Archibald Extravaganza: Heber Reunion

The day after the wedding, We all (except the bride and groom) drove up to Heber to stay in this big house all together for a few days. It was so fun to sleep in the same house. Usually, when we come to UT, Jess and her kids stay at their own house and we get together during the days, but that leaves out a lot of 'together time' around waking up, bedtime and post-bedtime. There were enough bedrooms for the older cousins to share a bunk room and Chris told or read them stories every night. We somehow lucked out with the sleeping arrangements and got the master suite - and it was SWEET! It was our first experience with a master bath and a walk-in closet. The double shower and king bed were huge! 

We really didn't leave the house much except for an outing or two. We walked down to the fishing hole and fished. The kids LOVED this, although no one caught any fish. I think one of the cousins, Jackson or Graham 'caught' a cool magnetic ball bracelet thing. 

Grandpa taught the older cousins how to cast and reel in a fishing rod.  He told them he used to fish when he was a boy. 

Cy and Freddy are so close in age and so cute to see side by side. Cyrus has such a deep voice, it is super cute to hear him babble and talk. 

Kayla and Edward made an appearance and stayed the night twice towards the end of the week. Kayla feels like one of the family.  She seems like a perfect last puzzle piece to the Archibald family. We really had such a nice time all together, I really love this family I married into. 

We mainly hung around the house - doing puzzles, playing outside in the sprinklers and hot tub, watching movies, taking naps, eating food, doing crafts. The boys went golfing one morning and later in the afternoon the girls went shopping at the outlets in Park City.  Most nights the adults all gathered in a room and talked. We planned our next reunion (an adult-only trip to WA for the 2015 US open!!), sat around the projector and looked through the old family slides, shared spiritual experiences, did puzzles, and ate popcorn, wedding cake, and peanut M&Ms. It was a perfect family reunion. 

WARNING: CRAZY BACK POSTING

I promised myself I would never get soooo far behind on my blog posting, but alas I have. I've got the first 1/2 of our summer posts uploaded and the first 1/2 of those posted. I'll eventually back date all of them to fall in line chronologically when they actually happened but not until I get up to date. Wish me luck!

The Wedding Extravaganza

Congratulations to Edward and Kayla! Chris and I first met Kayla in the temple a few days before their wedding. I felt instantly like she was such a sweet person. Their wedding was such a beautiful thing. I practically cried through the second half. I really enjoy sitting inside the temple with Chris watching a live wedding ceremony. It always helps me reflect back on our wedding, but also on our marriage as I listen to spiritual giants give wedding advice to the new couple. I always come away feeling inspired. (if I wasn't writing this post so many months late, I would have remembered some particulars about the advice that I LOVED...maybe I'll have Chris help me remember and come back later to add them in...something about  how the husband should view the wife and vise versa?)

Their reception was so beautiful and had so many decorations, it really looked so different from all the wedding receptions I've seen in that same place.  Such a fun evening. 

Can't resist taking pictures of my biggest and littlest boys. 

Archibald Extravaganza: pre wedding and Chris' birthday

Before the Wedding Festivities could begin we had to celebrate Chris' birthday and get in some classic UT activities such as golfing at East Bay and eating at La Casita and Bombay House.

These boys look so grown up carrying their clubs around.

Because we knew we would all be gorging ourselves on wedding cake, Chris graciously allowed us to substitute his birthday cake for some birthday trifle. Dixie's trifle. I'm glad Chris had lots of family around to help make his day special, since I didn't have a lot to offer him myself.  

I'm SOOO grateful that we could celebrate another year of his life.  He's my best friend, my anchor, my safety, my joy, my champion, my support, my love, my life. 

Tiffany helped me do the corsages and boutonnieres for Edward and Kayla's wedding. Its always fun doing flower things with her! 

Frederick had solid food for the first time! He loved rice cereal and ate it up pretty good. Of course, he always tried to suck it off the spoon with his well developed, super kissable sucking cheeks, but somehow still managed to gobble down all the rice cereal, every time.  Also, Dixie told us about how Jess is giving Cyrus lots of regular food in finger-sized portions at this early 7 month age. So we experimented with Freddy and gave him some strawberries and watermelon. He pretty much thought he was in paradise. He would suck and gnaw on everything until it was a pulp.  He also gagged a lot which was very scary for us, but after a week or so, he seemed to refine his gagging skills and gave us less and less scares. 

Utah! Hiking the Y

We drove to UT in a fury.  We're so excited for Edward and Kayla's wedding and an Archibald reunion. We haven't seen family in a long time and hardly anyone has met Frederick yet. Probably what led us to drive the 29 hour trip in a day and a half was that Chris' brother and his family were driving from TX to UT at the same time and by following their progress on our iphone app, we could try and time our arrival to match theirs as close as possible. The kids were champs, although Frederick was not very happy for the last 5 hours and I had to switch Chris - driving some curvy ravine roads in the dark because I couldn't handle his crying very well anymore. 

We met my sister and her kids at the base of the Y the morning after we arrived in Utah.  Thom, Brittany, their kids and Grandpa Archibald all came too.  Between us all we had 11 kids under the age of 10 and therefor didn't really plan on hiking the whole thing. 

But we made it!! All the way to the top! Crazy awesome. I couldn't believe that Gwen walked the whole way by herself.  Charlie and Alec practically ran up. No one even complained until handful of switchbacks from the top.  Grandpa saved the day with his camelback.

 "Grandpa, I'm thirsty!!"

 "Nice to meet you, Thirsty."  

Chris was very surprised at how hard it was for him. He's still on some heart medication that prevents his heart from working too hard so as to allow it time to heal properly from those harsh chemotherapy drugs. He's supposed to take it for a whole year. He had to stop at every switchback and rest for a good 5-10 min. We all waited at the top for him and were so proud and happy to see him come over that last crest.  Way to go, Chris! Also, we were excited to see he still had his backpack which had all of our family's water and fruit snacks for the kids. :) 

Charlie was pretty daring on the Y. He liked to walk up it and slide down it on his bum with his arms swinging by his side like he was walking down the sidewalk. Alec was always careful to keep a hand on the Y for stability and support. Gwen stayed close to me and Freddy enjoyed a little milk with a view. 

First Day of School!

**Sorry its been a while! This post has been waiting as a draft all this time! I guess I forgot to actually post it**

Gwen's first day of preschool! She was so brave and excited until we were 2 feet from her classroom door. Then she sucked on her fingers and buried her head into my side. It took some extra time coaxing her to become engaged with some toys, but it happened and I was able to leave her smiling. 

Two days later the boys had their first day of school: Alec in 2nd grade and Charlie in Kindergarten. Both were a little nervous but easily went into their classrooms. (Maybe it helped that we were a few minutes late and there was no time to make a scene) Next year, I hope to be able to transition them with some more time and even snap a few pictures with their teacher. My mom always did that with us, although I sort of remember not really like having to pose for a picture with a complete stranger in a strange environment. In these pictures Charlie is holding his kinder mat, since Kindergarten is all day and they have a nap time. I remembered that he could bring a special blanket the night before the first day and I so wanted to make him a new special blanket. He loves having new things.  So I stayed up a little late throwing one together. It has footballs on one side and basketballs on the other with a yellow trim and his initials CA on one side. I had to make a matching pillow too, honestly, I had no choice. 

The first day of Kindergarten was just too big to pass up and I tried to at least take a picture of Charlie at his table, but he really didn't want to look at the camera or do anything that would draw the attention of his classmates/teacher. Cute kid. 

Alec didn't want to ride the bus, but I was waiting for almost 2 hours in carpool every day to pick them up.  We decided to at least try the bus for the second week of school. I wrote a note to each of the boys' teachers explaining it and Charlie's teacher was especially sympathetic towards my request of helping Charlie feel comfortable on the bus. She walked him to the bus herself and left a message for me on my phone to say he got on safely.  The bus driver mentioned to her that he wasn't able to turn around at our house and asked Charlie's teacher to tell me to meet them 'at the fork.' Well, we don't have a fork anywhere near our house so I took my best guess and waited for the bus. Chris actually followed the bus from the school. We wanted to know where on the route our house was and he wanted to make sure the boys made it home safe. He lost the bus when it pulled down a dirt driveway and so he just drove home. Seeing him pull up without the bus in sight made me nervous but it all worked out ok as it showed up within a minute or so. We had a special snack of donuts and popcorn waiting for the brave boys on the bus.