Why is the beach such a fascinating place? This is in Florida, at aunt Liz's house. We had a few rainy days, but also a couple of extraordinary days on the beach, it was so pleasant. I think this would be my favorite time of year in Florida. Not too hot, but very nice.

This is George and Kaden, snuggling while Abbie and I are frolicking in the ocean. It was fabulous.

Here's Sadie posing. This day at the beach was so nice for me...we stopped at a fruit stand on the way and bought some honey tubes (they look like pixie sticks), I think they had lime in them maybe, I can't remember exactly. Well, we traipsed around this parking lot for a minute while eating our honey tubes, then we walked down a board walk which led to the beach and it was shrouded in a thick green tree of some kind. Then we danced around in the sand and the kids jumped tiny waves until they were frozen through their 3cm bones. Then George and Liz wrapped the kids in sweatshirts while Abbie and I played in the ocean for quite a bit longer. After the initial shock, it was quite warm swimming, we loved it and could have played for hours!

On one of our rainy days we decided to go miniature golfing. The people at the front desk laughed at us and only charged us a couple bucks for the group. We weren't sure what that meant, but thought we might as well. We discovered several branches and added obstacles on the greens, as well as the problem with fishing for your ball after you made a hole. Sometimes your ball would hydroplane before slowly floating down into the hole...it was awesome. All of our jackets were completely saturated, it was a great game.

George also treated us to some helicopter time. The buttons were so amazing Kaden and Sadie (as well as the adults) could hardly stand it.

The kids are here at the airport while George and I are checking on weather for a possible flight.


Thank you uncle George! What a fun trip I got to go on. We floated all over the area and only did a few dives, 360's, etc. Hahaha, it was very fun!

Remember I like everything in reverse order, so this is Abbie and Sadie on the flight from West Virginia to Florida. I can't believe I had Abbie and Liz take the little lady. I had a layover and so they took her as the lap child since they had a direct flight and Kaden and I faced our flight together. They said she did great, it's risky business though! :) They said how awesome I was to have done flights by myself, I basked in their praise...so amazing, so great, so wonderful.

So, here we are in the West Virginia part of our trip. Sadie is a pyromaniac, which is fine, except we have to have her on surveillance at all times now. Chris and Abbie located some sparklers and so we lit a candle in the driveway and we all went to town. It was very fun!


With Chris, we always have to fit in a fishing trip of some kind, so we drove to a nearby lake, bundled up, and caught nothing. It was beautiful though. West Virginia is a rolling, steep rolling, hilled area with a lot of trees. I bet the summers are so green there.

Kaden definitely has the fishing itch. I think I've told you about how the boys practiced casting in the yard all summer. It was a fabulous excursion that was a bit short for half of us because the cold is a little too much :)

Mama Louisa has been brushing up on her violin skills while back in the back woods. This is Jake, teaching her in his studio. I never new this about my mother, but she has the ability to listen to a song several times and then play it. We were a bit of a bad influence while we were there so she never really got to get out her violin, yet we attended her practice session and she played it as if she had been playing it...mother!

Going out on the town.

Mom and dad were missing their Christmas tree, so we located a bolt of material my mom had acquired from somewhere and then cut one out. It was amazing to say the least. Abbie and Liz also made a tied wreath with the same material so the apartment had several festive touches.

So the Lewis family shares quite a few great things. One is their love for food, the second is their love for spending time together, and the third is their love for helping. I feel bad for people who feel burdened by company, for me, it's a complete party. Everyone pitches in on the cooking, the playing, the cleaning, and the life that happens regardless of what is going on. They are a wonderful group to hang out with and I encourage them to come any time!

This is capture the flag Lewis style. We are either getting old, are totally violent, or maybe and most likely, we are just awkward and clumsy, I don't know. We sustained several injuries from this activity, although it was one of our favorites.

Although I don't have a photo, one of the most highly attended and most frequent games was hide and seek. As funny as it is, my ground floor is about 1100 square feet, maybe, if I'm being generous. There were about 12 of us, so that gives each person about 91 square feet of hiding room. It was hilarious. Sometimes we played it with the lights out, sometimes people would be hiding in the most awkward places, and Abbie even sustained a black eye by squishing in a place too tightly. Almost always it was an obvious spot for 89% of those playing, but it was the best game. It's somewhat addicting too...try it...try it!!!

This is called the stroller derby. Mac runs as fast as he can with a small body barely fastened in the seat with a belt that is decaying exponentially and has been re-sewn multiple times. Here, Kaden is laughing hysterically, and amazingly, this game never reached a disaster!

Walks together are a time to get out and blow the stink off. It feels great, it changes up the mood, it let's us breath something other than each other's...well, smells. I love this group! Everyone adds to the flavors of our family. I'm so grateful to each of them for adding to my life!

So, I also found these photos...when we were visiting Alethea in her little dream land we saw a lot of very cool things that she's around every day. One of the things the boys absolutely loved was going across the street from Alethea's trailer where Caromalia(?sp) has a raptor shelter. We got food (mice and chicken) out of the freezer and Caromalia fed it to a few of the birds. They rip at it, hold it with their talons, tear the meat...totally awesome. Most of the birds were injured and when we visited, it was closed so we got a personal tour from Caromalia.

Some of the birds were eying the kids as part of their entree, so we kept a little distance :) but we thought it was amazing to be so close to them.

Another adventure from last summer was to a place called "Toquerville falls." We began our day in search of some form of water play because it was scorching hot, especially heading south from Cedar City. We asked at a gas station about Toquerville falls and someone reported that they would be dried up this time of year. So, we inquired about other water holes...humf. We headed to the swimming spot. It was dreadfully hot, so we rubbed mud on ourselves and tried to share the sliver of shade from a large rock.

Although fun, not enough to last too long. Discouraged, we decided to just go see what the falls were like for a possible visit in the spring. It was about 10 miles, if I remember correctly, on a highly off-road road, but we found it. Ya, you can see it was completely not worth it. I guess we did have to battle the late summer horse flies, but for the most part, it was awesome. Kaden found great pleasure in catching tad poles in the slow moving creek above the falls. What a beautiful place, can't wait to visit this spring.

Headed for the Big League

Look, it's a little Kaden! Hahaha. I found this photo in one of Liz's pics on my computer, thought I'd share :)

Sometime last year...

So, I don't know what happen the last few months, and I'm not even sure when this was last year, but you can't miss out on these memories that mean nothing to you! (But the kids are cute right?) :)

I think I've mentioned this before, but the only thing you really need to know about the strip in Las Vegas is that at the coke factory. You can try cokes or shakes from around the world. 16 flavors to be exact, for $7. It's best to share them after an extremely long jaunt through smokey casinos and 100 degree weather in the Las Vegas desert. :) My kids think the coke thing is the greatest, only "foreign" places have such exotic drinks which come caffeinated and sugarated!

Sadie's favorite thing about Las Vegas was this shoe store we visited. It was the most wonderful, beautiful, entertaining place on earth. Literally ceiling to floor stacked shoes, accessible from 2 ft. and under, for those of a shorter nature. All colors, all designs, all fabrics and displays...we left with none, zero, zip, but I would take Sadie there any day for entertainment both for myself and the lady.

It's just so difficult to decide what to try on at any given moment...

Oh! And then the Krispy Kreme party. We only attend when the hot light is on, I believe that party ends at 11am. We watch the doughnuts go up and down on the racks, fall into the greezzzeee grease, go through the waterfall of glaze...it's just impeccable beauty. Stunning. Then! If that can't be topped, you receive a hat and a free doughnut! Splendid!

Did we mention, that when they are hot they're kind of melty...Kaden is giving you some display of the sensation here:

So, then earlier this summer we went to a rodeo. The cows and horses were cool, but way to infrequent for my cheerers. So, the cotton candy was the greatest of the event.

Liz, we hate that you aren't here. Too many fun things we do everyday, and we miss you.

The Salsa Memory

We are so cute, aren't we? Yes, and smiling after an intense day of salsa making...

And yes, I realize this was months ago, but I never blogged about it and I couldn't do without it. Liz, Colleen, and I were the supervisors for the project, but we had a lot of little feet mixed in with ours, and it was very fun.

Start from the bottom of this blog and work up, it seems more chronological (unless of course we ate it all and that's the empty jars you see!)


So a day of work, and here's what it looks like. Canning is so beautiful to me. I don't know what it is about it, because seriously, it is one of the messiest, more chaotic, draining exercises you can do, but I love it. Thank you Colleen for allowing your kitchen to be sacrificed for the event.

Mix in the frog feet, the snail shells, the bird beaks, and vuala!

Turns out Colleen does have an outdoor kitchen...2 campchefs worked great!

Garlic...for voodoo.

Jalepeno peppers, for killing nose hairs...you know, they do grow as you get older, it's an ancient anti-aging beauty trick.

The beginning scene...