Island Park Adventure--Savillian Style!

After two years of waiting, July meant that it was time for the Bi-annual Saville Family Shin-dig! This year, we went to a cabin in Island Park for a week. That meant super-packed coolers in a pretty packed car, airport pick-ups and drop offs, and a tons of freezer rolls. It was a blast. Here's the breakdown:

Day 1 (for us): Friday, July 18.  Pack and load cars. Try to leave house in decent shape. Caravan to airport to pick up Ben and Jenny. Worry that they'll be waiting for us. Wonder why we didn't think to split up kids so that both cars could take advantage of carpool lane. Wait in Park & Wait for delayed flight to land while breathing a sigh of relief that they weren't waiting for us. Help Ben and Jenny load our car. Give hugs and goodbye-for-nows. Desperately search for place to eat. Find said place. Scarf food. Drive to my parents' house in Idaho. Get tired kids in bed--3 hours past their bed time. Hang out with folks. Go to bed. 

Day 2: Saturday, July 19. Brian lets me sleep in.Kids bond with grandparents.

 Mom makes FABULOUS huckleberry pancakes. Hang out with folks.  Head into town (Idaho Falls) with Dad to get groceries and run his errands. Run late. Wonder who thought it was a good idea to send the two slowest people in the family to town on limited time.  Panic that we won't get out of the house in time. Remind myself that it doesn't matter. Brian reminds me that it won't matter. Scarf lasagna (thanks, Mom!) Load in car and drive to Island Park. Get there late, but an hour or more ahead of any one else. Scope out rooms, but don't dare pick one. Unload car and coolers.  Enjoy the outdoors. 

 Everyone gets there (except Ben & Jenny who came the next day). Greg and Shayne pretend to be twins.

 Day 3: Sunday, July 20. Go to church in Island Park in the A-frame cabin overflow building next to the church house. Marvel at special feeling that exists since most of the people there are on vacation and are therefore at church because they really just want to be at church. Go back to cabin. Hang out. Read book. Head to Big Springs. See moose (just left of  Julia's right pigtail).

 Tried to keep kids from getting in the water. Took pictures of kids.

 And everyone in our group.

 Head back to cabin. Make dinner. Wonder where Ben and Jenny are. Hang out with the family.

 Eat dinner. Send out search party for Ben and Jenny. Ben and Jenny arrive in swimming clothes with crazy story about going to the wrong cabin and hanging out in cabin's hot tub for an hour. Everyone has a good laugh. Michael wonders how our Elantra got there. Tell him that it missed us and came to find us. Get kids in bed. Stay up late talking.

Day 4: Monday, July 21. Decide to head to Yellowstone. Mack takes up new hobby:

Hang out some more while babies nap.  

 Finally get entire crew out the door and into Yellowstone Park. Meet at Old Faithful. Wait for Old Faithful to go off.

 Old Faithful goes off.

 Walk around Old Faithful. See lots of geysers and hot pools.

 See our first Bison. Must have been facing the storm.

 Rest for a snack.

 Walk some more.

 Break from group because kids are done (It stinks, Mom!) Wait for Old Faithful to go off again. Wait for 1/2 hour.

 Old Faithful teases us.

Give up and go into Lodge for ice cream. Goes off while we're inside. Meet up with the rest of the group. Almost lose Skyler when he wanders off. Happily rescue Skyler. Get into cars and head home with rainbows at our back. 

 Day 5: Tuesday, July 22: Hang out some more.

 Load up and head to Wade Lake, Montana. Rent two canoes. Play in canoes and water. Marvel at beauty of lake.

Head home. Back two rows are asleep in no time. 

 Eat Nana's famous spaghetti. And rolls.

 Have a camp fire and make S'mores.

 Day 6: Wednesday, July 23. Original 7 head to Rexburg for special temple sealing trip.

 

Kids and I head to Rexburg to meet Dad for lunch. Meet up with originals for a little bit. . Head back to cabin with just kids and I. Take the long way back and soak up Tetons and Idaho farmland (aka home!)

 Wonder if Warm River is really warm. Take 12 mile detour to find out.

 50 degrees not my definition of warm. Get back. Hang out. Take family pictures.

Realize why photographers charge so much for group photos. Have slight breakdown. Lea and Jenny cheer me up. Have a fun night with my awesome in-laws. 

Day 7: July 24. Hang out with crew. Have dinner for lunch. Finally load entire crew and head to Yellowstone Park for animal sight-seeing. See elk.  

 See Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

 Someone offers to take a group shot of us.

 See a bear and another waterfall.

 See deer. See Rachel.

 See herd of buffalo.

 Marvel at buffalo for a while. Take too many pictures of buffalo, but can't help ourselves. Officially decide that landscape photography isn't my thing. Go to Mammoth Hot Springs.

Day 8. July 25. Deliberate about what to do for the day for an hour or more. Send Shayne and Jared to rent jet skis. Bid farewell to Ben and Jenny. Get crew out the door and down to Henry's Lake. Discover that lake is leech infested. Throw rocks instead of swim. Rachel steals someone's cookie. Wonder where she got a cookie. A minute later, Hunter inquires after his cookie.

 Hang out while waiting for turn on Jet ski.

 Watch with envy those already enjoying the jet ski ;)

 Enjoy jetski.

 A little too much (my screams were heard all around the lake. Oops.)

 All too soon, head back to cabin. Have dinner and birthday party for Danny:

 Go for walk with Lara. Stay up too late. Start getting ready to head home.

Day 9: July 26. Pack up stuff. Load car. Help wash towels and clean up things we used. Laugh at kids playing outside while adults are cleaning up. Wonder why I wanted to grow up. Take pictures of twins.

 Take pictures of kids jumping in front of cabin. Laugh at Rachel's attempt to jump.

 Take more pictures of twins.

 Give lots of hugs. Get in car. Head home. Stop at airport to retrieve car.  Get home. Bath kids. Unload. Get kids in bed. Unpack everything by 7 p.m. (2 hour record for me!). Crash on the couch. Miss everyone so much.

Pretending to be a Real Photographer

As I mentioned previously, Brian got me a speedlight and a strobe (photography lights) for my birthday, as well as a light stand, umbrella, and remote control. With the birthday money from my parents (thanks Mom & Dad!), and my hobby budget for the month, I got another light stand and umbrella, radio triggers, and some fabric backgrounds. And the experiments began!

At first, the only willing models were Monkey and George:

Michael popped in for a few:

 I think this picture captures so much that Michael loves. We just need some cars and a dump truck:

 And Rachel wandered into a few shots

 And had a few ideas about how things should be done:

 So I texted a picture of my "studio" to my sisters and said, "Models wanted." Taryn came a few days later with Aaron and lots of outfits:

So I got a few things for Rachel:

 Working with Toddlers can make everyone want to cry at some point:

  Also, almost impossible to get both kiddos to look at the camera at the same time:

 They both lost interest right away. We tried keeping them in the shot using some toys:

 Michael showed up, finally deciding he wanted his picture taken. I told him he had to change into nicer clothes. He went upstairs and changed into his church clothes.

 He had his own ideas about being a model:

 Apparently, I need a bigger floor. The leftovers from our living room floor just aren't going to cut it.

After their break (thanks to Michael), the toddlers came back for some more, and I was able to get some good smiles:

So if I get more willing models, who knows, maybe someday, I can be a real photographer instead of a pretend one :) And when that happens, I have my logo ready. 

Cabin in the Uintas

The Tuesday after our camping trip, I headed up to the Uintas with two of my favorite neighbors (Sam and Kirsten) and our collective six kids. We had a ton of fun! We stayed two nights up there.  I almost backed out due to the stress of the camping trip the week before and the upcoming Saville vacation that was to take place a week and a half later. I run at a slower pace than a lot of people, and I was in desperate need of some re-charge time. When I texted Sam that I wasn't going to come, she called me up and told me, "You HAVE to come." What could I do? We packed, loaded our car with our stuff, Sam's stuff, ourselves, Sam, and Sam's kids and headed to Oakley, Utah. The kids had a blast! Once again, we had lots of dirty hands, feet, and faces, but at least there we had running water and showers. The cabin had this awesome tire swing:

 And lots of dirt:

 And wildflowers:

 I'm so grateful for these friends that I have. We get together once a week for lunch, and I see Sam pretty much every day. We've kind of formed our own mom posse, and we've even hung out WITHOUT our kids. Kirsten and Sam are my saving graces on many a day. Here's Sam with Rachel:

 On the only full day up there, we planned to go on a hike, but it poured and hailed. It was awesome hearing the rain beat on the metal roof of the cabin, and everything smelled amazing afterwards.

 Even though we were stuck inside, we still had a good time:

 The next day, we played in the tire swing some more:

 And the dirt:

 Had some snacks (here's Kirsten holding Emmett):

 And then we went for our walk:

 We were staying at Kirsten's family cabin. She's lucky to have access to two family cabins, since both sets of grandparents have one up there. So, for our hike, we went to the other cabin. Between carrying babies and the super high altitude, we got were pretty winded, but the view from the other cabin was totally worth it:

 I couldn't post any pictures of Kirsten's two foster boys, but they were there too. Read: six kids, three adults, five people up all night due to room sharing (and in Michael and my case bed sharing). After the first sleepless night, we decided that we need a girls' getaway WITHOUT kids! But we had fun with them there anyway, even though we were all tired. I'm so glad to live so close to these two wonderful ladies and their sweet kids.

Michael's First Piano Recital

Back in June (the 7th to be precise), Michael had his first piano recital. He's been in Piano Pals at the Art City Music Academy since January. He quickly got ahead of the other two kids in his class and then got bored. And then when we got off our groove for our big vacation back in April, we decided to put him in "Semi-private lessons", which really meant private lessons, but using the Piano Pals 1 curriculum. He did so much better with the change! At his recital, he still joined with his old classmates for ensemble pieces. 

 I forget how tiny my big boy really is until he's in a situation that I'm used to seeing adults in, such as sitting at a grand piano.

Since there were older classes at the recital, when Michael started playing his first (and one of his favorite songs)--one of the easiest ones in the book--I heard a kid behind me laugh, "That's the easiest song!" I about went all mama bear on that kid! Thankfully, Michael didn't hear him. Michael did a great job, and we were so proud of him. 

 Here he is with Miss Elaine, his teacher. We LOVE her! She was the epitome of patience with Michael and encouragement for me. She was always so positive with everything he did. I'm so glad he had such a great teacher to start his piano journey with.

 And after his recital, we grabbed dinner and did the traditional ice cream. We're so proud of you, Michael.

Nursery

I'm pretty sure we mentioned it, but in case we didn't, we got called to teach nursery (the church class for the 18 month to 3 year olds) back in April. At the time, there were 2 different classes with about 12 kids in each. And most of them come every week. The person in charge of all the nurseries is my friend. I knew she was getting ready to make a new nursery class and pull all the ones turning three this year into one class so they can be better prepared to go into primary in January. Brian and I decided we were great candidates for that class since we'd been Sunbeam teachers (the youngest class in Primary, the program for kids 3 to 12) in our ward before. My friend agreed, and on July 6, we made another nursery class and pulled in all the ones who turned/are turning 3 this year:12 boys and 3 girls. We started wondering what we got ourselves into.

Well, this change brought a problem. Rachel. She'd been coming to nursery with us even though she's still not 18 months. But with the new class, she doesn't fit in anymore, and she would distract one of us (not to mention all the kids) if she stayed with us. What to do for the 2 weeks before she turned 18 months?

I asked a friend to watch her during the last two hours of church, but that didn't work out. My friend that's over Nursery said I could just start taking her to her new class early. I felt bad, but what else could we do. So, I walked my little daughter to her first day of nursery without me. It was a different room than the one we'd been meeting in. She clung to my hands and froze a little, and I got a little choked up. Finally, she let go of my hand and joined in the playtime.

And I walked alone back to my class.

Brian wondered why I was so against just putting her in nursery early, and why I tried so hard to make other arrangements. Part of the reason was because I could hear our old bishop telling us that the Handbook says 18 months for a reason. That was the biggest part. But a smaller part was that apparently I wasn't quite ready to let her go yet.