, though he had to leave a bit early to go to work. Duane got online to find a local place to fish off the bank and found this little state park. We had heard of it, but had no idea what was actually hidden there. It was a great little spot. We hung out for hours there until the mosquitos came out and ate us alive. Then we packed it up quickly and headed out of there.

(Poppet and Daddy )

(Didn't catch anything , but still lots of fun)

(Shadd was having more fun catching minows and tadpoles)

(Walking down to the river)

(My little Poppet girl)

(It was so beautiful to picnic at. We will definately be going back.)

Vacation week pt.2

During Duane's vacation week we tried to alternate work days at home and some fun day trips. Duane's good friend from work gave us free tickets to the Stockton Ports. We went to an evening game and the weather was beautiful. As the night went on it got a bit chilly, but cuddling under some warm blankets took care of that.
Lolly was a real kick in the pants that night. She chatted the whole time with Duane's friend Mark. She kept us all laughing. She was oblivious to the game, but snacked the whole time and talked about going over to the "hill". The hill was a hill of grass that people had blankets on while watching the game. She was very intrigued and wanted to go over to it until Daddy made a joke about big kids that pick on the little kids over there. After that she wanted nothing to do with it as much as Mark tried to convince her that Daddy was joking. She kept saying she didn't want to get "picked".

(The guys)

(Notice Lolly's static cling? LOL)

(Shayden flexing his muscles)

(Which way's the bathroom?)

(Up close and personal!)

(It's a beautiful park)


The evening was kind of the kick off for Duane's vacation week.

Vacation week pt. 1

Duane was on vacation all last week. It was a wonderful week. We worked on several projects around the house and also did some fun day trips. I realized that I had so much to "talk" about so I broke it up into more than one post.
(I figured that would make it easier on Nana!)

Duane made me a baby gate to keep my little climber off the staircase.

(I still need to paint it. It hangs on hinges and the latch is on the opposite side so she can't open it.)

He also fixed my leaky garbage disposal. I have also been wanting to do something in my hallway so I could display LOTS of pictures. We brainstormed and decided to go with a covered cork board. We bought a huge piece of insulation and covered it with burlap. Duane then framed it up for me. I call it my "wall of fame". I can have tons of pictures up now.

(This is about 5 ft. x 3 ft.)

We've been needing to replace several windows and already had the replacement windows in the shed, but never seemed to find the time to get it done. The boys window got broke a couple of weeks ago so we finally had to make the time to get it replaced. The boys were big helpers and worked with Daddy.

(We will hopefully get the trim and shutters back up in the next weekend or so)

Shannen has also been doing some projects for me. I had an old bench that I really wanted painted so Shannen started working on that. A new coat of paint and some new cushions and it will be just like new.

In addition to these projects Duane also helped with some smaller things like helping me hang some picture frames, (he's a perfectionist and pulls out the tape measure and level where I just start tacking in nails until it "looks" straight) and he also put chicken wire around my garden. Between the chickens that constantly seem to escape from their coop, the dogs, and boys playing ball, my poor garden has been taking a beating.

I'm already making my list of projects for his next vacation in August!!!