Home Again Home again jiggidy jig!

We are home again and I had forgotten how much I love my bed! I loved being with family this summer but I love coming home too. We had an awesome summer, busy the whole entire time, playing playing playing for the kids,and me playing then napping then playing then napping. Camp Pendleton was a blast. The kids loved being with all of their cousins and eating Grandma's delicious cooking. When you camp you normally think - easy meals like oatmeal, sandwiches, throw in a couple of McDonalds trips and smores but not with Elida Galan. We come back from camping with her having gained 5 pounds from all of the gourmet food she cooks. She and Pete are amazing everything always turns out so great. The best part though about Camp Pendleton is that Emily decided that she is over diapers!!! So exciting - although when you are potty training you want to have a toilet like in the next room not one that is a 1/4 mile down the beach. So needless to say I put in a lot of miles during that week. Emily is so funny though because now her conversation starter is, "Hey I go poopy and pee-pee in the potty and get candy and big girl panties." She is very proud of herself and I am soooooooooooo excited to not ever have to buy diapers again! Here I was thinking that Emily was going to be going to Kindergarten in diapers. Yeah!

Memories of June 2009

We have made some great memories this summer. To start off when we got here we went to my Grandparents 70th wedding anniversary - a lot of people don't live to be 70 but they have been happily married for that long and they look great. They held the celebration in their back yard which looked incredible. Grandpa works on it non-stop and it always looks like you could set their home in the middle of Temple Square and it would fit right in. Anyway we had a great time in Vernal seeing a lot of relatives that the last time they saw me I was probably waddling around in a diaper. I have great Grandparents that have always been so loving so kind and so giving - I always knew that they would be there for me and for everyone. I love them both so much and hope that we have many many more years for many many more memories.

My kids and I then went up to my most favorite place on earth - the cabin where we were put to work by Grandpa. The kids loved it and so many memories were made. We stacked a lot of firewood and watched Grandpa risk his life painting the shutters with the utmost patience - to those who need any painting done my dad is your man - he loves to paint. Ha Ha!

We then got ready for Ash and Kenji's wedding which was beautiful and perfect. I am so happy for them and I love to see Ash have a light to her that I have never seen until now since she found her "true companion". Thanks Kenji for the happiness you have brought to her, your new children and our family - we love you like you have always been apart of our clan - now you are stuck and we can begin the slow poisoning as you begin to learn about "anti- nephi-lehi nerdfelders, the Gull Olympics, late night ice cream binges, the "little white pill", Chetty and are inability to keep our stinkers to ourselves -although I believe Ash quickly introduced you to that - she has always been good like that. Anyway welcome to our family Kenji, you didn't have to but you did - thank you for loving my sister and the kids like they are your very own. Now that I have sucked up come visit us in Tennessee! So here are some pictures of the beautiful couple and also the whole family. Ash you looked more beautiful than I ever thought anyone could.

I can't go without bragging though about how absolutely adorable my kids looked. Kelsey got them ready and when I saw them they took my breath away. Thanks Kelsey for the time you took to make them look so great and for making the day a whole lot easier than it could have been and also a huge thankyou to Grandma and Grandpa Galan who brought them down in the morning and stayed around while I helped with the wedding stuff. Thanks so much! So here are my cute kidlets.

After the wedding was over we could breathe again and so we went back up to the cabin for a few days. The kids played non-stop outside, they found their own secret fort that had a fire place, a bedroom, kitchen and even a bathroom that they actually used.

We are now at Priscilla and Steve's beautiful new home getting ready to make more memories at Camp Pendleton!!!! More to come!

Where did the Month go?

We Made it to Utah

It has been awhile since I have added anything but I do have good reasons besides laziness. Where do I begin on all of our adventures? Well we did the journey from Tennessee to Utah and made it with no issues, the trailer even stayed in one piece the whole way. We stayed in Kansas City the first night and we had plans to go to a baseball game but the drive there did us in and all we wanted to do was absolutely nothing. We had an awesome hotel with a pool and plenty of space for all of the seven kids, 2 dogs and 2 adults to sleep. Not much sleeping went on that night but we set off the next day for Omaha to go to the zoo which I highly recommend - we had a great time and even found a shady spot for the dogs to snooze. We camped that next night and then drove the last 12 hours straight and all the kids jumped up and down for joy once we hit the Utah border! Sorry I didn't take a single picture of our journeys.

Still Learning

So I tried to change my Profile but when I did that it would also change Pauls and I don't know how to make it so we have different profiles. So, I had to make the best of the situation but unfortunately it says his name instead of mine. Oh well.

Special Edition Handcart

The trek across country is beginning this Friday so Erin and I built this to help pull all of our loot across the vast planes. I even strapped in a time out car seat for those being naughty! I thought it was one step kinder than strapping them to the roof of the van. So I am putting up this post as a drivers beware - drive behind me at your own risk. Actually I think that we put enough super glue on to keep this sturdy for awhile, just kidding we also used a few screws.

Utah here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will be starting with 2 vans, 2 adults, 7 kids and 2 dogs, it will be interesting to see if we get there with the same numbers.

Vincent's New Look

So we are leaving for Utah this week and I wanted to get haircuts for the dogs. Nala got a trim awhile ago but Vincent I always am hesitant about because his fur is so pretty. But I figure if I am going to be living with other people all summer I don't want to add to their pain with spreading Vincent fur all over because he is the type of dog that lays down and when he gets up there is an impression made of fur left behind only to clog up the heaviest vacuum. So I took him for a fur cut or whatever they call it. Anyway when the lady asked what I wanted I told her, to be fair, "to go to town," and go to town she did. Poor dog, his manhood or lack thereof is completely on display. She shaved him almost to the skin including his tail accept for the very end of it where she left a tuft. When he came home at first he pranced around like he was on parade, although with the new "furdoo" a rainbow collar would probably have been very appropriate. Poor Vinny now the girl dogs really stay away.