Glenwood Springs

Have I mentioned before that I LOVE Colorado?! Seriously, I would love to live there again someday, but for now I make the most of our visits. After our reunion we drove to Glenwood Springs and spent the late afternoon swimming in the hot springs. The pools felt perfect and the scenery was serene, it was a lovely afternoon and evening.

I remember swimming in these same hot pools when I was a child and my brother Josh and I thought it would be so funny to call our dad "grandpa" while we were there. He had a full head of grey hair and so we thought it would be a great joke. I'm sure my kids see my grey hair and think I'm as old as grandma too!Reid taking a little break.Andrew, Tanner, and mom enjoying the "bubble chairs".After swimming we went to a great little Mexican restaurant and then to our hotel. I thought I would document how T&R have been riding in and out of our hotels on this road trip. They have so much fun riding the luggage carts.Andrew was so tired after the reunion, driving, and swimming. He was chatting away and all the sudden he was out, with his legs on the wall like this.

Reid chilling with Amelia while we packed up.

We had a fun stop in Glenwood and, overall, it was a great road trip. We put in a lot of hours in the car and were happy to pull into Provo and get "home".

Within a few minutes of being home, Andrew was in his beloved Spiderman costume and riding his truck down the hill with a smile on his face! Our kids ran through the house pulling out every toy with great enthusiasm. It's good to be back!

2010 Hasler Family Reunion

This may be picture overload, but we had such a great week at the Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp for the Hasler family reunion, it's hard to cut it down. Here's the whole crowd taking a very quick picture in the rain.

All of the grandchildren with Nana and Papa. Everyone's laughing or looking confused because all the other adults are dancing and making faces to get everyone to smile.Mike was in charge of burying a hidden treasure in an old mine (yes, this was safe!) and he had a great time telling the kids a whopper of a story about the O'Mally family who had stolen a pirate treasure chest and left it here. The kids got totally into it and were so excited when they found the treasureWe opted to fill the chest with necklaces and fake money rather than candy. When Papa came out with the box all the kids started yelling, "Chocolate!!!" We were a little nervous, but everyone was very excited with their pirate booty.Who is this kid? He cracks me up!We had a great time taking the canoes and kayaks out for a spin on the pond. Andrew loved it so much he woke up every morning at 6 a.m. so he and Mike (and whomever else he "accidentally" awakened) could go canoeing. Mike's a really great sport.
Most of the kids and adults loved it, but I'm not quite sure about little Marcus!Here's the crowd on the shore waiting for turns or hanging out with babies.The camp has a ropes course that was enjoyed by most...except for Tanner and Reid! I'm not quite sure what their problem was, but they just couldn't get into this. Andrew had a great time, but it took his brothers a while to warm up.One of the favorites was this big balancing platform. First we did it as teams, then we had fun putting two people on at a time. I love Rachael's face below!Three mamas with three the three new babies!Our fishing day was definitely a highlight of this family Reunion. We had such a great time and EVERYONE caught a fish!! Some were more excited than others. Above: Reid's fish, he was excited.Andrew...also very excited.

Tanner...not quite sure what to think of this sport.

Here's our family after everyone was done fishing. See the clouds behind us? It started raining shortly after we headed back to camp. We drove up the winding dirt road to the camp with lots of rain and then hail! We sat in the parking lot for nearly an hour waiting for the storm to pass. You can see in the picture below how the parking lot turned into a river with all the hail piling up on the sides. It was crazy!

These two are the greatest friends! Andrew and Miriam have so much fun together and were so excited to be together after a summer apart.

This picture, as well as the one below, remind me of pictures of my family when we went to Aspen Grove as children. By the way, the dining hall is one of my favorite things about this reunion. I get almost giddy about feeding my family pretty decent food that I didn't have to make, nor clean up! It makes the reunion so incredibly enjoyable!!!

It was sad to say goodbye knowing that we won't see some of our family for another two years until we do this again. To prolong our time together, I strategically killed our van's battery on the morning of departure. Ha! Luckily, Josh and Whit had cables and Jarin was kind enough to clean off our battery and give us a jump.
I felt really dumb about the whole battery thing, meanwhile, my boys didn't mind hanging out a little longer.

We really had a great reunion! Other highlights not pictured:

-Adult conversations/games after children went to bed!

-Hearing about Dad's retirement and Mom's completion of her mission.

-Family reunion T-shirts that read "Family First, Ice Cream Later"

-Whitney's chocolate cake

-Just being in the mountains...we love Colorado mountains!!

Can't wait to do this again in a couple of years!!

Annie's Visit

Annie is a dear friend of ours from Nebraska and we were so happy she decided to come visit for our last two weeks in Cincinnati. We had a great time having her in our "home" and we think she had a pretty great time too!

We were wrapping up our stay in Ohio and although there's lots of necessary things to do, we tried to get out and have fun with our visitor. Here are some of the highlights of Annie's visit.

Games! The kids all played lots of games like Go Fish, Hide n' Seek, Dominoes, etc. Then, after the little kids were in bed, Annie, Mike and I would play Quiddler (a great game if you're interested!). We made one last trip to Parky's Farm. It was a little disappointing, as the HUGE pig my boys were dying to see had been sold. Andrew was pretty heartbroken about it, but has since recovered. It was also summer camp day, so twelve gazillion kids were roaming unattended and I realize I'm not a crowd person when I have my kids in tow.

One evening we had a huge storm and the kids ate ice cream with their faces glued to the window watching the lightening and rain.

We did LOTS of swimming! The night before we moved, Annie and I even went for a late night swim.
The kids put on a few plays for us. This one is Jonah and the whale. Annie is God, Andrew is Jonah, and T&R are the whale. They did a great job!

Annie was great to help out with Amelia-- carrying her around, changing her diaper and getting her dressed. She also read the boys endless books and was so much fun to have around. Thanks for visiting Annie, please come visit again!

Caesar Creek Reservoir

Our last Saturday in Cincinnati was spent at Caesar Creek Reservoir. I think it was one of the hottest days of the summer and we were surprised the reservoir wasn't more crowded. I'm also always surprised at how great the water feels. Maybe it's because I grew up in Colorado and so our lakes were snow runoff, but this water is just perfect!

Annie relaxing int he cool sand!

Andrew and Annie hanging out on the noodles.
We played in the sand a lot this time. We took turns burying each other and building sand castles.
Amelia is so happy when she can kick and play in the water.

Mr. Andrew getting buried.
Tanner and Reid don't do everything together, but this was one thing they thought was so cool there was no taking turns, just bury them together. Don't you love those grins?

This was a perfect Saturday in the summer. We ended it with Dairy Queen and a movie! Long live relaxing summers!!!!

I'm sitting in a hotel room with only a sliver of light from the bathroom lighting the room. My kids are sacked out in cribs, a pack n' play, and a roll away bed because somehow our reservation was messed up and we ended up with one king bed, rather than two queens. We've had so much fun these last few weeks and I love when my kids sleep soundly because they've played so hard.

Amelia rolled off the giant king bed and landed on her head, her six month old little head and I just feel awful! It's something that doesn't happen to the first child, but the fourth gets a little neglected. I was trying to convince Reid it was cool to sleep in a crib when she went rolling. She cried so hard and so sadly, it broke my heart.

We have lots to blog about...wrapping up Cincinnati, family reunion, and a very long road trip. It will come, but know that it might be a while, I've got a fourth child who needs a little more attention!