A Family Reunion in Midland

What's in Midland you ask. Not much, but for one weekend in August, it was the destination for our family reunion. Why Midland? Not because it's the most exciting place with the most variety of things to do, but because it was the half way point between all our families. With us coming from El Paso, Scott coming from San Antonio, John coming from Dallas, and Mom, Dad, and Paul coming from Wichita Falls, we each only had to drive around 5 hours to get together instead of one family (most likely us) having to drive 9 plus hours to see everyone. We appreciated the location and knew that as long as we were all together, fun would be had. And that was true!

 

Of course, it didn't come without drama, but at least it was minor drama. We were all supposed to be staying in the same hotel, but there was a mix-up between the website we booked rooms through and the hotel, so Mom and Dad ended up in a different hotel down the street. Not too bad, plus Grandma Solheim was able to be with us, so they probably preferred the separation from all the kids anyway. The best part about our hotel was the indoor swimming pool complete with twisty slide. Everyone loved taking turns shooting out of the slide. Even the little girls got turns with Tyler or Scott holding them so they wouldn't go under water. It was funny to hear them scrape along the sides of the slide to keep from going too fast. The first picture is of Aubrey coming out with Tyler. She was so excited to show Grandma and Grandpa this weekend how she had learned how to swim without floaties. Unfortunately, the week before we left, she had been complaining about her ear hurting and after going to the doctor we found out she had a pretty badly infected swimmer's ear. So she wasn't supposed to put her head under the water for like a week. So she put her floatie back on, but still swam and took her turns going down the slide being held by someone who would keep her out of the water. They had a pretty big hot tub too, so I snapped this second picture as Grandpa got put in charge of tending the little ones who wanted to swim in the hot tub.

 

We spent most of Friday at a park where we reserved a pavilion to eat and the park included playgrounds, a splash pad, volleyball nets, and horseshoe pits. We also brought a lot of outdoor games to keep everyone happy. We had a lot of fun and I tried grabbing pictures of all the different activities. Here's Aubrey and Rebecca on the playground, and Chloe and Tessa on the swings. We had another interesting occurrence while at the park. A reporter came up to talk to me while I was watching Taryn play. She said they were doing an article on updating parks in the city and wanted to take some pictures of people using the new playground equipment. So she took pictures of Taryn playing and got our names and Taryn's age to be in this newspaper article. But since we were just visiting, I probably won't ever see if we were actually in the newspaper or not. I did try looking for it online once, but didn't come across anything. The reporter thought it was hilarious that we were all in Midland for a family reunion but no one lived there. She asked where we were all from and just laughed wondering what we'd find to do there. Playing at the park was at the top of our list, so we had a good conversation about the city and what things we could do there. It was funny.

 

Tyler brought horseshoe stuff and he and Abby played with Paul and Grandma. We played volleyball, ladder golf, and other lawn games until the kids finally talked us into going over to the splash pad.

 

 We were worried about the weather (it was supposed to rain all day), but it just stayed overcast and the splash pad was still turned on, so we let them go until they got too cold to be in the water any longer. I took a lot of pictures while they ran from one thing to the next.

 

 

Scott had us take a selfie together. (Is it not a selfie with two people??) Anyway, here we are as we watched the kids play in the water. 

 As the kids started tiring out for the day, they started huddling around Grandma. I took this picture and thought it turned out really cute. 

 

When we weren't out eating or playing, we spent the majority of the our time in the hotel. The room we stayed in had a complete kitchen so most of the big group get togethers were there. Our room also had this huge walk-in closet so we would just send the girls in there to play with their barbies or to watch movies on the ipad, so we could shut the door and let them be. They didn't seem to mind. They loved it in there.

 

We were on the second floor and our room looked out onto a huge open lobby and the pool. The girls would take their toys out there to play occasionally too. They had these cute benches with the lamp in the middle where the girls liked to sit and play. Here are two pictures. One taken on the first floor with them, and one taken from the second floor right above them.

 

The lobby also had ping pong tables, arcade games, and a mini-golf set-up. The kids loved taking turns playing everything, going from one thing to the next. Grandma even had brought some little crafts like flying airplanes and pinwheels that the kids got to put together and play with in the big lobby.

 

I loved finding all the cousins together as they played. They loved watching Tessa, or whoever, play on the ipad. As long as they were happy being together, I wasn't going to complain about what they were doing. I also grabbed some of them in the hallway to take a picture. There were some steps right outside our door, so I thought it was a great picture spot. 

 

We put up tables when we all ate together in our hotel room. I took this picture because it included some of the adults. Aubrey found new best friends in McKaye and John. She wouldn't leave them alone the entire weekend! Good thing they didn't mind the little tag-along.

 

We ate out for a couple of meals, so of course the pictures continue. We ate at an On the Border because I love that place and they don't have one in El Paso (and we ARE the border, so it's crazy to me that we don't have that restaurant...don't get me started!). Anyway, so I got my fix while we were there. We took pictures while we waited to be seated. 

 

And then after dinner, they had a small fenced area in front of the restaurant where we took a lot more pictures. Most of these included Grandma Solheim so we could make sure she was included in the memories. I love the one of Chloe, Aubrey, and Rebecca. Those girls are going to be trouble. Only one year separates all three of them in age, and they love playing together when we get together. It's so fun to see them grow up together.

 

 

 I love taking pictures of Grandma with Aubrey because this is her namesake. Aubrey Jeanne was named after her great-grandma, Jeanne Solheim.

 

When we first saw Grandma Solheim and Grandma and Grandpa Black at the hotel, I started taking pictures as my kids climbed up and down each of them. So here they are:

 

 

We love being with family. No matter where we are, as long as we're together, we can make memories and have a great time. We can't wait to get together again - no matter where it is.

July 2014

We spent the majority of our summer at home and doing little weekend and holiday activities as they came up. So here is an overview of everything that went down during the month of July.

We start with a few pictures of a new playhouse that we inherited from a family in the ward who moved to Germany. They had just purchased it at Christmas, but couldn't take it with them. Our girls were happy to help. We cleared out some rocks from our front patio area and now they can play outside anytime they'd like. There's a side door (first picture) and the main entrance. We have since added fake flowers outside the right window and a flowerpot on the ground with a couple of pinwheels. The girls have taken out a container of play food and a play vacuum to make it just like a "real home." They love playing out there.

 

Grandma and Grandpa Black came to stay with us for a long weekend as they made their annual round trip to see their moms in Arizona and Utah. The girls loved having them here. We swam in the pool a lot, shopped, and just hung out. We took a few pictures the morning they left which is why we're all still in our pajamas. 

 

On the Fourth of July, there was a parade, and the girls were super excited to go see it. When we first moved to El Paso two years ago, we had gone to the parade and the girls even ended up in the background of the news story about it. So they really wanted to see the parade and hope for a repeat of a news appearance. We found a great parking spot with easy access and a spot to watch where they had been doing construction, so there were these huge cement blocks marking off a lane of the street, so we set up there and waited for the parade to begin.

 

Here's the picture I took from the street as we waited for the parade to get to us. I love how serious Tyler is in the background. It's one of favorite pictures ever. The parade was good. The girls got a ton of candy, bubbles, and frisbees. They were squirted with water a couple times which they weren't excited about, but I thought the cool water felt good in the summer heat. We had fun. 

 

I was asked to sub in the El Paso Wind Symphony for their annual 4th of July concert in the park. I've subbed with the symphony three times over the past year. It's been a lot of fun to play my French horn again and be in that music scene. And I'd play for free, but it's been a paying gig, so that's been a nice bonus! On the 4th, we played at a park downtown for a couple hours until the fireworks started when it got dark. The second picture shows how popular of an event it is. The grassy field/park was packed with people. Tyler stayed home with the girls because we thought it'd be too long of a time period for the girls to be out in the sun in a huge crowd with only Tyler to watch them, but it was so family-friendly and laid back, that if I get to play again next year, I hope they'll come. It was a lot of fun!

 

We had a couple going away parties for families and friends who left our ward. One family had a swimming party and had a fun photo area set up for pictures. Abby and I decided to have our picture taken together. We thought we looked cool. :) This family also had a party for their oldest son and his friends that evening at a paintball place. Since Tyler had been one of his scout leaders in the ward, he was invited to go play paintball. It was his first time, so he was excited to go. I've been once when I was in high school, but he had never been. The beehive girls who had also been invited told me the next day at church how nice Bro Gibbons was because he protected the girls from all the deacons. It was pretty funny. All those that went had some perfectly circular bruises from any hits that they got, but they all said it was worth it and a lot of fun. 

 

For Pioneer Day, our ward had a breakfast and bike parade. We stayed up way too late the night before decorating the girls' bikes with streamers, banners, and wheel ornamentation. Did we ever mention how Tessa rides a two-wheeler bike now? It was sometime during the beginning of this year, but she does it well now and it's all thanks to Abby. Abby was pretty proud to tell us when Tessa had learned. Most of the teaching and coaching was done by her.

 

Taryn did not get to ride in the parade, but I did take a picture of her on Aubrey's scooter which Aubrey decorated herself. They went around the church parking lot a couple of times, and had fun chasing their friends around. They also enjoyed the water balloons that had been brought. 

 

Finally a few last pictures of events from July. I loved this picture because they were reading together without any encouragement from me, and it just looked so cute.

 

And since I only had good pictures of Tessa and Aubrey from the 4th of July parade, I decided to include these two pictures of Taryn and Abby that I found on my phone. The girls like to steal my phone from me a lot, and when I finally get it back, it's usually full of new pictures and videos. I'm thinking Abby and Taryn must of have been playing together with my phone one day and each took a picture of the other. I thought they were really cute - definitely keepers. 

 

I love these girls! And I love how they play together and find things to do together to entertain themselves, especially when we spent the majority of the summer at home. They still had a fun summer and found fun things to do around the house. Love them!

Family Visitors

This year, after planning to spend all extra money to fix our leaky roof, we decided we wouldn't be able to travel anywhere far for the summer, so luckily some of Tyler's family came to see us instead. We were so excited to host our family for our summer vacation. Tyler's sister, Tiffany, and her family and Tyler's parents came to stay with us for a long weekend in June. We spent the majority of the time in the swimming pool, which all the kids were totally okay with.

 

Taryn and Lucy liked to spend some of their time in the car, on their own. 

 

The kids liked dancing to the Wii. Even Grandma gave it a go.

 

We spent the day Saturday doing all the out-of-house activities. It made for a long day, but filled with fun stuff. We drove up to White Sands in hopes of getting there early to beat the heat, but we didn't make it there until around lunch time. It was hot! We found some shaded tables to eat at, but after the kids slid down the hill a couple of times, they were back in the shade and spent most of their time building sand castles there in the shade.

 

We did talk the kids into going back up the hill for a couple of family pictures. Here's our family. 

 

And here is Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons with all 9 grandkids that we had together. 

 

After driving back from White Sands, and a quick dip in the pool, we headed over to the zoo since it happened to be one of their few late night hour Saturdays. The kids all liked the giraffes, and the meerkats. That's where these pictures were taken.

 

The Meerkat display was up again, so they took turns taking pictures here too. It's one of my kids' favorite picture spots. From far left it's: Aubrey, Julia, Halley, Abby, Jacob, Tessa, Anna, and Taryn.

 

Grandma and the kids found a secret hide-out cave near the sea lions. We crammed everyone in together to get a picture. They were being silly, but I got the picture. 

 

After church on Sunday, we were able to put up the bounce house for the kids to play in. No major injuries occurred so it was a success. The kids had a lot of fun while the parents got a few of our own games in.

 

Seven of the nine grandkids slept in our play room together. The picture doesn't really show just how crowded they were, but it worked. Watching movies on the wall at night from the projector was also a fun thing that all the kids looked forward to. The hardest part was picking a movie that everyone wanted to watch, but it all worked out and the kids loved being together.

 

I wish it weren't so sunny from the window, but we got one last picture of the kids with Grandma and Grandpa before they hit the road to travel back home. We loved having them here, and can't wait to see them again. We wished it could have been for longer, but we loved the memories that we made while we were all together.