winter of our discontent featuring the best Christmas present ever!

it's been several months since my last post, and with the promise of summer comes my resolution to update this blog much more frequently. my new found change in circumstances (more on this later!) promises more time for just this type of goal. so, in an effort to make up for almost 10 months of radio silence, i will briefly summarize our winter... it's over. it's was blissfully uneventful, not even one single snow day to report.

that being said, we, as a family, did receive the most fabulous christmas present from my parents! on christmas eve, gigi and papaw presented their 7 grandchildren (and their parents) with a disney cruise departing christmas morning! (the adults, of course, knew ahead of time in order to take off work, pack in secret, acquire passports, etc.) it was a truly magical gift, and the memories will last forever! we spent the majority of christmas day in los angeles, and had an incredibly memorable christmas night filled with cocktails and hors'd ouevers around in a gorgeous waterfront fire pit. we were at sea for new years eve, attended a phenomenal pirate party (where black eyeliner was worn by EVERY member of our family), had a beautiful sunset dinner at an outdoor restaurant in cabo san lucas, spent the day on a pirate ship, and went on a very successful whale watching excursion! and the 5 girls in matching outfits we're arguably the cutest on the ship! these highlights don't even include the countless magical encounters with princess royalty, getting on an elevator with goofy, the excellent waitstaff who enchanted us day and night, 'round the clock child care (that the kids thought was a party in and of itself every time we dropped them off), bath towel oragami surprising us every evening and swimming outside in december! we will truly cherish those memories for the rest of our lives. anyone considering a disney cruise, i say run, don't walk! our kids ranged in age from 10 to 2, and there was always something for them to do and which to look forward

.i have a few pictures below, and promise to post again before early next week.  thanks for reading, enjoy the pictures, and check back next week for the latest! have a great week!

pettiskirts everywhere!!!

berkley lounging by the firepit

riding the luggage cart at the ritz in LA 

a day spent with the best pirates ever!

a lovely princess tea party

matt and shannah 

berkley and ariel

First Day of School (& other fun!)

the school year has finally started! i must admit i was very torn about it this year. we had such a fun, relaxing, and somewhat structured summer. and now that the kids are getting older, they are so much fun to be around. that being said, god must have known it would have been hard on me to see them go back this year, because as soon as we got back from vacation, the fighting started! eating, drinking, sleeping and a total of 100 hours (plus some) in the car must have been more than they could take! by the time school rolled around, i was ready! here are some photos from the first day...

                               grayson is going into 4th grade, and berkley is going into 2nd grade

(i made her dress!)

berkley and her teacher, mrs. miller 

gray and his buddies, justin and jake

gray was less than happy that i was "that" mom taking pictures. i told him if he didnt watch it i would bribe his college roomate to get first day of school pictures - and we all know college kids will do anything for food and money ; )

in other news, my sister and brother-in-law went to colorado for a few days and their girls, genna and nya, came to stay with us! we had a great time, and the kids were fabulous. we made it to two schools for pick up and drop off everyday, and had time to spare!

all of the girls got to ride to school together (even though they go to different schools. it was the happiest ride ever. (except for grayson who continues to wonder what he did to deserve 5 screeching girls and no boys in his life!)

lastly, my sister lauren took berkley to the festival of nations this weekend, and i thought these pictures were just too cute not to post!

home sweet home!

we left denver saturday morning (after indulging the kids with a trip to casa bonita for dinner friday night) intending to go to kansas city for the night, then home on sunday. but once we got back in the car, decided upon just driving straight through. we were all pretty excited to be home. there is nothing to rival coming home to a clean house, with clean sheet on YOUR OWN bed! i am thankful for air mattresses - but they just cant compare to the real thing! we had a wonderful time, we saw moose in the tetons, and i got an amazing picture of an elk with huge antlers sitting on a hill in yellowstone. i will post as many as i can!

 matt and i at the beginning of the trip, at the missouri river valley (rest stop!)

 badlands national park

 mount rushmore at night!

 eric and celeste at devil's tower

 berkley at devils tower

 gray playing chess in the car (he said it built character - he won every game, but he also lost every game!)

 gray and berk at devil's tower

 birthday girl!

 shannah and berkley at glacier national park on her 8th birthday

 the kids at logan's pass - brrr!

 the infamous goldfish eating bikers

 glacier national park

 glacier national park

glacier national park

 this guy had people pulling over thinking there was a grizzly... he stood up!

 berkley and ruthanna

 grayson and noah fishing in glacier

 the ehlen men

 the dandelions are HUGE in canada!

 the most perfect campsite - lake louise campground, banff national park

 the whole gang, and kevin!

 banff national park

 lake louise

 entering yellowstone national park

 the kids at old faithful

 sunset over the tetons

the fountain at casa bonita

thanks for your prayers, hope you enjoyed reading about our trip!

oh canada!

we are finally back in the us... with mixed emotions. we left glacier friday morning and drove north to banff national park in the canadian rockies. we camped at lake louise for 4 nights. the whole place was gorgeous, but lake louise left me speechless. to say this is one of the most beautiful places i have ever been doesnt seem to adequately convey how i truly felt. i felt as if i had a connection to this place. it was very crowded and tourist-y. the campsites there, however, were amazing. the campground at lake louise has something like 600 sites, and it was one of the best campgrounds i have ever camped. we had a secluded site with huge pine trees surrounding us. the best part? a camping kitchen! it was a separate outbuilding with huge tables, concrete counter space and a 3 burner wood burning stove. i was in heaven (excpet for the asian invasion! ask anyone (adult) that was present... they can explain!). the kids seemed to really like canada. this was their first trip out of the country, and when we stopped at the grocery store on they way to calgary, grayson promptly exclaimed upon seeing labels in french and english, "i love canada!". they also loved getting candy they have never seen before, and the canadian money was a huge hit! one of our highlights in banff was seeing a grizzly bear. we had seen a black bear and a brown bear in glacier, but had been patiently waiting for a grizzly... we took a ride on the ski lifts, and berk was a bit nervous about riding the chair lift, preferring the enclosed gondola. we made a deal that we would ride up enclosed, but back down open air. they loved the open air trip so much that they faked sleep so they could ride again! the kind guy working said if we would "queue back up" on the down low we could ride again. and there was our grizzly! on the way back down we went right over top of him. we were all quite excited. we also met kevin, a 20 year old german who was backpacking across canada. he was a great diverson for us all and provided excellent entertainment for us for an evening. the kids were enthralled, needless to say, and we adults found him to be quite refreshing - as well as making us painfully aware that we are all now too old for that kind of adventure...
then today, (happy birthday, mom!) we drove 12 hours to bozeman montana. matt was glad to be back in the us, the crowds were a bit much for his preference. and after spending 2 of the last 4 nights with temps below freezing, we are all happy to be sleeping in a hard sided structure tonight! tomorrow we head to yellowstone to spend the day, then we will camp the next two nights in jackson hole. i will update as soon as i am able! we miss you all! for some reason i am unable to upload anymore pictures... i will try again when possible!!

glacier (wednesday)

we arrived at glacier late monday afternoon, and once we got all set up, went to have dinner at johnson,s cafe. being berkley's 8th birthday, we went to ray and joan's camper after dinner to have birthday cake. yesterday we spent the day just the 4 of us. we tried to hike a particular trail that started at logan's pass, but once we got up there it was 40 degrees, raining, and zero visibility. (see pictures below). so we drove on to lake mcdonald. even though the day sounds dreary, you would not believe the pictures we took! my favorite story is on the way back to our campsite to start dinner, there had been an accident on the mountain road, so traffic was stopped still for about 40 minutes. a gang of about 10 (grizzled) men on harleys pulled up right next to us. they are the whole bit... leathers, braided beards, you can imagine. then one of them hops off his bike and lifts up his seat, pulls out a bag of goldfish crackers, looks around to fellow riders and says, "goldfish anybody?" so the whole biker gang is sharing a bag of goldfish. not so tough after all!

the weather here has been super windy and monday night we had 2 wicked storms come through over night. the wind ripped 3 of our 4 stakes out of the ground, so at one point matt and i were holding up the walls of the tent so it wouldnt collaspe on us! the thunder and lightening coming off of the mountains were incredible. and the kids slept through the WHOLE thing!!

still driving... (sunday morning)

we left st. louis at 10 pm (that's right, we left on time!) and drove all night to rapid city, south dakota. it felt so good to actually lay down and sleep last night... the kids were out in about a minute! we spent some time at badlands national park and also at mt. rushmore yesterday, also. besides some interesting conversation topics (we are travelling with a 10 year old boy and an 8 year old (tomorrow!) girl), the drive was mostly uneventful. we met up with matt's parents yesterday evening, and had plans to go to an old firehouse-turned brewery for dinner. it sounded really neat, so we all loaded up and headed out. it was exactly the kind of restaurant you want to find on vacation, the kind you remember for a long time... BUT, the wait was 2 hours, and since 10 of us hadnt eaten since breakfast, and it was 7:00, we decided to move along. to a chinese buffet. it was typical. nothing to report.
today we are headed to devil's tower and custer's last stand, and finally stopping for the night in big timber, montana.

preparing to leave!

we are getting ready to leave for our summer vacation! this year we are going to glacier national park in montana, banff national park in cananda, with a quick stops in yellowstone national park and grand teton national park. we will be gone a little over two weeks and are camping the whole time! we are leaving at 10 pm friday night with both of matt's brothers families and caravaning to rapid city, south dakota where we will meet up with matt's parents and visit mt. rushmore at night. on our way to rapid city we are going to stop at our first national park of this trip - badlands national park. hopefully we will have plenty of chances to update this as we go...

tonight we celebrated berkley's 8th birthday with the french side of the family... here are a few highlights in photos. it wasn't the same with out the christies. they are on vacation, and berk really missed genna and nya!