Unofficial Betteridge Reunion at the Ridge

One might ask what makes a reunion un-official. According to my parents its a lack of 3 things: t-shirts, professional pictures, and activities scheduled in advance. My entire immediate family suffers from FOMO (a Fear Of Missing Out) in varying degrees. So when one person says they're headed up to the ridge, everyone else will want to be there too. So unofficial reunions basically happen whenever Justin and his family come to town.  They were planning on camping at the Ridge for an entire week with Mom and Dad. Tiff's family and my family joined them on Sunday afternoon - just in time to partake of the sacrament all together.  I love watching the way my boys and nephews participate in providing that ordinance for everyone. 

Sunday night, Charlie and Alec slept in the hammock area, affectionately called 'The Ham Jam." It was pretty cold ( upper 30s) but they all survived. Freddy, Max and Theo slept with Chris and I in our tent, and Gwen slept with Lynnae in another tent. 

Monday, Justin started working on his project for the week: a dirt mounting biking trail that winds around the entire property.  The idea to rent and use a rototiller came from Dylan and saved so much time and energy!! They actually finished the inner loop in basically 3 days... almost .5 mile of track - pretty impressive! 

By the last day we were doing timed trials for a variety of races: running, power walking, biking and running relays.  Charlie tried over and over again for biking and running. He was second in biking at one point! Alec also did a running try, I did a powerwalk and Chris did a biking try.  Jordan currently holds the running record and Jared the biking. 

Gwen and I went on some fun hikes with some cousins, and aunts around the dirt road loop behind and up the mountain from our property. Its so pretty up there. 

Other fun activities throughout the week included the rope swings, card games, ladder ball, washer toss, naps with Grandma in the Shabin and roasting marshmallows. 

Max and I had a fun moment up in the treehouse while Theo was napping and Chris was golfing. We sang songs, perfected Patty-Cake and 'shot' monsters out of the trees with our finger guns. 

A tree had fallen across the middle of the play area and Chris had some quality time with the chain saw to de-limb it and cut it into big sections to make benches out of.  He also had a fun idea to carve an owl into the trunk of the tree that snapped.... however, it was all rotted in the middle and couldn't hold a shape.

Most days Max didn't nap and was suuuuper tired by the end of the day. It didn't get dark until after 9:15, so we had a lot of late nights. Max was practically falling asleep eating his s'mores. 

Chris and I took our family home on Tuesday late afternoon in anticipation of the super cold and wet weather and also Chris had some meetings and golf to get home for.  I sort of thought everyone was leaving the Ridge, but didn't realize Jordan and Jared were planning on coming up that night to camp. I was pretty bummed on Wednesday to be missing out on all that family time at the Ridge and when we found out it had snowed... the kids and I were pretty grumpy to have missed out on that excitement. Although, realistically, it would've been pretty miserable with a baby and toddler. 

Everyone was back up on the Ridge by Thursday afternoon and my spirits improved. 

On Friday we went to Jordanelle Reservoir and enjoyed some sunshine, water and sand. 

We all took down camp Saturday morning, but before we left we had a big family meeting on outlining locations for mini cabins. We've made some real progress in the past month as we've come together to agree on how to go about building and designing them. It might actually happen!! Overall it was a great camping experience. It felt a little broken up with all the coming and going and was pretty cold at night. Our cot/mattress thing deflated every night and we didn't sleep the best... Theo woke up a few times, but having a space heater and a portable potty in our tent helped us be a little more comfortable.  Having a baby and toddler is exhausting at any location, but its particularly tiring when you're camping.  The big kids just LOVED all the time with cousins and it was fun to see different groups emerge out of the gaggle of kids.  They used a shovel and had fun making their own project, "the Forge." 

We all got together on Sunday for a group Sacrament expereince and Father's Day brunch. We even took family pictures with Radene's nice camera, tripod, and last-minute coordinating colors. They turned out pretty good!  We gave dad his present, a nice frisbee golf set and a 18-hand massage! 

Summer Family fun

For Family Home Evening we talked about how Alma and Amulek were great missionary companions then we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Archibald's house to talk to them and GG about experiences with their mission companions. We also looked through Chris' mission picture book. (Chris and I have been celebrating his 20th anniversary of leaving on his mission by re-reading his mission journal every day.) Chris told a story about a game he played on his mission with a coin and a cup of flower. When we got home the kids had to try it out. 

The kids are excited about our camping trip next week to the Ridge. We bought some hammocks. 

Saturday, after a wonderful time with my family for Clara's baptism, we got together with all of Chris' family at Thom and Brittany's house for s'mores, dinner and fireworks. In one day we saw everyone in both of our families. It was pretty awesome. 

Weekly Family Adventure 1: Jordanelle

We have this fun idea (I hope we actually do it) of doing weekly family adventures.  Chris and I have been so focused on settling in / moving for a long time, we've probably slacked a little too much in doing things WITH the kids. We decided to head up to Jodanelle Reservoir as a family on a Wednesday morning for some bonding time. It was quite pleasant and didn't take all day. The big kids and I did the Jeffery Challenge (created last summer during the Betteridge Reunion) on the flooded sidewalk. Everyone, including the babies enjoyed playtime in the lake and sand. 

Trampoline, bike rides and photo shoots

As I've been going through boxes, unpacking and settling in, I found some more clothes for Max and Theo. One favorite outfit is the Mississippi State outfit that fits Theodore perfectly right now. It made me really reminiscent of our time in Mississippi.  With all the craziness and rioting thats happening right now as a result of the George Floyd tragedy, I've been thinking a lot about my friends in the south and how race and prejudice has affected people's lives.   This cute face sure brighten the saddest of days. 

In other news... we got a trampoline!!! Its been a long time coming. A month or so ago, the kids were getting really quarrelsome and so we set a goal for no fighting for 24 hours and then we'd get a trampoline as a reward. I think it started out as a consecutive 24 hours....but after not being able to go even an hour without fighting, multiple times... we changed it to accumulative 24 hours. But the clock wouldn't start rolling until its been 2 hours without a fight. Anyway... the kids worked really hard for a day or so and would earn 4-6 hours a day and then have multiple days without earning a single hour.  Eventually they got to 24 hours and Chris and I put some research into what trampoline to get. Turns out they are WAY more expensive than I thought - especially if you (Chris) want to get an equally super safe and super fun one.  Also, it turns out that they are completely out of stock and on backorder, like everywhere.  So we kinda gave up trying and the kids mostly stopped asking about it after a while. Then our bishop's wife stops Chris outside one day as he's taking the garbage out and asks him if we'd like their trampoline. Its the one she grew up with, made in the 70's and lasted through all of her, and her kids' childhoods. They replaced the mat recently and painted the frame so it actually looks really nice and is totally solid, super springy, and well built. This was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord. 

Chris loves his new practice set up for golf.  We've had some really fun evenings in the yard after dinner. Chris is dedicated to improving his game and its working! He's been on the top of the leaderboard for his Mens Association matches on Wednesdays a lot recently.... making $8-20 sometimes from skins.

We dusted off the bike trailer and the kids and I have enjoyed some fun bike rides. Max is usually so sweet with Theo and can often be found with his arm around his neck.