our trip to oregon

Well I figured that now that I'm on antibiotics for my throat and feeling much better that I should finally update the blog about our trip to Oregon!
(WARNING! You are about to read the longest post EVER! Since the trip spanned nearly two weeks there were a lot of pictures!)

We left around 10pm on the 19th and drove through the night. We had originally planned on leaving shortly after 6pm but we were glad we left later. We arrived at the pass just as it was getting light outside which was lucky for us since we were required to chain up our tires (something neither Danny or I had ever done before and learned together!) It would have been miserable to chain up in the dark!

Both of these photos were taken while in the car so they're not very good...but you get the idea.

After another six hours of driving we arrived at my parent's house around noon. Danny and I crashed and the kids played...played pool in the game room, that is. :o)

Eli going for a tricky shot.

Shailey re-grouping the balls.

Isaac with a reaction like he's never seen a ball before in his life and thinks it's the most amazing thing ever.

Shailey's turn. Is it just me or does she look slightly irritated in this picture? Maybe she's losing to Eli.

We really enjoyed spending time in the game room. My parents didn't have the pool table, the game room kitchen, the wood stove and dozens of other things finished during our previous trip to Oregon. It was really fun to see it all finished!

GRAHAM CRACKER HOUSES

On Saturday we all got together for our traditional graham cracker house night. It's been a fun tradition for a long time now. Usually Danny and I would build a house together but we decided that he would watch football with dad instead. And it worked out great doing it in the game room so that Danny and dad could watch football and we could all still be in the same room together.

Corinne, Jesse, McKay and myself at the "glue gun station".

Gluing Shailey's house. (She wanted chocolate graham crackers.)

Corinne working on Chyler's house. He also picked chocolate graham crackers.

Jesse working on his house.

McKay giving a "thumbs up".

Hyrum helping himself to the candy. :o)

The kids at the candy table. Of course they ate some of it!

Isaac hoping to grab a piece for himself. :o)

Shailey and I decorating her house.

Eli and I decorating his house.

Corinne and Chyler decorating his house.

Mom and Hyrum working on his house.

Jesse working on his huge house.

Hyrum putting on the finishing touches.

Shailey adding a bit more frosting...apparently you can never have enough.

Chyler's finished house.

Hyrum's finished house. He's so silly!

Eli's finished house.

Shailey's finished house...and no, she did not just stick her finger in an electrical outlet...it's just a bad hair day. We all have those, ok?

Isaac without a house...but still cute. :o)

McKay with his finished and apparently delicious house.

DINNER AT DAD'S

On Sunday we had dinner at my Dad's house. We had a delicious ham dinner and we got to spend time with my Dad, my new step-mom Theresa, my brothers and sisters and my grandparents. It was so nice to be able to spend time with all of them! Usually we only spend time together on Christmas Day but it always feels so rushed since we're always in a hurry to get to the next house. It was nice to devote an entire evening to them. :o)

The whole gang! From left to right starting in the back row: Theresa, Dad, my brother Dustin (yes we all want him to get a hair-cut!), my brother Chris and his girlfriend Olivia; middle row: Ron and Grandma Joyce, Eli, Danny, Me, Isaac, my sister Kara, my sister Corinne and her son Chyler; front row: my step-brother Austin, my sister Alix, Shailey and my step-sister Makada.

Here are a few pictures from our fun night together!

CHRISTMAS EVE

We spent Christmas Eve with Danny's parents just like we do every year. Danny's sister Natalie and her husband Mike and their two kids, Nick and Erica, came down from Portland to spend the evening with us. After a delicious ham dinner the kids reinacted the Nativity. It was really cute. Then we opened a few presents!

CHRISTMAS DAY

Mom of course was up earlier on Christmas morning to get all the stockings ready so she took a few early morning pictures.

OPENING PRESENTS

McKay and Jesse opening presents.

Dad opening a present from mom.

Robot dad! He did not choose to become a robot. There was an accident in his office. He was working on a home design, and at exactly 9:09 a.m. on September 9, 1999, it exploded. When he regained consciousness, he discovered that he had become a robot. (Danny will probably be the only one who will get or appreciate this little joke. And no, in case some of you were wondering, my dad is not a robot.)

Kara trying to swipe one of Hyrum's presents. I hear she secretly plays with Tinker Toys and couldn't resist. Just kidding...she, being the nice big sister that she is, was helping Hyrum open his new can of Tinker Toys and Hyrum ran off just before we took the picture. :o)

Kara opening one of her own presents. :o)

Corinne opening one of her presents.

Mom opening a gift from dad.

In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, "Lucky!"

Me very excited about some very cool scrapbooking paper. :o)

Danny holding up his gift from Hyrum. You can't tell but it's an Old Navy gift card that Hyrum attached a piece of paper that he wrote his name on for Danny. It was very cute. :o)

Mom passing out the presents.

Chyler helping Chris open his presents.

Eli grabbing a big present from Grandma. I'm surprised he didn't drop it!

Shailey looking tired. She was running a fever for the first half of the day...poor thing! That's three Christmas's in a row now that she's been sick!

Eli working on one of his presents.

One of the few pictures of Isaac opening a present. He mostly wanted to wander around to see everyone else's gifts.

Ammon and Dad looking comfy during the present opening.

Hyrum opening one of his presents.

The coolest "Little People" toy EVER!

Opening presents is so exhausting!

All tuckered out!

THE BOUNCE HOUSE, SANTA'S GIFT

Shailey, Eli and Isaac got a bounce house from Santa this year. Lucky for us the game room was big enough to allow the kids to try out their new present from Santa. "Uncle Hyrum" and cousin Chyler were happy to try it out, too!

GUITAR HERO

Ammon, Jesse and McKay got Guitar Hero for Christmas. We all took a turn playing (the boys were much better at it than any of us, of course.)

CHRISTMAS NIGHT

Christmas night was spent at Grandma Berta's and Grandpa Mel's house as usual. It's always great to see everyone that we haven't seen in a long time. It's tradition to let the youngest open their presents first and then go up from there so Isaac went first. Well, actually Grandma and Grandpa went first this year. Apparently they just couldn't wait for all those kids or something. (Just joking Grandma and Grandpa! Really it was so they could help out with the food because they're so sweet!)

Grandma had to help Isaac a bit. :o)

Poor Eli wasn't feeling so well on Christmas, either. :o(

Okay Shailey... Just visualize the present in your hands...visualize.

Wow, it worked!

Quite the little diva!

Believe it or not these Jelly Beans were almost gone by the time we left for home. In Jesse's defense he did share a lot of them with everyone. :o)

Shailey reading a book to mom.

A TRIP TO PORTLAND

We took a trip up to Portland on my birthday to see all of Danny's family since most couldn't make it on Christmas Eve. It was so fun to see everyone! We especially enjoyed seeing the newest addition to the family, little baby Aimee!

LAST DAY

Before we left I wanted to get a few pictures of the kids with my family. Isaac did not want to get his picture with Kara for some reason!

We had so much fun! We miss our families already and look forward to our next trip up to Oregon! Hopefully that will be this summer! :o)